Nerd Nite Brighton

It’s that time again! Come and join us for lots more nerdiness in beautiful sunny Brighton.

Like an excited vegan in Infinity Foods (other health food shops are available), we’ve been sourcing the best speakers to keep you enthralled and entertained.

This month:

1. The embodiment of engagement – Dr Harry Witchel

Dr. Harry Witchel is Discipline Leader in Physiology at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. In 2004 he received the national honour of being awarded The Charles Darwin Award Lecture by the British Science Association. His interdisciplinary research uses motion capture and time series video analysis to quantify nonverbal behaviour as a measure of human-computer interaction and interpersonal engagement. He regularly appears all over the world as a commentator on radio and television, and in 2012 he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours and Word of Mouth, talking about an experiment he ran on thousands of people on the busiest clubbing night in Brighton — which demonstrated that music can change people’s body language to be less territorial. His latest work is on how we comprehend the body language of engagement and this will form his the subject of his talk tonight.

2. How do animals get from A to B? – Dr Paul Graham

Ever seen a trail of ants marching along with apparent design and purpose? As a Psychology student, Paul was interested in Artificial Intelligence and the prospect of building brains. Unfortunately this turns out to be a hard problem, even for supposedly simple brains like those of insects. The brain-building plans are still on hold and Paul has spent the last 15 years at Sussex University studying how insects produce sophisticated behaviour, even with their ‘simple’ brains.

3. Run for your life: the psychobiology of marathons – Dr Iain Moore

Flying in from Belfast via Newcastle for NNB this evening is Consultant Nephrologist Iain Moore. When not saving lives, listening to Kurt Vile, or critiquing the latest Van Sant film, he can be found running marathons at various exotic destinations across the globe. In fact he’s just back from running 1250km from Brussels to Bratislava… Why does he do it? How does he do it? So put down that pizza slice – combining his nerdish love of physiology, psychology and running, Iain will be telling us what drives endurance athletes at both a cellular and a cognitive level.
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There’ll be the usual drinks, japes, quizzes, music and of course free cake. So do swing by! We’ll be upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick and looking forward to seeing you.

£4 regular nerds and £3 student nerds
Doors 7.30pm for an 8pm start

tickets from here

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