On Monday, June 14th, we're going to explain our current understanding of the universe to you at our Summer Public Lecture by Dr. Cormac O' Raifeartaigh of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). The World's leading scientists have spent over 6 billion euro of taxpayers money on an experiment which aims to prove how the fabric of the universe is built. The experiment is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN on the Swiss-French border. During this controversial experiment, particles will be smashed together at speeds that the universe hasn't seen since the Big Bang, using equipment in a 27 mile ring weighing thousands of tonnes.

Our lecture on Monday, entitled 'Black Holes, The Large Hadron Collider and The God Particle', will investigate the facts and the fiction behind the Large Hadron Collider, including the expected outcomes and the possible threats.

Dr O' Raifeartaigh is one of Ireland's leading scientists, and his work has brought the Universe, black holes, and CERN into the public eye. He is a regular contributor to the Irish Times, and runs his own blog, Antimatter. Indeed Cormac's last lecture for Astronomy Ireland ('The Big Bang') had to be moved to a larger theatre due to popular demand, and such is the case for this lecture also. Advance ticket sales for this talk have already exceeded the capacity of our regular venue in Trinity College Dublin so we have now secured the largest theatre in Trinity - Ed Burke Theatre (Arts Building) - to accommodate the surge in ticket bookings.

The LHC is believed by some to be a danger to humanity as new avenues of research into the subtle workings of time and space are explored. It is hoped that scientists will discover the elusive God Particle, however there are some that are concerned with the side effects of running this experiment. Find out everything you need to know on this fascinating topic at Cormac's lecture this Monday, June 14th.

Please book your tickets now, be a part of this fascinating lecture,

and bring all your family and friends along (check out our group discount below).

Remember, if you cannot get to Dublin you can pre-order a copy of the DVD of the lecture (Check out Brian Cox's April 2008 lecture on a similar subject, and Dr. O' Raifeartaigh's sell out lecture in November 2009). Making DVDs of all our lectures is a very important service that we provide for all our highly valued members nationwide so please avail of it all year round as well at www.astronomy.ie/dvd.