Author Archive
Nerd Nite Brighton #12: 19/6/14 – Hacking, Neutrinos, SPIDERS!
The sun is blazing, the temperature is rising. Brighton buzzes with people from wide and far visiting for a bit of coastal excitement.
Well thank God for us. Get away from the heaving crowds of annoying, raucous sun worshippers and come down for another night of nerdery.
This month:
1. Keeping the peace in a social-spider colony – Professor Jonathan Bacon
Jonathan is Professor of Neuroscience in the School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, UK. His first degree was at Cambridge and after a year teaching in Jamaica he took an MSc and a PhD at Manchester. He joined the University of Sussex in 1984, where he was awarded the 1987 President’s Medal of the Society for Experimental Biology, and was the Dean of Life Sciences from 2002-2009. His research interests include the behaviour, development and evolution of insects as well as the foraging behaviour of Pharaoh’s ants and honey bees.
In his Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin records his surprise at seeing the social spider Parawixia bistriata in Argentina in 1832 living so amicably in close proximity with conspecifics. Jonathan will explain tonight how, almost two centuries later, the application of game theory to behavioural observations has revealed these spiders’ behavioural strategies that keep the peace, and prevent these dangerous well-armed carnivores from getting into costly confrontations with their neighbours.
2. Neutrinos: The Deep Secrets of Nature’s Ghosts – Dr Lisa Falk
Lisa is a Senior Lecturer in Elementary Particle Physics at the University of Sussex. She gained her MSc and PhD in Sweden including a fellowship at CERN before taking a lectureship at Sussex. At Nerd Nite she will share her passion for the neutrino, a weird particle that can zip through the entire Earth, and even across our galaxy, without leaving a trace. It flip-flops from one type to another in flight, and may hold the key to why the Universe contains matter but no antimatter. Catching and studying this tiniest of particles requires experimental apparatus the size of Olympic swimming pools, typically built in old mines and other exotic locations deep underground. How many neutrinos do you think you will get to know in your lifetime?
3. Ethical Hacking – Marios Kyriacou
Marios has been an information security consultant for over 10 years specialising in ethical hacking. He works for a large information security organisation where he heads the ethical hacking practice. Marios performs infrastructure and website hacking, and social engineering (the art of extracting information from people).
In his talk Marios will explain hacking and what’s actually involved in this – is it really the way it’s done in the movies? He’ll tell tales of his exploits (no pun intended) in hacking organisations. He’ll also talk about the approaches organisations are taking to secure your information. There may even be time for a quick hacking demo.
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Cake and quizzes and rock and roll as usual! You know the drill…
And if all of that is not enough, Dr Jane Hume returns as special guest host!
Tickets from here
Doors at 7.30pm, start at 8pm.
Upstairs at the Caroline Of Brunswick, 39 Ditchling Road, Brighton BN1 4SB
Nerd Nite Brighton #11: 17/4/14
*cough* *cough* *splutter* *splutter*
The air quality is TERRIBLE today!
Fortunately the nerd quality is just getting better and better. We sure hope you’ll be joining us for our next nerd nite. Talks this month:
1. The wonderful world of whisky – Prof David Goldsmith
David Goldsmith is a kidney doctor based in London and has over 25 years experience in looking after patients with kidney disease. His extensive career includes over 380 publications and his research interests include high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and inflammation and calcification syndromes in kidney patients.
Being the true polymath that he is, David will not be talking about his expertise with kidneys this evening. He will not be telling us about digital photography, the bridges of London nor Victorian architecture. Instead he will be giving us an insight into his other keen interest: whisky.
2. Everything is changing? Hunting for the changing constant – Dr Matthias Keller
Mathias is senior lecturer in physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex. Matthias gained his PhD in 2004 at the Ludwigs-Maximilians University in Munich, investigating quantum optics with trapped calcium ions. After gaining his PhD, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics to continue his research into the physics of molecular ions and quantum electrodynamics in ion traps. He joined the University of Sussex in 2007, initially as an Advanced Research Fellow before taking up a full lectureship. Some fundamental constants which govern our universe may not be constant but change in time and/or space. Matthias and his team conduct experiments to look into changes of one important constant – the proton:electron mass ratio.
3. Waste is just a resource in the wrong place – Cat Fletcher
Cat Fletcher is a waste activist and all round resource goddess. She is a founding member and Head of Media for Freegle (UK’s biggest online reuse network with 1.6+ million members), has voluntarily run the Brighton group for 7 years which has redistributed over 1,000 tonnes of goods locally. Cat is currently working on the Brighton Waste House with the University of Brighton and as the Reuse Manager for Brighton and Hove city council amongst other things…..she’s got a head full of facts, figures and solutions to inspire waste prevention! Read more about her here.
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Free cake, music, quizzing, etc as per usual.
Tickets £4 for regular nerds and £3 for NUS/65+ nerds – Tickets are on sale from here and we strongly advise buying in advance!
Remember to pop by our facebook page and follow us on twitter
Upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick
See you there!
Nerd Nite Brighton #10: 20/3/14
“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battlestation!”
Emperor Palpatine
Palpatine may as well have been talking about Nerd Nite Brighton because we are indeed armed and operational for our next evening on Thursday March 20th. Though we’re a bit more pleasant than the Sith.
This month:
1. The Amoral Molecule – Anil Seth
2.Practical privacy in an era of mass surveillance (or Who’s watching your ass?) – Chris Pinchen
Chris Pinchen is co-founder of the Chokepoint Project, a non-profit organisation that collects, analyses and reports on data relating to network neutrality and civil rights in the digital domain. He was a resident at the Lighthouse Studio in Brighton focusing on surveillance, censorship & privacy issues. Chris recently organised Brighton CryptoFestival, has been involved with CryptoParties in Berlin, Luxembourg and Brighton and contributed to the CryptoParty Handbook. He is a a member of the supporters council of the Open Rights Group and organises locally in Brighton.
Blog: cataspanglish, Twitter: @cataspanglish , PGP: 0x2C3196C5
3. Should the Death Star be a Listed Building? – Duncan Phillips
Our Grand Moff Tarkin for tonight is Duncan Phillips. Despite being unable to speak fluent Latin or operate any type of TV recording device, Duncan has so far managed to stay alive long enough to become a Building Surveyor with expertise in Listed Buildings. His Nerd status is firmly proven by having become Chartered in two unrelated subjects and having established an Institute which now has 2000 members. In his spare time he is passionate about music, particularly early 1970’s Genesis, and is an endurance athlete currently doing 100 mile ultra-marathons and previously having done Double Iron Man triathlon, and other ridiculous stuff such as trying to swim the Channel, after having first run 87 miles from London. He is the only person ever to have completed the London to Brighton Veteran Car Race by running it, instead of driving. Duncan loves a good curry and Old Thumper ale from Ringwoods.His talk tonight will be about none other than the Death Star. The word ‘awesome’ was invented solely for the purpose of describing it. Buildings are Listed for a reason. Currently, English Heritage doesn’t recognise ‘being awesome’ as one of those reasons but perhaps one day it will. In the meantime, there are other criteria which need to be met and this presentation will assess whether the Death Star meets the standards required.
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Free cake, music, quizzing, etc as per usual.
Tickets £4 for regular nerds and £3 for NUS/65+ nerds – Tickets are on sale from here and we strongly advise buying in advance! We very sadly had to raise shields and turn people away last month 🙁
Remember to pop by our facebook page and follow us on twitter
Upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick
See you there!
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: Consciousness, Cybersecurity, Death Star, Neuroscience, Oxytocin, Privacy, Surveying | 
Comments Closed
Nerd Nite Brighton #9 – Brighton Science Festival Special! 20/2/14
Exciting times are upon us!
The UK is in the midst of apocalyptic weather as a result of the jetstream going bonkers. However here on our battered coast the Brighton Science Festival has just kicked off and we’re going bonkers over that.
Us folks at Nerd Nite Brighton are very pleased to be able to present a traditional biology/chemistry/physics theme for our next event as part of the marvellous science festival.
We are delighted to welcome:
1. Dr Stephan Huber – The cosmic asymmetry of matter and antimatter
Stephan joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sussex as a lecturer in theoretical particle physics in 2006. Before that he was a research fellow in the theory division of CERN, Geneva. His research focuses on particle physics and attempts to understand the physics which sets the Higgs boson mass. He works on models with supersymmetry and extra space dimensions. Tonight he’ll be talking on his other research interest – cosmology. Stephan will tell us about his search for the origin of the cosmic matter/antimatter asymmetry, especially in relation to cosmic phase transitions.
2. Dr John Turner – The world through a grain of sand: art and architecture at the atomic level
John Turner needs no introduction to Nerd Nite Brighton. He killed it at our second ever Nerd Nite in May last year with his talk on chemically rational economics and he returns again for the Science Festival special. John is a reader in inorganic physical chemistry at the University of Sussex having held previous positions in Delaware, Tennessee and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. He has a wide range of research interests including technical solutions to climate change and peak oil but also theoretical work in group theory, angular momentum transfer theory and broader issues in the electronic and physical structure of matter.
3. Prof Louise Serpell – Bioinspired materials: spinning protein fibres
Louise has worked on protein assembly for over 20 years. The area is fascinating because it allows us to understand multiple areas of biology from how conditions like Alzheimer’s disease might occur to how spiders are able to make silk. She started her research in Oxford and then moved to Toronto for a couple of years before taking a position in Cambridge. She arrived here in Brighton just over 10 years ago and is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Sussex in the School of Life Sciences. Her current research attempts to span neuroscience and materials.
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Free cake, music, quizzing, etc as per usual.
Tickets £4 for regular nerds and £3 for NUS/65+ nerds
Buy online from here
Upstairs at Caroline of Brunswick
See you there!
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tags: biology, Brighton Science Festival, chemistry, physics |
Comments Closed
Nerd Nite Brighton #8: 5/12/13
Here at Nerd Nite Brighton towers we can’t believe how quickly the year has disappeared. We’re hoping to leave 2013 with a bang so come by for our festive finale.
This month:
Death by Christmas – Anna Leeke
Anna loves Christmas more than anything. She loves everything associated with Christmas and will be spending the next few weeks in a state of perpetual excitement as the holiday draws closer. However she is keenly aware that with great festivity comes great danger. Tonight she will be highlighting how even the most loved of holidays should warrant caution and her talk will focus on the increased risk of morbidity and mortality that Christmas can bring.
Telling stories with games – Kate Howland
Kate is a Lecturer in Interaction Design at the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on designing and understanding people’s use of digital technologies that support creative and social activities. At Nerd Nite she’ll be talking about narrative in video games and discussing her PhD research on the design of software to support young people in creating their own narrative-based games. She has yet to find a viable project to justify the time she spends looking at photos of cats online.
Surviving a robot invasion – Partha Das
Partha has spent a lifetime cowering in fear at the possibility of a threat to humanity from a merciless robot aggressor. He feels that global societies in their current configuration are ill prepared for such an invasion. Tonight he will outline the nature of such a threat and what you and your loved ones can do to ensure your survival during a robocalypse.
We’re very pleased to introduce Dr Jane Hume who will be our special guest host and compere for the night:
Jane enjoys amateurishly making things from wood, meat, fabric and light bulbs though has yet to realise her dreams of combining all these ingredients into a single creation (ideally a working swan robot). Funding this elaborate pastime by furtive work as the scarlet pimpernel of doctors, she is currently looking into the practicalities of a new career in vintage lie-detector machine dealing. She can’t play the accordion properly, nor any other musical instrument.
There will be quizzing, music and of course free cake. We’re looking forward to saying goodbye to 2013 with you!
Tickets available from here
Nerd Nite Brighton #6: 3/10/13
1. My life with the alpine time travellers – Dr David Bramwell
This one-man cottage industry and Brighton legend is the creator of the successful Cheeky Guide series, founder and host of Brighton’s Catalyst Club and singer-songwriter in the band Oddfellows Casino (Nightjar Records). His music and spoken word material have been featured on BBC radio 1, 3,4 and 6. David has written books on subjects ranging from difficult words to sexuality for Penguin, Harper Collins and DK, has spoken at and hosted TEDx events and entertained festival and cinema audiences with “Sing-along-a-Wickerman”. Tonight he’ll be telling us about the mysterious and extraordinary community of Damanhur in the Italian Alps…
2. Beyond the bar chart: creative data visualisation – Dr Peter Cook
Peter Cook’s interest in data visualisation probably started at school when he drew his first bar chart. Through his engineering degree he always enjoyed explaining difficult concepts using visuals and he went on to complete a PhD in the visualisation of complex surfaces such as car bodies. He’s now focusing his energy on bringing beautiful data visualisations to the web. He’ll be talking about how the latest in web-based tools is allowing programmers and designers to become much more creative with presenting and telling stories with data.
3. Spinal cord injury research: wise man’s dream or fool’s game? – Dr Leanne Lewis-Ramer
Leanne hails/visits/is here from Vancouver, Canada, where she has spent more than 10 years studying spinal cord injury at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD http://icord.org/), a research centre that houses clinicians, biologists and engineers with a shared interest in recovery after spinal cord injury. She is thrilled to be in London on a one-year Fellowship at King’s College London. She’ll be telling us of the trials, tribulations and perhaps folly of trying to regenerate spinal cords. Oh yes – she loves beer.
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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!
pop by the facebook page and follow us on twitter
Nerd Nite Brighton #4: 8/8/13
The August Nerd Nite Brighton certainly has a medical theme to it and we’re privileged to have 3 real doctors gracing our stage.
1. Old Person Whisperer introduces the emerging field of comics and medicine – Dr Muna Al-Jawad
Dr Al-Jawad is a consultant geriatrician at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. She is also doing a PhD in the form of a graphic novel. She chaired the 4th International Conference of Comics and Medicine in July 2013. Have a look at some of her work here.
2. Large Organisations and Culture Change: Taming the Wicked – Dr Mark Edwards
Philanthropic vascular surgeon, part-time guerilla psycho-sociologist and would-be agent of change, Mark has spent 16 years within the NHS giving him practical insight into the astounding complexity that inhibits change within large organisations. Challenging the status quo requires a movement that understands urgency, recognises complexity, resonates with the grass-roots and empowers it to evolve. Can he give us the secret to NHS success?
3. Organ donation: A Moral Maze – Dr Hannah Maple
Despite living in Crawley, Hannah managed to get into King’s College London Medical School not just once, but twice. Having graduated in 2007 she pursued a surgical career before taking a break from clinical work in 2011 to do a PhD. Based at Guy’s Hospital, London her research examines the psychological aspects of living kidney donation from the perspective of the donor, seeking to understand more about what donors get out of the process. She has recently conducted the world’s largest study of non-directed altruistic organ donors (people who donate their organs to strangers) and will tonight discuss the results of this alongside other ethical and legal controversies in transplantation.
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This month we’re at the Caroline of Brunswick (39 Ditchling Road near the Level) – £4 entry (£3 student nerds) as usual – looking forward to seeing you there!
PS. If you haven’t already come follow us on twitter and facebook!
Nerd Nite Brighton #3 + After Party: 22/6/13
It’s that time again!
Actually the calendar savvy amongst you will note that we are NOT on a Thursday this month but Saturday night.
We’ve moved venue once again (in our quest to make sure everyone gets a seat) and we will be upstairs at Good Companions in Seven Dials.
We are very excited again to have some top class speakers with us this month. We have our first international speaker too (all the way from the United States of Canadia):
1. How to find Starbursts in space – Ms Charlotte Clarke
from the Astronomy Unit at the University of Sussex and will be our Brian Cox for the evening. Her research in extragalactic astronomy revolves around far-infrared data from the Herschel Space Observatory, helping to get to grips with the formation of galaxies when the Universe was less than half its current age. She’s also heavily involved in public engagement in Brighton and the surrounding areas.
2. How strong are earthworms and can they make choices? – Dr Robert Stovold
Robert is a very busy man. He juggles running the Brighton and Hove Humanist Society, Philosophy in Pubs, his role in the National Secular Society, writing books and singing in various karaoke haunts around town with his daily work with B&H Council. However tonight he will be returning to his (literal) roots and his PhD in Soil Science to talk to us about earthworm burrowing.
3. Whistleblowing in the age of Wikileaks: From the Pentagon Papers to Cablegate – Dr Patrick McCurdy, University of Ottawa, Canada.
Flying over especially for Nerd Nite Brighton (well… kinda) Patrick’s research examines the representation of politically contentious issues in an age of media saturation. He received his PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2009. His thesis examined how radical social movement actors think about and interact with media at the site of protest. He is widely published and his book Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society released this year forms some of the basis of his talk tonight.
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There’ll be the usual quizzes and music but to celebrate our 3rd event we’re also having a bit of a party afterwards so it would be great if you could come and hang out. Perhaps throw some shapes (as long as they’re geometric and congruent) on the dance floor?
Looking forward to seeing all your lovely nerdy faces. Be there AND be square!
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Doors as usual at 7.30pm, nerdy party till 1am!
Tickets from here or on the door
Nerd Nite Brighton Episode 2 – A New Venue
Attention Brighton Nerds!
We are moving!
Partly due to a need for more space (some of you poor nerds had to stand last time) Nerd Nite Brighton #2 will be held Downstairs at the Caxton Arms at 7.30pm on Thursday May 9th 2013.
Pleased to welcome:
Dr John Turner, Reader in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Sussex:
“Black leaves: Building a rational economy one molecule at a time”
Kate Doran, PhD student in cognitive and behavioural neuroscience
“The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Addict”
Finally a nerdy greeting to Dr Refik Gokmen, National Institute for Health Research Clinical Lecturer in Renal Medicine at King’s College London:
“The Original Nerds: Travels through Western Turkey”
Be there and be square! Looking forward to seeing y’all!
Thank you all for NNB#1
Thanks to everyone who came last night. What a fantastic turn out and we hope you enjoyed it! Lots of learning, beer and giggling so mission accomplished.
A big thank you to our speakers Drs Thomas Nowotny, Shailesh Shah and Ben Afzali who entertained us throughout the evening with tales of smelling bees, massive sharks and tight black t-shirts (TBTs).
Congratulations to Felix on his epic quiz win and also thank you to the team of nerd helpers.
Please drop me a line on here or through the facebook page if you have any thoughts for speakers, comments or want to be involved.
Next one is May 9th – hope to see you there!
Much Love
P