Another fantastic lineup features for this most recent of the nerdy happiness that is Nerd Nite Wellington.

Venue: Hotel Bristol, downstairs

Date: 19th May 2014

Time: 6 pm, talks starting at 6:30pm (but beware, earlier people get better seats!!)

Cost: FREEEEEE! Because we think it’s important there are no impediments to learning 🙂 Also, there are 2 for 1 specials on some mains, so bring friends!

Without further ado, our lineup (as always, in no particular order, and order may change on the night):

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People believing weirdly

Marc Wilson

We can do rather a lot more to manipulate our world through the ‘magic’ of science than ever before. We can grow ears on animals for transplant into humans, fiddle with the building blocks of life, see into space and time, etc, etc. And at the same time, Sensing Murder is one of the most popular shown on TV when it airs. People believe in conspiracies, and ghosts, and witch craft, and a bunch of things for which, face it, the evidence is not rock solid. So why do we do this? Because he’s just nosy he’s spent a lot of time asking people, finding out who believes what, and in this talk he shall argue that we believe what we believe because it serves a psychological function to do so (that may well be independent of pesky things like ‘evidence’). He shall also speculate as to why Hamiltonians report the highest levels of paranormal belief in New Zealand.

Marc is Associate Professor of Psychology and Head of the School of Psychology at VUW. He justifies his interest in weird beliefs by arguing it’s useful material when teaching about how to do science, but it’s really because he loves the X-Files and wishes the world was really like that.

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The Kraken Rises

Sea Rotmann

Are you interested in mythical beasts of yore and legend? There is none more devastatingly frightful – and more real! – than the mighty KRAKEN. Hellbringer sent by the gods, tormenting seafarers over millenia, its existence long speculated upon. Finally it was found, but only dying or as rotting carcasses. Alas! Millions of dollars and years of preparation have recently led to a real, filmed sighting of the living beast. Come and learn about all things Kraken, cephalopods and cryptozoology. You will never view the sea in the same light again…

Dr Sea is a marine biologist by training, a kraken wrangler by passion and a behaviour change expert by vocation. Her pet interest is cryptozoology, particularly sea monsters. The more tentacles the better. In real life, she is a Green Party candidate and travels the world working on a big behaviour change research project with the International Energy Agency.

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Who says deep AND beautiful can’t go together? Deep sea invertebrates of New Zealand.

Kareen Schnabel

The deep ocean around New Zealand harbors an incredible amount of diversity with the region considered a biodiversity ‘hot spot’ for many groups. The NIWA Invertebrate Collection captures a large portion of the diversity as we know it today with samples collected around the southwest Pacific region and the Ross Sea, Antarctica, over the last 60 years. Kareen will be delving deep and bring up a few of her favorite stories and specimens.

Kareen is the Collection Manager of the NIWA Invertebrate Collection in Wellington and the mastermind behind the weekly Critter of the Week on the NIC Facebook page. When she doesn’t herd deep-sea specimens and scientists in the collection, she describes deep-sea squat lobsters at her microscope and desk.

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See youse there!