Event Calendar

Did you know that there are organisms that can thrive in conditions too EXTREME for the human body? Join us for a fun family night and explore extreme environments here on Earth and beyond our solar system. Come out for alien crafts, activities, demonstrations, a tour of the observatory, and a special show in the Planetarium Star Theatre.

6:30pm, 7:00pm, 7:30pm and 9:00pm – Ground Station Canada Theatre - “How do we search for Exoplanets?” Discover more about planet hunting techniques and the work of Canadian scientists in their quest to find signs of life in the universe during a demonstration in our Groundstation Canada Theatre.

8:00pm - Planetarium Star Theatre show – “Pavilion Lake - British Columbia’s own extreme environment”

Ever wonder what a microbialite is? Have you ever seen a waterbear? Both of these organisms are found in harsh environments here on Earth. We’ll be looking at whether it would be possible for them to also survive in the extreme conditions of outer space. Discover how having a good understanding of extreme environments helps astronauts train for future space missions. Join our astronomer Kat Kelly and underwater explorer and marine biologist Donnie Reid in a special talk in the Planetarium Star Theatre as we search for life in extreme environments here on Earth and beyond.

9:00pm – 9:30pm – Tour the observatory and have a look at the night sky. (Weather permitting)

This event is recommended for ages 10+. Doors open at 6:15

TICKETS: $15 children (18 and under) $20 adults (19+)

Tickets available on Eventbrite until 12:00pm on March 1st, and at the door.

https://www.facebook.com/events/841951839469676/

Happy Nowruz! It is a new day. a day that if you were Persian you would celebrating a new year. It's a special day for many reasons, the Earth has tilted back towards the sun, and has hit equilibrium. Things are springing anew around us, it's a time to get things growing in our lives, which for us here at Nerd Nite, means learning together. So no matter how you celebrate this day, let's celebrate it together, because after all this is the 42nd edition of Nerd Nite so let's seek the “The Answer to the Great Question... Of Life, the Universe and Everything".

This month:

Christa Van Laerhoven - Orbital Resonance

We generally think of planets (and the smaller stuff, too) as going about their orbits, minding their own business. In actuality, our Solar System is a giant interact-a-thon, as fellow planetary bodies perturb each other via gravity. I will talk about a kind of interaction called orbital resonance and a way to diagnose that this particular kind of interaction is happening. The cast celestial characters that will help me demonstrate these concepts includes Neptune and everyone's favourite not-a-planet Pluto.

Bio: Christa Van Laerhoven is a valley girl from Agassiz and a postdoctoral fellow at UBC, studying what she likes to call 'orbital shenanigans' (how the orbits of planets, asteroids, and moons can change over time). She has a PhD from the Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona and a B.Sc. from UBC in Physics and Astronomy (Honours).

Kristi Charish - Science Through Storytelling

Ask any gamer who's played the sci-fi video game series Mass Effect about the genophage and they will spin you a tale of a genetically engineered virus that devastates an entire species fertility, and then they'll tell you of the mission they're on to discover and distribute a cure. So if a video game can convince millions of gamers to engineer a vaccine and release it across the galaxy, why can't we convince people on earth vaccinate against measles and take their antibiotics? Are we speaking a different language? Living in a overlapping but parallel universe? Tonight we'll talk about the power of the narrative and why it works so well. Video games, TV procedurals, films, and even our arch nemesis pseudoscience use the power of the narrative and we can too!

Kristi is the author of OWL AND THE JAPANESE CIRCUS, an urban fantasy series about a modern-day “Indiana Jane” who reluctantly navigates the hidden supernatural world, and THE VOODOO KILLINGS, an urban fantasy/mystery about a voodoo practitioner living in Seattle with the ghost of a deceased grunge rocker. She writes what she loves; adventure heavy stories featuring strong, savvy female protagonists, pop culture, and the occasional RPG fantasy game thrown in the mix.

Kristi is also a scientist with a BSc and MSc from Simon Fraser University in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and a PhD in Zoology from the University of British Columbia. Her specialties are genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology, all of which she draws upon in her writing.

Twitter: @kristicharish

FB: http://www.facebook.com/KristiCharishAuthor

Website: http://www.kristicharish.com

Instagram: @charishkristi

Glen Berseth - How to Teach a Robot to Walk in Two Simple Steps

Moving around in our world is a very important skill. It allows us to get to the bar so we can order drinks, or get to the bathroom after too many trips to the bar. In my talk, I will first describe the hand-holding process needed to get a robot to take its first steps. After a robot can walk I will describe what comes next when a new robot parent sets his child free to explore in a simulated world.

Bio: Glen Berseth is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia where he works in the Motion Control and Character Animation group. He received his BSc degree in Computer Science from York University in 2012 and his MSc from York University in 2014 for optimization and authoring crowd simulations. Glen is almost complete his PhD and will be starting a PostDoc at Berkeley where he will continue to force robots to do his bidding.

Poster by: Armin Mortazavi

IG: @armin.scientoonist

https://www.facebook.com/events/650467538724018/