Nerd Nite London - September 2018

Nerd Nite London aims to teach you details about subjects which you didn’t even know you were curious about, while you drink beer and learn things you didn’t know you didn’t know.  This month we have tales of animal escape, exploration of London's housing problem and a punch up between Ebola and an angry post-menopausal woman. 

Be there and be square

Kay Scorah: In a punch up between Ebola and an angry post-menopausal woman, who would win?

When Kay was a biochemist, the first rule of biomedical research was, “DON’T anthropomorphise the virus/bacterium!” Luckily, she got to be good mates with the late great Baruch Blumberg, who told her that it was only when he allowed himself to break that rule that he made his big breakthrough on identifying the Hep B virus. 

So she decided to take a look at the behaviour and tactics of a selection of very successful diseases, imagine them as characters, and see what we humans could learn about survival and communication from these clever particles. She has read hundreds of learned papers on 13 diseases, and in this session she’ll be introducing Ebola, showing 14 of its smartest tactics, and asking what would happen if humans behaved that way.

Kay Scorah is a lapsed biochemist and advertising person, leadership and communications consultant, inventor of the Essex Road Recipe project, writer of a blog (warning, not for the easily offended) and occasional standup and theatre performer. She has run her own business, havemorefUnlimited for 32 years. 

Hana Ayoob: Tales of Animal Escapes & Survival

From exotic parakeets and sunbathing terrapins in London, to scorpions living in a Kent dockyard and wallabies hopping around the Isle of Man, the UK is home to some tenacious animals who aren’t really meant to be here.

In this Nerd Nite talk, we will discover these animals’ sometimes-hilarious stories of escape and survival.

Bio: Hana is a science communicator, event producer and illustrator. Since completing a zoology degree (and spending lot of it writing about why monkeys kill baby monkeys), she has maintained a keen interest in the weirder animals we share our planet with - drawing them and talking about them whenever she gets the chance.

Nick Perry: How to be an ordinary person and afford a home in London

Well, more accurately this talk will be an exploration of the factors that have led to homes being generally unaffordable to most people in ordinary circumstances.

In an unapologetically polemic talk, Nick will examine what's broken in housing delivery and planning policy and the land market, why almost everyone thinks it's a mess and what some of the people caught in it think can be done. At the end of this talk you'll ether be depressed, angry, energised or completely nonplussed. But probably not any richer. Soz.

Nick's hobby is town planning, because his day job in legal publishing IT just isn't niche enough. Nick became angry about the failure of the system to provide affordable housing when he took his local council and a supermarket and housing developer to court and failed to get answers to fairly straightforward questions about the economics of housing delivery.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This year we are partnering with the Shine Trust to help foster a new generation of nerds. More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/NerdNiteLondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com. For more information about the Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk