Nerd Nite (early event)
SAT MAR 13
| Show | 6:30pm |
| Doors | 6:00pm |
21+
$10
Nerd Nite is an informal gathering at which nerds get together for nerdery of all sorts (well, mostly presentations and drinking). Nerds and non-nerds alike gather to meet, drink and learn something new. Each evening, three nerds will give short, fun presentations where they can nerd out about sperm transfer, string theory, Aztec mythology, or some similarly nerdilicious topic. While they talk, you drink, thereby increasing their wittiness, and your IQ.
Presentation #1 By Shelah Morita
On The Fly: the scariest, cutest, most well known and least understood thing on two wings.
Ever think the world would be a better place without flies? Who needs mosquitoes anyway? Well, you do. Inspiring fear, disgust, and usually symbols of death and decay in literature and art, the diversity of body form and lifestyle in flies has been largely misrepresented by a few, common species. I’ll show you how flies are anything but common, how to identify a ‘true fly,’ and why you should be thanking blood-sucking flies for that chocolate martini.
Bio: Shelah is a research collaborator in the Department of Entomology at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, where she studies fly evolution, insect systematics and blood-sucking pollinators.Presentation #2 By Tracy Duvall
Is Sarah Palin White?
Description: No matter how funky Justin Timberlake is, races are not genetic categories. As the great sociologists Rodgers and Hammerstein averred, “You've got to be carefully taught.” Hurray for education in the USA! Racial stereotypes seem to be one of the few things that almost every American learns, making race socially but not genetically 'real.' We'll consider all that, including who can jump.
Bio: Tracy has held such lofty positions as assistant curator of ethnohistory and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona. He committed the career version of suicide by quitting to teach high school, only to become a college professor again. Blah blah blah.
Presentation #3 By Jason Keagy
Sex on the brain? Scientific studies show intelligence IS sexy!
Description: Brains and sex. Nerds have dreamed that someday somehow the first would lead to the other. I will present various evolutionary scenarios under which bigger brain power will lead to passing on the most genes, the evolutionary equivalent of becoming a millionaire. Then, using data from my research on bowerbirds in Australia and evolutionary psychologists’ research on humans, I will show how at least in some species, brainier males get more babes and brainier females regret their mate choice decisions the least the next morning.
Bio: Jason is a doctoral candidate in the Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics Program at the University of Maryland who is writing his dissertation and will soon be in need of a job. He is on a mission to use science to convince girls that his intelligence makes him sexy. When he’s not watching bowerbird porn or pouring over scientific papers about what are the best pick-up lines, he engages in activities that may lead to the premature end of his brain like mountain biking or marathon running.