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Nerd Nite #23 – Sweet is the Light: Curing Blindness Through the Ages

Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness on the planet. Long before anesthesia or antiseptics, cataract surgeries were being performed. This talk will touch on the evolution of the procedure from ancient to modern times. A few of the questions we’ll answer along the way: Why is the sky blue? Is staring at an eclipse really bad for your eyes? Where do orange carrots come from?

About Zvi Kresch:
Zvi Kresch is a faculty member at the UM Kellogg Eye Center. Prior to coming to UM, he spent a year traveling with his wife and practicing ophthalmology abroad with the The Himalayan Cataract Project. He was exposed to different types of cataract surgery and became very interested in the procedure’s origins. When not studying eyeballs, Zvi enjoys chess, making kombucha and playing the harmonica.

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Nerd Nite #19 - Coroner’s Court

Coroner’s Court
The Coroner’s Court is a now rarely used legal procedure used to investigate a death under mysteries circumstances. The County Coroner, or medical examiner, would impanel a jury, usually six men, who would view the remains, hear witnesses and study the evidence. This was not a trial, as no one was then accused of a crime. The jury was to determine, first, if the person was dead, and if dead, was the cause of death due to, natural causes, accident, suicide or murder. When the jury determined the cause of death was due to accident or murder, then, if possible, name the one most likely to have caused the death. Sometimes the jury returned a verdict of: “due to person or persons unknown to us at this time.”

About James Mann:
James Mann is a local historian and the author of eight published books on local history. His books include Wicked Washtenaw County, Wicked Ann Arbor and Wicked Ypsilanti. He hosts Lantern Tours of Highland Cemetery, in Ypsilanti, the last two weeks of October.

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Nerd Nite #22 - Why the hell haven’t we cured cancer yet?

Why the hell haven’t we cured cancer yet?
As one of the leading causes of death in the US, cancer has long been the focal point of intense study and public interest. However, after millions of dollars and countless hours spent on cancer research, the silver bullet cure remains elusive. Have you ever wondered why? Join us as we delve into the intricate nature of the disease and the difficulties physicians and scientists face when treating a patient with cancer. Along the way, we will discuss the biological origins of cancer as well as its pathology, epidemiology, and potential therapeutic options currently under scrutiny.

About Yijung Yang:
Yang graduated from University of Maryland with a degree in Physiology and Neurobiology. Then, after a two-year research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, moved to Ann Arbor to join the MD/PhD program at the University of Michigan, and is currently in the research phase of graduate training under the guidance of Dr. Diane Simeone, director of the Translational Oncology Program at UM.

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Chanel No. 5: The Art and Science Behind a Timeless Perfume

What makes a perfume created in 1921 a timeless classic?

Flavor and fragrance expert Michelle Krell Kydd explores the art and science behind the creation of Chanel No. 5 through a past, present, and future lens. Singular elements that comprise the perfume’s formula will be smelled; including Aldehyde molecules that contribute to the perfume’s distinctive character.

You can explore Ms. Kydd’s flavor and fragrance blog, Glass Petal Smoke.

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ICPJ Podcast: Jan Wright

ICPJ member Jan Wright discusses her initial involvement volunteering with the organization to becoming an active member, involved with initiatives regarding climate change, local food, and trade agreements.

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Nerd Nite #18 - Extrasolar Planets in a (very large) Nutshell

Extrasolar Planets in a (very large) Nutshell
In the past twenty years, astronomers have detected thousands of planets outside our solar system. In this talk, you’ll learn about the techniques scientists use to discover exoplanets and study their properties. You’ll also see some of the unusual findings of exoplanet research so far, and what questions astronomers in the field are currently trying to answer.

About Tim Chambers:
Tim earned a PhD in physics at the University of Arizona, but bleeds Maize and Blue from his years as an undergrad in Ann Arbor. He is currently dividing his time between teaching high school and developing educational materials for NASA and other space science organizations. Outside of work, he can be found brewing beer, slaying dragons, or rocking out.

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Nerd Nite #16 - Growth Factor X: Superhero or Villain in the Depressed Brain?

Growth Factor X: Superhero or Villain in the Depressed Brain?
Elyse Aurbach talks about the role of two members of the fibroblast growth factor molecular family in major depression. In the hippocampus, a region of the brain critical for memory and emotion, these growth factor molecules become disrupted after stressful experiences. These changes may affect the way the hippocampus functions during health and during depression, so studying them may help the medical community to develop more effective treatments for mood disorders.

About Elyse L. Aurbach:
Elyse is a grad student studying the neuroscience of depression at UM (which isn’t as depressing as it sounds). When not obsessing over experiments, grammar, or her cat, she coordinates RELATE (Researchers Expanding Lay-Audience Teaching and Engagement) with collaborators Katie Prater and Leah Bricker. A relatively recent transplant to the Midwest, Elyse dreams of building igloos and catching fireflies.

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Bee Awareness: Protecting our Pollinators With Dr. Meghan Milbrath Of Sand Hill Apiaries

What is going on with bees? Honey bees have been all over the media lately with talks of colony collapse and the doom of our food system.

Dr. Meghan Milbrath gives a brief history of bees and beekeeping in the United States, and talks about their current role in Agriculture. She will untangle what we know are the root causes for their decline, and discuss ways that you can become involved to help their plight.

Dr. Meghan Milbrath owns and manages Sand Hill Apiaries, a small beekeeping and queen rearing operation in Munith, MI. She began working with bees with her father over 20 years ago, and has been hooked on bees since. She most recently worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the Entomology Department at Michigan State University, studying honey bee disease with renowned bee researcher, Zachary Huang.

This event was cosponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area (LWV-AAA).

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Nerd Nite #20 - The Microbiome: Good for What Ails You

The Microbiome: Good for What Ails You
This is a discussion of what we currently know about the human microbiome, but mostly, an opportunity to point out a lot of really cool things that we don’t have any explanations for and how researchers are going about trying to understand what’s going on.

About Pat Schloss:
I get paid to see bacteria everywhere and spend a lot of time obsessing about whether we should be obsessing about them. I have been a professor at the University of Michigan since 2009 where I study the human microbiome. My family has a farm in Webster Township where we raise sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, and seven Homo sapiens and their microbiome.

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Nerd Nite #16 - Recalculating Route: Go to the Post Office Before the Grocery

The talk will address the issue that when trying to pick the right order in which to run errands sometimes things do not go as planned due to traffic congestion. I will talk about under which conditions it is better to start reconsidering those decisions and more generally highlight what happens if traffic jams start interfering with a previously well planned sequence in which to visit locations of interest.

About Moritz Niendorf
Moritz received a German diploma in aerospace engineering from the University of Stuttgart, Germany in 2010. After graduation he worked as a researcher at the department for unmanned aircraft at DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Braunschweig, Germany. In August 2012 he joined the University of Michigan as a graduate student. His research focuses on stability analysis for solutions to integer optimization problem and its application to mission planning for unmanned aircraft.