Date: Wednesday, October 26th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
Hilary Stohs-Krause will be, appropriately for Halloween, talking about fear! “Let’s dive into why modern humans are generally so terrible at risk assessment. Our world is increasingly complicated, and our fear response has been left behind (it’s like current threats are displayed via hologram, but our brain is trying to play them with a gramophone). We’ll explore threat pathways in our brains, risk amplifiers and the established “types” of fears. Enter the Halloween season ready to face all the goblins, ghouls and men’s rights activists with confidence!”
Lili Luxe will be discussing “Scintillating Stories of Stenography” “Courtroom drama is a popular form of entertainment and dominates headlines around the world every day. This talk will introduce you to the person who is front and center of every proceeding, the stenographer. Learn how that weird little machine works and some history behind this fascinating — and surprisingly lucrative! — profession.”
Our final presentation is by Finn Kuusisto, sharing the lore of the popular first-person shooter video game Hunt: Showdown. “Hunt monsters in the bayous of late 19th century Louisiana for fun and profit. We’ll briefly review the lore of Crytek’s popular horror-themed shooter game that almost never saw the light of day. From the Louisiana event to the emissaries of the Sculptor, we’ll
cover all the basic story you need to know to be a real hunter.”
Date: Wednesday, September 7th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
Mark your calendars! The Nerd Nite Madison season opener after our summer break is 8:00pm September 7th at the High Noon Saloon. As always, Nerd Nite is free and 18+ admitted. (21+ to drink).
Speakers are Jessica Schmitz, talking about her life raising jumping spiders, and Tyler Wintermute with a tale from Hoosier history and the Indiana Gas Boom! Your host Haley will close out the night with a round up of interesting nerd news that you might have missed this summer, plus some exciting announcements for Nerd Nite you won’t want to miss!
Date: Wednesday, May 25th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
This event was canceled – see you all after the summer hiatus!
Date: Wednesday, April 27th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
The order of the night’s line-up will be announced on the Facebook event the day of the show.
Why we worry about all the wrong things: Modern humans are pretty terrible at risk assessment. Our world is increasingly complicated, and our fear response hasn’t kept up. By exploring what contributes to our sense of risk and how we process fear, we can learn to recognize and retrain our instincts to feel safer, happier and less stressed!
It’s Not Rocket Science: Well it is….but only the fun parts! You’ll never believe these three propellants they tried! 5 ways you can keep your engine from MELTING! The secret to orbital rendezvous that they don’t want you to know! EXPOSED secrets from the Apollo program! Is the flow staged combustion cycle going to be bigger than BITCOIN? Why Elon Musk’s new engine will DESTROY Jeff Bezos! These are the 10 best space acronyms that will make you seem smarter! WATCH NOW the biggest rocket explosions of all time! Maybe a little too much hype but I still think rockets are out of this world.
An Introduction to K-Pop: The small nation of South Korea has been producing waves of insanely catchy pop earworms for three decades. Now everyone and their grandmother has at least heard of the K-pop superstar boy group, BTS. How did K-Pop become such a global music phenomenon? What even is K-Pop? Why are K-Pop fans so obsessive? Who is LOONA? And why do we have no choice but to stan? Fall down the rabbit hole and learn more about the musical universe of Korean pop music.
As always, this High Noon event is free, and we encourage you to wear a mask.
Date: Wednesday, March 23
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
Get ready for another exciting, nerd-tastic night at the High Noon Saloon! We’d love you to join us as we learn about three new topics– The history of medical forceps, maritime archaeology, and why the rent is so damn high. As always, this event is free, but wear a mask and bring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test
Date: Wednesday, Feb 16
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
The order of the night’s line-up will be announced on the Facebook event the day of the show.
Pop(ulus)-Culture of Dane County and surrounding areas
There are many seasons and reasons to appreciate the plant genus Populus. Poplars, cottonwoods, and aspens were the first trees to have their genome sequenced, are some of the largest single organisms in the world, and have been used by humans for millennia. However, you don’t need to be a walking encyclopedia of modern Pop-culture to appreciate what are ultimately just a group of honkin’ good trees! The Popurazzi have been at it this past year, snapping photos of ramets, genets, and all-around great trees of the genus you can find in southern Wisconsin. While we’re sure there are plenty of ortets keeping a low-profile, you won’t want to miss this salicaceous tour highlighting the best that Populus has to offer in our area.
Tyler Wintermute
Presenter bio: Tyler is a PhD student in the Department of Botany at UW-Madison, studying the chemical ecology of the genus Populus, a surprise to no one. While using complicated instruments to analyze small metabolites that have broad impacts on ecosystem processes really gets him going, he recognizes a need for digestible, translational ecology and general science communication to larger audiences who might not care how many 1-hydroxy-6-oxocyclohex-2-en-1-carboxylic acid units are attached to a glucose molecule. Plus, his favorite Populus species was extirpated from Wisconsin by the Pabst Brewing Company in 1889, so he’s had to make do with more resilient trees. When not botanizing, Tyler enjoys sports, and has recently started cross-country skiing, a mythical activity in his native Northern Virginia.
What’s So Great About Flying Small Planes?
If you have a friend or acquaintance who is a pilot, you may have heard (many times) about how great flying is, or even been offered a ride in a small plane. If not, you have probably seen or heard planes flying around the local airports – Dane County Regional Airport in Madison or Morey Field in Middleton. In this talk, I’m going to give an overview of what flying general aviation (GA) planes is all about: Why do people love to fly (and love to talk about it)? How does one go about learning to fly? How safe is it to say yes to a ride in a small plane? What are the advantages and disadvantages of flying yourself somewhere vs. buying an airline ticket?
Sam Hurley
Presenter bio: Sam a Scientist in Radiology at the University of Wisconsin, and an MRI Physicist for UW Health. He received a PhD in Medical Physics, also from Wisconsin. In his professional life, he works on methods to make medical imaging using MRI and PET/MR more quantitatively accurate and less sensitive to patient motion. In his free time, he enjoys attending concerts, playing bass guitar, travel, scuba diving, and working on electronics and software projects. Sam has been flying for about three years, holds an FAA private pilot’s license (aka an “airmen’s certificate”), and owns a partnership in a single-engine four-seat Cessna 172.
Spiders and Friends: When it Comes to Legs- Eight is Great!
Explore the world wide web of arachnids! Learn about some fascinating eight-legged animals from all over the world-and your back yard. Be able to answer questions such as: is the Daddy-Long-Legs a spider? Do spiders breathe? Are arachnids hell-bent on forever terrorizing humans, or are they just misunderstood, or both? Hardcore arachnophobes should sit this one out, but if you’re just creeped, experience the benefits of “knowing thy enemy.”
Danielle Ellen
Presenter Bio: A self-proclaimed “Renaissance Person,” Danielle doesn’t just pursue her interests – she chases them and tackles them to the ground! Some of those interests include: music (she fronts two bands), painting and fiber arts, psychology, religion, philosophy, entomology, and memes. She has been a teacher, a clothes-folder, a nursing home activities assistant, a project manager, and for three years ran a wacky-wild-inflatable-arm-flailing-tube-man costume company with two-time Nerd Nite favorite, Bob Baddeley. She currently works as an actuarial analyst and is learning embroidery in her spare time.
Date: Wednesday, Nov 3
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
The order of the night’s line-up will be announced on the Facebook event the day of the show.
Smells & the Microbiome: Are Microbes Controlling Your Sex Life?
Microbes are responsible for many of the very best–and very worst–smells we encounter daily. Microbes are also all around, in the environment, living in and on animals, including us, and capable of influencing our behavior! Smells fishy but let’s investigate! Come learn about the role microbes and their scents play in attraction!
Jenny Braturd
Presenter Bio: Jenny Bratburd is a science policy enthusiast with a PhD in Microbiology from UW Madison, and currently works as an outreach coordinator for NASA’s Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team. In her spare time she leads a virtual baking competition and is training for increasingly longer runs and bike rides.
A Roadmap to Discovering a Real National Treasure: Nicolas Cage
Summary: Nicolas Cage may be Hollywood’s most difficult actor to pin down. Throughout his sprawling career, he has refused to be boxed into a single genre or performance style, consistently defying expectations (and often advice) of critics and fans alike. But what really motivates Cage to choose his most baffling roles? The answers may reveal a cautionary tale of dramatic excess or, just perhaps, a roadmap to fearlessly pursuing one’s creative dreams.
Eric Niemeyer
Presenter Bio: Eric is a building energy engineer and part-time Nic Cage enthusiast. His family roots stretch from the cornfields of Nebraska all the way to the cornfields of central Ohio, making his eventual move to this Midwest cultural epicenter inevitable. In the past year, he has rediscovered such exciting hobbies as “leaving the apartment” and “talking to people not on Zoom”.
Dumb Watches in a Smart World
Summary: Why mechanical watches are thriving in a digital world.
AJ Frost
Presenter Bio: AJ is an information technology person who writes and likes mechanical watches
Date: Wednesday September 24, 2014
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
The Truth Is Out There: The Science of The X-Files
Summary: The X-Files was more than just alien colonists, our beloved Smoking Man, and Scully’s amazing pantsuits. Killer cockroaches. Giant psychedelic mushrooms. The Flukeman. How much is science fiction, and how much could be reality? Using a few of everyone’s favorite episodes, I’ll tell you what they got right and what they got awesomely wrong.
Presenter bio: Alison D. Scott is a pinball wizard, founding editor of The Strobilus, and grad student in the Department of Botany. She left California and moved to Madison to study the evolutionary history of certain big trees using DNA and fossils. When she’s not doing research, you can find her at science outreach events, or at home reading about plane crashes. She thinks your hair looks really great like that.
Squatting for Squares: Your Guide to Proper Pooping
Summary: Everybody poops, and a lot of people poop inefficiently. Through the use of anatomy, images, and anecdotes, I argue that the squat position is much more efficient than the sitting position when pooping. Going “number 2” is such a normal, taken-for-granted part of life that most people who have grown up with westernized sitting toilets don’t think twice about their posture. Most people don’t consider the fact that humans evolved to squat, yet we contort our intestines into unnatural positions and make said intestines work harder by forcing poop out of our bodies while sitting on the toilet. I will present a solution to this dilemma by introducing a way to squat from the comfort of your porcelain toilet seat! I call this method “perching,” and hopefully it will improve people’s pooping lives for the greater good.
Presenter Bio: Makenzie Graham is an avid advocate of natural healthcare and well-being. She provides therapy for children with Autism, and has just started going back to school to get the pre-reqs needed for a graduate Occupational Therapy program. She spends her free time paddle boarding and learning how to drum and dance to different West African rhythms. She has a holistic view of health, and believes that everything, from the different food we eat to the way we evacuate waste from our bodies, should be considered when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. She’ll be moving out to Portland, OR at the end of this year, so she’s happy to start spreading the message about perching here in Madison!
To Split or Lump: What Constitutes A Species In Today’s Changing World?
Summary: Can you think back to freshman year biology class? Chances are, you were taught some obscure definition of how to classify a species. As it turns out, there is not universal consensus among scientists even within different fields on how to group individuals. In this talk we will discuss and debate two contrasting views by a conservationist and an anthropologist of how to deal with variation among populations. The ultimate question: are you a lumper or a splitter?
Presenter bio: Sarah Traynor and Mary Dinsmore are both third year graduate students at the UW-Madison. Sarah Traynor is in the Department of Anthropology where she spends her days measuring Inuit skulls to identify the underlying mechanisms of modern human variation. Mary Dinsmore is a student in the Environment and Resources department. She’s conducting her research in Madagascar where she spends her nights following endangered nocturnal lemurs to study their behavioral plasticity and relationship with the local people. During their first semester these two became fast friends where they discovered their mutual love of science, curvaceous cats, and the occasional desire to slink around town.
Date: Wednesday August 27, 2014
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
Parasitic and Allelopathic Plants
Summary: Plants seem helpless to their environment, lacking the means to manipulate their surroundings or leave. However, some clever plants have figured out how to disadvantage a neighbor for personal gain. Sound familiar? While not quite as effective as M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, plants can seriously mess with other plants through chemical and cultural warfare. Learn about plants that kill (or try to kill) other plants in order to survive.
Presenter bio: Christy Marsden is a Horticulture Educator for UW-Extension, a job that surprisingly makes use of both her bachelor’s in Human Development and Masters in Horticulture in Agronomy from the University of California, Davis. She attempted to deny her plant nerdiness for many years, but finally realized that when put to good use by connecting people to plants, it didn’t seem so bad.
Pokemon and Capitalism
Summary: Pokémon has become the second-most successful and video game-based media franchise in the world. The franchise has also expanded into multiple realms of media entertainment including movies, tv-shows, trading cards, and merchandise. In this presentation, I use the capitalist theory to argue for the success of the Pokémon and how the Pokémon franchise has thrived in capitalist economies.
Bio: Bio Haiku:
Minh from Milwaukee.
Mega rad Pokémon dreams.
In grad school, bitches.
Minhtuyen (Minh) Mai is back for her second Nerd Nite presentation. She is now a third year graduate student in Educational Policy Studies at UW-Madison. She studies food insecurity among low-income students, and social media for scholarly professional development– all of which have nothing to do with her presentation.
The Chemistry of Brewing Beer
Summary: Have you ever wondered how chemistry is intertwined with the beautiful orgy of water, malt, hops, and yeast that produces that most glorious lovechild we intimately know as beer? If your answer is yes, you should come to this talk. If your answer is no, you should come to this talk. Why? Because imbibing will be riding shotgun on this magic carpet ride! This talk will guide you through the brewing process, from alpha acid to zymurgy, with an eye on the chemistry that leads to the huge variety of aromas and flavors we know and love.
Presenter bio: Eric Melby, like many of you, is a lover of beer. He exercises this love as a homebrewer and consumer of most beers he can get his hands on. Eric is currently working towards his PhD in Environmental Chemistry and Technology, where he does research on the chemical principles that guide nanoparticle-biological membrane interaction. In a previous life he taught many flavors of high school chemistry in Fountain, Colorado. What would he really like to do with his life? Ride into the sunset (on a mountain bike) with his wife, dog, and chickens (apparently a very large mountain bike), and operate a small brewery and hobby farm that both focus on environmentally sustainable practices.
Date: Wednesday May 28, 2014
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
The Wonders of Plasma Physics and Fusion Power
Summary: Plasma makes up stars, galaxies and over 99% of the visible universe. On earth, they have many practical applications such as fluorescent lights, lasers, welding and even manufacturing computer chips, however no application is more exciting then the promise of fusion power. Scientists have been overcoming numerous trials and tribulations in the quest to harness the almost unlimited potential of fusion power since the 1950s for the clean, radioactive waste free, production of electricity. An overview of basic plasma physics, plasmas of the universe, practical uses of plasmas on earth, as well as the history and future of fusion power research will be presented along with amazing plasma physics demonstrations as you are invited to learn how to work with the stuff of stars.
Presenter bio: Andrew Seltzman went to Georgia Tech as an undergrad majoring in physics and electrical engineering and spent most of his time building robots and fusors. After graduating, he came to UW Madison where he is now a PhD candidate in the physics department focusing on microwave heating of plasmas in the Madison Symmetric Torus. In his free time he fiddles around with electronics in his secret lab, flies gliders, and dances argentine tango. He is currently the de facto coordinator of the plasma outreach table.
Zentai Suits: An Opaque Window into Human Identity
Summary: What if you could remove parts of yourself one at a time? Parts like your memory, your ability to communicate, or your face. When would you stop being you? When would other people stop thinking you are you? Psychology and sociology attempt to understand how we assemble our individual characteristics into our identity and the identity of others. This process profoundly affects our understanding of ourselves and the world, but it is something that is very hard to examine personally. After all, you can’t just temporarily remove a part of yourself and see how people react. Or can you? Join Dan Kaplan for a special, spandex clad Nerd Night talk that explores identity, perception, and the allure of zentai suits.
Bio: The presenter tells us he/she is Dan Kaplan, a person who used to make museum exhibits in DC and is currently a producer at the Wisconsin Media Lab. However, we’ve only seen the presenter in full body spandex, so we aren’t sure any of this is true. We have no idea what he/she actually looks like or if he/she really is Dan. We just know the presenter as a human-shaped thing that is really into covering itself in spandex, so it is hard to form an opinion about the person.
FIRE: a story of explosives, soap, bronze, energy, and PEE
Summary: Fire! WTF is it? We’ll talk about that, and we’ll also talk about how humans use fire to unleash ancient sunlight. We’ll also discover exactly how it can turn trees and rocks into steel swords. This relates directly to the dawn of agriculture and a very surprising use for pee. Bringing all this knowledge together, we’ll talk about that crazy hand-burn scene in fight club and the surprisingly cleansing uses for wood ash. ALSO, we’re gonna BURN some stuff on stage!
Presenter bio: Lee Bishop started Nerd Nite Madison along with Elena Spitzer almost 3 years ago. It has been SUPER fun, but he is moving back to Berkeley, CA to beg for change on the street. He is a PhD Chemist and full-time science enthusiast. He edits the scientist-written blog, sustainable-nano.com, runs middle-school science clubs & events, and teaches introductory chemistry at Madison College. He loves to get excited about stuff, and he is really excited about fire!