Incoming CHAOS

July 2025

July’s bringing the heat—and the chaos. We’ll be celebrating freedom on Independence Day, then rolling into the Cynthiana Bike Fest, where our BACA crew will be out in full force. Come find us where science meets the streets.

7.04. Independence Day (US)

Northern Kentucky

CHAOS Lab will be celebrating in true chaos style—explosions in the sky, fire in the grill, and freedom ringing louder than a field report at full volume. Fireworks, barbecue, and just enough mayhem to keep it patriotic.

7.26. Cynthiana Bike Fest

Cynthiana, Kentucky.

A full-throttle celebration of freedom, community, and chrome—Cynthiana Bike Fest brings the roar to the river with bikes, bands, and badass vibes in small-town Kentucky.

Kentucky Bikers Against Child Abuse chapters are rolling in loud—connecting with the community, spreading awareness, and showing that biker boots and big hearts absolutely go together. Come for the bikes, stay for the purpose.

August 2025

August is stacked with science and chaos. We’re heading to the American Society of Pharmacognosy meeting to talk all things natural products—and after lab hours, we’re turning up the volume with back-to-back shows: Ice Nine Kills, and Halestorm + Volbeat. Research by day, metal by night.

8.02-06. American Society of Pharmacognosy Annual Meeting

grand rapids, Michigan.

Where natural product hunters, molecular alchemists, and bioactive brains collide—Chaos Lab calls it medicinal mayhem, straight from the source.

We're taking the mic at ASP2025—From Mud to Medicine: A geospatial strategy for natural product discovery and pathogen surveillance.

8.09. Ice Nine Kills’ Hell of a Summer 2025 Tour

East Moline, Illinois.

A blood-soaked carnival of metal and mayhem, Ice Nine Kills’ Hell of a Summer 2025 Tour tears across the country with Dayseeker, Kim Dracula, and The Funeral Portrait—delivering riffs, screams, and theatrical chaos you won’t survive unscarred.

8.21. Volbeat's Greatest of All Tours Worldwide with Halestorm

Noblesville, Indiana.

Volbeat and Halestorm unite for the Greatest of All Tours Worldwide 2025—a globe-crushing storm of riffs, fire, and feral energy, where metal meets melody and every night hits like a battle cry.

September 2025

September takes us deep into the data as we join the Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals GIS Conference. We’ll be talking maps, microbes, and how geospatial chaos drives real-world health impact.

9.23-25. Kentucky Association of Mapping Professional GIS Conference

Florence, kentucky.

Boots-on-the-ground geospatial, where Kentucky’s finest earth minds unite to dig into geospatial information systems—Chaos Lab calls it science with grit.

We’re hitting the KAMP geospatial information systems stage—Where Microbes Meet Maps: A Dynamic Geohealth Tool for Kentucky.

9.01. Labor Day

Various locations, USA.

At CHAOS Lab, we recognize Labor Day as a tribute to the backbone of it all: the workers. From field techs and research assistants to custodians, drivers, admin staff, and every underpaid, overcaffeinated scientist in between—this day honors the labor, sweat, and resilience that keep science (and society) running. Here’s to the doers, the makers, and the chaos-fueled change agents.

October 2025

October is pure, unfiltered CHAOS. We’re kicking things off at the North American Cartographic Information Society meeting to get our map-nerd fix, then heading to GSA Connects for geoscience, deep time, and dirty data. But it’s not all conference halls—this month also brings Halloween, and with it, haunted houses, fog machines, scream-fests, and spooky science vibes. You’ll find us chasing microbes by day and hitting the haunts by night. This is our season.

10.15-18. North American Cartographic Information Systems Meeting

Louisville, Kentucky.

Where mapmakers, data storytellers, and spatial visionaries gather to chart the weird, the wild, and the beautifully complex—Chaos Lab calls it cartographic chaos at its finest.

Plot twist: microbes are on the map. Catch us live at the NACIS meeting presenting—The Good, the Bad, and the Bioproductive: Microbial cartography in Kentucky.

10.19-22. Geological Society of America Connects 2025

San Antonio, Texas.

Where rock nerds, map slingers, and deep time devotees gather to drop data, swap stories, and shake the geosphere. Chaos Lab’s kind of party—science, strata, and a whole lotta ground truth.

10.31. Halloween

Various locations.

Let’s be real—CHAOS Lab’s brand is basically a Halloween metal concert year-round. But October? That’s when we truly thrive. Creepy microbes, cursed minerals, unholy data, and field gear that smells like the undead. We'll be summoning science, raising hell, and maybe a few eyebrows. Happy Halloween from the lab where it’s always spooky season—and the petri dishes bite back.

November 2025

November at CHAOS Lab is a mix of science, gratitude, and maybe a little pie-fueled chaos. We’re heading to the Kentucky Academy of Science Annual Meeting to drop data, connect with Kentucky’s best minds, and stir up some interdisciplinary mayhem. Then we’ll pause (briefly) for Thanksgiving—to give thanks for field partners who don’t bail, lab gear that mostly works, and families who pretend to understand what we do.

11.21-22. Kentucky Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting 2025

Louisville, Kentucky.

The Kentucky Academy of Science Annual Meeting is where Kentucky’s science scene goes full throttle—biologists, geologists, chemists, physicists, and all flavors of nerd converge for two days of data drops, poster sessions, and wild cross-discipline collisions. From high school prodigies to seasoned researchers, it’s a celebration of homegrown science, curiosity, and the kind of collaborative chaos we live for. Louisville won’t know what hit it.

11.27. Thanksgiving

United States.

At CHAOS Lab, Thanksgiving is our chance to hit pause (sort of) and give thanks—for loyal field partners, stubborn microbes, functional gear (bless), and the beautiful mess that is research. We’re grateful for the chaos, the curiosity, and the crew that makes it all possible.

Also, let’s be clear: pie is the official dessert of CHAOS Lab. We eat it year-round, but on Thanksgiving? It’s basically sacred. Pumpkin, pecan, apple—we don’t discriminate. Just pass the pie.

Past Chaos

June 2025

This month’s stacked: kicking off with the KGS Seminar, honoring strength on Women Veterans Day, and diving headfirst into nonstop fieldwork—creeks, cores, chaos. We’re closing it out loud at the Gallatin County Fair with our BACA fam. Let’s ride.

6.10. Kentucky Geological Survey Annual Seminar

Lexington, Kentucky.

Kentucky’s geoscience braintrust converges to talk bedrock, resources, and real-world impact—Chaos Lab calls it ground truth with purpose, straight from the source.

We’re rolling into the KGS Seminar—where geology hits the real world, and we’re here to throw down on collaboration, chaos, and Kentucky’s future.

Various Dates: Potter Intern Field Work

All over Kentucky.

Built for the next wave of rockstars in geoscience, the Potter Internship Program throws students into the real-world grit—mapping, fieldwork, and research that actually matters, right here in the Bluegrass.

This summer, CHAOS Lab is riding shotgun with the Potter crew—teaming up for wild field runs, microbial missions, and down-in-the-dirt science across Kentucky. Boots on, samples packed, chaos inbound.

6.12. Women Veterans' Day

All over Kentucky.

Women Veterans Day (June 12) honors the anniversary of the 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act—when women were finally allowed to serve as permanent, regular members of the U.S. military. It’s not just a date—it’s a hard-won milestone.

At CHAOS Lab, this day matters. We don’t just know women veterans—we are them. Scientists. Survivors. Soldiers. Some of us wore the uniform, and all of us fight for something.

Here’s to the women who served—and who still show up, in and out of the lab, to raise hell for a better world.

If you know of any Women Veterans Day events that you think would be a good fit for CHAOS Lab, let us know! Shoot us a line at washburnchaoslab@gmail.com, or on Instagram @washburnchaoslab.

6.13 - 6.14. Gallation County Fair

Warsaw, Kentucky.

Small-town Kentucky, big-time energy—the Gallatin County Fair brings the rides, the food, the chaos, and the community all in one place.

This year, local chapters of Bikers Against Child Abuse are showing up with purpose—rolling in to share the mission, stand for the kids, and remind everyone that strength, support, and solidarity can ride on two wheels.