Nerd Nite Philly

Posts Tagged ‘astronomy’

Yo Nerds!

Please note we have some changes in June to our regularly scheduled program. First up, due to Philly Beer Week, we have pushed back our June Nerd Nite to Wednesday, June 10. We’re still working out the fine details, but you can expect to hear more about the Academy of Natural Sciences’ *new* Grossology exhibit, enjoy a discussion with local artist Blair Campbell, learn about why mushrooms should be considered superfoods, and and hear some beats from local 8-bit musician Pixel8ter. All the talk info is below. Remember, the show will start at 7:30 sharp at Frankford Hall with a $5 cover!

Michael Kalaras: “Mushroom Nutrition: Shining a light on the magical world of mushrooms”

Edible mushrooms, often relegated to lowly side dish fare, are a complex package of nutrients better suited to superfood status. This talk will focus on how a fungus grown in the dark can become a rich source of the important “sunshine” vitamin, the significance of a unique antioxidant and the role mushrooms may have in human health.

About Michael:

Dr. Michael Kalaras is a Research Assistant for the Center for Plant and Mushroom Foods for Health in the Department of Food Science at Penn State University. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Food Science at Penn State where his interest in the nutritive properties of mushrooms began. He has worked to develop a rapid method of vitamin D2 enrichment of mushrooms using UV light and recently taught a course devoted to the science of mushrooms.

 
Blair Campbell: “Pop Culture Pixels”

Blair will talk about his journey and process behind his career in making his digital geeky art.

About Blair:

Blair J. Campbell is a South Jersey native that has always been a geeky and an artist. Recently he’s found a way to mash both together and make a living off of it. He can be found most days messing around online, sipping coffee, and playing with his pug.

 
Mary Bailey: Animal Grossology: Putting the “Fun” in “Funky”

Stinky, slimy, puky, grimy; animals have some NASTY habits. From coprophagy to cannibalism, the creatures of the world can definitely make you say, “Ew, gross!” But never fear…Mother Nature has her reasons! Find out about the often disgusting, always fascinating, adaptations that give some animals the evolutionary edge, and explore the science behind why it makes us humans feel all icky.

About Mary:

Mary is a consummate conservationist, avid traveler, and slightly above average birdwatcher with slightly below average binoculars. Her finest accomplishment to date is making Sir David Attenborough laugh out loud when she told him she saw 137 species of birds during her Big Year.

 
Music by Pixel8ter between talks!

Also, because we can’t say no to evenings that mix beer and education–especially ones that involve visits from NASA and the International Space Station(!!)–we’ll be hosting Nerd Nite No. 49.5 on Thursday, June 18 also at Frankford Hall. This pay-what-you-wish edition will give Philly Nerds a chance to learn more about NASA’s involvement in the space station, via a NASA scientist and astronaut! We promise we’ll fill you in on the specific talk details when we hear more!

XOXO,

Team Nerd Nite Philly

Greetings Nerds!

Are you ready for one of TWO Nerd Nites happening in April? On April 1, join us for our usual nite of nerdy, featuring the below cast of characters. And then mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 29, when we’ll be teaming up with the Philadelphia Science Festival  for an evening of mythbusting, science, and, of course, beer.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk April 1. What can you plan on learning about over the course of this find evening?

“Living Off the Cuff: Freestyle as a Philosophy” by Jonathan Iwry

Most people regard improvisation as something just out of reach: impressive to watch, but terrifying to attempt. But when we take a closer look, we realize that combining creative thought with living in the moment is less a talent than a way of life—that we can harness it to find success and meaning in what we do.

“Baby Stars or: How I Learned to Observe Them and Came to Love Dust” by Nicholas Galitzki

This talk will describe how stars form from large clouds of dust and gas in our galaxy and one of the central mysteries of this elaborate process. Nichaols will also give a quick guide on how to build a balloon-borne telescope designed to gather clues about star birth.

About Nicholas: He is a 5th year graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UPenn. He works with an experimental astronomy group there which means building telescopes before getting to observe with them. Nick has been interested in astronomy since grade school after being inspired by the fantastic night sky visible from his home in a rural part of Washington State.

“Crash and Learn: How Past Aviation Mishaps Have Shaped Airplane Safety Today” by Michael Ceriello

You’ve always heard that airplanes are the safest form of travel. Indeed, the drive to the airport actually is statistically more dangerous than the flight itself. But has this always been the case? Commercial aviation started out as a bumpy ride and went through significant growing pains before it could earn the safety title is holds today. This Nerd Nite, we’ll explore the data and engineering behind a few accidents which helped to shape and define the rules and regulations which govern the fastest and safest method of travel the world has ever seen.

About Mike : He works as a Structural Engineer for Boeing in Philadelphia and holds a degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he studied Aeronautical Engineering with a focus in fixed wing aircraft aerodynamics. During his career at Boeing, he has been involved in various programs such as the 787 Dreamliner, NASA’s Space Launch System, and, most recently, the 737NG. His discussion topic stems from his lifelong love engineering, airplanes, and Michael Bay-style explosions.

When: Wednesday, April 1

What time: Doors open at 4pm. Show starts at 7:30pm

How much: $5 cover gets you admission plus happy hour specials all night

Where: Frankford Hall, 1210 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19125

Be there and be square!

Nerd Nite Philly

Are you fine folks ready for the final Nerd Nite of 2014? We sure hope so, since we have an extra special lineup planned. And you won’t be able to get another dose of nerdy action at Frankford Hall until February! We’ll be at Frankford Hall the first Wednesday of the month so mark your calendars now: February 4, March 4, April 1, you get the picture.

Now without further ado, the topics for the final 2014 Nerd Nite:

“From Picked to Pickled: True Tales of the Mütter Museum” by Anna Dhody

“Charles Dickens and the Haunting of Christmas” by Edward Pettit

For a time in the 19th Century, when readers bought the Christmas issue of a magazine, they did not expect to be regaled with tales of good will to all men and visions of sugar plumb fairies. Instead they expected it to contain a tale or two that would chill their very souls— a tale they would read aloud around their hearth on Christmas Eve with the wind whistling down their chimneys and the world outside still and silent.  Ghosts and spirits would rise from the pages and haunt their dreams.  And the man responsible for the Christmas Ghost Story tradition: Charles Dickens.

Edward G Pettit is a Philadelphia writer, professor, book reviewer, film presenter, public lecturer  and all around literary provocateur.  He is known as the Philly Poe Guy, but also recently served as the Charles Dickens Ambassador for the Free Library of Philadelphia’s yearlong Bicentenary celebration of the author’s birth in 2012 and wrote the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion’s 2013 murder mystery play, Twisted, in which he played Dickens.  Pettit will be reading one of Dickens’s Christmas books, The Cricket on the Hearth at the Maxwell Mansion on December 13.

And Christina Love presents “Join the DarkSide: Dark Matter Matters”

Dark matter makes up over 80% of all the matter in the universe. We don’t know what it is. We can indirectly see dark matter by the gravity that it produces, but we have yet to directly detect it. There are three ways that researchers are currently looking for dark matter: particle detectors, particle accelerators, and excess particles.

Bio: Christina Love received her PhD from Temple University where her work focused on the direct detection of dark matter with the DarkSide Collaboration and she completed her postdoctoral work at the Transportation Security Laboratory working on the detection of explosives for aviation security. She is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Physics at Drexel University where she works on education and outreach. For example, she is the founder of Start Talking Science, an event where researchers present non technical posters to the general public.

And a special holiday treat for everyone: Nerd Nite veteran Ben Leach will be mixing up our usual entertainment segment with a special Price Is Right style contest featuring the 1984 Sears Wish Book! It’s going to be incredible retro fun!

The logistics:

Wednesday, December 3
Doors open at 4pm. Show starts at 7:30pm
$5 cover gets you admission plus happy hour specials all night
Frankford Hall, 1210 Frankford Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19125

Hey Friends, are you ready for a fantastic Nerd Nite? We know we’ve been missing all of you plus the fine beers at Frankford Hall during our hiatus. So we’re back and better than ever. The ever important logistical details:

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

doors at 7pm, show starts at 7:30pm

Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard

$5 cover gets you a night of nerdy edutainment, plus food and drink specials.

The talks at hand are as follows:

“Love, Pixels, & Exploring Romance in Video Games” by Eric Smith

If someone were to ask you what the Greatest Love Story of All Time was, and what it was that made said story so great, what would be your answer? Chances are, you might not bring up Shadow of the Colossus or Final Fantasy VII. Which is ridiculous, because come on. In this talk, we’ll explore the oft forgotten romantic genre… of video games.

Bio: Eric Smith is the co-founder of Geekadelphia and the Philly Geek Awards, and the social media manager at Quirk Books. He’s the author of The Geek’s Guide to Dating, and his debut YA novel, Inked, is due out this Fall with Bloomsbury Spark. He’s written for The Huffington Post, Boing Boing, BuzzFeed, BookRiot, The Bygone Bureau, Geekosystem, and more. He enjoys bad movies, good books, and old fashioned cocktails. Hi Nena! <3

“When the Stars Align – The Convergence of Art & Science” by John Caperton

The Print Center’s Demetrius Oliver exhibition, Canicular, is conceived in direct response to the curator’s request for the artist to think as expansively as possible about what constitutes a print (printed work being the core of The Print Center’s mission), and reflects the artist’s longtime desire to create an installation requiring a radical shift in the typical functions of an organization and its gallery spaces. In this case, the artist essentially converted the gallery spaces into an observatory which will only be open for one hour each night (Tuesday-Saturday 7:00pm-8:00pm, weather permitting) to coincide with the rising of Sirius in the night sky. Canicular is a new video installation that will consist of a projected, live-feed from a high-power telescope focused on Sirius (the brightest star in the night sky). The video, a live-feed from a telescope mounted on the roof of the Franklin Institute, will be projected in a round structure, built within one of The Print Center’s galleries to resemble a small observatory.

Bio: John Caperton, Jensen Bryan Curator of The Print Center, curated a solo exhibition by New York City artist Demetrius Oliver entitled Canicular on view through March 22 at The Print Center. Oliver is known for creating elegant, improvisatory, site-specific installations using photography, sculpture and video to record the act of sidereal observation itself. His work draws heavily on a variety of disparate intellectual interests related to interpreting phenomena, including American transcendentalism, music of the spheres, and the history of cosmology, weaving them into spectacular, cohesive works of self-exploration and expression.

“True Love Never Dies: Victorians, Burials and the State of Amour” by Alexis Jeffcoat

The woman who left behind her heart, the ashes that were pulverized to make room for two souls; the pomp and circumstance of arctic explorer’s burial with the sad state of his lover in a pauper’s grave. These are love stories. And hate stories, too. Lust, loathing, passion, devotion; all of it follows us to the grave. Be it all-consuming, romantic or even scandalous; love does not end with death and no one was surer of that than our Victorian predecessors. Sit back, grab a drink, and snuggle up: we’re about to gossip like its 1872. The dresses were long, the love was torrid and the burials? Dramatic.

Bio: Alexis received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and European History from Temple University and her Masters in Arts & Humanities from Arcadia University. She manages marketing and programming for the Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Laurel Hill Cemetery as a historic site. As a fan of history, Alexis enjoys sharing the stories of the cemetery’s varied “residents” and no, she has not yet seen a ghost.

Plus Joey Sweeney with some sweet acoustic sounds.

See you fine Nerds there!

Hey Nerds!

First – a big thanks to everyone who came to our Halloween party.  We had a blast, and we hope you guys did too.  And you certainly did not disappoint in the costume contests.  From some extreme nerds to Mary Poppins to Bunnicula to Doc, Marty, and a Flux Capacitor, we were amazed by your talents all evening long.  Mad props.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming with a smorgasbord of nerd goodness.  Details:

Wednesday, November 6, 2013
doors at 7:00, show at 7:30 sharp
Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard, 2 blocks from the Girard St blue line stop
$5 cover gets you a night of nerdy fun, plus food and drink specials

The lectures at hand:

“How the Universe is Trying to Kill You” by John Bochanski

While the night sky looks peaceful and serene, it is anything but. Near and far, the universe is full of hazards that pose a threat to all life on Earth.  We’ll take a look at a few, and look at some ways that astronomers are trying to identify the most eminent threats. While I can’t tell you when and where the next threat might strike, I can tell you that Bruce Willis and nuclear bomb is not the way to go.

Bio: John Bochanski is an astronomer and visiting professor at Haverford College.  John is also a blogger for Sky and Telescope magazine and volunteers for the Philadelphia Science Festival.  Hailing from South Jersey, John graduated from Villanova and got his Ph.D. in Seattle from the University of Washington.  After that, he worked at MIT and Penn State, before coming back to Philly.  When not contemplating the mysteries of the Universe, John can be found watching the game, or out on a run around town.

“Jeffro Kilpatrick: Bury My Bones in Ink” by Jeffro Kilpatrick

Kilpatrick will discuss how he uses art and cartooning in all ends of his life, from his career to charity to social circles to wooing the love of his life. He will show examples of his work referencing geeky pop culture, his fascination with Philly and Fishtown, and his obsession with the world’s maudlin, rambling, nocturnal creatures.

Bio: Jeffro Kilpatrick is a Philly cartoonist, born and raised in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia. He is a co-founder of the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society (www.phillytoon.org) and a proud member of the Meathaus Comics Collective (www.meathaus.com). He spends his days and weekends teaching art to Philly middle school students, and his nights hunched over the same drawing table he had when he was a kid.