ASTORIA While surfers spend their day waiting for the “perfect wave, ships crossing the Columbia River Bar can battle waves of up to 20 feet with conditions changing from calm to life-threatening in as little as five minutes due to changes of wind and ocean swell.

Using novel techniques, and measurements from the Gulf of Alaska to the Columbia Bar, the next Science on Tap event will explore the processes that make (and break) waves in the ocean.

Join the Columbia River Maritime Museum for the next Science on Tap, Making and Breaking Waves, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2. Jim Thomson will share how ocean waves start as ripples in the water, grow and eventually outrun the wind and why every wave is different.

After completing a Ph. D. in MIT’s joint program with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Thomson joined the University of Washington’s applied physics lab in 2006. Thomson also has a joint appointment in the faculty of civil and environmental engineering.

Science on Tap, in partnership with Fort George Brewery, is a Columbia River Maritime Museum program introducing maritime science, history and technology in an informal setting. This program is free and open to the public, and minors are allowed with adult. Doors open at 6 p.m. in the Fort George Lovell Showroom, 14th and Duane streets in Astoria. Seasonal beers are on tap, and food and other beverages are available for purchase. For more information call 503-325-2323.