Nerd Nite Epsilon. Beer and Education … who could ask for anything more?

On Thursday, January 15 Nerd Nite Calgary is back at the Wild Rose Brewery! Explore fascinating topics like: Exoplanets, where why and how we find them? How do palaeontologists know things? And, the Dark Knight Origin of the Man of Steel.

When: Thursday, January 15th, 2015 @ 7pm

Where: The Wild Rose Brewery Taproom

Tickets: $10 online



This is an 18+ event.

Speakers

Dark Knight Origin of the Man of Steel

Richard Harrison

Superman and Batman, Kal-El and Bruce Wayne: ever since they first teamed up in the 1940s, they have been seen to be two heroes drawn together in common cause from opposite sides of the superhero spectrum. Where Superman is the triumph of hope against all odds, Batman is the hero of the unwinnable war. We love them both. And have made much of their difference. However, the two share more than this portrait implies. The origin story of a superhero takes time to tell, and gets reshaped with its retelling. Over the years, as the classic shape of Superman’s origin story emerges, we can see how it, as the property not of its original tellers, but of DC comics, becomes blended with the beginning of DC’s darkest knight.

Exoplanets: Where, Why, and How We Find Them

Jason Nishiyama – @evilscientistca

Astronomers have postulated about extra-solar planets, also known as exoplanets, for hundreds of years but it is only since the mid 1990s that we have actually found planets orbiting about other stars. Jason asks: How do planets form? How do we find them around other stars? How do we work out how big they are? And finally, is it possible for us to determine if there’s life on these other worlds?

Hot-Blooded Gluttons: In Favour of Messy, Speculative Science

Adrian Currie, PhD – https://sites.google.com/site/adrianmitchellcurrie/

Lots of people think the scientific method is simple. Frizzy-haired eccentrics in white coats test theories by running carefully planned experiments. The results—unadulterated truth—are then presented to a grateful world. Things, of course, are not that simple. Indeed, science is a very human endeavour: it is complex, idiosyncratic and creative. Hear Adrian defend the view that the scientific method is messy and speculative—and that this is a good thing. In doing so, Adrian examines recent work in paleobiology: both pack-hunting Tyrannosaurus rex and hot-blooded, gluttonous sauropod dinosaurs will get a look-in. As we shall see, mess and speculation actually drives scientific discovery.

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