Join Cool Science for Science on Tap every 2nd Monday of the month at Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub & Restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs. Presenters begin at 6:30 pm and typically speak for 60-90 minutes including Q&A, with food and drink available beginning at 6:00 pm. A wide variety of fascinating topics are presented by local scientists for informal discussion, and the relaxed atmosphere encourages anyone and everyone to come explore the latest ideas in science and technology. From practical to theoretical, the presentations and group interactions provide a fun and interesting way to gain an understanding of the world around us.
Join Cool Science for Science on Tap every 2nd Monday of the month at Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub & Restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs. Presenters begin at 6:30 pm and typically speak for 60-90 minutes including Q&A, with food and drink available beginning at 6:00 pm. A wide variety of fascinating topics are presented by local scientists for informal discussion, and the relaxed atmosphere encourages anyone and everyone to come explore the latest ideas in science and technology. From practical to theoretical, the presentations and group interactions provide a fun and interesting way to gain an understanding of the world around us.
Two Science on Taps for October to celebrate the Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival!
Next up: Monday, October 6, 2025 at 6:30 pm *Special Festival Event*
Natural “Fracking” and Glacial – Tectonic Activity During a Snowball Earth Event – A Unique Geological Record in Colorado Springs
Dr. Christine Siddoway, Department of Geology, Colorado College
Summary: Sandstone is a familiar rock in Colorado Springs: for example, the colorful orange and red rocky fins of Garden of the Gods and Red Rock Canyon. Most of the local sedimentary units contain evidence of the action of wind, streams, or beaches, in the creation of those rocks. But there is another highly unusual formation, Tava sandstone, hikers, cyclists and runners who use trails along our mountain front encounter the Tava on a regular basis, and might miss its significance as a record of the Snowball Earth that affected our Colorado region around 700 million years ago. This Science on Tap lecture will acquaint you with the marvelous, unique features of Tava sandstone (how you can recognize it), and explore aspects of Earth’s environment that caused a total glaciation on Earth, from pole to pole and reaching to the Equator.
Christine Siddoway is a geology professor at Colorado College and a field scientist whose geological research focuses on the Colorado Rockies and West Antarctica. Early on in her Colorado career, the Colorado Geological Survey employed Dr. Siddoway to do field mapping for updated quadrangle maps in our area. Doing that work, she first encountered the unusual Tava sandstone (as it is now known) that has challenged all her geological capabilities and preoccupied her thoughts (and dreams!) for nearly 20 years. Her work on the Tava has entailed more failures than successes – this is why the research is taking so much time. Incredibly, the decades of effort led to new realizations about the Tava as a record of the period known as Snowball Earth, a span of time when the entire Earth was covered with glacier ice. Consequently, her investigations in Colorado and Antarctica have begun to converge and interrelate, and Dr. Siddoway is optimistic that there will be further breakthroughs and discoveries to result, in the near future.
And one week later on our normal Science on Tap evening...
Monday, October 13, 2025 at 6:30 pm
To Err is Unavoidable, to Correct is Mathematical: Fixing Communications Failure with Math
Dr. Beth Malmskog, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Colorado College
Summary: Error-correcting codes (ECCs) are mathematical objects that let us build smart redundancy into stored or transmitted information, so that any errors that occur can be detected and corrected. These codes are everywhere in modern, digital life, from UPC symbols to satellites to cloud storage facilities. ECCs use number theory, geometry, and combinatorics to keep our data safe. This talk will introduce error-detecting and correcting codes and touch on some of the most active current research areas in the field, including locally-recoverable codes and code-based cryptography. You will learn to amaze your friends by predicting numbers from UPC symbols, and see some beautiful pictures made possible by error correction. No mathematical background is assumed beyond elementary arithmetic (and a little bit of algebra if you want a challenge).
Beth Malmskog is an associate professor in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Colorado College. She studied mathematics as an undergraduate at the University of Wyoming and earned her PhD at Colorado State University. Beth’s research crosses and combines perspectives, including arithmetic geometry, error-correcting codes, Latin squares, graph theory, fair redistricting, and cryptography. She is dedicated to building community and expanding opportunity in and through mathematics, via teaching, research collaboration, and outreach. She and Kathryn Haymaker won the Carl B. Allendorfer award for math exposition in 2020 for their paper “What (Quilting) Circles Can Be Squared?”. Beth’s research has earned an NSA Young Investigator grant and an NSF Launching Early Academic Pathways (LEAPS) award.
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