There'll be Nerds

Don't deny it. DC is a town full of nerds, geeks, and wonks. That is why Nerd Nite is finally bringing its show to the Wonderland on Saturday, Sept. 26. Or as the organizers describe it: "Nerd Nite; it's like the Discovery Channel with beer."

Here's the line-up:

*Presentation #1:
The Neurobiology of Zombies
by Jeremy Kay

Description: Zombie mind control is real! Some types of parasites have the ability to turn their hosts into zombies that serve the needs and whims of the parasitic invader. I'll give some more examples of real-life zombies and delve into the neurobiology of how a parasite can control the behavior of its host.

Bio: Jeremy is a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Harvard. His professional work concerns vision, but he thinks parasite mind-control is far more interesting. His interest in zombies is purely academic. Really. Like, your brain will totally not get eaten if you show up. We promise.

*Presentation #2:
by Seth Cain
I’m not telling you, but it involves the elimination of human waste in space. Yep, I said it.

*Presentation #3:
Vaccines Are Helpful, But Making Them Is Gross
by Rebecca Blank
Description: Vaccines. We’ve all had them (well, ideally all of us). They keep us healthy even though they may make our arms and/or buttocks sore. But since they’re in the news, there are also a lot of misrepresentations of them. Rebecca will dive into the history of vaccines because you probably want to know that some methods involved taking pus from cow's lesions and injecting it into humans. Or that there once was an actual Cooties vaccine which we should all have been immunized against in childhood if our friends were nice enough to provide us with. Oh, and she’ll talk about the real science behind them, besides just recounting the icky details.

Bio: Coming soon (Rebecca currently has the swine flu – seriously – so she’s currently focused on fever reduction instead of bio writing)

Music and mental hygiene and Cold War film footage by indie rock supergroup Overlord (http://www.myspace.com/overlordisnotmetal) which features former Nerd Nite presenter George Pasles on vocals and lead guitar, current Palomar (http://www.myspace.com/palomar) bassist and former Nerd Nite presenter Sarah ‘Brockett’ Brockett, part-time Palo keyboardist Tris McCall, and past drummer Matt Houser. And Kerry too.

More information is on the Nerd Nite website or its Facebook page.