Date: Wednesday, November 8th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

First is Celeste Huff with All the Single Ladies: Let’s Celebrate Solitary Bees! “Solitary bees… these little ladies are everywhere. With over 20,000 species of bees worldwide, most of them (over 90%) actually fly solo. Celeste Huff, a graduate student in the UW Madison Department of Entomology, will be talking about the fascinating lives of solitary bees and ways you can help them thrive!”

Second is Bartje Wakker presenting Tantalizing Trees: Convergent Evolution, Naming, and Taxonomy in Trees! “What we call certain trees can be misleading – especially within the name ‘Cedar’. In reality, many trees that you might think are closely related, or even call the same name – are quite distant, and more closely related to other familiar plants including common vegetables or ornamental flowers. In this talk I – Bartje Wakker – will be trying to put how well known plants are (or aren’t) related to each other by covering some examples of this phenomenon, as well as what ‘convergent evolution’ is and why it leads to all of this – as well as a couple… personal gripes… on the naming of certain types of conifer trees.”

Last but not least, we welcome Ashleigh Gradel to the stage for A Qualitative Analysis of the Taco Bell Menu. “Do you like Taco Bell but struggle to figure out which form factor of beef, cheese, tortilla, and lettuce is the best for a given scenario? This presentation is for you: my name is Ashleigh Gradel, and I have three goals: (1) to provide a comprehensive, analytical, and fair review of the Taco Bell menu, (2) to abolish the Mexican Pizza, and (3) to get you ready for your next Taco Bell encounter. I’ve used my own expertise (and several expensable meals on work trips) to develop the Live:Más ratio to evaluate, definitively, the best (and worst!) of Taco Bell.”

Date: Wednesday, October 4th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

First up, we have Leslie Schroeder and Karen Kendrick-Hands tag teaming to teach us about textiles! “The current plastic-based textile industry harms our health and our climate. Growing the ancient fiber plant, flax for linen in the Midwest is a solution. Learn about our plan to support farmers in profitably growing flax, a low-input, soil-friendly crop!”

Next is FORMER NERD NITE CO-HOST EXTRAORDINAIRE Julie Collins with cat genetics! “Let’s genotype my cats! As a proud cat mom of 4 with some knowledge of genetics, I assumed that figuring out the inheritance patterns of my bebe’s markings would be pretty easy. I thought wrong. Come for the cute cat pics, stay for the bonkers biology.”

Last but not least, we have researcher/comedian Sasha Rosser to teach us about brains and music: “The left-brain vs. right-brain debate comes to a head when it comes to music processing. After hundreds of millions of years of evolution, humans have developed unique dispositions with regards to the informational and emotional content of music — in turn influencing culture, religion, language acquisition, and more.”

Date: Wednesday, September 13th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Join us for an extra exciting Nerd Nite this month! We are THRILLED to invite some new speakers to the High Noon stage!

First, get ready to leap from the top rope with Jason Werner and women’s wrestling! “From the circus to Wrestlemania, we will explore women’s origins in professional wrestling, how they got started, and their struggle to be accepted at the same levels as their male counterparts.”

Next we have Nick Hein to tell us about a strange and awesome form of transportation: the velomobile! “Private autos are the world’s single largest source of air pollution, mainly because they are inappropriate for the short, single-occupant trips where we use them most. What if I told you that there’s a vehicle that could eliminate most of those trips that is healthy and fun, affordable to buy and maintain, and available. It’s called a velomobile, and you’ll learn more about them in this talk.”

Last we have WORLD RECORD HOLDER Gabriella Gerhardt to talk about her passion: hunting for 4 leaf clovers! “4 leaf clovers are a mutation of the white clover plant, generally considered to be lucky charms. Gabriella has 145,000 4+ leaf clovers and 5 related world records. She will share her love for these mutants and give some tips on how you can find your own.”

Date: Wednesday, August 9th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Nerd Nite is back for the fall season, but with a twist! We are collaborating with the Natural Resources Foundation’s Wayfarers Group to do a conservation themed night! The same shenanigans you’ve come to love at Nerd Nite, but this time we’re sharing the love!

Lisa Kitchel will be presenting “The Weird and Wonderful World of Our Native Mussels”. Our native mussels have a surprisingly complex life history for animals that pretend they are rocks on the riverbed. We will discuss why a mussel would want to have a fish on its posterior and other such oddities!

Ben Lam brings us “The Whooping Crane Story: The Power of Hard Work, Costumes, and Dance!” Whooping cranes are one of North America’s most endangered bird species with only about 830 remaining. We’ll take a look at the history of this species and some of the techniques used in bringing whooping cranes back from the brink of extinction.

Finally, Micah Kloppenberg will share “Dung Beetles: The Coffee Snobs of the Coprophagous World?” While pollinators get the press for filling our grocery aisles, dung beetles help break it down on (from?) the other end. We’ll find our what drives a dung beetle’s dietary attraction!

Date: Saturday, July 1st
Time: 9 am – Noon
Location: Northstreet
557 North Street, Madison, WI

Join Nerd Nite Co-Hosts, Haley and Ally at Northstreet to discuss all things Nerd Nite!

Do you have a great idea for a presentation but need some help getting started?

Are you a long-time Nerd Niter with awesome ideas for how we can improve?

Regardless of what you’d like to discuss, we’d love to see you and chat!

Date: Wednesday, May 31st
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Join us for another magical, nerdy evening! We have three excellent talks planned:
Lexy Spry with “Flax to the Future: Everything I know about Linen”
Alex Demers discussing the social perception of gender through vocal presentation (how are we biased around voices, and how to change your own!)
Emilee Martell will finish out the evening with prescribed fires! Is it good to set prairies on fire, and how do you do it?

(Note: this is a “rain date” for the cancelled February nite!) 

Date: Wednesday, April 26th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

It’s time for another wacky and wild Nerd Nite! Up this month:
Welcome a visiting Nerd all the way from the University of Alabama, Jacelyn Peabody-Lever, for some ferret talk! How is a human like a ferret? The surprising similarities are in our lungs! Learn about what these similarities mean for scientists studying lung disease.
We will also have the pleasure of returning Nerd Nite presenter Tyler Wintermute with “Super MariWOAH! Way too much about Super Mario Bros (1993)”. He will be doing a deep dive into the bizarre cult classic film of the 90s just in time for you to check out the new one.
Our third speaker, Lisa Luczak, will be debunking diets: “Low carb high fat? Vegan? Paleo? Keto? High carb low fat? We’ll debunk popular diets, counter misinformation, and discuss nutrition hot topics with a Registered Dietitian.”

Date: Wednesday, March 22nd
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)

“Not too cold to croak: frogsicles and other things”, presented by Larry Werner! He will be discussing how frogs and other vertebrates cope with the winter months– an appropriate topic as temperatures refuse to increase this spring!

Next is “There is a voice in your head? Surprising hidden differences in our inner experiences” with Gary Lupyan. Have you ever wondered why some people have an inner monologue, or why some people can smell ants? Gary will share some interesting insights about how this relates to evolution, culture, and how we do science.

Finally, Scott Olsen will be presenting “Furniture making as a hobby and social activity! (or, how to get compliments by making things)”. Scott says: “After witnessing other craft people, I decided to keep myself busy designing and building furniture for life. I work out of my garage making tables, desks, lamps, shelving units, beds, picture frames and more. In addition to the occasional compliment, I get usable high-quality items that I could not otherwise afford. If you’re interested in learning more about furniture, tools and woodworking skills and perhaps starting something like this yourself come see the presentation!”

Date: Wednesday, February 22nd
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)

Stay safe and warm! Look for future information regarding Lexy, Alex, and Emilee’s presentations!

Date: Wednesday, January 18th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)

Have you ever wondered what a cat is hearing, seeing, smelling, or feeling? Local veterinary professional Elycia Degenhardt will help you get a cat’s view of the world with her talk on Cat Senses. Learn about the meowvelous abilities and unique purrception of our feline friends while looking at a lot of cute cat pictures on a big screen.
Want the perfect gift for the cat in your life? The music Elycia discussed is available here.

Up next: Learn the salty facts!
All the salt applied to roads and sidewalks ends up in our lakes, streams, and drinking water. How salty is our water, what impacts does salt have, and what’s being done to protect freshwater resources.
Check out Wisconsin Salt Wise to stay in touch with what Allison is working on!