Discover the historical heart of East Bay vice, see the source of your fresh drinking water, and zoom in on one of life’s critical chemical reactions at Nerd Nite East Bay!
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Doors and Drinks at 7PM, Talks Begin at 7:30PM. 21+ Please.
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The Rotten City: When Emeryville was the Center of Vice and Corruption on the Pacific Coast
You may think of Emeryville as the East Bay home of IKEA and Pixar, but its modern shopping center facade obscures its history as “The Rotten City”, when Emeryville was widely considered the most corrupt place on the Pacific Coast, an original City of Vice infamous for gambling, prostitution and bluecoat bootlegging. Get the inside scoop of how Emeryville used to out-bordello the Barbary Coast, and hear how stories from its past have created the quirky avant garde community found there today.
John Bauters is the former Mayor and current council member for the City of Emeryville and a big fan of Emeryville history. What he foolishly thought would be a single instance of wearing a checkered bow tie to court somehow became his calling card and a closet full of seventy bow ties.
How to Photograph Photosynthesis
Local scientists just got the best snapshot ever of one of life’s most important biological reactions, and you can see the new angstrom-Instagram-worthy pictures. Find out how scientists at Berkeley Lab and Stanford used x-ray lasers to get #nanoscale #glamourshots of the #realtime #essential process that uses sunlight to split water, create energy, and manufacture oxygen. Learn why visualizing molecules less than 0.1 nanometers long is so difficult and so important, and why these particular photos are critical for understanding photosynthesis and life as we know it.
Louise Lassalle is a postdoc in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division at Berkeley Lab and earned her PhD in France studying protein structure under high pressure (literally and figuratively). She advocates for open science, is always looking for new ways to get science out the lab and into the public, and doesn’t like sparkling beverages except for celebratory champagne.
Witness Your Watershed: A Visual Tour of the Drinking Water Supplies of Northern California
Grab your life jacket and follow the watershed down The Delta, where you can meet the rivers we rely on to supply drinking water to the East Bay. From its origin as a vast inland sea to its likely return to a flooded state stretching all the way from Sacramento to the Central Valley, Northern California’s watersheds continue to supply water, be affected by ocean tides more than sixty miles away, and nurture some of California’s most beautiful nature. Join Nerd Nite for a tour of the wild beginnings of your most recent glass of water.
Joshua Halpern is the founding guide at Watershed Witness Tours (www.ecocourageous.com/watershedwitness), connecting Bay Area residents with their drinking water sources. He works internationally as a metamorphosis ecologist and holds an MA in Integral Ecologies from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Josh has the river system he was born near tattooed on his back and plays apocaloptimistic music with the Home Howls.
Plus music from DJ Rubberband Girl, drinks from Club 21, eats available for purchase from Grilled Cheese Guy, and brain filling info from the Oakland Public Library.
Note new start time! Doors and drinks at 7PM, *TALKS NOW BEGIN AT 7:30PM*!