Last night I had the absolute pleasure to attend my first Nerd Nite; and my mind remains blown from the awesomeness of it all.
~200 like-minded Chicagoans getting together to learn, laugh, and drink beer at American Junkie :)
WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE?!
Best of all, each of the presenters last night were female. HOORYAY FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE!
And there was a "dry" t-shirt contest to kick it all off. My T-REX t didn't win but seriously?!
And there was a "dry" t-shirt contest to kick it all off. My T-REX t didn't win but seriously?!
MORE, PLEASE. THANK YOU!
Each of the presenters had the room in awe of their content and character. I was glued to every word and slide that was shared.
Afterwards, I literally wanted to jump on the stage to hug each of them but waited politely to just-kinda-creepily do so at the bar ;)
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Laura Lanford spoke about apophenia, pareidolia and conspiracy paranoia. More so, how the human brain has a remarkable ability to attribute consequence and associate prior knowledge to non-meaningful data patterns.
For example, as an adult, we see two people getting it on buck naked in this image whereas a child would only see dolphins...
For example, as an adult, we see two people getting it on buck naked in this image whereas a child would only see dolphins...
Now try to see the dolphins.
How wild is that?!
***
Katie Jepsen, a lover of linguistics, spoke about Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language. Did you know that Al-Sayyid, a small village in the South of Israel, has the highest concentration of hereditary deafness of any community in the world? The sign language there is homemade, from scratch, with a different grammatical structure from the spoken language, Arabic. #AWESOME
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And last but certainly not least, Chicago’s own Emily Graslie -- Chief Curiosity Correspondent of the Field Museum and host/writer of The Brain Scoop -- spoke about secret doors, fossils hidden in the floor, and curious figures in the Field Museum’s dioramas. Emily’s enthusiasm for Science is contagious. I not so secretly adore her :)
***
At the end of the night, the message was perfectly clear:
WE STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN!
That said, I cannot WAIT for the next Nerd Nite :)
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