Tag Archives: Science Online Vancouver

Sarah Chow and science events in Vancouver (Canada)

Vancouver-based, Sarah S. Chow writes an eponymous science blog (thank you for the tweet Robyn Sussel) and her latest post, March 30, 2012 offers a listing of April 2012 science events being held in Vancouver (Canada). I’ve excerpted a small portion of her listings and I encourage you to take a look at the full list (there are close to 1/2 dozen more listings plus she may be adding to these as the month goes on) and to read her blog. Tonight,

Wednesday April 4, 2012 – 6pm

Nerd Nite (formerly known as Beer and Brains)

Hang out with the cool people for a change! Every first Wednesday of the month, scientists, science journalists and science communicators congregate at their favorite watering hole for some good, thought-provoking conversations. And of course, some awesome beer.
Location: Railway Club 579 Dunsmuir Street
Time: 6 pm

In a couple of weeks,

Thursday April 19, 2012 – 7 pm

Science Online Vancouver #SoVan

It started in New York City #SONYC, and now it’s coming here. Science Online Vancouver is a monthly discussion group led by a panel who are experts in the  topic of the month. This month: Where do you get your science?
Location: Science World
Time: 7 pm

Brain Talks

BrainTalks is a series of talks designed to invigorate your brain, and how you think about your brain! Neurologists, neuroradiologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and related professions, gather to discuss current leading edge topics on the mind. Speaker this week: Dr. Max Cynader [

Director of the Brain Research Centre and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia (UBC) and he holds the Canada Research Chair in Brain Development and is Professor of Opthalmology (UBC)], whose research is focused on the neuronal and molecular mechanism of the sensory cortex.
Location: Vancouver General Hospital
Time: 5:30 pm – wine and cheese
6 pm – presentation

Events can get cancelled or rescheduled so please do check the links to the event websites for confirmation.

I did some further checking on Brain Talks and Science Online Vancouver.  Here’s the Brain Talks website/blog (excerpted from the home page),

… talks include:

  • dialogue around current topics in the news and popular press
  • up-to-date reviews of current literature in academic press
  • videos and/or film excerpts of relevant discoveries
  • CME [continuing medical education] credits for select talks

I also found the title for the upcoming talk by Dr. Max Cynader, Enhancing Brain Plasticity. (The March 22, 2012 talk was titled, Art and the Brain: How dance, music, sports, and storytelling may support critical cognitive development in children and youth.) They do request an RSVP although they have yet to provide the function online. More details about the talk and the ability to RSVP are coming here soon.

ScienceOnline which originally started out as a science blogger’s conference then morphed into a very (my Nov. 2, 2011 posting notes that they sold out their first block of tickets for the 2012 conference in roughly two minutes) successful ScienceOnline conference in North Carolina is rapidly becoming an international brand. The ScienceOnline Vancouver website, understandably, doesn’t provide a lot of information at this point. They do encourage you to sign up/register and become part of the community.

I was intrigued to note that the journal Nature is supporting this effort, from the ScienceOnline Vancouver home page,

ScienceOnline Vancouver is a local meeting of the ScienceOnlineNOW community and is co-presented by nature.com. The local co-organizers are Catherine Anderson, Sarah Chow, and Peter Newbury. ScienceOnlineVancouver.com built and hosted by the Open Science FederationExcept where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

I’m glad to see so many science-themed get togethers in the Vancouver region.

ETA April 5, 2012: The ScienceOnline Vancouver event may or may not be free on April 19, 2012. There’s no information about cost but I did find some more information about the inaugural event which features a panel  (from the April 19, 2012 event page),

  • Dr. Rosie Redfield – Named Nature’s most influential person of 2011, this associate professor of microbiology at UBC hit science fame through her blog RRResearch disputing NASA’s claim life exists in arsenic.
  • The local reporter will depend on availability but he/she will focus on science and work for a mainstream media organization.

Rosie Redfield and her blogs were last mentioned in my Dec. 29, 2012 posting, my annual roundup of Canadian science blogs.