A group of scientists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) were excited about the work they do and wanted to share this excitement with the world. This is how Chai and Why came into being 12 years ago. The name isn't intimidating and professor Arnab Bhattacharya, founder of Chai and Why and chair, TIFR Public Outreach, assures us the content isn't either.

At this talk, Cosmic Rays: Messengers across the universe, Sunil Gupta of TIFR will talk about these fascinating particles. "The earth is bombarded by very high energy particles, a million times more energetic than ones created at CERN. We don't know where they come from. When they hit the earth's upper atmosphere they create a shower of particles," says Bhattacharya breaking it down for us. He will talk about the institute's ongoing research project in Ooty and its significance in everyday life. " You would think that these particles are telling us about high-energy events in the galaxy but the interesting thing is they actually tell us a lot about local weather.