On March 19th, 1962, Bob Dylan released his debut album with Columbia Records! Join us for an equally momentous event at Nerd Nite v2.0!
Where: Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive)
When: Wednesday, March 19th 2014 @ 8pm (Doors @ 7:30pm)
Tickets: $5 dollars at the door
#1 Whales vs. Worms – Who’s Eating Whom?
Sheila Byers
Like a classic horror story, eyeless worms lurk in the dark, settling on dead animals in the deep ocean and sending out green roots to devour their bones. What?!? You’ve got to be kidding. Seriously, a recent discovery of zombie worms reveals an interesting twist on the size factor of whales versus worms and who’s eating whom. Can these tiny mouth-less worms really play a role in controlling the fate of whale carcasses that fall to the ocean floor? Oh…, did I mention their peculiar sex life?
Bio: Sheila Byers is a marine invertebrate taxonomist, specializing in polychaete worms, their natural history and ecology. She is the author of the booklet, “Explore the Rocky Shore at Stanley Park” and loves to go on beach walks to discover the fascinating local biodiversity. She is presently working as an Interpreter at the ‘new’ Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC.
#2 How to be a Superhero
Kirby Morrow
They say that variety is the “spice of life”. Well how spicy would you find life if you changed your job, relationships, and even your entire sense of self, dozens of times a year. One week you’re a lawyer in a rocky marriage, the next month you’re a superhero defending the galaxy, and a few days later, you’re a little girl with a lisp… even though your driver’s license claims you’re a 40 year old man. It sounds like the troubled life of someone mentally ill, but in fact it is the fabulous life of a working actor and voice actor.
Bio: A veteran of the stage and screen in a multitude of mediums. From stand up comedian to animated superhero and a recognizable guest star on dozens of television shows and movies. Kirby is known around the world as one of the most diverse and talented voice over actors today. His portrayal of Goku from “Dragonball Z”, Cole on Lego’s “Ninjago” and Michaelangelo from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” are among hundreds of characters he has voiced.
On camera Kirby is widely known as Captain Dave Kleinman from “Stargate: Atlantis”. He has most recently starred in the Hallmark movie “Ring by Spring”, the hit web series “Parked” and a number of tv series including the hit show “Arrow”. Kirby’s diverse range of characters and credits has made him a sought after attendee at Comicons and Animation Conventions around the world.
#3 Dancing, Dips, Ducks and Distant Lions: The Real Science of Real Alien Worlds
Dr. Jaymie Matthews
On 26 February 2014, the number of planets in the Universe known to humanity almost doubled. What’s that have to do with dancing? The first planets around stars other than the Sun were found by a technique (pioneered at UBC and UVic) which follows the moves of distant stars with their unseen planetary dance partners. Dips? Dips in light are key to discovering even more exoplanets with satellites, including Canada’s first space telescope. Ducks? If you want to be sure you have found a duck, it must look like a duck, waddle like a duck, and quack like a duck. The same cautious principle applies to finding planets. Distant lions? To understand the sudden explosion of confirmed planets last month (which was detonated by a UBC alumnus and my former PhD student), it helps to picture yourself looking for lions on the Serengeti. Find out how cosmic discoveries in our own Galaxy (but still far, far away) are being made in your own backyard here in Vancouver
Bio: Dr. Jaymie Matthews is an astrophysical “gossip columnist” who unveils the hidden lifestyles of stars by eavesdropping on “the music of the spheres.” His version of an interstellar iPod is Canada’s first space telescope, MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars). which detects vibrations in the light of ringing starts too subtle to be seen by the largest telescopes on Earth. MOST also makes Dr. Matthews an “astro-paparazzo” by helping him spy on planets around other stars that might be homes for alien celebrities. Celebrities? Maybe not beings like the fictional Vulcans, but even the discovery of extraterrestrial microbes on another world would qualify those microbes as newsmakers of the century.
Dr. Matthews is the Mission Scientist leading the Canadian Space Agency’s MOST project, and a Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. In 2006, Dr. Matthews was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2012 he received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In addition to heading the MOST Mission, Dr. Matthews serves on the Science Team for BRITE Constellation (BRIght Target Explorer) – a Canadian-Austrian-Polish space satellite mission to monitor the brightest stars in the night sky. He is a member of the Executive Council for NASA’s Kepler space satellite mission hunting for Earth-sized exoplanets in the Habitable Zones of their parent stars.