Nerd Night - May

This month we’ll be celebrating our 4th birthday with our favourite things: facts and beer. We’ll be learning if maths can help you fall in love? Why do they teach maths in school, and how did they decide to teach it as they do? And is Asgard bacteria the ‘missing link’ between microbes and our ancestors? Be there and be square.

1+1 always equals 2. So why does maths education keep changing?

School maths, love it or hate, you had to do it! Maths is a core subject in UK schools that every student has to study until they are 16 years old. But who decided this and why? How did maths become such an important subject? Was it always this important? This talk will look at the history of maths education and the many changes that have led to its high standing in the English education system. The talk will also discuss what the future looks like for maths education in England

Susan-Louise Okereke has been teaching maths for over 11 years. In that time she had taught a wide variety of people, from primary children to NEET (Not in employment, education or training) young people to pensioners. She currently teaches maths in a south London inner city secondary academy, while also working with organisation like the Museum of London to design contextual maths resources that aim to bring maths to life.

The mathematics of love: a combination of the sensual and the statistical

Want to save yourself from the pain of one-sided love? Maybe a mathematical model can help? Worried that your love isn’t going to last? There’s another mathematical model with a 90% success rate for predicting divorces, based simply on a 15 minute video of the couple. This talk combines the sensual and the statistical, the arousing and the analytical, the titillating and the trigonometric, the X-rated and the exact. Learn to look at love from a mathematician’s point of view.

Tim Bush became interested in the mathematical modelling of romantic love while studying for his PhD in Physics at the University of Edinburgh. He has also worked on mathematical models of bacteria, honeybees, geology and astrobiology, and now works as a Data Scientist in London. Previously, he worked on mathematical models of lakes at the University of Amsterdam. In his free time he enjoys board games, video games and boxing

Asgard bacteria of Loki’s castle

The origin of advanced life such as plants and animals has long been as mysterious as the origin of life itself: how could invisibly small microbes evolve to become as complex as trees, humans, cats, or dogs? Recent discoveries in “Loki’s Castle”, a network of hydrothermal vents a mile deep in the North Atlantic have revealed a startling clue: the vents were inhabited by a family of unusual microbes that suggest a “missing link” between microbes and complex life. In this talk I’ll describe the fascinating story behind our developing understanding of where we came from, and how

Dr. Morgan Beeby leads a research lab at Imperial College, London, focusing on the evolution of the wide diversity found in the biology of bacteria. Prior to Imperial College he studied at Caltech, UCLA, and the University of Birmingham.