Nerd Nite NoHo

World War II club
50 Conz Street, Northampton MA
Monday, April  8, 7:00pm, $5.00 admission (cash only)
Guests are welcome to bring their own food or order take-out at the venue

First Talk: “Imaging the Invisible: How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole, and Why it Matters”

Second Talk: “I’d Lie for You and That’s the Lie: A Discussion on Lies and the Liars that Lie Them”
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“Imaging the Invisible: How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole, and Why it Matters”

With the mass of a billion suns, supermassive black holes shape the galaxies they reside in. Yet, until this year these monsters have evaded direct detection. We’ll learn about the technology used to create the sharpest telescope ever, and how that telescope was used to see through a wall of dust and gas 55 million light years away in order to take a ‘picture’ of a black hole, an object that gives off no light whatsoever.

Jason Young is a visiting professor at Mount Holyoke College. His research focuses on the formation and growth of galaxies over time, and how the development of galaxies is related to their dark matter content.

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“I’d Lie for You and That’s the Lie: A Discussion on Lies and the Liars that Lie Them.”

Humans (and non-humans as it turns out) have been lying to each other since before the written word, and we’ve been trying to call each other out on our respective deceptions for almost as long. Let’s explore the what, how, and why of lying, and find out why Robert DeNiro grabbing Ben Stiller’s wrists doesn’t mean anything.

Joe Van Allen has a Master of Science in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Springfield College where he studied deception detection, and now gets to use those skills to help people find jobs. This is his second Nerd Nite talk in his unofficial series “I Obviously Wanted to be Batman When I Grew Up”.

“Marge, it takes two to lie – one to lie, and one to listen.”
– Homer Simpson

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