Nerd Nite @ Live in Ann Arbor
Details
Nerd Nite
One of members will be a speaker this month. Check Back to see who it is!!
Talks start at 7:00pm. These events are sponsored by the Ann Arbor District Library. Parking is $1.65/hr in the city parking structures. The surface lot across from the venue is $2.50/hr.
Gather ‘round for an evening of informed and informal talks from a friendly neighborhood expert! We’ll have three speakers, each presenting on a different topic and sharing interesting facts that you never knew you never knew! Past Nerd Nite speakers have led deep dives into topics from the legacy of Louis Pasteur, to the origin of elements, to how a trumpet works, to a dissection of romance novel tropes. So bring a friend, grab a drink, and enjoy an evening among fellow nerds. Be there and be square!
SPEAKERS
Wait a minute! Is That Water on Mars? Nine celebrated announcements of water on Mars were made from 1975 to 2020. Why so many? Well…the first four were actually not water. What were they? What about the rest?
Jennifer German is here to let us know!
Jennifer is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to Michigan, mother of two, software engineering, medical school educated, hopeless space geek.
We turn from space to medicine with Felix Foucher and DKA: A Bad Acid Trip. Has anyone ever told you that you’re too sweet? Well, what happens when they mean that literally? Tonight, let’s talk about one of the potential complications of diabetes and uncontrolled high blood sugars – diabetic ketoacidosis.
Felix is a former “lab rat” and current nurse, with a passion for patient education. In addition to his medical interests, he also has strong feelings about the Oxford comma, and he has a group of friends online who bond over nerdy things and grammar.
Finally, Natalia Knoblock will assure us that No, the young people today are not ruining the English language. Language change is not a sign of decay but a natural and essential part of how languages function. Throughout history, words and usages once condemned as “incorrect,” “stupid,” or “vulgar”— such as mob, ain’t, or even telephone — became accepted or even standard. New slang, borrowings, and innovations allow speakers to express ideas more effectively and vividly. Far from “ruining” language, this evolution demonstrates its vitality and adaptability. So, use this wonderful communicative tool unapologetically: you inherited it from previous generations already “ruined.”
Natalia is a professor at Saginaw Valley State University and has been researching and publishing on the issues of linguistic prejudice, language of conflict, verbal aggression etc. She is an editor of two scholarly volumes: Language of Conflict: Discourses of the Ukrainian Crisis with Bloomsbury and The Grammar of Hate: Morphosyntactic Features of Hateful, Aggressive, and Dehumanizing Discourse with Cambridge University Press. As a Fulbright scholar, Natalia taught a course on linguistic human rights at the National University of Columbia, and has served as a co-editor of the Journal of Language and Discrimination.
Nerd Nite @ Live in Ann Arbor