Nerd Nite 23: Animal Shapes, Cyborgs and Cosmological Dischord: An Evening
Learning. Beer. Friends. What more could you ask for?
When:
Thursday, February 19
7pm-10pm
Where: mod
2828 North Central Avenue, Phoenix
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Presentation #1: Dating Tips from the Animal Kingdom: What to Wear and How to Flaunt It
by Kaci Fankhauser
The animal kingdom is full of color: from hummingbirds and rainbowfish to butterflies and lizards, almost every major taxon has a shiny piece of the color spectrum to show off as their own. Often times these colors are used as warnings to predators, suggesting that the wearers are unpalatable or, in many cases, armed and dangerous. However, bright colors are also commonly used as sexual signals, showcasing the bearer’s fitness to potential mates. Whether they are judged on the quality of their colors or their ability to “flaunt what they got,” the loudest and the proudest are the varsity players of animal courtship.
Kaci is a senior at Arizona State University, studying biology and anthropology. An aspiring wildlife veterinarian, she stumbled somewhat unknowingly into the world of research in the fall of 2011 when she was recruited to help rear tropical butterflies for an animal coloration lab on campus. Three and a half years later, she has worked on projects with numerous species of local and tropical butterflies, as well as predation experiments with quail and chickens. She is currently focusing on completing her thesis, studying iridescent signals in pigeons. In her free time she works at an emergency animal hospital, goes to local art events, and spends time with her bird, cat, lizard, or any/all of her four furry canine roommates
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Presentation #2
Epiphylogenesis OR Why we do Things with Stuff
by Ron Broglio
Like manic lovers we want to be close to our technology and then we want to dis it and be free …until we miss it again. We want our identity as separate from our gadgets but our personalized cell phones, quadriphonic stereos, and cuisinarts are just so much a part of us.
Ron Broglio will use snazzy terms like techno-prosthesis, epiphylogenesis, and necromedia to explain how being human means being technological. And yes, our technologies will out live us—it won’t be like the robot wars of Terminator. It’s a velvet revolution where technology of one generation determines and preconditions the lives of the next generation.
We are already cyborg.
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Presentation #3:Dwarf Planets, Scientific Strife, and Cosmological Dischord OR How We Discovered Eris and What We Did To Her When We Found Her.
by Kevin Flanagan
Kevin Flanagan explains why Pluto is and isn’t a planet, how an obscure Greek goddess is to blame, and tells the largest joke (by mass) mankind has ever told.”
Posted in Upcoming Nerd Nite Events