Clockworks to Serve Beer?! Science Pub, Santiam, too.

Little birds report Clockworks has applied for a limited liquor license.

Steam beer could join steam punk!

Science Pub is this Wednesday at Brown's Towne!

Few people realize there is a pod of about 70 gray whales that spends the summer off the Pacific Northwest coast. These whales winter in the waters around Baja, but opt to cut short their summer migration to Alaska in favor of spending the season in Oregon waters. At this Science Pub, professor and researcher Carrie Newell will reveal what compels these whales to return to and remain in Oregon waters summer after summer. Newell will also share detailed insight into individual whales’ personalities, habits and diet, as well as explain the research scientists are conducting to record and preserve the pod.

And at long last Santiam Brewing opened shop. Looks like they'll be open again on Thursday and Saturday. Hours are limited, so check twitter and facebook for the latest.

Socrates was Permanently Pissed: U Think on the Parthenon

Tomorrow night at 6:30pm at Brown's, U Think considers the Parthenon with geoarcheologist Scott Pike.

Built from 447-432 BCE, the Parthenon is considered the penultimate example of Doric architecture, Athenian self-determination and democratic ideals. Yet, despite its importance, there is still much to be learned about how the Parthenon was built.

Analyses of isotopes provide information about the origin of the Parthenon’s building materials. Tracing this ancient Greek supply chain sheds light upon the society’s complex social and economic systems.

We like to think of Socrates and Plato putting away the pints while they admire the temple!

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.

Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.

David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel,

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Plato, they say, could stick it away --
Half a crate of whisky every day.

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram,

And René Descartes was a drunken fart.
"I drink, therefore I am."

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he's pissed.

U Think Numbskulls and Neanderthals don't Drink?

Rogue used to make a beer called Skull Splitter. It would be the perfect drink for this Month's U Think, "How Darwin Would Teach Evolution"!

“Charles Darwin didn't set out to create the theory of natural selection ─ he discovered it,” says Niedermeyer. “Why shouldn't that be how students encounter it as well? That's what Darwin would argue is the most natural method.”

Using hominid skulls and his innovative approach to teaching evolution, Niedermeyer will discuss natural selection and how it may be applied to education.

You'll learn so much your head will explode! After the talk, if your head's intact, there will be a test, and those who fail will get fed to the lions. Those who pass can mate!

Wednesday, March 14th at 6:30pm, Brown's Towne Lounge.

U Think on God and Country, the Prez Thinks on Pulsars

During the Civil War the United States started using "In God we Trust" on coinage. According to the Department of the Treasury, the Rev. M. R. Watkinson petitioned the Secretary of the Treasury:

The recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins...would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.

In 1956, just after adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, we adopted it as our official motto, and it started appearing on silver certificates the following year, and our familiar greenbracks in the mid-60s . The history here is more recent than you might think!

Tomorrow night, U Think takes up this question. On Wednesday the 8th at Brown's Towne Lounge, Willamette University Professor Dr. Steven Green will talk about the invention* of our identity as a "Christian Nation."

Law professor, litigator, historian and author Steven K. Green...will present “How America Became a Christian Nation – and Other Myths.”

Green will discuss the widely held, but indeterminate belief that Christian values and traditions underlie the nation's founding principles – that America is "one nation under God." He’ll explore how this idea arose, why it is so compelling and the practical implications of claims that America is a "Christian nation." He will also discuss related myths: that people settled America in pursuit of religious freedom; and that the Founders were deeply religious men who intended for government to reinforce religious values.

Also, you may recall back in May we wished for a Science Pub with President Thorsett.

Hopefully in yesterday evening's Science Cafe for students, part of the inaugural festivities, Dr. Thorsett's talk on Pulsars will be a dry run for a properly wet pub talk!

* See the previous discussion about the invention of Jesus.

$20 bill from wikipedia

Avoid Flat Beer; Make Sure your Pint is Sharp and True on Wednesday

Though the liquor sellers might want to you have a circle of fifths, a round of pints is so much friendlier!

U Think, Willamette University's successor to Science Pub, returns to Brown's Towne Lounge this Wednesday at 6:30pm.

The topic is "The Musical Brain."

“We’ll explore how we evolved the ability to perceive music, art and beauty. This short talk will consider the physics of sound, the mechanism of hearing, the process of cognition, the building blocks of music and the way they work together to move us to tears or elevate us to ecstasy,” said Grant Linsell, director of the university’s Wind and Percussion Program.

Widmer and Gilgamesh at Ventis

Don't like music? No problem. Also on Wednesday, starting at 6pm is a Widmer party at Venti's.

Two of the main attractions will be the W12 series Dark Saison and Brrrbon, the Imperial Barrel Aged Brrr. Yum, yum!

(On the 23rd is also a beer dinner with Gilgamesh - menu here.)

U Think Wednesday on the Invention of Jesus

Who would want to be limited to a single beer, brewed to the specifications of 3000 BCE, 1300 CE, or whatever model you might choose for the Ur-Beer?+

Nope, we celebrate the fecund excess of styles and variations today! There's never been a better time for beer.

In religion it's often the opposite: We mourn the loss of unity, worry about all the denominational variation, and long for a return to a moment of pristine origins when everybody was presumably on the same page.* The Truth is supposed to be one.

On Wednesday at Brown's Towne Lounge U Think features "the Sage of Galilee" and the latest scholarship on His foundational role in Christian origins.

It's timely since the presidential campaign of 2012 has put the origins of religion in the spotlight. How to explain this movement called Christianity and some of its descendents? And how should these movements inform contemporary politics?

Digging for the Truth

In a fabulous bit of cross-linguistic word play, the discovery of a Christian relic was called in Latin the invention of a relic. In-venio means to come upon, to find or discover. For us moderns the word "invention" points up the anxious matter of authenticity. Debates over golden plates and spectacles are far from new.

Here's the way one of the illuminators** of the Milan-Turin Hours envisions the discovery of the True Cross by Helena, Constantine's mother. She really found that cross. It may not be modern archaeology but the idea of digging was understood to lead to truth.

Nowadays digging also operates as a metaphor for textual interpretation. In post-Reformation Christianity, the text of the Bible, and not a relic or ritual, is the guarantor of authenticity. Scholars dig through layers of textual tradition in the Bible, in hopes of finding the foundation layer of Christian origins. The origin is assumed to be normative, the most authentic layer and commanding our assent. This leads from the Christ of Dogma to the Jesus of History.

About this, Albert Schweitzer wrote in The Quest of the Historical Jesus:

There is no historical task which so reveals a man's true self as the writing of a Life of Jesus. No vital force comes into the figure unless a man breathes into it all the hate or all the love of which he is capable. The stronger the love, or the stronger the hate, the more life-like is the figure which is produced. For hate as well as love can write a Life of Jesus, and the greatest of them are written with hate : that of Reimarus, the Wolfenbuttel Fragmentist, and that of David Friedrich Strauss. It was not so much hate of the Person of Jesus as of the supernatural nimbus with which it was so easy to surround Him, and with which He had in fact been surrounded. They were eager to picture Him as truly and purely human, to strip from Him the robes of splendour with which He had been apparelled, and clothe Him once more with the coarse garments in which He had walked in Galilee.

Though it's a totally different kind of passion than Jesus', the feelings behind Jesus research have been passionate indeed.

The torch-bearer of the modern quest is the Jesus Seminar.*** The Westar Institute runs the seminar's meetings, and just a few years ago they relocated to Salem, on the edge of the Willamette campus.

U Think catches up with the latest Jesus research on Wednesday!

Willamette University’s U Think series will feature Stephen Patterson, professor and historian who specializes in the origins of Christianity. He will present “The Historian’s Jesus: What scholars say about the sage from Galilee" on Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m. in Brown’s Towne Lounge.

“Long before Jesus became the Christian savior he was a Jewish sage who provoked the masses and drew a crowd,” says Patterson. “Beggars loved him, and Romans feared him. In the end, he was executed for sedition. Historians now think they know why.”

Patterson is the George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University. He is the director of the Westar Institute, where he chairs the Jesus Seminar on Christian Origins. Patterson’s many books and essays address various aspects of the historical Jesus and Gospel of Thomas, among other biblical scholarship.

+ Or maybe like Pilsner Urquell. Biblical scholarship also has its Quelle, the Q-source.

* It's the old chestnut of the One and Many. The difference between hedgehogs, who know one thing, and foxes, who know many things. Or the difference between Athenian and Mancunian science, the difference between the physicist's search for a unified field theory and the biologist's search for new species.

** If you're into art history, many scholars have conjectured that this image is by Jan van Eyck.

*** Here's the Jesus Seminar Drinking Game™:

In the past, the Jesus Seminar voted on the sayings of Jesus, trying to determine whether they were authentic, similar to something Jesus said, inauthentic but related to something He really said, or totally inauthentic and from a later tradition. They used red, pink, grey, and black beads.

U Think can turn this into the best parlor game ever! If U Think the saying is real, you must finish your beer! If U Think it's similar, you have to drink half your beer. If U Think it's inauthentic but related, you have to take a sip. And if it's fake, you don't have to sip.

You will know the skeptics by their sobriety! And the enthusiasts will be rolling wholly on the floor.

Sometimes U Think, Sometimes U Don't: Willamette U Brainpower on Tap

Two events, one past and one upcoming, show mental function and malfunction at work at Willamette University.

U Think

The monthly U Think lecture shows off fruitful collaborations between academics and ordinary citizens.

This month David Craig returns to talk about Citizen Science and Squirrels. You may recall him from his lecture on crows almost exactly a year ago.

This lecture, titled "Bright-eyed and Bushy-tailed about Citizen Science," takes place on Wednesday,

Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m. in Brown’s Towne Lounge. Craig, whose research was featured in the PBS documentary “A Murder of Crows,” will discuss the Western Gray Squirrel, a North American species now threatened across most of the West Coast by an introduced species.

Craig will talk about squirrel behavior and why the Western Gray Squirrel population is declining. Also, he’ll discuss the development of citizen science and how you can participate.

“Nature photographers and backyard wildlife enthusiasts can contribute to scientific efforts to preserve our native, declining squirrel species,” says Craig. “There’s a citizen science project for almost every passion. At U Think, I’ll talk about squirrel behavior and how people can participate in related work, but there are ways to contribute to research just by lending your gaming system’s processing power when you are not using it.”

(Squirrel Taxidermy from Mac's Taxidermy)

U Think?

While we may not always be sober here at Capital Taps, we try not to be too snarky. But this particular keg blew.

At an alumni event on the Willamette campus recently we spied a mini-burma shave series.

Most of the signs were banal boosterism - but one leaped out!

This sign read:

Did you know?

During the University's first half-century, its land holdings were gradually sold to meet other needs, so much of the present downtown Salem is built on former University land.

It was good to read the correct use of it's/its, but there was a problem...

Wouldn't it be great to have Whole Foods, Henry's 12th Street Tavern, and the Brewery Blocks in downtown Salem?!

Who chose the photo? How could someone in Salem who works at Willamette possibly mistake a shot of downtown Portland for a shot of Salem? Did the alumni department outsource the sign project out of town or even overseas? Is this a prank? What's going on???

What do U Think about the Founders? and Venti's Geekery

Whether you want to learn about beer or The Founders, there's two great beer-ducation opportunities in the next few days!

U Think on the Founders

One of the things we think about is stamps when we think of the Founders.

The postal service has been in the news - and not in a good way. We don't write many letters, but as a fan of the 19th century, we value them. And sometimes, for certain things, no amount of email, video, twitter, no amount of e-mediated word will do. Pen must strike paper and record a gesture. The hand written letter offers intimacy and immediacy - even with the time delay of delivery! - the other media cannot match.

Just consider the Burggraf letters from the Civil War.

Ben Franklin has appeared on lots of stamps, including the very first US stamp from 1847, which was denominated five cents. Ben Franklin was, of course, the first Postmaster General.

This one is the 1851 one cent issue. As the Smithsonian notes,

America’s first 1-cent stamp was issued...to pre-pay certain categories of mail, including circulars, which today might be called 'junk mail'.

Although there are certainly economies of scale in mass mailings, it's also the case that we use first class mail - the good stuff - to subsidize crap. Why should a 44 cent letter of condolence or congratulation or love subsidize the coupon circular that mails for a fraction of that? It's all backwards. Big sigh.

With fall U Think, the multi-disciplinary successor to Science Pub, moves to a new day.

On Wednesday, September 14th,

History professor Seth Cotlar will discuss the historical accuracy of Tea Party claims about America’s founders.

While the Tea Party tends to favor state over federal power, “the men who wrote the Constitution were the centralizers of their day, and almost all of them distrusted the states,” says Cotlar. “James Madison, the ‘father of the Constitution,’ went so far as to suggest that the federal government should have the right to veto any state law it found unacceptable.

“This talk will suggest some new ways to think about what the founding era can – and cannot – teach us about contemporary politics,” says Cotlar.

Cotlar probably won't talk much about Ben Franklin, and will spend more time on the authors of the Federalist Papers.

But when you think about privatising the mails, when you think about the proper scope for the Federal government, think about how great it was to have a single entity that could reliably deliver a letter anywhere in the country.

The post office today is manifestly unsustainable, and must change. But boy is this a loss we will mourn.

U Think is 6:30pm at Brown's Towne.

Beer Geekery 101

Tomorrow at 12:30pm, the Taphouse starts a new beer education and tasting series!

Don't know much about it, but there's sure to be lively conversation, a tutorial with the Beer Czar, and direct tasting! Go check it out.

Lectures on Tap Tuesday and Wednesday

Two lectures, one on modern history and wet, another on early Salem history and dry, are coming up this week.

U Think on Tuesday

U Think returns on Tuesday to Brown's Towne. But this wet one's too dry! This is the first of the lectures that seems like it might be too serious.

Willamette University's U Think series will explore the meanings of various political ideologies, such as socialism and Marxism, by considering policies implemented by the Obama administration in historical context.

Willamette history professor and socialism expert Bill Smaldone will deliver the talk...Smaldone is the author of "Confronting Hitler: German Social Democrats in Defense of the Weimar Republic, 1929-1933," and he is currently writing a textbook on socialism.

Maybe beer is the solvent for tea...? We suspect Smaldone will conclude Obama is far from a socialist, significantly to the right of FDR, and indeed in another era could be counted as a centrist, moderate Republican. In fact, we suspect Mark Hatfield and Obama would have got along splendidly.

We wish Smaldone might talk instead about the way capitalists co-opt socialist imagery in popular marketing!

How about talk, Poseurs and Poses: Branding and Socialist Iconography.

Jewish Pioneers on Wednesday

As part of the Sendakorama, "In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak," at the library John Ritter presents a talk, "Fur Traders, Blanket Peddlers, Tinsmiths, Iron Mongers: Jewish Pioneers of Old Salem" at
7:00 p.m. in Loucks Auditorium.

Local historian John Ritter will explore the rich diversity of the first Jewish Pioneers to the city of Salem, their occupations, where they lived and traded, and the community they built.

His presentation will focus on the early Jewish business owners in Salem from the 1900s-1950s and the people with whom they traded: Native Americans, Hudson's Bay Engages, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Hawaiians, Germans and other Salem residents. Jewish pioneers helped build downtown Salem and make it a thriving commercial area.

No beer for this one, however. We're also not sure about the dates, wondering if the pioneers should refer to 1800s-1850s rather than the 20th century.

We hope Sam Adolph and his early brewery will get a shout out.

Jews in early Salem are not well known, and this is a terrific topic for research and a lecture.

First There was Science Pub, Now U Think Ponders Lady Gaga Tuesday!

Check it out! You heard rumors of a "Humanities Pub"...well, here it is. From the release (no time for more):

Willamette University will kick off its U Think pub series on Tuesday night at Brown's Towne Lounge with a talk about Lady Gaga. Beginning at 6:30 p.m. each second Tuesday, the monthly series will feature topics from the sciences and humanities.

“Science Pub has been a fun way to share Willamette faculty expertise with the community, and OMSI has been a fantastic partner,” says spokesperson Adam Torgerson. "Given all of the interesting work our professors do across the university, U Think provides an opportunity to bring a more diverse series to Salem.”

On July 12, U Think will feature Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Media Studies Amber Davisson. She will discuss the strategies Lady Gaga uses to craft her image and will consider the message underlying Lady Gaga's precipitously high heels.

“While many celebrities today make the news for drug abuse or relationship problems, Lady Gaga has shown an impressive ability to manage her image and stay on the front page,” says Davisson. “In the past few years, she has boasted more Twitter followers than the president and has found a place on Forbes’ and Time’s lists of most influential people.”

Nicely done Willamette and Brown's Towne!

Do Physicists Dream of Science Pub?

Woo-hoo, fans of Science Pub! Yesterday Willamette University announced a new President, physicist Stephen Thorsett.

Thorsett is something of a local. The appointment narratives dwelt on a "home-coming" aspect, and it stands to reason that part of his appointment is a commitment to continuing the project of a closer relationship between the city and the university.

An excellent example of that outreach is the insane popularity of Science Pub! We can only hope that there will be a Presidential Pub once Thorsett gets settled in!

Two Beery Lectures: Science Pub and Archaeological Ale

Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote about the "klingendes glas," the ringing cup that shatters.*

He intuited, as only poets can, that at the origins of the universe, at that great moment of transformation, there was a vibrating pint, the big bang beer.

Beer was also at the center of civilization, crucially bound up in the development of agriculture and social transformation that led to the first cities.

So it's with great excitement that we note two lectures in April that talk history and beer! One treats beer on a cosmic scale, the other a human scale. Both taste great!

Last fall you may recall the Theobroma at Venti's.**

A modern recreation of an ancient beer, Theobroma from Dogfish Head is a gruit, a beer without hops. It's part of Dogfish's "Ancient Ales" series:

This beer is based on chemical analysis of pottery fragments found in Honduras which revealed the earliest known alcoholic chocolate drink used by early civilizations to toast special occasions. The discovery of this beverage pushed back the earliest use of cocoa for human consumption more than 500 years to 1200 BC. As per the analysis, Dogfish Head’s Theobroma (translated into 'food of the gods') is brewed with Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs (from our friends at Askinosie Chocolate), honey, chilies, and annatto (fragrant tree seeds).

At the time we were looking forward to the lecture, "Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer and Extreme Fermented Beverages."

It's here! On Thursday, April 7th Dr. Patrick E. McGovern, Scientific Director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia will talk at Willamette. He will

illustrate the biomolecular archaeological approach by describing the discovery of the most ancient, chemically-attested alcoholic beverage in the world, dating back to about 7000 B.C. Based on the analyses of some of the world’s earliest pottery from Jiahu in the Yellow River valley of China, a mixed fermented beverage of rice, hawthorn fruit/grape, and honey was reconstructed. The laboratory’s most recent finding is a fermented beverage made from the fruit pod of the cacao tree, as based on analyses of ca. 1200 B.C. pottery sherds from the site of Puerto Escondido in Honduras.

On Tuesday, April 12th, Science Pub returns to Brown's Towne Lounge:

What does the Universe look like and what is our place in it? How is it evolving and what did it look like in the distant past? What will it be like in the future?

If you’ve pondered these questions, the April 12 Science Pub Salem is the place for you.

Join Willamette University physics chair and cosmologist Dr. Richard (Rick) Watkins in an exploration of the Universe and its evolution.

After Watkins’ presentation, “The Big Bang and Beyond: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe,” we’ll pass the microphone to you for your questions.

Grab a beer and ponder the imponderables!

* Hey, it's National Poetry Month!

** See the news at the VentiBlog and reaction at EatSalem.

Science Pub Mardi Gras: Smarties Talk Rubidium, Ditch Rude Idiom

Want stouter fare with your beads and boobies? How about some Mardi Gras grub and Science Pub!

(And you'll finally remember that "data" is a plural noun! -
Quantum : Quanta :: Datum : Data)

Quantum Coolness
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 - 6:30pm
Salem - Brown's Towne Lounge

Search the Internet for “quantum” and you'll find offers for data storage, fishing gear, health supplements and fuel systems. Almost all of the top results are unrelated to the theory of quantum mechanics, which can make it difficult to separate science-fact from science-fiction.

In this talk Michaela Kleinert, Assistant Professor of Physics at Willamette University, will reveal the unintuitive province of the quanta, a realm where physical laws seemingly defy everyday human experience. Learn how to spot quantum snake oil and more at this Science Pub Salem!

Since it appeared on the internet, it's not exactly a rumor, but word is Willamette is now exploring options for a Humanities Pub! How great is that!

What Not to Get Your Sweetheart

Two great tastes that taste great together, right? Chocolate and wine? Eh...We think it's overrated. But if you're going to do it, make sure you get a decent bottle of wine and good chocolate, not this abomination.

ChocoVine is a fine French Cabernet subtly combined with a rich dark chocolate from Holland, paired together to create a decadent, silky smooth drink. It can be served on the rocks or as the main ingredient to an array of sinful cocktails....The right chocolate paired with the perfect wine can create near-orgasmic taste experience. But the wrong wine opposite a too-sweet chocolate creates nothing but horror.

Ah, yes, the horror. ChocoVine is so good you want to make sure you ice it down or blend it with other flavors.

This is already discounted on some grocery shelves, so we're sure that Salemites have seen and perhaps even tasted the horror.

Much more promising is the new Widmer W'11 release, the KGB Russian Imperial Stout. There's some bittersweet chocolate for you!

Brown's may have it on tap this weekend, even.

And a tip of the pint, and moment of silence, for Jeremy Judd, who while working in the Maletis warehouse was crushed by a collapsing stack of beer kegs earlier this week.

Science Pub Develops Nanu Drinking Game Tuesday Night

Every time Mork says "Nanu," Willamette University Professor David Altman will take a drink.

Every time Altman says "Nano," you'll take a drink. Fun for everyone! And since the nanu-drinks will be microscopic, you don't have worry about getting drunk!

On Tuesday at 6:30pm at Brown's Towne Lounge, Altman will talk about the Planet Ork and "Nanotech and the Physics of the Nano-Realm":

At the leading edge of scientific advancement, nanotechnology is the study of manipulating atoms and molecules which are so small that they have properties unseen at human scale. Professor David Altman will highlight these unintuitive properties and discuss nanotechnology’s potential for advancing our understanding of physics.

A graduate of the University of Chicago and Stanford University, Altman uses a laser to study proteins in an optical trap he built with Willamette students as part of the university’s Science Collaborative Research Program. His work focuses on the molecular motor myosin, and his passion for learning and teaching is a perfect fit for Science Pub.

Growlers and the Factory Lunch circa 1900

Over in Britain they're calling the Superbowl between the Packers and Steelers "as blue-collar as you could imagine."

Yeah, but while they crash and bash and get concussions, they're still making millions.

A century ago, beer was an essential part of a real blue collar lunch, and beer pails were the forerunner of today's "growlers."

As you fill your growlers for the festivities, think about hard, factory work, child labor, and how far we've come.

McClure's Magazine in 1909 had this great piece, "Beer and the City Liquor Problem." We'll return to it later, but for the moment wanted to share these images of beery lunch service at the factory.

If you're getting growlers for the big football game this weekend, here's a toast to the workingmen who first used them.

Some Growler and Party Details:

Gilgamesh growler details here.

F/Stop usually fills growlers.

Brown's Towne details.

Seven Brides viewing party opens at 11am.

Better than Moldy Bread on an Axe Wound: Science Pub Visits the new Antibiotics

The fungus among us makes us healthy and hale!

Beer drinkers owe their pleasure to yeast just as much as 20th century wounded and ill owed their recovery to mold. Molds and yeasts are magical fungi, providing blue cheese, beer and wine and bread, and penicillin.

But what's the next generation of antibiotics? As you drink your beer at the next Salem Science Pub, at Brown's Towne Lounge on Tuesday at 6:30pm, you'll learn more about the engineering and chemistry of the next round of wonder drugs.

With the increased use and frequent misuse of antibiotics, there is a growing concern about the rise of drug-resistant strains of bacteria and other pathogens. Many drug discoveries have happened by accident, such as through chance observation or through scientific analysis of folk remedies. Often those broad-spectrum drugs can lead to negative side effects or drug resistance.

But that is changing. Sarah Kirk, PhD, and her research group focus on designing medications that target specific receptors in the body for distinct purposes, a process known as “rational drug design.” They work to understand relationships among the drug’s molecular structure, the interaction with the body’s receptors, and therapeutic result. At this Science Pub, learn about discovering the size and shape of the receptors, designing drugs to fit them, and how all the pieces must be put together like a puzzle.

Science Pub Moves from a Murder to Hormonal Decisions

Science Pub is back! Tomorrow night, tip a pint and learn about the ways we are slaves to chemicals!

Stress Meets Love: The Hormones Behind Appropriate Decision Making

Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Brown's Towne Lounge

With Emma Coddington, PhD, assistant professor in the Biology Department at Willamette University. Find out more about her work in behavioral neuroendocrinology and neuroethology.

Science Pub Starts with a Murder

A murder of crows, that is!

With apologies to Drinky Crow, we read news that Professor David Craig of Willamette is going to give a talk titled "Friends or Foes? Facing the Facts about American Crows" at the inaugural Science Pub Salem.

The first one will be Tuesday, November 9th at Brown's Towne Lounge, 6:30pm.

OMSI sponsors Science Pub and says:

Learn about cutting-edge topics in science and technology from leading researchers and scientists, all while enjoying food and drinks. Don't expect a remote speaker behind a distant podium. Instead, experience an informal atmosphere where you can interact with experts and where there are no silly questions. No scientific background is required; just bring your curiosity, sense of humor, and appetite for food, drinks, and knowledge!

Science Pub is open to anyone, no RSVP required. Science Pubs are for ages 21+, or minor with adult. Tell your friends, and we hope to see you there!

We like this!

Beer! This Weekend and Next

Starting tomorrow there's a nice cluster of beery pleasures for you!

Friday is "Growler Day" out at Gilgamesh. Fill your jars and buy your kegs out in the wooded hills above Turner.



On Sunday, Wild Pear offers an Oktoberfest-themed Supper Club. The menu promises "two German beers (first time ever in Oregon)." We know it's not the first time for German beer in Oregon, so we suppose they mean two kinds never seen here. How curious!


On Friday the 15th Gilgamesh will also be pouring at Bush Barn's Art Fusion event. Symmmetry/Symmetry play, so you know the music will be good! The cupcakes and beer pairing will be treacherous, so we recommend caution - but the pizza and beer promises safety.



Then on Saturday the 16th Brown's Town Lounge hosts the second Annual Brewers Bash. From out of town will come Oakshire, Calapooia, and Cornelius Pass Roadhouse; the home team will be represented by Thompson's and The Ram.

Maybe there will be a fresh hop ale or two. So get out and enjoy the fall!