Nerd Nite London

NERD NITE LONDON, WHERE IT’S HIP TO BE SQUARE.

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. This September we’re back to kick off our Autumn season with three great speakers, talking about London’s hidden Black history, an amazing composer you’ve probably never heard of, and how we humans have been meddling with nature for centuries. Be there and be square

ADDRESS: THE BACKYARD COMEDY CLUB, 231 CAMBRIDGE HEATH ROAD, LONDON E2 0EL
DETAILS: WEDNESDAY, MAY 15

TICKETS: EARLY NERD TICKETS £6, GENERAL ADMISSION £7.50. Tickets on sale here: https://www.ticketsignite.com/event/1778/nerd-nite-london–september-2019

DOORS OPEN AT 7PM, EVENT STARTS: 7.30PM
BAR OPENS AT 5PM.

THE HIDDEN BLACK HISTORY OF LONDON’S STREETS

How much of London’s streets do you notice on your daily commute? This presentation will provide evidence of 2,000 years of the African/Caribbean presence in London, contributing to some of the most popular institutions and architecture over centuries before Africans were enslaved.

Tony Warner (@BlackHistWalker)is director of Black History Walks and creator of the Black History bus tours and river cruises. Tony has been an activist for educational reforms for many years, believing that including contributions made by Africans to the curriculum improve the fullness history and raise the self and racial esteem of young people. He has designed history courses for schools, the met police and a host of public sector organisations.

CLARA: SEX, LOVE AND CLASSICAL MUSIC

In 2015 Elena Mazzon realised that, in years of piano training, she had never played a woman’s music.Incredulous, she delved into a long research that brought to the surface a whole underworld of great, female composers, of whom, unfortunately, we are not told about. Amongst all those women, why Clara Schumann? In this presentation, Elena will explore her journey in “discovering” Clara Schumann, shedding some light on a fascinating and controversial woman and posing questions that we still haven’t answered in the 21st Century.

Clara marked Elena’s debut as a writer. The play has been performed in London, Los Angeles, Italy and Iceland. In 2019, to celebrate Clara Schumann’s Bicentenary, Elena adapted Clara to a radio-play version. Elena trained as an actress in Italy and she’s been living in London since 2006. She also studied Classical Piano and holds an MA degree in English and German literature.

CREATING CREATURES: THE STORY OF SELECTIVE BREEDING

We’ve been shaping animals for years. Even before we figured out how it all worked, we’ve been selectively breeding animals so that each new generation looked, functioned and behaved increasingly how we’d like them to. We now know that we’ve been influencing the genetic composition of these animals to create these changes. Join us for an overview of selective breeding, and a look at some of the (simpler) genetic interactions that enable us to alter animal populations.

Praveen is not a geneticist, nor is he a genius, but he is a generous practitioner of the art of procrastination. He has spent, and continues to spend time he doesn’t have, on trying to understand the delights of animals and plants (but not minerals), and how we humans interact with them.

ALL PROCEEDS FROM NERD NITE LONDON GO TO CHARITY. THIS YEAR WE ARE PARTNERING WITH THE SHINE TRUST TO HELP FOSTER A NEW GENERATION OF NERDS.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NERD NITE LONDON CAN BE FOUND BY FOLLOWING US ON TWITTER @NERDNITELONDON, LIKING US ON FACEBOOK WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/NERDNITELONDON OR VISITING WWW.LONDON.NERDNITE.COM. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHINE TRUST VISIT WWW.SHINETRUST.ORG.UK

Nerd Nite London at Stoke Newington Literary Festival – June 8^th 2019

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.

Address: Library Gallery, 184 Stoke Newington Church Street, N160JS

Details: Saturday June 8^th 2019, Event starts at 8.30pm

Tickets: Tickets: £6.  Tickets available here

Nerd Nite London is delighted to return to Stoke Newington Literary Festival – join us to learn about the history buried in the shores of the Thames, who won the transfermium wars,  and how pigeons helped one man rekindle a sense of home – all while drinking beer. Be there and be square.

The art of seeking: Mudlarking in the Thames

Long heralded as a city treasure herself, expert mudlarker Lara Maiklem is uniquely trained in the art of seeking. Tirelessly trekking across miles of the Thames’ muddy shores, where others only see the detritus of city life, Lara unearths evidence of England’s captivating, if sometimes murky, history, with some objects dating back to 43 AD, when London was but an outpost of the Roman Empire. From medieval mail worn by warriors on English battlefields to nineteenth-century glass marbles mass-produced for the nation’s first soda bottles. Lara will reveal to us the objects we leave in our wake, and the stories they can reveal if only we take a moment to look

Superheavy

Welcome to the world of the superheavy elements: a realm where scientists use giant machines and spend years trying to make a single atom of mysterious artefacts that have never existed on Earth.

From the first elements past uranium and their role in the atomic bomb to the latest discoveries stretching our chemical world, Kit Chapman will reveal the hidden stories lurking at the edges of the periodic table. Why did the US Air Force fly planes into mushroom clouds? Who won the transfermium wars? How did an earthquake help give Japan its first element? And what happened when Superman almost spilled nuclear secrets?

Rat of the sky or symbol of peace?

As a boy, Jon Day was fascinated by pigeons, which he used to rescue from the streets of London. Twenty years later he moved away from the city centre to the suburbs to start a family. But in moving house, he began to lose a sense of what it meant to feel at home.

Returning to his childhood obsession with the birds, he built a coop in his garden and joined a local pigeon racing club. Over the next few years, as he made a home with his young family in Leyton, he learned to train and race his pigeons, hoping that they might teach him to feel homed.

Having lived closely with humans for tens of thousands of years, pigeons have become powerful symbols of peace and domesticity. But they are also much-maligned, and nowadays most people think of these birds, if they do so at all, as vermin.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. During Stoke Newington Literary Festival, all proceeds go towards literacy projects in Hackney.  More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com.

Nerd Nite London – Be there and be square

Discover hidden rivers under your feet, learn why English is so hard to read, and marvel at forgotten Disney propoganda at Nerd Nite London on 17^th April 2019.

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.

Address: Nerd Nite, Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 0EL
Details: Wednesday 17th April 2019, Starts at 7.30 pm, Tickets £7.50. Early nerd tickets £6 (limited availability).

London’s Hidden Rivers

London’s natural streams and rivers long ago disappeared below ground, though you can still find evidence of them if you know where to look. But London has another man-made river system as well. Part was built 400 years ago by Britain’s first modern business corporation, one of the most profitable companies in history. More was built by rapacious 19th century capitalists. Nick Higham reveals their legacy, from stunning architecture to manhole covers, steam engines to wildlife and nature reserves.

Nick Higham used to be a BBC correspondent. He’s writing a history of London’s water supply: a niche topic, but not as dry as it sounds

Rules of English Orthography: Their Our Know Rules

English: where the sounds are made up and the letters don’t matter! English has a very inconsistent sound-to-letter correspondence making it outrageously difficult to read and spell unfamiliar words (and sometimes familiar ones!). This isn’t an issue in other languages like Spanish or Italian, so why is it in English? This talk will explore the structure the English spelling system and how it came to be so unpredictable. I make no guarantees except to guarantee you will know why guarantee is spelled guarantee by the end of the talk.

Catherine is originally from upstate New York (where there are more cows than people) and she is currently completing a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at Brunel University London. Her work mainly focuses on the cognitive processes of bilingual reading and dyslexia.

The Greatest Disney Movie You’ve Never Seen

Princesses? No. Talking mice? No. Songs? No? A massive octopus devouring Japan? Yes! During World War II Walt Disney released a film unlike any you’ve ever seen. Instead of building on the success of his popular and award-winning children’s films, Uncle Walt put all of his resources into making propaganda to support the war effort. The pinnacle of this patriotic fervour was his entirely self-financed 1943 feature Victory Through Air Power. Find out what inspired Disney to make this bizarre movie and its surprising impact on military history.

Ever since his first trip to the cinema aged 4 (Superman II at the ABC Bournemouth, thanks for asking) Nigel has been watching too many movies. Every Tuesday he co-runs the Tufnell Park Film Club, now enjoying its seventh year, and can’t visit a new city without finding out where its oldest and/or picture palace is located. He previously spoke at Nerd Nite about Helen, Georgia, the small American town that would look more at home in the Alps than the Appalachians. By day Nigel works for the digital education company FutureLearn. You can follow him on Twitter @nigelcsmith

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds. More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com. For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk

Mushrooms, brain control and typography

Nerd Nite London – Be there and be square

Learn how to control people’s brains with magnets, why we should all be terrified of mushrooms and power of fonts at Nerd Nite London on 20^th March 2019.

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.

Address: Nerd Nite, Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 0EL
Details: Wednesday 20th March 2019, Starts at 7.30 pm,  Tickets: £7.50  Early nerd tickets £6 (limited availability).

Brain control using electricity and magnets

Magnets and electricity have the power to change the way the body functions. These tools can be used for good, such as to help brain damage, and potentially for evil, if you want to control someone else! Can you remove someone’s free will and move their body with YOUR brain? Come to the talk and find out!

Helen is a Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at Lancaster University. She studies how the speech and movement areas of the brain work in adult humans. She does not abuse her access to magnets or electricity to mind-control her subjects.

Why we should all be terrified of mushrooms 

With names like the Devil’s Fingers, Bleeding Tooth, Destroying Angel and Dog Stinkhorn mushrooms, it’s frankly surprising more people aren’t afraid of them. Learn how a single mushroom can release up to 2.7 billion ballistospores per day and what stops those spores from growing in our lungs and suffocating us. We’ll take a dive deep into how underground networks of mycelia roots let mushrooms communicate and even poison other plants, and why they’re the most likely cause of a zombie apocalypse (seriously, mushrooms are terrifying).

Michelle is not a mycologist, and is in no way academically qualified to talk about mushrooms. She is, however, mycophobic, and having earned two degrees by rambling about dystopian worlds in a paranoid fashion, this talk was just a matter of time. By day she works in marketing, trying not to think about mushrooms (or the end of the world).

Just my type: a brief introduction to typography

Is it “font” or “typeface”? Why would you choose Times New Roman over Helvetica? What’s my type? Calibri? In this Nerd Nite talk, Jen Ku will give you an intro to typography and the power behind the little letters we use, see, and read everyday; hopefully bringing you closer to finding your type or taking a second thought when urging to choose that Comic Sans.

Jen is a designer, lettering artist and type nerd. She dreams, thinks and tells her stories through typography. Her obsession with type brought her onto exciting adventures, saved her from becoming the doctor or lawyer her parents wanted her to be, and shaped her into the creative she is today.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds. More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com. For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk

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.

Address: the Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 0EL

Details: Wednesday February 20^th

Tickets: Early nerd tickets £6, general admission £7.50. Tickets available here

Doors open 6.30pm, event starts 7.30pm

This is your brain (scientist) on drugs

Neuroscientists go to great lengths to understand their beloved object of study, the brain. This usually means marathon experiments in the lab working on animals or petri dishes, but sometimes it can also involve a little “self-experimentation”. Grace will talk about historical examples of scientists who used their own experiences with hallucinogens to further their understanding of the brain, and the extent to which this practice has led to scientifically sound results.

Grace Lindsay (@neurograce) got her PhD in computational neuroscience from Columbia University and will soon be starting a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London. She is also currently writing a book about all the fascinating ways that mathematics has helped us understand the brain. Yes, that’s right—mathematics, not drugs.

The Funny Side of the Flesh Eating Disease

When thinking of fun diseases, the bacteria that cause flesh-eating disease may not top your list. However, there is more to these vicious little bacteria than you might first expect, from causing a variety of embarrassing diseases to being touted as a miracle cure, and even providing names to no less than four heavy metal bands. Faz will tell you some of the weird stories associated with this bacteria, and hopefully, you too will see the funny side of the flesh-eating disease.

Faraz Alam (@DefectiveBrayne) studied the Flesh Eating Disease during his Ph.D, where he made it glow in the dark. While he has moved on to the world of scientific publishing and research integrity, he hasn’t been able to shake off his fascination with the disease and the bacterium that causes it.

Dragons and Warfare

Is there a link between draconic imagery and how weaponry has evolved? To answer that we’ll delve through language, the first firearms and journey across the world. Along the way, get ready to hear some of the dumbest ideas and stories in human history.

Kai Lawrence is a geek in nerd’s clothing. Usually he’s working towards his Bachelor’s in Electronic and Information Engineering at Imperial College London. His accumulated knowledge on dragons, experimental genetics and weaponry is definitely NOT part of his 24 year plan for world domination.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds. More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com. For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk

Where: Backyard Bar and Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Road, E20EL

When: November 21st.  Doors open 7pm, event starts 7.30pm

Tickets: £7.50, available here

Nerd Nite London aims to teach you details about subjects which you didn’t even know you were curious about, while you drink beer and learn things you didn’t know you didn’t know. This month we learn what to eat for marathon swimming, history of the apostrophe and how diseases get named.

Be there and be square

Nutrition in marathon swimming: Jelly babies and bonking

Nutrition in marathon sports is a multimillion pound industry. Most of it may be a con, and just the accepted norm. Remember being told not to eat before swimming? We will discuss floating whilst eating and drinking whilst swimming, as well as the pros and cons of different energy sources during endurance sport. There will be an insight of how best to hit the wall and keep going.

Nick Murch is a marathon swimmer, qualified to claim that title by having swum Windermere, the English and North channels (Northern Ireland to Scotland) and the length of Lake Geneva (42 miles, 32 hours). He helps train the Dover Channel training crew; and is well known to be built for comfort and not for speed. In his spare time Nick is a Consultant physician in a London teaching hospital with an interest in education and simulation.

Apostrophes, from Greece to greengrocers
Bitter grammarian battles have been fought over them, societies formed, books written, guerrilla punctuation carried-out… but where do apostrophes come from and where are they going? What are they and as interestingly, what aren’t they? Why are they the shape they are? And what would an apostrophe shortage do to greengrocers? Lydia Thornley has been on a voyage of typographic nerdery to find out.

Lydia Thornley was the first graphic designer to speak at Nerd Nite. She once cited nosiness as a key design skill – it’s led her to some fascinating projects for space scientists, Polar explorers, chefs, a City livery company, one of the Queen’s chaplains, urban beekeepers, countless charities and one of the 100 most influential Britons in the history of the web. Lydia never passes up an opportunity to research something in unnecessary detail.

Eponymous diseases: From Alzheimer to Ebola

A brief exploration of the naming of diseases and the often strange and eccentric people responsible. This is a tale of weird, rare or painful conditions, improbable events and tragic or barely sane doctors memorialised in the popular imagination. Have you ever asked yourself what is your favourite disease? No? Then now is the time to start.

Geoff Browell is unqualified in almost every conceivable way, but is a professional magpie, who collects stories and plays with ideas. In his spare time, 9-5, he is an archivist who curates memories by piecing together diaries, letters and photographs he finds in old attics, basements and lock-ups.

Over your dead body! What will you do with your corpse after your death?

Tickets available here.

Doors open 6.30, event starts 7.30 (ish).

What to do with our corpses, why superconductors are cool and the world chess championship

Bio
Sophie has been a tree nerd (good to cut them down, sometimes) and is now deep into spuds (not that hard to cook), chairing the Potato Board. Her excursion into corpses has helped her calm down about her own end, just a bit: not morbid, just wanting to make the most of the time. Soap not shower gel; films not box sets; bikes not gyms; flatlands of Essex and hills of the mind.

The world chess championship: clash of the titans and the wider chess scene in the 21st century
In 1886 an Austrian named Wilhelm Steinitz decided that his next chess game would be to decide “the Championship of the World” – and thus the first World Chess Champion was crowned. From these humble beginnings, 20 men have earned that title – through both fair means and foul. And in November 2018 the World Championship match is coming right here to London! Pitting the champion – part-time Norwegian male model millionaire Magnus Carlsen – against his challenger Fabiano Caruana, a more sterotypical chess player. We’ll explore the trash-talk behind the scenes, the organising body who make FIFA look like an ethical social enterprise, their President who’s been abducted by aliens, the pornographic logo, and finally, what to expect over the 64 black and white squares come November.

Bio
Henry C. Blanchard is an undefeated ChessBoxer, philosophy/physics grad, start up mentor and all round amateur geek.

Superconductors are cool af
“Physics is difficult! Science is boring!” Wrong! In this talk we will look into some of the more amazing, bewildering and damn right counter-intuitive parts of modern physics. Using superconductors as an example, we will explore some fascinating materials and what happens to them on an atomic scale as we cool them down to temperatures similar to deep space, and why this is even important at all! With some liquid nitrogen, fancy materials and a few magnets we will have some fun live experiments and, more importantly, a lot of fun.

Bio
Shaun Geaney is a Ph.D. student working at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s national metrology institute. His research involved the use of superconductors and their applications to quantum computing and quantum technology.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds. More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com.For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk

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.

Address: the Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 0EL
Details: Wednesday, September 19

Tickets: Early nerd tickets £6, general admission £7.50. Tickets available here.
Doors open 6.30pm, event starts 7.30pm

Kay Scorah: In a punch up between Ebola and an angry post-menopausal woman, who would win?

When Kay was a biochemist, the first rule of biomedical research was, “DON’T anthropomorphise the virus/bacterium!”
Luckily, she got to be good mates with the late great Baruch Blumberg, who told her that it was only when he allowed himself to break that rule that he made his big breakthrough on identifying the Hep B virus. So she decided to take a look at the behaviour and tactics of a selection of very successful diseases, imagine them as characters, and see what we humans could learn about survival and communication from these clever particles. She has read hundreds of learned papers on 13 diseases, and in this session she’ll be introducing Ebola, showing 14 of its smartest tactics, and asking what would happen if humans behaved that way.

Bio: Kay Scorah is a lapsed biochemist and advertising person, leadership and communications consultant, inventor of the Essex Road Recipe project, writer of a blog (warning, not for the easily offended) and occasional standup and theatre performer. She has run her own business, havemorefUnlimited  for 32 years.

Hana Ayoob: Tales of Animal Escapes & Survival

From exotic parakeets and sunbathing terrapins in London, to scorpions living in a Kent dockyard and wallabies hopping around the Isle of Man, the UK is home to some tenacious animals who aren’t really meant to be here.
In this Nerd Nite talk, we will discover these animals’ sometimes-hilarious stories of escape and survival.

Bio: Hana is a science communicator, event producer and illustrator. Since completing a zoology degree (and spending lot of it writing about why monkeys kill baby monkeys), she has maintained a keen interest in the weirder animals we share our planet with – drawing them and talking about them whenever she gets the chance.

Nick Perry: How to be an ordinary person and afford a home in London

Well, more accurately this talk will be an exploration of the factors that have led to homes being generally unaffordable to most people in ordinary circumstances.
In an unapologetically polemic talk, Nick will examine what’s broken in housing delivery and planning policy and the land market, why almost everyone thinks it’s a mess and what some of the people caught in it think can be done. At the end of this talk you’ll ether be depressed, angry, energised or completely nonplussed. But probably not any richer. Soz.

Bio: Nick’s hobby is town planning, because his day job in legal publishing IT just isn’t niche enough. Nick became angry about the failure of the system to provide affordable housing when he took his local council and a supermarket and housing developer to court and failed to get answers to fairly straightforward questions about the economics of housing delivery.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds.
More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com.
For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk

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.

Address: the Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 0EL

Details: Wednesday May 16^th

Tickets: Early nerd tickets £6, general admission £7.50. Tickets available here.

Doors open 6.30pm, event starts 7.30pm

Nerd Nite London aims to teach you details about subjects which you didn’t even know you were curious about, while you drink beer and learn things you didn’t know you didn’t know. Join us for our 5^th birthday celebrations, while we learn about fatbergs, fake food, and why swearing is good for us. F*&%ing brilliant line up, right?

Fatbergs, Floods and Day Zero – fending off The Waterpocalypse

The end is nigh! Or is it? In an age of rapid global change and clickbait prophecies of doom, I’ll be taking a dive into the world of water scarcity to ask: What’s the situation with our water and what can science do about it?

Charlotte Ivison is a strategy analyst for Thames Water, nerding out on data every day to make sure everyone (well, everyone in the South East) will still have water when we’ve all got electric self-flying cars and her job has been taken over by a robot.

Swearing is Good for You

You’ve been told it’s the sign of a stunted intellect and a poor vocabulary, you’ve been warned that it just makes things worse, but everything we generally believe about swearing is wrong.

With copious f-bombs and footnotes, Dr Emma Byrne will arm you with the science of swearing, so you’ll know how to use it to kill pain, create stronger teams, and build your emotional literacy. Some strong language will be used.

Dr Emma Byrne is an AI researcher and computational neuroscientist. Her work includes building a robot to do genomics research, and an agent to play video games, making hundreds of doctoral students redundant at a stroke. She’s the author of ‘Swearing is Good for You’ and regularly appears on national and international radio on the subjects of swearing and robotics.

There’s No Such Thing as Natural

In a world filled with superfoods, GMOs, and botox, it can be hard to tell fad from fiction. But worshipping ‘natural’ and demonising our own innovations isn’t the answer. I’ll take you on a journey through the wonders and perils of nature and bioengineering, demystify the media jargon, and try to convince you that there really is no such thing as ‘natural’.

Claire Asher is a science writer and performer with a PhD in giant ant behaviour. She’s fascinated by ecology, sustainability and the diversity of the natural world. Her love of food and the environment have led her to wonder what a good diet really looks like.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds. More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com. For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk

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.

Address: the Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 0EL

Details: Wednesday April 18th

Tickets: Early nerd tickets £6, general admission £7.50. Tickets available here.

Doors open 6.30pm, event starts 7.30pm

Whiskey, wildcats, dungeons, dragons, and what your shoes say about you.  Join us for another excellent nerd nite, with three nerds share their love for a subject, while the audience drinks along.

How Whiskey could help prevent the UK’s next big extinction

In this presentation Lucy will discuss the decline of the Scottish wildcat, and how whiskey distilleries with wildcat populations should be sponsoring them.  She’ll be talking about the historical importance of the animal, as well as current conservation threats.

Lucy Eckersley is a wild animal biologist and science communicator, currently working with the Royal Veterinary College.

If your shoes are faded, you probably like chat shows: How to read anyone in five minutes

What are people telling you about themselves before they say a single thing? Personality is implicitly reflected in the cues we communicate, consciously and subconsciously, to the world. For example, people can guess, to an 80% accuracy, if someone is an extravert from seeing a picture of their face for 100ms. By connecting these cues to dispositional behaviours, you can read a person’s character from their gestures, clothing, tastes, and so on, and use this to make inferences about how they’ll act in business and in pleasure.

Patrick Fagan is a consumer psychology lecturer, author and practitioner with nine years’experience helping businesses like Diageo, eBay and Vodafone practically apply psychology science. He has run and published research on personality – for example, finding that Machiavellian people are more likely to vote Trump, that personal assistants are more conscientious and emotionally stable than the general population, or that open people prefer more complex music. Patrick asks that you call him Pat, because research shows that shorter names are seen as more popular and warm.

Will playing Dungeons and Dragons make me a murderer?

Steve Cross has recently started playing Dungeons and Dragons for the first time since he was a impulse-obsessed unpleasant teenager. Will playing make him discover unpleasant things about himself? Ever since the 1980s lots of people have believed that rolling dice and casting spells makes us into satanists, killers and outcasts. But is it true?

Steve Cross is a comedian and professional troublemaker. His job is to make every expert in the world hilarious through projects like Bright Club, Science Showoff and The Over-Analysers’ Book Club. He hosts niche comedy nights across the UK and can be heard every week on the wildly-inappropriate sword and sorcery podcast Chaotic Adequate. Steve lives at www.clevermakefunny.com

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds. More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com. For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk