Nerd Nite London is a monthly event where three speakers give 18-21 minute fun-yet-informative talks across all disciplines, while the audience drinks along.
We’re back from the summer holidays with thoroughly nerdy understanding of what SAD is. So we’ve got three superb nerds to help us make the most of the longer nights. We’ll discover there’s no need to worry if you’re the victim of a drive-by, shrink-ray shooting, and find out about the history of the drugs that make you smaller in a less dramatic way. Plus we’ll find out why it’s better to talk about values than the tech behind climate change.
Address: The Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 0EL
Details: Wednesday, 18 September 2024.
Bar and food from 6:00pm, theatre doors open at 7:15pm for an event start at 7.30pm.
Tickets available here
Be there and be square.
The frontline battles of climate policy: let’s talk values, not tech
National surveys repeatedly show that there are high levels of citizen concern about climate change in the UK, and yet attempts to introduce policies to tackle the problem from low traffic neighbourhoods to renewable energy installations often meet stiff resistance at the local level. Dismissing local objections as NIMBYism overlooks the underlying dynamics and has failed to move the situation forward. Rachel will talk about her PhD research, which looks specifically at the clash of underlying values and attitudes between broadly conservative populations in rural areas where many ‘climate solutions’ need to be implemented, and the largely urban, left-leaning policymakers and academics that design and promote the policy solutions in the first place.
Rachel Coxcoon is a PhD researcher at Lancaster University, as well as director of Climate Guide, a consultancy that provides strategic support to local government on climate strategy, planning and community engagement. Her PhD came about as a result of years of frustration as a professional working for a climate change charity, and as a local councillor, watching climate policy battles play out over and over again against the same predictable backdrop of clashing values.
The Skinny: A brief history of anti-obesity drugs
Since ancient times, humans have recognised obesity as a disease that could cause early death. This has led to many attempts to treat it, which either didn’t work, or did work but with appalling side effects. Recent drugs have proven more effective, Ozempic has become a household name and some people have become very rich. We will take a whistlestop tour of hundreds of years of obesity treatments and explore why it has been so difficult to make an effective anti-obesity drug, and whether these new drugs might consign obesity to history.
Kevin Murphy is a Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Imperial College London, where he has studied the regulation of appetite, body weight and blood glucose for 25 years. Given that treating obesity looks so easy on paper- eat less and/or burn more energy- he’s particularly interested in why it has turned out to be so difficult.
Why King Kong has a bad back: the maths of being very large or very small
Fiction is full of tales of both giant and tiny creatures and people, whether it’s the gigantic spiders haunting the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, or the Borrowers living under the floorboards in Mary Norton’s classic children’s tales. But could such creatures ever exist in reality, and what would their life be like if they did? In this talk we’ll explore what mathematics can tell us about being very small or very large, including good news for shrink-ray victims, and bad news for the Lilliputian economy.
Sarah Hart is a mathematician and author. She is Professor Emerita of Mathematics at Birkbeck, and was recently the first woman Professor of Geometry at Gresham College. Sarah is particularly interested in the cultural, historical and creative impact of mathematics, and the links between mathematics and the arts. Her first book, Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature 2023, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and won the Mathematical Association of America’s Euler Book Prize.
Any profits from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we’re partnering with the Dalston branch of the Library of Things, to help foster a new generation of nerds.
More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Bluesky @nerdnitelondon.bsky.social, liking us on Facebook at nerdnitelondon or visiting london.nerdnite.com. See some of our past speakers on our YouTube channel. To learn about the Library of Things visit www.libraryofthings.co.uk.