Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “Smashing Protons, Solving Mysteries,” a brief crash course on sub-atomic physics and the “big science” projects undertaken to solve its huge questions, with Raghav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, assistant professor of physics at Vanderbilt University. The cutting edge of research in fundamental physics often focuses on the natural world’s building blocks. It involves questions such as “What is the smallest form of matter?” and “How did it come about in the big bang?” Ultimately, it seeks to determine how we and the universe around us got where we are. Gain a better understanding of such research and what we are or might be learning through it with the help of Professor Raghav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, a talented science communicator who is involved in groundbreaking physics research. It’s a talk that will help you better understand research with the potential to change how we see our world. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)