Imagine, if you will, a loooooooooooong table, stretching all the way from the front door at LIVE to the stage. Sitting around that table are all your best nerdy friends, and the table itself is piled high with a cornucopia of tasty morsels of knowledge, made particularly palatable by engaging chefs and seasoned with just the right amount of humor.
It may be a metaphor, but that’s PRETTY MUCH what you’ll get when you attend our next session of Nerd Nite, on Thursday, November 14 at LIVE! Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and, as always, there’s no cover charge!
Our first intellectual course brings Jennifer German with Why Do We Need Timezones on the Moon? And if on the Moon, why not also on Mars? But not only why, HOW? Time doesn’t work the same on the Moon as it does on Earth . . . (You’ll have to show up to find out!!)
Jennifer is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to Michigan, mother of two, software engineer, medical school educated, hopeless space geek.
Next we’ll feed our brain with Work for Working Memory: Motivation and Cognitive Performance Across the Lifespan. Do you ever wonder why, as you get older, you have a harder time remembering things? Dahlia Kassel will share why that is a normal part of healthy aging and her research on boosting memory performance in older adults.
Dahlia is a PhD student in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Michigan where she studies cognition, motivation, and aging. She is a proud cat Mom to her nine-year old Maine Coon and loves to embroider, read, and bake in her free time.
And I hope you saved room for On the Relationship between Space Weather and the Close of the Vietnam War. On August 4th, 1974, over 4000 naval mines deployed off the coast of north Vietnam suddenly and unexpectedly detonated. On May 10th, 2024, the Aurora Borealis was visible directly overhead much of the continental United States, including Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dan Welling will explore the physics that connects these two events and how researchers at the University of Michigan are working to better understand space weather phenomena.
Dr. Welling is an assistant researcher at the University of Michigan’s department of Climate and Space. He uses computer simulations to both understand and predict the impact of solar flares and mass ejections on the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, including the development of the Aurora.
It’s been said (by me, right here, right now) that the best Nerd Nites take us on a journey. And, goodness, do we have a doozy of a journey for y’all on Thursday, October 10 at LIVE (102 S. First Street). Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and, as always, there’s no cover charge!
We’ll start things off on a vast note with David Robinson and How It’s Made: Galaxies. The night sky is full of galaxies in a variety of shapes and sizes, including our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The story of how these galaxies formed is played out on the largest stage in the universe, full of collisions, explosions, the mysterious substance known as “dark matter,” and much more.
David is a physics graduate student in his last year at the University of Michigan. Outside of physics, he enjoys reading novels, playing piano, solving crossword puzzles, and learning to cook new things.
Next, we’ll zoom in to the Soviet Union for Keeping Time Behind the Iron Curtain: A Visual History of Soviet Watchmaking with Jody Harnish. Join us for a storytelling tour of socialist timekeeping, slideshow style. We’ll get a crash course in horological history, then survey 70 years of the industry, designs, & fashion that defined watchmaking in former USSR. And we’re gonna look at so much cool dial patina (So. Much. Patina.) and party like it’s 1991.
Jody is a longtime AADL public library staffer, where he shops for, catalogs, prints, teaches, answers, makes, & occasionally breaks many different things! He once set off the Downtown Library’s fire alarms 2 hours after closing, and they were very cool about it.
We’ll end the night closer to home (but further back in history) with Esteban Touma and The Spanish Conquest: How the Americas were taken by Columbus, Cortez, and a Handful of Other Idiots. Much has been said about Columbus and the Spaniards that brought a genocide to the native populations of “the New World.” They were ruthless, ambitious, and relentless. But did you also know they were also f%#&ing idiots? In this talk, we will explore the ways their relentless stupidity in their words and action brought so much change and destruction and changed the course of the world forever.
Esteban is a teacher, content producer, and stand-up comedian who loves all things language. Besides being a Spanish teacher and media producer for Babbel, his writing and comedy has been featured on Comedy Central, NPR, Sirius XM, and The Moth. As a Babbel spokesperson he has been featured in The Guardian, the BBC, Newsweek, and many other publications. He’s also a recipient of the the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association award. When not teaching his language or telling jokes on stage you can catch him in a used bookstore, buying books he’ll never read.
Is there a better time of year to be a NERD than September? Back-to-school is our chance to SHINE, when education is on everyone’s mind and office supplies go on sale! Let’s celebrate by going to LIVE (102 S. First Street) and learning as a group! Join us on Thursday, September 12 for another wonderful edition of NNA2! Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and, as always, there’s no cover charge!
Isha Verma, Ph.D. will begin things with Speaking through stem cells: How these cells help us study brain diseases. Epilepsy is a brain disorder that results in uncontrollable seizures, and without proper treatment, it can be a life-threatening condition. Genetic abnormalities or mutations are one of the main causes of epilepsy. However, the role of various genetic abnormalities in the pathology of epilepsy is not clearly understood as there is a scarcity of brain samples of patients suffering from epilepsy. Therefore, we use stem cells derived from epilepsy patients as a model system to study epilepsy. This model system can also be used for testing drugs for the treatment of epilepsy. Ultimately, this can result in the development of personalized treatment therapies for patients suffering from epilepsy and can greatly improve the life quality of these patients.
Isha is a developmental biologist and neuroscientist at the University of Michigan. She is using stem cells to develop therapies for brain diseases.
We’ll keep the brain…well…on the brain with Makaila Furderer and Clocked out: How SCN dysfunction links sleep and mood disorders. She’ll explore the co-occurrence of sleep and mood disorders and how a small part of your brain—the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN—may be to blame. When the SCN is not working correctly, regular daily rhythms that keep us well-rested and enable us to tackle our day with a positive outlook are interrupted, leading to sleep and mood disorders. Understanding these relationships at a deeper level just might empower humanity to find a new treatment targeting the SCN that puts us, and our mental health concerns, to bed.
Makaila is a second-year PhD student at the University of Michigan primarily studying traumatic brain injury. Her studies don’t stop her from branching out into new (read, ‘many’) hobbies, which leads to talks like these and frequent weekend trips. Of all her recreational activities, archery, concerts, and water sports are her favorite.
Now we’ve done the brain work, it’s time for a drink! Or to learn about them, anyhow, in Happy Hours, Hops & Hootch: A Drinking History of Michigan. We’ve enjoyed beer for thousands of years but where did it come from? Who were its earliest enjoyers? Who were the earliest brewers in Michigan and Ann Arbor? Learn about the history of this delicious drink from Patti Smith author of Michigan Beer: A Heady History.
Patti is a long time Ann Arbor resident who has written four local history books, most recently Michigan Beer: A Heady History. She is a teacher and storyteller who lives on the east side of Ann Arbor with her husband and dog.
A quick Google might tell you that Thursday, August 8 is International Cat Day, National Sneak SOme Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day, or National Melvin Day (FOR REAL!), but here in Ann Arbor, we know it’s NERD NITE DAY! Celebrate this very important local holiday by gathering at LIVE (102 S. First Street) for another wonderful edition of NNA2! Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and as always, there’s no cover charge!
We’ll start things off by heading up to Isle Royale for Moosewatch: an unexpected, off-trail Isle Royale adventure. Isle Royale National Park, the least-visited and most-revisited of the national parks, is home to the longest-running predator-prey study in the world. Explore Isle Royale’s unique ecology, the current status of moose and wolves on the island, and what exactly happens when teams of volunteers are turned loose into the backcountry to collect moose bones with Erin Parker, former backcountry ranger and 6-time Moosewatch trip leader.
Erin gets to play outside and call it work with her role as an interpretive services supervisor for the Huron-Clinton Metroparks.
We’ll turn from searching for moose to searching for music in The Most Famous “Lost” Album Ever. Bill Bulger will tell the story of The Beach Boys’ “Smile” album. After the band was on top of the world following the smash timeless single “Good Vibrations” in 1966, the follow-up album was sure to be even better (or at least be released), right???
Bill is a Senior Director of Operations at MDpanel who frequently goes down nerdy rabbit holes and has learned a lot about PowerPoint in the last few weeks. He has a family reputation for making killer mixtapes, including for his niece Emily and her mom Linda, who got him into this Nerd Nite situation in the first place (with help from his wife, Jenny).
The night will close out with Daniel Joyaux and The Oscar for Best International Film: Why the nominating process is filled with bad ideas, and why they’re the best bad ideas we have. Every year, the five nominees for Best International Film leave even the most dedicated Oscar-ologists confused and despondent over a great category that refuses to make sense. Like last year, when Cannes Palme d’Or winner (and eventual Best Original Screenplay winner) Anatomy of a Fall was nominated for Best Picture, but not Best International FIlm. Or two years ago, when RRR, the Indian film that became a huge Zeitgeist hit on Netflix, was nowhere to be found in the category. What are the labyrinthine rules and processes that create these egregious snubs year after year, and why are they so seemingly unfixable?
Daniel is a film critic and journalist whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Ringer, IndieWire, Cosmopolitan, Roger Ebert, and others. He also wrote for A.frame, the now-defunct Oscars newsletter put out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Before becoming a full-time writer, Daniel worked at film festivals, including three winters spent in Utah working as a publications editor for the Sundance Film Festival, and two summers up north working for the (also) now-defunct Traverse City Film Festival.
Are you feeling what we are? That it has just been TOO LONG since you’ve heard a lecture in a Nightclub? If you’re experiencing that same longing, we’ve got GREAT NEWS! Nerd Nite is returning to LIVE (102 S. First Street) on Thursday, July 11. Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and as always, there’s no cover charge!
We’ll start off joining Matt DeJonge to puzzle over a philosophical stumper: The Enigma of Money: An Exploration of A Challenging Question. What is money? Really think for a second—what is this thing many of us spend so much of our time earning, but have difficulty understanding? Matt will cover the history of money and what it means today (or, at least, what it means to him!)
Matt is a Conservation Technician with over a decade of experience in forestry and agriculture spanning from time in a learning laboratory at Grand Valley State’s student farm, to working in the big west coast timber, to now working for the Washtenaw Conservation District. Matt’s always had a desire to learn and ask questions about natural resources. In his free time, he dives deep into the rabbit hole of asking questions and trying to learn about money, and spends a good amount of time discussing these ideas in the Bitcoin community.
Next we’re going Lac-to-basics with Oriol to learn about the simple science and surprisingly complex applications behind lactofermenting fruits and veg, including sauerkraut, pickles, and less obvious produce. Learn these highly transferable skills to feed your gut biome and social capital.
Oriol is a wineseller, AADL desk clerk, avid lactofermenter, and self-identified “food a-hole.” He has been lactofermenting for eight years with only minor regrets. Oriol intermittently streams video games and reviews drinks both hard and soft at twitch.tv/manbehindwinkies.
We’ll finish the evening by going back in time with Emily Murphy for This Isn’t Kayfabe: How an Ann Arbor Girl Brought Women’s Wrestling from a Joke to an Olympic Sport. In the 1970s, 9-year-old Tricia McNaughton wouldn’t take “girls don’t wrestle” as a satisfactory answer. Emily will share the Ann Arbor Story of Tricia’s grapples on and off the mat. Spoiler alert, even at nine, Tricia was unafraid to make history.
Emily is a librarian at the Ann Arbor District Library, where she works extensively with the Summer Game, the Fifth Avenue Press, and Nerd Nite (hey, that’s the name of the show)! When not at work, Emily loves to cook and bake, do crossword puzzles, and hang out with her husband Frank and dog Roy.
It’s time to journey to the Top of the pack . . . erm, the Top of the Park, for an EXTRA-AMAZING, EXTRA-ENTERTAINING, EXTRA-OUTSIDE edition of Nerd Nite on Friday, June 14 at 7pm! You didn’t misread the date—we’re Nerd-Niting on a Friday Night, Baby! Join us at the Annex at Top of the Park (915 E. Washington St.) for an evening of Nerdy Delights! (Want more info about how to get there and where to park? Check out A2SF’s FAQ)
Kayla Zochowski will start us off with Bingos, Phoneys, and Triple-triples: Learning the Babble to Dabble in Scrabble. Scrabble is a classic (dare we say beloved) board game we all have encountered in some way, shape, or form. However, the game is much more than a board and 100 tiles. Come learn more about the world of Scrabble from its history, to its dictionary, to the many facets of strategy implemented by the top (local!) competitive Scrabble players.
Kayla is a biologist who began her Scrabble journey after stumbling across a National Scrabble tournament over a decade ago. As a previous Nerd Nite speaker who has focused solely on the OPTICS of scientific TOPICS, she is filled with ELATION from her head to her TOENAIL to talk about a favorite hobby that RETAINS attention from ANTSIER RETINAS and even ORIENTS STONIER individuals to be LIGHTED with the DELIGHT of anagram solving (and beyond).
From the World of Words to the World of Space, things are handed off to Rich Retyi for Space World: A Total Entertainment/Awareness Experience for the Entire Family! In the 1970s, the Thomas Edison of cleanrooms (we’ll get into it, don’t worry) asked himself, “Why not make a Disney World but make it space-themed?” And why not put it in Ypsilanti? A monorail. Lunar buggies. UFO rides. It would be called Space World. They estimated that in year two, the park would draw 1.9 to 2.4 million guests and earn $20m in revenues for the park alone. Not to mention local businesses and jobs. What happened to the theme park that never was?
Rich is the communications and marketing manager at the Ann Arbor District Library and likes to write and podcast about local history stuff. For more stories of Ann Arbor’s past, you can buy Retyi’s Book of Ann Arbor which is available in fine Ann Arbor bookstores, or listen to his dormant but maybe returning soon podcast, Ann Arbor Stories, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Finally, we’ll close with Amir Baghdadchi with You Say Potato: the Great Hashbrown vs Home Fries Debate, and what it tells us about America. The USA is a nation of ideals, and one of the most important is the ideal plate of hashbrowns — but why can’t we agree on what they should be? Shredded, cubed, sliced? Fused into a disc or allowed to skate around the plate as free moving chunks? We look at the cultural significance of hashbrowns, and their complex role in the American psyche. We might just also explain the chemistry behind superior hash.
Amir is a writer, comedian, and host of The Moth StorySLAM in Ann Arbor. He has appeared at the Pickathon Festival and on the Moth Radio Hour, and was once hired by the San Francisco Bay Guardian to eat at every 24-hour restaurant in the city in a 24-hour period.
It’s time to celebrate the start of spring the way any good nerd does: by gathering at a nightclub, grabbing a drink, and listening to the always educational, always entertaining lectures on tap! You know, that CLASSIC spring tradition?
(Okay, we’re making that tradition up, but give us another couple years and it will be a nationwide phenomena.)
Let’s all make this a thing by meeting at LIVE (102 S. First Street) on Thursday, April 11. Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and as always, there’s no cover charge!
Nathalie Catchings will kick things off with Science fact or science fiction? talking about DNA in pop culture and whether we should trust what TV and movies tell us about science (spoiler alert: kinda but not really).
Following in the footsteps of many NNA2 presenters, Nathalie has been doing science her whole career. She is an expert at taking DNA out of things (the weirder, the better) and pulling out useful information from it: from crime scenes, to wooly mammoths, to COVID samples (in the very early days of the pandemic). Recently relocated from California to Michigan, she is currently taking a well-earned break from work, while her family settles in.
Next up is a trip to Nepal with Paul Buzzard to answer the question Can We Save the Snow Leopards?: How Climate Change, Construction, and Covid are threatening these great cats. Snow leopards are iconic species of the Himalayas and other Asian highlands, but they are facing increasing threats to their conservation. Paul will look at some of these threats specifically focusing on the Gaurishankar Conservation Area in Nepal
Paul got his PhD from Columbia University studying the behavioral ecology of monkeys in West Africa. His snow leopard work began with the China Exploration and Research Society, continued as Director of Conservation with the Detroit Zoo, and continues as a regenerative farmer at Detroit Flight Path Farm and as a Conservation Technician with the Washtenaw County Conservation District.
Katie Furman will close out the night with Mouse Mind Control: How Neuroscientists Use Lasers to Activate Brain Cells, and Solve Science Mysteries. What if she told us that she could flip a switch and change how we feel? That it could make us hungry, thirsty, or even sexually aroused? Well she can’t. But in neuroscience labs across the globe, researchers have developed a technique which allows them to do just that in their laboratory animals. Katie will tell you all about how this works and why it’s a pivotal tool in understanding how the brain works.
Katie is a PhD student in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan where she uses optogenetics and mouse behavior techniques to study the neural circuits involved in food-consumption decisions. In her free time, you can find her picking up an impossible amount of sci-fi/fantasy books from the library, or going on long walks with her chihuahua, Edison. And if you know of any job opportunities in science communication… you should totally hit her up.
Oh, hey there Nerds, fancy meeting you here! We really had a great time last month when we met up at LIVE. Do you think you might want to do it again? How about Thursday, March 14 back at LIVE (102. S. First St)? Oh good, it’s a date! See you there!
Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and as always, there’s no cover charge!
We’ll kick things off with Mike Gould and go Through Time and Space with Illuminatus Lasers! Mike will explore the last decade of laser shows in Ann Arbor at FoolMOON. Get an up-close look at these interactive laser displays be they against the wall of science or various buildings downtown. You *might* even have the chance to play with a laser or two in the breaks throughout the evening’s Nerd Nite!
A victim of his own artistic tendencies, Mike is a Michigan-based laser, graphics, video, and electronics artist. Mike has been gleefully working with lasers, wacky electro-optic gizmos, assorted digital arts, and odd industrial design since 1972. He is still trying to get it right. You can find him at https://illuminatuslasers.com/
Keeping it on the light side (get it? GET IT?), we have Saaj Chattopadhyay with How I ask molecules what their political leanings are (with the help of gold echo chambers). Do molecules have political tendencies? Okay, no, they don’t, but just like people’s politics, molecules “handedness” leans to either the right or the left. When they interact with twisted light near gold nanoparticles, their “leaning” is amplified and scientists like Saaj are studying individual molecules to understand their leaning to make bio-sensors!
Saaj is a graduate student at the University of Michigan who is fascinated by how much we can understand about the world by looking at how light interacts with it. She spends a lot of time in a dark room hoping that the small gold particles she is looking at will do something cool and interesting.
We hope you’ve still got small things on the brain because it’s time for Nerd Nite on Nanobodies: Llamas + Science + Tech! Oh My! What are these tiny little proteins called nanobodies and what do llamas have to do with it? Mary Skinner from the Taubman Nanobody Initiative at the University of Michigan will be discussing this promising new field of research and the potential it brings for new tools in therapeutics and research.
Mary is the Research Lead at the Taubman Nanobody Initiative and has been working in the molecular biology field for 15 years, managing laboratories at the University of Michigan since 2012. She was the first ever winner of the Best Lab Manager Award throughout North America and Europe in 2016.
February blues got you down? Well, your pal Nerd Nite A2 is here and ready to pump you back up! Come out out on THURSDAY, February 8 at LIVE at 102. S. First St!! Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and as always, there’s no cover charge!
Don’t learn safety by accident: Safety from a Safety Manager’s Perspective! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, except for workplace accidents which can leave you with a lifelong disability. Join Samuel Friedman for a short and quick overview about safety and what you can do to be more aware!
Samuel is a two time graduate of the University of Michigan and currently works as the Safety and Occupational Health Manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor. His hobbies include ceasing to exist when you’re not paying attention.
Total Eclipse: Is it really that big of a deal? We all get it right? The Moon is going to move in front of the Sun and block the light for a few minutes, and everyone makes a big fuss about it. This talk by Buddy Stark will try to convince you that it’s worth driving two hours and spending a day of your life to go see it happen.
Buddy manages the planetarium at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Natural History. He has been working in the planetarium field educating school groups and the public about astronomy since 2008. He holds a master’s degree in science education and is working on his Ph.D. at Western Michigan University.
Two-dimensional Materials, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Do Physics Like A Third Grader. In the last 20 years, 2D materials – the thinnest substances in the world – have gone from a niche theory to a full, vibrant field in physics, chemistry, and materials science. Joseph Essman is going to dive into the shockingly simple way they were discovered and the dizzying array of new experiments and technologies they make possible.
Joseph is a PhD Candidate in Applied Physics at the University of Michigan, studying the quantum mechanics of 2-dimensional materials at ultra-low temperatures. He spends most of his free time adjusting to Michigan winters and calling his parents to ask if his cat is doing ok.
Whether your New Years Resolution is to learn more, to laugh more, or even to drink more, Nerd Nite is HERE for you! We’re kicking 2024 off right with another Nerd Nite THURSDAY, January 11 at LIVE at 102. S. First St!! Doors open at 6:30 pm, talks start at 7 pm and as always, there’s no cover charge!
Nerd Nite: where politics and gaming intersect! We’ll start things off with Changing the World and Why ‘Island’ is the Best Card in Magic the Gathering with State Senator Jeff Irwin (MI-15). Sen. Irwin will share his experience and knowledge of the local politics that impact us, his policy priorities, and why “Island” is the best card in Magic the Gathering.
Sen. Irwin was raised in Sault Ste. Marie, but his family made Washtenaw County their home. He lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Kathryn, and their two children, Sylvia and Mackinac. Prior to being elected to the State Senate in 2018, he served 11 years on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and 6 years in the Michigan House of Representatives.
From there, we’ll switch gears to Unraveling the unknown… about Chlamydia. Chlamydia is the highest reported sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the United States and is caused by bacteria, Chlamydia trachomatis. Since chlamydial infections often show no symptoms, they frequently go untreated, and existing treatment options not only target Chlamydia, but also attack ‘essential bacteria’, contributing to antibiotic resistance. Scientists need to understand how the bacteria causes the disease and how it goes undetected. However, the major bottleneck in understanding chlamydial biology is that the function of genes in the chlamydial genome or genetic material, remains a mystery. Srishti Baid will share how her University of Kansas study worked to help unravel this mystery.
Srishti is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan. Her current research focuses on blood clotting mechanisms and protein transport inside the cell. She got her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Kansas, where she studied factors important for disease-causing ability in Chlamydia. In her free time, Srishti is involved in different science communication endeavors and outreach efforts, and enjoys traveling and trying new things.
Tired of sitting out the conversations about OpenAI and ChatGPT? Learn something meaningful to contribute with The Machines are Learning; Why aren’t we?: A short look into how AI and ML are shaping our lives. The past year has been an absolute cyclone of artificial intelligence news. Frank Murphy will look at the many ways that machine learning already weaves through our daily life. Then, he’ll review the latest advancements in the field and touch on some possible individual and societal impacts. He’ll conclude with a few proposals for how we could shape these coming changes.
Frank escaped the Land of Forever Hot (Florida) to study at Michigan Tech and considers himself a Michigan convert. One of his teeth is backwards, but he otherwise is a relatively modern person. He works for an ML startup and resides in Ann Arbor with his wife Emily, who he definitely did not bribe to get a speaker slot for his talk.