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Nerd Nite No. 39: Taphophobia! Drunk Science! Entomogaphy!

Hey-Yo Nerds!

Ready for Nerd Nite Number 39 on Wednesday, July 9? Here’s what’s in store:

“The Dead Alive: The Victorian Fear of Premature Burial” by Megan Rosenbloom

Librarian Megan Rosenbloom, director of Death Salon, takes you on an exploration of the Victorian obsession with premature burial based on books from the era, and how those hilariously lurid books inspired the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Megan will delve into some of the purported tales of live burial, the entrepreneurs who made safety coffins, the societies formed to protect against this primal fear, and how this fear trickles down into our modern culture.

Bio: Megan Rosenbloom is a medical librarian at the University of Southern California, where she manages the medical rare book collection. Megan is the director of Death Salon, an event that brings together intellectuals, artists, and death professionals to share their work in the culture of mortality and mourning. Death Salon New York will be held at Morbid Anatomy Museum in October 2015. Megan is currently traveling and doing research for her first book in medical library special collections.

“Alcohol Induced Science” by Cole Smith

Alcoholic beverages aren’t only good for drinking, in fact they’ve lead to some interesting science. I’ll be discussing three discoveries during this talk: the use of beer foam to model atomic motion, making diamonds out of tequila, and which wine makes the best superconductor. I’m hoping this talk will not only entertain but inform people on the benefits of these experiments, and maybe make some home-brewed atomic modelers in the crowd. Please clean up your beer if you decide to do so.

Bio: Cole received his B.S. at Boise State University in Materials Science and moved to Philadelphia to work on my Ph.D. in the same field at Drexel. He’s planning on graduating in January. His recent work focuses on the creation of new materials by stacking atoms one layer at a time. He also gets to characterize these new materials using a decent arsenal of equipment. Before his work on new materials, he was studying corrosion of aerospace alloys and had the opportunity to work on the F-22 project.

“Eat Bugs, What?” By Isa Betancourt

A year ago the United Nations stated that we ought to be munching and crunching on more 6 legged critters. Say what? For many people, the FDA limit of 4 insect larvae per 1lb of frozen berries adds more than enough bugs to their diet. We’ll explore why we should increase the number of bugs in our diet. Let’s flip that around… Why aren’t we eating bugs? About 2 billion people on the planet eat bugs normally and our primate relatives chow down bugs. So what happened to us?

Bio: Isa Betancourt has been a Curatorial Assistant of Entomology at the Academy of Natural Sciences since receiving her Entomology degree from Cornell University. When she is not in the depths of the Academy’s collection, caring and organizing the 4 million dead insect specimens, you can find her wading around in Swann Fountain collecting insects with her fish net.

Plus! Local singer-songwriter Kerry Justine will provide the musical interludes.

Wednesday, July 9
Show starts at 7:30pm
**Seats are first come first serve. Standing room available after the tables fill up!**
Frankford Hall, 1210 Frankford Avenue
$5 cover gets you admission and happy hour specials all evening

Be there and be square!

Posted in Uncategorized |

Tags: ANSP, beer, bugs, burial, entomagophy, fears, weird science

« Nerd Nite No. 38: Grey Matter– Plastinated Brains, Morton’s Skulls, and Cerebral Supervillans

Nerd Nite No. 40: Is it True That Size Isn’t All the Matters? Plus the wacky world of enhancement drugs and controversial librarians! »

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