The Science of Pokemon at C2E2
March 27, 2026
1:30 pm
– 2:15 pm
Room S401-ABC
McCormick Place - South Building, South Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Drive, Chicago, IL, USA
Program Series:
Life ScienceScience and Society
Wild Science Encounters: Beyond the Pokeball
In the world of Pokemon, adventurous explorers- called Pokemon trainers- can travel far and wide, catching and cataloging fantastical creatures to fill out their Pokedex, a digital index of various pokemon species. While you can’t find a Pikachu in any of the viridian forests on Earth, Pokemon masters have a real-world counterpart in the form of scientists! Scientists can be found in every corner of the world, discovering new species and cataloging their unique characteristics. This real life data collection has become the foundation for the design of Pokemon themselves! We’ve brought a panel of experts from across the sciences to talk to us about the real-life plants and animals that Pokemon are based on. If you’ve ever wanted the chance to have a conversation with Professor Oak, this is the next best thing! We’ve gotta catch them all!
Science In The City 2026
May 7, 2026
5:00 pm
– 8:00 pm
Salesforce Tower Chicago
333 West Wolf Point Plaza, Chicago, IL, USA
Save the date for Thursday, May 7th! The Chicago Council on Science and Technology will hold our largest fundraising event of the year: Science in the City 2026. Join us as we celebrate excellent public STEM outreach with academic and industry leaders, educators, community members, and young professionals from across Chicagoland.
Vaccines: No Risk, No Reward
Vaccines are tools of modern medicine used in keeping us safe and healthy from the spread of disease. The science of vaccination has come a long way in the last 200 years since the first vaccine, the smallpox vaccine, was developed in 1796. As science has developed, so too has the role of the public in deciding whether or not to get vaccinated against preventable diseases. This includes you, too! The amount of information available to us in making these decisions can be overwhelming, especially if we don’t understand the science.
We’ve all heard of cause and effect, but what if our universe doesn’t actually follow this principle? That’s the question behind a recent physics study conducted by Dr. Julia Mossbridge at the Mossbridge Institute, who spent a year recording how tiny particles of light (photons) behave inside a dark, sealed box. Her goal was to test something that could be the plot of a science fiction movie: could information about the future somehow show up in experiments done in the present? The phenomenon she studied is called the “causally ambiguous duration sorting effect” or CADS for short. In simpler terms, it’s a hint that the world around us may sometimes blur the line between “before” and “after.”
Upcoming Events
April 13, 2026
6:00 pm
– 7:30 pm
Harold Washington Library Center, Multipurpose Room
Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago Public Library, South State Street, Chicago, IL, USA
Program Series:
Life ScienceScience and Society
The Chicago Council on Science and Technology and Chicago Public Library present The Science of Pokemon! In the world of Pokemon, adventurous explorers – called Pokemon trainers – can travel far and wide, catching and cataloging fantastical creatures to fill out their Pokedex, a digital index of various pokemon species. While you can’t find a Pikachu in any of the viridian forests on Earth, Pokemon masters have a real-world counterpart in the form of scientists! Scientists can be found in every corner of the world, discovering new species and cataloging their unique characteristics. This real life data collection has become the foundation for the design of Pokemon themselves! We’ve brought a panel of experts from across the sciences to talk to us about the real-life plants and animals that Pokemon are based on. If you’ve ever wanted the chance to have a conversation with Professor Oak, this is the next best thing! We’ve gotta catch them all!
C2ST Supporters
Alan Schriesheim & Kay Torshen
John A. Cable Foundation
Arch Investors Ltd
Alan Schriesheim & Kay Torshen
John A. Cable Foundation
Arch Investors Ltd
