Nerd Nite at Sea II

Nerd Nite at Sea returns! And this year we've got a bigger boat: an aircraft carrier! The USS Hornet is an incredible museum of space and military history and technology that we'll pack from bow to stern with lectures, science demos and activities, and beer!

Note: this event is for 21+ only!

Second Note: The ship will stay docked. Firing up the 1940s engines for a cruise under the new Bay Bridge just didn't sound like the best idea. 

The Smell of a Sound, The Taste of a Color by Bryan Alvarez

How does violin music smell? What does the reflection of trees in a lake sound like? What color is Thursday? To most people, these questions might seem completely nonsensical, but to people with synesthesia they sound perfectly reasonable. Synesthesia is a perceptual condition in which there is an involuntary blending of one or more of the senses. The most common form is chromagraphemia, the associating of colors with numbers and letters - but the sense–mingling can get a lot weirder. A synesthete might see moving blobs of color when tasting foods, or taste specific flavors upon hearing certain words.

Once dismissed as a product of an overly active imagination, artistic fancy, drug use or even just craziness, synesthesia is finally being recognized as having a biological basis. PhD candidate Bryan Alvarez will show us his research on this condition and also share his life as a person living with this condition.

An Asteroid for All Seasons by Rusty Schweickart

February 15, 2013 was a "once in a hundred year" day, asteroid-wise.  On that morning the good people of Chelyabinsk, Russia were greeted on their way to work by a shockingly brilliant surprise visitor from outer space.  While no one was killed about 1500 people required medical treatment, mainly due to glass cuts from the tens of thousands of windows that were shattered as a result of the blast from the shock wave the asteroid generated.  Over 7000 buildings were damaged in a matter of seconds on that bright clear morning.

While the threat of asteroid impacts, and what might be done to address this cosmic natural hazard, has gotten increasing attention in recent years, they are in fact of multi-dimensional interest. Stepping stones to Mars, Rosetta stones to human life, and rich, cosmic ore bodies are additional facets of these primitive denizens of space.  Each of these aspects will be addressed while the main focus of the presentation will deal with terminating impacts before they terminate us. 

Third Speaker TBA

Demos/Activities:

• Docent-Led Ship Tours – USS Hornet
• Mini-Solar Car Building & Racing - Robogames
• Project Skye Blimp Drone - Project Skye & Swissnex
• Meteorite Samples - B612 Foundation
• Seaweed Specimens/Mounting - The University and Jepson Herbaria at UC Berkeley
• Marine Invasive Species & Algal Blooms - Romberg Tiburon Center
• Bay Plankton - Aquarium of the Bay
• Synesthesia "Simulator" Hack – Team Syneseizure
• Swarming Rovers, Multirotors, & Fixed-Wing Drones - 3D Robotics
• Portable Planetarium Shows with Jonathan Braidman - Chabot Space & Science Center