Nerd Nite North Van September Show

About this event

Like TED Talks with Beer! 3 short talks and big ideas. Q&As after each talk. Shows sell out quickly, get your tickets early! Every Nite features three 15-minute talks from scientists, experts, and curious thinkers who can explain big ideas in plain, human language. No decoder ring required. Just real knowledge, shared with humour, great food and drinks. After each talk, get up close and personal with speakers when the audience joins in live Q&As. We're back after the summer break with more mind-blowing talks and one of the city’s most unique 19+ nights out, where science gets social and curiosity takes the mic. Show starts promptly at 7pm, please arrive 6:50pm at the latest. Doors open at 6pm - come early, Jack’s has an amazing menu! September Topics: Observing Earth with Space Telescopes, Studying Chemical Origins of Life at TRIUMF & The Big Bang. Our speakers will be: MATTHEW CIMONE, Science Communicator, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre The Smoking Guns of the Big Bang! The Universe started with a Bang! But how do we know what even happened at the beginning of time? This talk will tell the story of the smoking gun evidence which revealed the nature of our Universe's origins – one that includes characters like a catholic priest cosmologist, radio astronomers, philosophers, pigeons, a rapidly inflating cosmos, and the cosmic echo of your own atoms from the beginning of time. Speaker Bio: Matthew Cimone is a science communicator and non-profit founder, currently serving as Senior Space Science Interpreter at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium. When not at the Planetarium, you can listen to Matthew co-hosting the TREKtivism podcast highlighting stories of sci-fi fans and celebrities enacting real-world social change. His non-profit organization, Esther's Echo, supports women's education in Sierra Leone through partnerships with local community organizations. He also makes one of the best pasta sauces in the visible Universe. ———————————————————— DR. JACOB WHITE, PhD Astrophysics, Data Scientist Earth Observation Using Space Telescopes When you picture someone studying part of the Earth, you likely imagine a scientist going out into a forest, the ocean, or a field and taking measurements directly on the ground. That's old news...There are increasingly larger aspects of Earth science that we can study FROM SPACE! In this talk, Jacob will discuss space telescopes, how they work, and how they are being used in awesome ways to do everything from detecting hailstorm damage in cornfields to measuring millimeter changes in Earth's surface after a tectonic event. Speaker Bio: Jacob White worked for years as an astrophysicist specializing in radio astronomy, stellar atmospheres, and asteroid belts in distant solar systems. He has since flipped the telescopes around to conduct research on our home planet. He now uses his physics know-how in the fields of remote sensing and Earth Observation in areas including: building software that measures the composition of the atmosphere, analyzing the impact of storms and severe weather, predicting the health and yield of crops, and measuring the temperature of the Earth's surface. ———————————————————— CHRIS CHARLES, Research Scientist, TRIUMF, UBC Studying Chemical Origins of Life at TRIUMF Our Solar System formed over 4.56 billion-years ago from a cold molecular cloud that was triggered into collapse by a nearby supernova. That supernova and others seeded the forming Solar System with a smorgasbord of radioactive isotopes, many of which are still found today in the oldest meteorites and rocky interiors of Earth and Mars. Learn how TRIUMF studies these chemical origins of life by zapping mock-water samples with intense radiation from their particle accelerators and other radioactive sources. Chris will also explore the implications of the chemical origins of life on Earth, Mars, Enceladus, and indeed any rocky water-bearing exoplanet in the universe. Speaker Bio: Christopher Charles is a Research Scientist (Assistant Professor) at TRIUMF focused on particle beam production and ion source development for accelerator physics. He is the PI for ASPIRE (the AStrochemical & Planetary materials IRradiation Experiment) at TRIUMF where radiolytic chemistry and many other interdisciplinary accelerator-based experiments are being done. Chris also loves making wontons with his daughter Ashelyn and wife Tricia, who both agree they are the best dumplings in the known multiverse.