2025 January 11th – doors 5:00 / close 7pm
The Lincoln Lodge – 2040 N Milwaukee Ave.
A polar vortex is nothin’ when you have the hot fire of Chicago nerdery!
Three short-but-slammin’ talks:
- “Physics Experiments You Can Do When You’re Bored at a Baseball Game” [Ryan Linehan] If baseball isn’t your thing, there are exciting physics measurements you can make instead of waiting for something to hapen! Ryan will regale you with physics measurements you can make yourself with basic tools! Learn how to measure the speed of sound, radius of the earth, and more!
- Ryan is a physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where he works on developing sensitive detectors for dark matter and more robust hardware for quantum computing. When not actively trying to make physics measurements in the lab, he often distracts himself with making (significantly less accurate and precise) physics measurements outside of the lab, at baseball games, on fishing trips, and while stargazing with friends and family.
- “No More Coal! How it is and isn’t created.” [Jason St. John] Despite what we were told, the recipe for coal is not to smush and bake dinosaurs a few megaannua. We’ll cover pop culture, pop science, the geological history of Earth, plant and fungal genetics, and shit your Mom says.
- Jason is not a geologist, a geneticist, nor a dino-baker. He is, however, one of the Bosses of Chicago Nerd Nite, and a monthly supporter of the Wikimedia Foundation.
- “Sex! (but probably not what you’re thinking…)” [Erica Snider] Though many aspects of human sexuality vary widely among people, we often think of the underlying biological sex as a simple binary of male and female. This talk will explore some of the complexities of biological sex in humans that show, like other things in life, nothing is simple.
- Erica is a physicist who uses beams from particle accelerators to study the properties of matter and energy in their most elementary forms. Her interest in biological sex arose in part from her own experiences within the LGBTQ+ communities and beyond, and growing up the daughter of a genetics professor.
What is Nerd Nite?
It’s empirical entertainment! It’s the Discovery Channel with a cocktail. It’s drunken historians, but also biologists, astrophysicists, linguists, social scientists, and more. Every quarter, Chicago nerds unite to geek out with informative slideshow presentations. From Dracula ants to wimpy black holes, from the art of breadmaking to East Asian astrodendrochronology – if it’s nerdy, it’s fair game.
Share Your Nerddom!
Got a burning desire to educate the masses about your obscure obsession? Know someone who needs a gentle push into the spotlight? Like a cozy motel chain, we’ll leave port 22 open for ya. Reach out and claim your spot in Nerd Nite history!
Join us for an evening of using your big ol’ brain to have a grand ol’ time!
Be there and be square