Every second Thursday of the month the Ore Dock Brewing Company will be serving their locally brewed pints with a science lesson.
The first of the “Science on Tap” pub series was Thursday, Jan. 15.
The newly emerging monthly pub series kicked off with Richard Ziegler, an instructor in NMU’s Earth, environmental and geographical sciences department presenting on “Marquette Rocks: Regional Geology of the Precambrian Era”.
The event is hosted by Sigma Xi, a scientific research society, and coordinated by Norma Froelich, a professor in the geographical sciences department.
Froelich said the goal of the scientific research society is to promote science, scientific research and the understanding of scientific research to the general public.
The idea to have a discussion about science in a pub came from one of Froelich’s colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“This event shows people that science is both interesting and fun,” Froelich said. “Sure, the event is inspired by beer, but there’s more. So many of the decisions we make in the world are on some level influenced by science, which holds a lot of impact to people.”
Much of Ziegler’s talk focused on the black rocks in Marquette. To a geologist, what makes the U.P. such an interesting part of the world is the variety of rock types in the Marquette area, Ziegler said.
“There are volcanic rocks, rocks formed from beach sediments, rocks that were deposited off-shore in shallow oceans and rocks that contain evidence of glacial activity,” Ziegler said.
Another main focus of Ziegler’s talk was about Marquette rocks and fossil evidence from the Precambrian era.
The Precambrian spans the period of time beginning with the formation of the Earth 4.6 billion years ago to approximately 570 million years ago. Ziegler said the audience asked good questions.
“Several of the questions encompassed very big-picture questions that scientists have been working on understanding for a long time,” Ziegler said.
Anjila Holland, associate general manager of the Ore Dock Brewing Company said the turn out and response from the audience was awesome and also unexpected.
“Last Thursday, we were totally under-staffed,” Holland said. “We were floored by the number of people who showed up. I could tell people were really into it.”
Senior Illustration major and frequent Ore Dock patron Stephanie Mannisto said even though she is an art major, she really enjoyed the presentation.
“It’s not normally that packed,” Mannisto said. “My group of friends and I showed up a little after 7 p.m. and we had to sit kind of far away. I’m really glad we went though. I really liked it.”
Series presentations will typically be held on the second Thursday of each month.
On Thursday, Feb. 12, “Science on Tap” will feature NMU health and human performance instructors Scott Drum and Phil Watts presenting a human science talk on “How Much Fat can a Fat Bike Bust?”
