My 20 minutes of fame at NerdNiteDC: Loving your inner germs

I'll be presenting tonight at NerdNiteDC at the DC9 club. It's a night of music, drinks and science. I will be presenting a fun and informal 20 minute talk about why we should love the good nerd germs and not give all of our undivided attention at the bad boys of the microbial world, using Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall in an extended metaphor all the kids are sure to get.

A week of geeking out in DC

Things I did this week that sat well with my geek soul:

Went to the Science Club for some drinks with friends, one about to receive her PhD, another who got hers last year and is now a prof, to trade notes on life after the PhD.

Was back at the Science Club a few days after for a happy hour with the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellows.

Earlier that day, a few Fellows and I did a tour of NPR Headquarters. It was nerd heaven. We got a tour of the famous studios, the library, visited the NPR Music offices (where Renee Montagne happened to be passing through after a Tiny Desk recording with the Cranberries) and were shown some very cool technology being developed at NPR Labs for increasing accessibility of NPR programming to hearing- and seeing-impaired folks. Most exciting for me was being in a studio when in walks in the hosts of Alt Latino, Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garsd! I introduced myself and shook hands and yeah was totally star struck. I love Alt Latino. This week they have on Gael García Bernal as guest DJ.

Alt Latino hosts, Jasmine Garsd and Felix Contreras. Photo by Yanina Manolova/NPR

The week ended with Nerd Nite at DC9. Nerd Nite, as described on their website, 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.


This week's presenters spoke about sexual attraction to objects, Xenopus the wonder frog, and my favorite, the science of love, by fellow Fellow, Tania Tam. It was so much fun! And incredibly thought-provoking and informative.

Dr. Tania Tam's talk on The Science of Love.

Danger points in a romantic relationship, time on X axis, intensity on Y axis.  One line represents "companionate" relationships, the other "passionate" relationships.

                          

A modest proposal for DC's official crustacean

Rock Creek, Washington DC. Photo by M Vinces.

The other day I was in the National Zoo in Washington DC and  I walked into the Small Mammal House since it was an especially sleepy day at the zoo and most of the critters were resting and hiding away and I was in the mood for furry cuteness.  The Small Mammal House seemed like a good bet.  I wasn't disappointed.  I saw quite a few sengis, aka "elephant shrews" (a misnomer, since they are not true shrews, but interestingly are actually more closely related to elephants and manatees than to true shrews).  They were weird and adorable which is just what I wanted.

On one of the notes outside the glass enclosure containing some rare golden lion tamarins was a box describing the importance of habitat protection for saving threatened species, in which they used as an example, the importance of closing certain trails in the nearby Rock Creek Park, because these areas are the sole habitat of an endangered "shrimp-like species".  Intrigued by the notion that this urban park was the unique habitat of a rare species that existed no where else on the planet, I looked around the Small Mammal House for more information about this mysterious "shrimp-like creature".  I didn't find any, so I got on the Google and found out the little rascal is called Hay's Spring Amphipod and it lives no where else but for a few springs in in the zoo and in the adjacent Rock Creek Park.  Surely the Invertebrates Exhibit will have a special section on this species that exists no where else in the Universe but for a few creeks in the District of Columbia (and possibly Maryland)! But no. Lots of cool animals with no backbones: giant land crab, charismatic cuttlefish, ephemeral jellyfish, but no mention of DC's own very special and endangered crustacean. How could this be? Why isn't this little critter on the State District emblem?

Not Hay's Spring Amphipod, but a close relative (Pizzini's Amphipod, Stygobromus pizzini). Photo by Brent Steury, National Park Service.

Perhaps because it is a lowly, pale and blind amphipod that lives in mud and water?  Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing may have said it best when he wrote in 1899 of the lowly amphipods:

No panegyrist of the Amphipoda has yet been able to evoke anything like popular enthusiasm in their favour. To the generality of observers they are only not repelled because the glance which falls upon them is unarrested, ignores them, is unconscious of their presence.

And indeed, Hay's Spring Amphipod (Stygobromus hayi) spends its life in groundwater near natural springs, so it's not likely something we'd see during a walk in the park.  It's also not furry or doe-eyed.  In fact it's pale and blind, feeds on rotting organic matter and is less than an inch long.  But with a little bit of marketing, perhaps we could make this the DC mascot! An underdog creature for an underdog State Federal Disctrict!  A tiny survivor holding its own in the middle of a tough city.

But more seriously, I think the little amphipod would be an excellent reminder of how we humans have endangered life of all kinds, great and small, and that endangered species are everywhere, not just in exotic far-off places, but sometimes in our own backyards.

Some of my own ideas for the DC official crustacean mascot.