Together with eight renowned physicists from around the world, Armas led a journey through space, time, and the history of ideas in modern physics. Questions discussed at the event include: Why is there more matter than antimatter? What are dark energy and dark matter? How can we unify all the forces? What future experiments will reveal nature’s deepest secrets? Is the Universe made of vibrating strings? Is the Universe holographic? What are black holes made of? Could there be more than one Universe? 

Armas doesn’t shy away from asking such big questions in his own research, and is always happy to present them to a broader audience. He is assistant professor in theoretical physics at the UvA Institute of Physics, coordinator of the Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena (DIEP), and founder of the outreach platform and event series Science and Cocktails.

The event took place on 6 June 2024, but it was recorded and webcasted. You can watch it below.

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world's largest centres for fundamental science research. CERN hosts a unique range of particle accelerator facilities, including the Large Hadron Collider.

Strings is the flagship annual conference for the extended string theory community. Strings2024 (3–7 June) was hosted by CERN, EPFL, ETHZ, LAPTh, the University of Bern and the University of Geneva.