Nerd Nite Brighton

Happy nerdy new year! This month we’re back at the lovely Otherplace at the Basement and our talks are:

1. Exceptionally preserved fossils – Oliver Knevitt

Think fossils and most people think of bones, teeth and shells – mineralised tissues that are not far from rocks themselves. Most organisms through history didn’t have hard material like this, and so would be invisible if these were the only fossils. Luckily, in very rare cases, soft tissues can be preserved in so-called exceptionally preserved fossils. Oliver will use evidence from rotting shrimps, fossilized eye tissue, and other fascinating examples to look at the pitfalls in taking these exceptionally preserved fossils at face value. As you will see, we are occasionally in danger of overly relying on these rare fossils to reconstruct the history of life.

Oliver teaches in the Department of Geology at the University of Brighton. Before that, he did a PhD at the University of Leicester and has amongst other things investigated ancient algae deposits in Norway.

2. Black Holes and the spaghettification of hot doughnuts – Darren Baskiil

Black Holes: what are they? Where are they? Should we fear them? Black holes get a lot of bad press, and the line between theoretical ideas and observational facts are confused at best. In this talk, you will learn what we know about black holes and what ideas remain just dreams of the theoreticians.

Dr Darren Baskill got his PhD in X-ray astronomy, discovering a few black holes in the process. He now runs the outreach programme for the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Sussex.

3. Secrets of Candy Crush Revealed! David Amor

Candy Crush Saga has been downloaded 1 billion times and is played by 100 million people each day. Why is it so popular? Why is it so addictive? How is it worth more than Star Wars? David describes the psychology and science behind the game.

David has been making videogames since the ZX Spectrum. Electronic Arts, PlayStation, Xbox and most recently those addictive little games you might find on your iPhone.
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Cake, beers, quizzing, music and the usual light fillers
Doors 7.30pm for and 8pm start
£4 regular nerds, £3 NUS/65+ nerds

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