Our February event, Nerd Nite #41 – Neon, is happening at WURST:

When: Thursday, February 21, 2019 (Doors open at 6:00pm, talks start at 7:00pm)
Where: WURST (2437 4 St SW)
Tickets: $10 plus fees, SOLD OUT

This is an 18+ event.

SPEAKERS
Fun in the Produce Aisle: Bringing Big Food Marketing to Unprocessed Foods
Christine Elliot, PhD, Professor of Communication at the University of Calgary,
Canada Research Chair in Food Marketing, Policy, and Children’s Heath
Dr. Charlene Elliot

Dr. Charlene Elliot

Charlene Elliott has spent the last 15 years studying the marketing of processed foods to children, analyzing their (generally poor) nutritional quality, symbolic appeals and impact on children’s preferences and dietary habits. We know that marketing unhealthy foods to children is bad: indeed,  protecting children from the negative impact of such marketing is the premise of Bill S-228 (The Child Health Protection Act), which is currently under consideration in the Senate. But what about marketing healthy food to children? Marketing produce to children has become increasingly popular over the past decade, largely due to childhood obesity and the public health community’s push to “fight back” against the promotion of poorly nutritious foods. Part of this strategy is to apply Big Food marketing tactics to unprocessed foods, using character licensing and also ‘junk food’ appeals to make fruits and vegetables more desirable. While promoting healthy eating to children is a good thing, intriguing questions arise from the marketing strategies. Is it, in fact, ok to “Sell out” for fruits and vegetables as the FNV initiative commands? Do we really need Disney’s Belle to make kids eat bananas? What kind of child does this marketing imagine, and what kind of food literacy does this approach sell?  In this talk, I map the marketing produce to children according to three dominant techniques, and critically assess the implications of these ‘fun’ promotional strategies when it comes to children’s health, identity, and taste.

Pseudoislets: An Engineering Approach to Type 1 Diabetes
Yang Yu, Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Calgary
Derek Toms, Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary

Yang_Toms

Dr Yang Yu and Derek Toms

 

What would you do if you had the power to break down biological matter, and reform it in a better way? In our talk, we will be exploring a novel approach of re-engineering cellular structures in the human body, and the impact this approach has on treatment for Type 1 Diabetes.

Have you ever wondered what sort of person actually wants to go to Mars? Stop wondering, and come find out!

Why Go to Mars?
Zac Trolley, Calgarian
Mr. Zac Trolley

Mr. Zac Trolley

Zac Trolley is a Calgarian that has set his sights on Mars. He has had a fascination with the Red Planet since he was a kid, and is taking steps to figure out for himself how to survive on Mars. In 2018 he spent 2 weeks in a Martian analog mission designed to teach people what it’s like to live and work on Mars. The Mars Desert Research Station is a remote outpost in the Utah dessert that has graduated hundreds of Martian analog astronauts, Zac among them. He will be speaking about his experience, why he choose Mars, and what the realities of living on Mars are.