SOLD OUT: Nerd Nite #17

What do bees, lasers and dinosaurs have in common? About as much as you’d think — although depending on your allergies, they might all be deadly. But if you want to know the buzz about these topics, and are looking for a roaring good time, then you need to come to the next Nerd Nite! Also, lasers. Be there and be square.

And remember, this is the last Nerd Nite of 2014 — but we’re back in January!

When: Thursday, November 20, 2014 (doors @ 7:30pm, show @ 8pm)
Where: The Club (Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A Avenue Edmonton)
$15 in advance (Tickets available NOW! — WE ARE SOLD OUT!)
$18 at the door
[Children 17 & Under Will Not Be Admitted]

“Apistemology”: On becoming an urban bee geek

Jocelyn Crocker

Apistemology is a made-up but impressive-sounding word that describes how your worldview changes once you learn about Apis mellifera, the European honeybee. In addition to using a plethora of bee puns, this talk will focus on the factors contributing to colony collapse disorder, how urban beekeeping can help bolster bee populations, Edmonton’s recent foray into urban beekeeping, and how you can bee-come an urban beekeeper.

Jocelyn Crocker (BSc, MEd) is an instructor with Biological Sciences at NAIT and one of the founding members of the foundling group, YEG Bees. Before taking a beekeeping certification course in January 2014, Jocelyn knew almost nothing about bees except that she liked to eat their tasty products on toast for breakfast. Now that she is taking part in the City of Edmonton’s urban beekeeping pilot project, Jocelyn regularly gets buzzed in her backyard apiary with her husband, young children, and neighbours.

The Coolest Little Cloud in Town

Lindsay LeBlanc

Lasers were one of those inventions that were initially just a novelty—the scientists that created them weren’t sure they’d ever be useful. In the fifty years since then, this technology has become so common that there are lasers in our supermarkets and computers. Back in the laboratory, we continue to find new uses for lasers: one of the more counterintuitive applications is in making things cold—colder, in fact, than anything else in the universe. Through this laser cooling process, we create clouds of about a million atoms that are only billionths of a degree above absolute zero. At these temperatures, quantum mechanics makes these atoms behave in ways that are a bit unexpected: like people in communities, the atoms find ways to act together that are better for the whole—and ultimately, better for us.

Lindsay grew up in various cities on the Canadian prairies, and first lived in Edmonton a decade ago when she completed her BSc in Engineering Physics. Seduced by the mysteries of quantum mechanics, she pursued her MSc and PhD in Physics at the University of Toronto before moving to Maryland for a few years as a postdoctoral fellow. Throughout her research career, she’s worked with lasers and atoms to study the fundamental behaviours of quantum mechanics, and recently moved back to Edmonton to do more of the same. When she’s not baking large batches of bread or learning to adapt her cycling habits to avoid potholes, Lindsay’s setting up Alberta’s first laser cooling and trapping lab at the University of Alberta’s Department of Physics, which will make Edmonton the coldest city with ultracold atoms.

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaur Empire

Scott Persons

We mammals live in an evolutionary dark age. A little over 230 million years ago, a group of reptiles known as dinosaurs rose from low on the primordial food chain to achieve global ecological domination. The dinosaur empire reigned for well over one-and-a-half-million centuries, and although their empire fell to a cosmic intervention 65 million years ago, our world has not yet recovered from the dinosaur extinction. Join University of Alberta paleontologist Scott Persons as he explains how we still live our modern lives under strong dinosaur influence and why the likes of Velociraptor and Edmontosaurus explain everything from pink elephants to lawnmowers.

Walter Scott Persons, IV, has a MSc in Evolution and Systematics from the University of Alberta, where he is currently completing his PhD thesis. Scott became a dino-maniac at the age of 21/2. Since then, he has joined fossil hunting expeditions to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, the volcanic ash beds of Liaoning China, Africa’s Olduvai Gorge, throughout the American West and, of course, to Alberta’s badlands. Scott’s research focuses on understanding dinosaur locomotion and dinosaur adaptive arms races between herbivores and carnivores. He is also the lead curator of the new “Discovering Dinosaurs” exhibition at Edmonton’s Bay Enterprise Square.

SOLD OUT: Nerd Nite #16

For our 24 (or 42 if you prefer) edition of Nerd Nite we’re changing things up a little. Actually, we’re changing things up a lot; different venue, different night and only two announced speakers. Join us and take a leap of faith as we adventure together into new territory. Our very special third speaker will be revealed on the night of, so be there and be square.

When: Wednesday October 22, 2014 (doors @ 7:30pm, show @ 8pm)
Where: Zeidler Hall (Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A Avenue Edmonton)
$15 in advance (Tickets Available Here) SOLD OUT
$18 at the door
[Children 17 & Under Will Not Be Admitted]

Better than NASA: Canada’s Sample of an Asteroid
Chris Herd

What does the fall of a meteorite in a remote part of northern B.C. in the year 2000 have to do with the origin of life on Earth? Possibly a lot. Studies of the unique Tagish Lake meteorite have turned up all sorts of molecules that are necessary for life (at least, as we know it, on this planet). Possibly even more interesting is the fact that Tagish Lake fell in January, and remains – to this day – the only meteorite outside of Antarctica that has never been warmed up above -10 degrees C. Its study requires very specific conditions in a custom-designed facility at the U of Alberta, where the speaker and his students can be glimpsed sporting parkas under their lab coats. Not only does the meteorite give insights into the organic matter that was around at the start of the Solar System, its study in the cold lab provides practice for the future, when spacecraft will bring back samples of asteroids, Mars, and comets.

Bio: Chris is a professor and meteorite expert at the University of Alberta. He learned about meteorites from his father, from a Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico, postdoctoral research at the NASA Johnson Space Center, and most recently, a sabbatical at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Chris curates the University of Alberta Meteorite Collection, the largest University-based collection in Canada, of which the Tagish Lake meteorite is the crown jewel. He teaches course on Meteorites and the Geology of Solar System. When not professoring, Chris enjoys a good martini, hiking with his wife and kids, playing basketball, and reading science fiction.

My Legal Education at Springfield U
Mark Greene

Question: Can a person learn the practice of law from a popular TV Show?
The answer “may shock and discredit you.”

In his presentation, Mark will explore whether all aspects of a legal practice could be learned from watching various episodes of the Simpsons. If you, as an audience member, determine that the answer is yes, please note the following disclaimer:

Mark Greene and the producers of Edmonton Nerd Nite (collectively referred to as the “Untouchables”) do not, in any way, endorse the use of the Simpsons as a substitute for a legal education. Such a course of action, as humorous as it would be, may lead to disbarment, no-barment, civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, and general disrepute. The Untouchables will not be liable to you for any damages, direct or indirect, arising out of your use of the information presented. Neener-Neener.

Bio: Mark Greene is a lawyer practicing in the area of occupational health and safety. He holds a JD from the UofA and a BBA from UNB. But all that education and experience means nothing but for years of staring at a 19-inch box. Television has not only been entertainment for Mark, it has been his parent, teacher, friend, and lover (you may not want to touch his remote). Mark is an avid fan of the Simpsons and refuses to concede that the quality of the show has degraded in recent years. He has been quoted as saying, “The Simpsons was there for me during the tough times in my life; I’m going to be there for it.”

Surprise Third Speaker

SOLD OUT: Nerd Nite #15

We’re back for our first show of the 2014-2015 season and we couldn’t be more jubilant. Our three speakers are going to launch our season with charm, wit, and knowledge bombs aplenty. So pull up a chair, grab a drink from the bar, and get ready for our third year of Nerd Nite Edmonton!

When: September 18, 2014 (doors @ 7:30pm, show @ 8pm)
Where: The Club (Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A Avenue Edmonton)
$15 in advance (Tickets Available Here SOLD OUT)
$18 at the door
[Children 17 & Under Will Not Be Admitted]

 

Government Information: [subtitle redacted]
Amanda Wakaruk

Like democracy? You know… the fundamental freedoms, respect for human rights, separation of powers and all that? If so, then you should probably learn to work with it so we can keep it. Governments have been producing (and sometimes forgetting/ceasing to produce) and disseminating (and sometimes losing/retracting) the record of what they do for about 2,500 years. Knowing what this stuff is (like what your MP said in the House of Commons last week) and how to find it (no, it’s not all on Google) might just help us avoid a dystopian political hellscape. For reals.

Bio: Amanda Wakaruk holds a couple of master’s degrees, including one in Library and Information Studies. She has been working with government information since it was still being produced in paper (1998 to be exact) and returned to this province in 2009 to accept the position of Government Information Librarian at the University of Alberta. She has served on and chaired a number of related (and impressive) professional committees at home and stateside and has talked about her craft at conferences around the world. For reasons she can’t always explain, Amanda believes that her quest to help others find and use the output of their governments might inspire them to live fuller, more meaningful lives. Well, on a good day anyway.

Con Amore- A Nerdy Love Story
Tammy Bearht

The first question I always get when I say I’m going to a Comic Convention is “What do you dress up as?” While cosplay is now a foundational part of the Comic Con lifestyle, there is so much more to an event! From meeting your favorite television and movie stars, to the artists that literally drew your childhood memories via comics and books, to speed dating or gaming tournaments there is truly something for everyone. What was once a phenomenon for the socially inept that lived in their parent’s basement into their thirties, has now become a socially celebrated event across the globe. This life does not know racial or political divides, and the word “family” significantly describe this Community.

Bio: I have been a geek for as long as she can remember. Being five years old and zooming around my backyard to get to planet X with the neighbourhood kids on my spaceship set the tone for the years to come. Bank Manager by day to support the habit of convention geek by night. I have spent the last 10 years devoting my enthusiasm and energy to volunteering at Comic Conventions all over North America. In 2013 I spent every single one of my vacation days on Conventions and have had the privilege of meeting many other geek-like souls that have become an international family. The nerd community is a home like no other.

Real Life on Fake Mars
Ross Lockwood

Mars seems tantalizingly close these days. With projects attempting to send humans to the Red Planet as early as 2023, public interest is growing daily. While Mars offers the promise of a second home for humanity, the technical challenges of getting there and back again are on a scale humanity hasn’t seen since humans first set foot on the moon. To solve these challenges, analog missions are being conducted around the world, replicating different environments and testing various aspects that will be critical to future missions. The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation (HI-SEAS) is one such study. Situated on the desolate lava fields of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, I am among the few who have lived through a simulated 120-day surface mission.

Bio: Ross Lockwood gave Nerd Nite Edmonton’s inaugural presentation back in October 2012 on the subject of Warp Drives, and has been a Nerd Nite addict ever since. As a PhD Candidate in Physics at the University of Alberta, Ross has been a fixture at science related events around Edmonton, especially involving the University of Alberta’s Observatory. With a background in experimental physics, MacGuyver-like skills, and a vast knowledge of how a single molecular defect in silicon works, Ross applied and accepted the position of Cheif Technologist and Systems Specialist with the HI-SEAS Mission 2A. After the completion of his PhD, he will direct his attention to sending cool stuff into space and building human-machine interfaces for future astronauts.