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
Some people get excited about being eaten by vultures. Yes, but just how would that work in E2?…Others think ‘green’ burials are ‘the way to go’ and cremation has got to be a bad thing: is that true? This talk takes us into the flesh, sinews and joints of the corpse itself. From soil, fire, liquid lime and freezing: what can and should we do with it after it’s given us its last day?
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 16th
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 5th 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
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 March 21st
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. This month we have the strange history of an odd town in Georgia, USA, the power of flags and the low-down on some top conspiracy theories. Be there and be square
How The Sound of Music saved Helen, GA
When you think of a small town in the American Deep South, the image in your mind is more likely to be people sipping iced tea on their front porch than lederhosen-clad beer drinkers in Bavarian-style bars. That’s because you’ve never been to Helen, Georgia. I’ll explain the strange story of why a small town in the foothills of the Appalachians resembles one in the Alps.
Nigel has been obsessed with the American South since he spent six months working in a children’s home in Charleston, SC when he was 18. Since then he’s attended the Liars Contest in Columbia, Tennessee, the Low Country Shrimp Festival in South Carolina and slept in a concrete wigwam built in 1937 along the ‘Dixie Highway’ in Kentucky. Closer to home Nigel co-runs the Tufnell Park Film Club in North London. You can follow him on Twitter @nigelcsmith.
Don’t get vexed, get vexilologial!
Do you like flags? Of course you don’t, you probably have functioning social skills instead! But people are willing to fight and die for flags, so they may be worth more of our attention than we’d initially think. Flags are packed with far more symbolism than most people realise. Learn why, like Italian cooking, in the world of flags sometimes less is more, and how Holland’s humble beginnings revolutionised flags as we know them today
Self-loathing Recruitment Manager by day, lazy good-for-nothing by night, Andrew Grace is a flag and national anthem enthusiast who is as confused as anyone as to how he maintains his interests while still maintaining an active social life. He eagerly awaits the Olympic Games every two years in which his sordid pet interests become practical skills for two glorious weeks. He is a dirty foreigner who has conned the home office out of a visa despite a hatred of fish & chips, Ribena and rich tea biscuits.
My favourite obscure conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories are dangerous and pernicious. But while they must be combatted, we also need to acknowledge their audacity and creativity – they are a testament to human ingenuity. In this talk I will present my favourite obscure conspiracy theories. I will also add in one that I made up. Can you spot the fake fake facts?
Dr Keith Kahn-Harris describes himself as ‘professionally curious’ but doesn’t really know what that means. His book on denialism comes out in 2018.
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 21st
Tickets: Early nerd tickets £6, general admission £7.50. Tickets available here.
Doors open 6.30pm, event starts 7.30pm
Screw V-day. There’s only one day in February that matters, and that’s Nerd Nite London’s Valentine’s day special. This month we gather to celebrate the pain, misery and heartbreak of being in love, and the lengths that people are willing to go for it. Be there, and be square.
Yes, you really can die of a broken heart.
Love is the most powerful emotion in human existence. If you are one of the lucky ones to find your ‘soulmate’ in life, there may be an ultimate price to pay at the end of this beautiful journey. In this talk Nelson will show you some data and case studies to show that you can love someone too much.
Nelson Chong is a lecturer, a scientist and a practising romantic. He’s a sucker for rom-coms and thinks there is someone for everyone in this world. He also thinks the heart is the most important organ in the body and dabbles in how it works and what happens to our body when it breaks.
The Stonewall Riots: How love kickstarted a revolution
A brief history of the Stonewall Riots, how and why they happened, how they sparked a movement, and the unsung and unknown heroes that started it.
This talk will explore the context of the riots, the oppression against LGBT people and the riots and social upheavals that happened before and after the riots.
Lola Phoenix is an agender identified LGBT activist, working in various capacities for a better world for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people since the age of 12. Lola volunteers for a range of organisations including Action for Trans Health and Stonewall Housing.
Love, lust and betrayal in mythology
From ancient Greece to Celtic Ireland, come on a journey through world mythology to explore one of the most enduring themes within the human narrative. Looking at these ancient stories we will explore love’s potential to make us, but, more often than not to break us. In these stories it rarely ends happily ever after.
Lonan Jenkins is a storyteller and writer with the Embers Collective. He is fascinated by the gritty, dark themes of world mythology, particularly the Celtic and Norse stories. Love and its destructive nature is potentially the darkest and grittiest of them all.
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 January 17th
Tickets: Early nerd tickets £6, general admission £7.50. Tickets available here.
Doors open 6.30pm, event starts 7.30pm
New year, new nerds, new facts. Welcome to 2018. This month we’ll be learning about 3D printing, quantum physics, and the history of London in one street. Be there and be square.
A London Street Through Time – Stoke Newington Church Street 1847-2017
London streets have changed considerably since the early Victorian period as once-quiet residential streets became bustling commercial hubs, suffered post-war decline and in some cases were slowly gentrified over time. Amir will present his analysis of the commercial occupants of Stoke Newington Church Street from 1847 to the present day (291 properties!). The research tells the colourful story of one street in the last 170 years, that is also story of London as a whole.
Amir Dotan is a life-long history buff, who as a hobby researches the history of Stoke Newington in North-East London, where he has lived since 2002. He organises local history events and shares his research findings online at www.Twitter.com/HistoryOfStokey. When he isn’t trawling through archives and history books Amir designs financial applications in the City.
Tales from 3D printing adventures
An introduction to life with 3D printers. Hannah show you some exciting current applications in different industries and how difficult printers can actually be behind the hype. She will share tips, tricks, facts and fails she has picked up along the way.
Hannah Cameron is a maker by trade and 3D printing specialist. She has her own printer named Extrudy Mcstrudeface and uses him to anthropomorphize her printing adventures.
Wtf is Quantum Physics? (And why should you care?)
Quantum is an often used but little understood word. It seems almost science fiction, however it is anything but. This presentation will outline some simple real-world truths about quantum physics to demystify the topic for you and show you how it is used in technology today, cutting-edge research and in nature all the time.
Shaun Geaney is currently studying for his doctorate in metrological quantum physics at the National Physical Laboratory. His work involves building a novel microscope that uses microwave radiation to detect and observe individual defects – the nature and cause of which is unknown – that exist in superconducting quantum bits (or “qubits”) that are used in quantum computing.
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
Robin Lamboll has been asked to travel for work and won’t be able to speak at this month’s event. Instead, we’ll have the wonderful Cerys Bradley talking about LGBTQ etymology. If it was slam poetry that you were looking for, we will be rescheduling Robin at a later date. Sorry for the change in plans!
Nerd Nite London
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: Tuesday November 21st
Tickets: Early nerd tickets £6, general admission £7.50. Tickets available here.
Doors open 6.30pm, event starts 7.30pm
This month we’ll be learning about the Japafication of food, why mobiles have changed everything but the movies, and LGBTQ etymology. With special guest host Dominique Morneau.
Japafied: Using History and Data to invent new and daricious foods
From sushi to tempura to ramen, Japan has a history of importing foods from other countries and passing them off as their own. By the end of this talk, you too will be able to take any dish and make it Japanese, using a Japafication method based on data, history, and three basic culinary prompts.
Growing up Canadian in a mixed Japanese-German household, Hana Etsuko Dethlefsen is perfectly poised to translate authentic Japanese cooking to an English-speaking audience. While living in Japan she did just that: her monthly column, Forking with Hana helped fellow ex-pats navigate the grocery aisles and keep them well fed. Author of Let’s Cooking and co-host of “One World Kitchen”, Hana now spends her days managing the Hackney museum and developing recipes for her new cookbook.
The invention of lesbianism
The LGBTQ community uses many words to describe itself, but where did these words come from and how did they come to be associated with us? This talk looks at the history of words such as lesbian and queer, tracing them all the way back to their first recorded uses.
Cerys Bradley is a PhD student, stand up comedian and amateur LGBT+ historian who researches Dark Net Markets by day and the history of the community by night, well, early evening and at the weekends
Mobile has changed everything but the movies
In a little under 25 years mobile phones and smart phones have transformed the word. Two thirds of the 7.5bn people on Planet Earth have them, with many countries having more phones than people. But you wouldn’t know it by watching the movies. In this talk Peter will show data and case studies of the transformation of the world, and Hollywood’s best efforts to ignore it.
Peter Gasston is an author, speaker and technologist at a digital agency in London. He’s been around long enough to remember life without mobile phones.
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
