Did you know that every time 176 nerds congregate in the same room, a nerd accidentally breaks his glasses? With your participation we can test this urban myth [that I just created] on April 3rd. As always three great speakers, fun, adventure, and of course beer.
When: April 3, 2014 (doors @ 7:30p, show @ 8)
Where: The Club (Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A Avenue Edmonton)
$15 in advance (SOLD OUT TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE)
$18 at the door
[Children 17 & Under Will Not Be Admitted]
The Cell that Founded Civilization
David Stuart
Some attribute Benjamin Franklin with declaring that “beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy.” Whoever said it, beer certainly makes me happy and it’s yeast that makes the production of beer and wine possible; so it only makes sense that yeast too makes me happy too. Yeast has been the foundation of the brewing industry for centuries. These resilient and adaptable microbial cells have found a myriad of uses including becoming the corner stone for a revolution in synthetic biology and the biofuel industry. So where does yeast come from? How does it do what it does? What else can we coax these marvelous microbes to do for us? Join me as we raise a glass to yeast and provide insight into how yeasts have been bred and engineered to become a workhorse for the brewing, and biotechnology industries.
Bio: David Stuart is an associate professor in the faculty of Medicine Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta. One part of his research laboratory is focused on engineering yeast for the production of biofuels and valuable compounds. Another part of his lab studies yeast meiosis to gain an understanding the process of by which human sperm and egg cells develop, and what goes wrong to cause birth defects. During his undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo David discovered his passion for biochemistry and genetics along his love for beer. Both of these interests blossomed during his pursuit of a PhD at the University of Alberta and his work as a postdoctoral scientist in San Diego. In addition to his academic interest in yeast biology David is a home brewer and regularly experiments to produce new and different varieties of beer.
Sometimes a Glock is just a Glock: Girls, Guns & Action Movies
Cristina Stasia
Today, female action heroes are more likely to lick their guns suggestively than to shoot them. We have yet to see Bruce Willis do this. The first female action heroes did not hesistate to use firearms, because that’s what action heroes do: they shoot the bad guys and save the day. Today, the rebooted Charlie’s Angels don’t even use guns. Instead, they use their sexuality. We have also yet to see Bruce Willis do this. (Fingers crossed). Starting with Blaxploitation, I’ll take you through the different iterations of the female action hero, focusing on the ways she has gone from using firearms to using her hypersexualized body to save the day. This has serious implications for the action genre—and for understandings of female power and feminism.
Bio: Dr. Stasia received her Ph.D. in English from Syracuse University and is an award-winning instructor in the Women’s and Gender Studies department at the University of Alberta. Her publications include chapters on female action cinema, the politics of television remakes, the bisexual star text of Angelina Jolie, and third wave feminism and postfeminism. She recently completed a book manuscript titled Lipsticked and Loaded: Feminism, Femininity and the Female Action Hero. She argues that female power has become a pervasive but meaningless concept and charts the disempowerment of women through an analysis of female action movies from 1975-2005. While watching a particularly problematic action movie on a third date, she asked her date if he would mind if she took notes. He said no. She married him.
Sweet Child O’ Mine: The Complex Sugars of Human Milk
Christopher Cairo
There many reasons why breastfeeding is thought to benefit infants. The composition of human milk is surprisingly complex, and some of the major components of human milk are sugars. These aren’t just any sugars – but complex polymers of sugars (oligosaccharides) – and they do more than just give babies calories. Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) protect infants from diseases, stimulate their immune systems, and likely help regulate the bacteria that colonize their guts. So how does milk do all this? I’ll talk about just how complex the composition of milk really is, and what the structures of HMOs are, as well as give examples of how these incredible molecules help keep infants healthy.
Bio: Chris did his undergraduate studies at the State University of New York-Albany and his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Afterwards, he moved back to the east coast to take up a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School where he studied the biophysics of white blood cells binding to other cells. Chris is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta and a principal investigator in the Alberta Glycomics Centre. His research group studies how cells sense their environment at the molecular level with applications in cancer, diabetes, and inflammation.