ChiMe Activity Bulletin Deadline. Last day for these submissions to the December ChiMe. Interested in organizing and hosting a virtual or in-person event? Find out how by checking out our guide to hosting events.

ChiMe Editorial and Ad­ver­tising Deadlines. Last day for editorial submissions to the December ChiMe. Please submit original ar­ticles, insights, puzzles, brain teasers, or short poems. Your fellow Chicago Area Mensa members would love to hear from you.

New Zealand Sunday Seminars: Quantum Computing: How We Got Here, and Where We're Going Next 6 PM CDT. The field of quantum computing has received increasing amounts of media attention in the last few years. In step with this, it's increasingly difficult to discriminate between fundamental scientific progress, and hype. As quantum computing becomes more prevalent, it's important for scientists and non-scientists alike to understand the core ideas and implications of society constructing a large-scale quantum computer. In this talk, we will review the history of quantum computation, the current state of affairs, and how things are shaping up for the future. Along the way, we'll dispel common myths around the industry, with the goal of providing a fair and balanced overview, and to highlight key differences with ‘classical’ computation.

Dr. Jeffrey Marshall obtained a PhD in the field of quantum computation from the University of Southern California. After this he joined the NASA Quantum AI Lab (QuAIL), and more recently transitioned to Silicon Quantum Computing. His main research interests include: noisy quantum systems, classical simulation of quantum systems, quantum error correction, quantum computing with photons.

For more details, including how to register, visit the American Mensa Events website. All attendees must preregister.
Virtual Event!!

Mind Games® 2026 Judge Registration. Join American Mensa members for Mind Games Thursday, April 16th through Sunday, April 19th, at the Hilton Washington Dulles Airport located at 13869 Park Center Rd. in Herndon, Virginia. Visit the website for all the details.

Windycon 51: Rise of the Machines 3 PM through Sunday. Windycon is Chicagoland’s oldest science fiction convention. It will be held in the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Oak Brook. For all the details, visit their website.
Public Event!!

SFRM: Hunting for Aliens: The Search for Artifacts Near Earth 4:30 PM. Over the past decade, the first four interstellar objects were discovered. They include the interstellar meteor, IM1, detected on January 8, 2014, `Oumuamua detected on October 19, 2017, Borisov detected on August 29, 2019, and 3I/ATLAS discovered on July 1, 2025. Among these, the first two appeared anomalous relative to known solar-system rocks, whereas the third appeared to be a familiar comet. IM1 exhibited the highest material strength among all meteorites in the CNEOS catalog of NASA, while Oumuamua exhibited a flat shape and non-gravitational acceleration with no detectable cometary evaporation. In June 2023 we recovered 850 spherules from the Pacific Ocean site of IM1. A tenth of these submillimeter meteoritic spherules displayed a unique chemical composition, different from familiar solar system materials.

Currently, new Galileo Project Observatories are monitoring millions of objects near Earth in infrared, optical, radio, and audio and analyzing their nature with machine-learning software. Are any of them Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena? Forthcoming data from the Rubin Observatory in Chile will offer additional clues on interstellar objects. Is space trash from extraterrestrial technological civilizations lurking among the natural interstellar rocks.

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L'Express and more). He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1988-1993).

For more details, visit the SFRM Zoom RSVPs FB Group or the M-Wisely's Cafe. To register, visit San Francisco Regional Mensa (SFRM)’s registration signup for this event.
Virtual Event!!

Chicago Toy and Game Fair (ChiTAG) 10 AM through 5 PM. It will be held Rosemont Convention Center in Rosemont, using the People of Play (POP) platform. In addition to the ability to preview the many new toys and games exhibited, they feature a Young Inventor Challenge. For all the details, visit their website. You may be able to get a discount on tickets via Groupon or LivingSocial.
Virtual Public Event!!

SFRM: Silent Service: A Brief History of Submarines in the U.S. Navy 4:30 PM. As the U.S. Navy Submarine Force celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2025, this presentation will provide a brief history of submarines in the Navy and their contributions to the nation. Ms. Robyn Weimer, a 24-year veteran of the Submarine Force, served on four nuclear-powered submarines, with tours as Navigator/Operations Officer, Chief Engineer, and Executive Officer.

She will first provide an overview of the history of U.S. submarines, from the purchase of the Holland on April 11, 1900, to the newest Virginia-class fast attack and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines currently under construction. A discussion of submarine construction and operation will follow, including a review of submarine missions and how they are built to accomplish them. Along the way, Ms. Weimer will touch on what it's like to live on a submarine, with some Submarine Force trivia, such as how it got the nickname “Silent Service.”

For more details, visit the SFRM Zoom RSVPs FB Group or the SFRM List of Presentations. To register, visit San Francisco Regional Mensa (SFRM)’s registration signup for this event.
Virtual Event!!

Inquiring Minds: My Life Tracking the Great White Shark 1 PM. Are shark attacks becoming more frequent along the coast of New England, such as at Cape Cod? How much of our knowledge about these predators has been influenced by the movie Jaws? Are there misconceptions? How exactly does the Great White Shark expert Greg Skomal conduct his research on sharks? How does he assess the behavior of sharks? How does he assess the physiological stress and survival associated with their capture and release for scientific purposes?

Greg Skomal is an accomplished marine biologist, great white shark researcher, underwater explorer, photographer, aquarist, and author. He has been a senior fisheries biologist with Massachusetts Marine Fisheries since 1987 and currently heads up the Massachusetts Shark Research Program. He is also adjunct faculty at the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford, MA, a guest investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA, and an adjunct scientist with the Center for Shark Research in Sarasota, Florida. He has been actively involved in the study of the life history, ecology, and physiology of sharks. His shark research has spanned multiple fish habitats around the globe, taking him from the frigid waters of the Arctic Circle to coral reefs in the tropical Central Pacific.

See the full write-up and find contact info on the American Mensa Events website. All attendees must preregister.
Virtual Event!!

MWW: Nonfiction Book Discussion 4:30 PM CDT. Please join us in discussing The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger. We generally discuss what we liked about the book or found challenging. We also discuss what we would like more or less of, what format we read the book in, and whether it was a recent read.

Can't make it this month? The next book will be What Goes with What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities by Julia Turshen (December 17). In January we return to our traditional 4th Wednesday for Change the Recipe by José Andrés (January 28).

See the full write-up and to find contact info on the American Mensa Events website.
Virtual Event!!

ChiMe Activ­ity Bulletin Dead­line. Last day for these submissions to the January 2026 ChiMe. Interested in organizing and hosting a virtual or in-person event? There’s bound to be an activity or a restaurant you want to try, but you just want some other people to experience it with you. So invite your fellow Mensans. Find out how by visiting our guide to hosting events.

ChiMe Editorial and Ad­vertising Dead­lines. Last day for editorial submissions to the January 2026 ChiMe. Please submit original ar­ticles, insights, puzzles, brain teasers, photographs, or short poems. Your fellow Chicago Area Mensa members would love to hear from you.