Hey Ithaca Nerds! Please join us for our very first Nerd Nite at the Big Red Barn on Cornell’s campus.
“it’s like the discovery channel – with beer”
Here’s the lineup:
Presentation 1: Hey TopGear! This is the quintessential American car!
For most folks, their first car always maintains a special place in their hearts. This is no different for Carl Ferkinhoff, a graduate student in the department of Astronomy, who will present his irreverent look at the British car show TopGear and share his theory on how his first car truly is the quintessential American automobile.
Presentation 2: The Voynich Manuscript – A literary enigma
Since its discovery in a small Italian villa in 1912, the Voynich Manuscript has fascinated – and frustrated – scholars for decades. Filled with surreal illustrations of bathing nymphs, diagrams of unidentifiable plants, and written in an untranslatable language, the manuscript’s secrets have proven resilient against linguists, cryptologists, historians, biologists, and more. Join library staff member Amanda Bartley as she explores this supremely bizarre object.
Presentation 3: Mother Nature on the Bachelorette: Reality TV through the lens of Natural Selection
Does Reality TV seem like reality to you? How would the behaviors exhibited on these shows fare against good, old-fashioned Natural Selection? Could RuPaul’s Drag Race be the garter snake’s means of survival? How would 25 elephant seals do in a competition for one bachelorette? Veterinary student Michelle White will compare our favorite (or least favorite) stars with both extant and extinct animal friends to estimate how Mother Nature might sort things out.