Join us on January 15th, as Howard Aprill of the Wehr Nature Center returns to present NIGHT TIGERS: Our Neighborhood Owls

(photo caption: The Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) is a common resident, well adapted to the urban environment of Milwaukee County.)

From the arctic to the tropics and everywhere in between, Owls are everywhere! Through stunning photos, real owl calls, and hands-on owl artifacts, you can discover how Owls thrive in one of the most challenging environments on Earth - your backyard. Learn which Owls call Wisconsin home and how you too can find, observe, and enjoy your neighborhood owls.


PLEASE NOTE: While our gatherings are usually on the 2nd Monday of every month, the January talk (which is our One Year Anniversary gathering!!) will be taking place on the 3rd Monday. Please mark your calendars accordingly! And tell your friends!!

Join us on 12/11/17 for a screening of NOVA's Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

Come one and all, on December 11th, to the Underground Science Society's final gathering of 2017!! This month we will be screening a NOVA documentary which follows musician Mark Oliver Everett of the band EELS, as he journeys to discover who his late father, Hugh Everett III, quantum physicist and inventor of the Many Worlds theory, truly was. This film is a fascinating look at the world of science through the eyes of an artist. Hope to see you there!! (no donation requested for this screening as the fees to obtain the film were minimal)

Join us on November 13th for Dr. Jennifer Jordan's Talk: Edible Memory: How Tomatoes Became Heirlooms and Apples Became Antiques

In honor of the upcoming holidays where feasts aplenty will be served, Dr. Jennifer Jordan will be teaching us about how the stories we tell each other about the past shape the food we eat. Even as countless varieties of plants have vanished permanently from the face of the earth, people are working hard to preserve the biodiversity and "genetic heritage" not only of rare panda bears or singular orchids, but also the plants of the backyard vegetable garden. 

A major consequence of this work is the emergence of heirloom food—varieties of fruit, vegetables, grains and livestock left behind by modern agriculture, but now experiencing a striking resurgence. Through a close examination of apples and tomatoes, this talk reveals the phenomenon of edible memory—the infusing of food, heirloom and otherwise, with connections to the past, in ways both deeply personal and inherently social. Paying attention to edible memory reveals deep connections between food and memory, social and physical landscapes, pleasures and possibilities.

Jennifer Jordan is professor of sociology and urban studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the author of Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes and other Forgotten Foods (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and Structures of Memory: Understanding Urban Change in Berlin and Beyond (Stanford University Press, 2006) as well as numerous scholarly articles on topics ranging from kitchen gardens and collective memory, apples and German national identity, and dumplings. Her latest research delves deeper into two kinds of edible landscapes—historical kitchen gardens, and a thousand years of hop cultivation. Her research always addresses the ways that the stories we tell about the past shape the world around us—whether in orchards and vegetable gardens (in her latest book), or in the urban landscape of Berlin (in her earlier research). She has been a Fulbright scholar, a senior scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and a fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Join us on October 9th, as Howard Aprill, a Milwaukee Park System Naturalist presents - Going Batty for Bats: How Bats Make Life Better

Discover the fiction, folklore, and most importantly, the facts on Bats. Learn what Bats live near you and how scientists are racing against time to save Bats from a deadly disease. This presentation will feature a special section of "Bat Math" as we learn how bathtubs, dogs, and cheeseburgers are more dangerous than Bats! Want to participate in a citizen science project to study bats? Find out how, along with all of the amazing, and downright jaw dropping adaptations of bats that make our lives better!

Join us on September 11th, as Dr. Stephen Hargarten presents - Gun Violence: Myths, Science, Opportunities.

The world of Emergency Medicine is not a quiet one nor for the faint of heart. Those working in that field every day see first-hand the trauma that can be inflicted on a human body by something seemingly as simple as a little ball of metal. They know the cold hard truth about this kind of violence, can see how much of it can be formed by our social perspective on guns and the power they bestow, but also have the opportunity to educate the public and try to make change. Dr. Stephen Hargarten is precisely one of those, so please do not miss the opportunity to hear him speak on this topic. You will not be disappointed!

Stephen Hargarten received his MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1975 and his MPH from Johns Hopkins in 1984. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Associate Dean for Global Health and Director of the Comprehensive Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.  Dr. Hargarten’s research interests reflect an intersection of injury and violence prevention and health policy to address the burden of this biosocial disease. His work in linking data systems for understanding violent deaths informed the development of CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System.  Dr. Hargarten serves on the national boards of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and the Association for Safe International Road Travel.  He was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and was elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences in 2011.  In 2014, Dr. Hargarten began serving as President of the Milwaukee Global Health Consortium, (formerly the Center for International Health), a consortium of nine member academic, health care and governmental organizations and agencies, dedicated to addressing local and global health issues including patient care, education/training, research, and community engagement.  He was the founding President of the Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR) and has served on the Violence and Injury Prevention Mentoring Committee for the World Health Organization.

Join us on August 14th as Kristina Islo presents - Darkness at Noon: The Physics of Eclipses!

Like clockwork, the planets, moons and orphaned debris in our solar system proceed through their orbits, following trajectories scientists can observe and predict. And every once in a while, the clock's hands strike noon, bodies align, and darkness fills the daytime sky. Such an event will occur on August 21, 2017 when the sun, earth and moon will be perfectly positioned to produce the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 99 years!

Astronomers, being unable to touch or experiment on the distant objects we study, leverage such rare occurrences to learn more about our universe, discovering everything from the chemical composition of stars to the effects of general relativity.

Come learn about all the surprising science we can uncover in the shadows, as well as all you need to know if you want to witness this extraordinary event!

Kristina Islo is a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Center for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics. She is just one member of the CoffeeShop Astrophysics team, a group of physics graduate students and postdoctoral researchers committed to empowering the public with knowledge about science and astronomy. This talk will give you a peek into the type of shows the CSA team regularly delivers! Hope to see you there!!

FYI: This month's CoffeeShop Astrophysics talk will be held on August 13th and will be a duplicate of the USS talk held the following day. We just wanted you to be aware in case there is any overlap between our groups. Learn more about their group and upcoming talks here:
http://www.cgca.uwm.edu/coffee/schedule.html#

Join us on 7/10/17 for Dr. Michael Pauers' presentation - Taxonomy: Imposing Order on the Tangled Bank

On July 10th, at 7pm, the USS's cohort of curious minds will once again gather to hear a presentation by UW Waukesha's very own Dr. Michael Pauers!!

Despite its reputation as a historical artifact from the days of the "gentleman naturalist," taxonomy is a vivid, vital, and increasingly necessary branch of biology. This talk will elaborate upon what taxonomy is, what taxonomists do, and why taxonomy is still important in this molecular age. Further, Dr. Pauers will discuss his own research on the taxonomy of the African cichlid fishes of the genus Labeotropheus.

Michael J. Pauers, Ph.D., is an ichthyologist with a very broad background in this biology of fishes, having worked on the behavior, morphology, vision, and taxonomy of fishes.  Mike earned his Ph.D. in 2004 from UW-Milwaukee, and is the Ichthyology Research Fellow and Adjunct Curator of Fishes at the Milwaukee Public Museum, as well as an Assistant Professor of Zoology at UW-Waukesha; Mike also holds adjunct positions at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Science and UW-Parkside.  Mike primarily studies the cichlid fishes of Lake Malawi, Africa, especially those of the genus Labeotropheus, but has recently begun studying the Orangespotted Sunfish, native to the eastern portion of North America.

Join us on 6/12/17 for Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

Come one, come all, on June 12, 2017, to the USS's 6th gathering, where we will be combining Art and Science through a movie screening of Lo and Behold, a film by Oscar-nominated documentarian Werner Herzog!!! This fascinating look at our world and how it has been moulded by the rise of technology will be thoroughly entertaining, I promise you!! The screening will start at 7pm or shortly thereafter, and runs for 98 minutes. Please tell your friends and get there early for a good seat!!

Also of note: While we fully intend to keep all USS gatherings 100% free of charge, this movie did require a licensing fee in order to screen it legally. Because of that we will be asking for a $1-2 donation at the door in order to help offset the fee and hopefully make more screenings possible in the future.

Join us on May 8th for Dr. John Werner's presentation- Aquaponics: Grow Clean Food Anywhere!

Dr. John Werner is a professor of Biology at Wisconsin Lutheran College, here in Milwaukee. He has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Arizona State University and teaches courses in Genetics, Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology and maintains an active research lab in those areas.

This past winter, John ventured outside his comfort zone, geographically and intellectually, to set up aquaponics systems in Malawi and Zambia. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and while urban Zambia is more developed, rural areas remain poor. John and a WLC undergraduate student used this pilot study to engage and educate community leaders about aquaponics, acquire the necessary parts, and assemble systems in both countries with the goal of providing clean fish and vegetables to communities in need of these resources.

Aquaponics itself isn’t new, but advanced technology and the need for clean and accessible food has made it more viable and necessary. This method of growing food allows an individual or community to grow plants and fish in a controlled ecosystem. Due to its relatively small size, self-contained nature and low maintenance, aquaponics is perfect for urban and rural environments alike.  Come hear John describe the basics of aquaponics and how this was implemented in Africa!

The Urban Ecology Center's Phenomenal Forester, Caitlin Reinartz Hosted an Amazing April USS!

Caitlin Reinartz helped our band of science nerds see the forest for the trees at April's Underground Science Society talk. Approximately fifty fellow science enthusiasts braved the rainy weather to grab a brew and settle in as Caitlin encouraged us to branch out on a whirlwind tour of "A Year in the Life of a Tree."

We learned that trees only grow from the top and bottom, that every cell of a giant sycamore leaf is perfectly packaged in the tiny buds that emerge in spring, and that if you're not walking through the forest saying "OH MY GOSH!!!" - you're doing it wrong.

We're going to go out on a limb and say that Caitlin's talk was as fun as it was educational. Take a peek at her showing us high-mag views of twigs and root systems!

Join us on March 13th as Craig Berg presents - Venomous Reptiles: Alternative Facts!

On Monday, March 13th, at 7:00 p.m., we will be gathering for the 3rd installation of the USS, and this time we are straying away from the world of medicine to venture into more venomous territory...

Come once again to the Sugar Maple to hear Milwaukee County Zoo's own Craig Berg, Curator of Ectotherms, enlighten us all on some common misconceptions regarding reptiles and one of their most intriguing attributes! 

As curator of reptiles/aquariums at the Milwaukee County Zoo (MCZ), Craig manages and oversees animal health monitoring, animal staff and budgets. His interest in practical applications of conservation biology have led to the development of successful reintroduction methods for snakes and turtles. He is also involved with field research programs for Caribbean herpetofaua and Caribbean reefs. He has acted as a research mentor to undergraduate students as part of the Smithsonian’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, taught Zoo Biology at the request of the Society of Brazilian Zoos and he serves as a scientific advisor to the Urban Ecology Center. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen articles concerning fishes, amphibians and reptiles.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Craig’s Favorite Zoo Animals & Why: Cephalopods, King Cobra, Monitor Lizards- all for the same reasons.  They are very intelligent and responsive to people. As for fishes, he likes cichlids because of their huge repertoire of behaviors.

If Craig Had to Do It All Over Again and Couldn’t Work At a Zoo, He would Be a: Paleontologist or a Marine Biologist

Tell your friends and hope to see you there!!

Dr. Peter LaViolette hosted February's USS Event: "Using 3D Printing to Solve Real Problems in Radiology"

Dr. LaViolette showed us how physics and biology combine to help fight diseases such as brain and prostate cancer, aid surgeons with complex pre-surgical planning, as well as many other interesting functions. His talk delved into the difficulties of determining what challenges doctors and scientists face when attempting to link findings on radiology studies with actual diseased tissue, and how his team has been able to improve the accuracy of these matches with the use of 3D printing! Not only that, but he brought in mini 3D printed brains (mapped off of his own brain MRI), as well as a 3D printed infant skull (see photo below), jaw bones, prostates, and other fun things. See below for a brief video glimpse into his fascinating talk!

Dr. Mark McNally hosted the Inaugural USS Event on 1/9/17: "Genetic Disease: The Fix is in With RNA"

Dr. McNally kicked off the debut gathering of the USS with a healthy mixture of science and wit to teach the crowd of 50 eager scientists and science-appreciators about how badly things go wrong in the human body when genes don't work properly, and how his team of scientists and others are working to fix those glitches through the crafty use of RNA splicing! Much fun was had and even more was learned by all who attended. A solidly successful start to the spreading of scientific scholarship in our fair city of Milwaukee!