Science-Comedy Improv Blitz
Actors meet scientists! See what happens when experts in comedy improvisation glorify, qualify, and versify the science insights of earnest PhD students (Wonderfest’s Science Envoys)… Laughter joins learning to capture your imagination.
- TITLE: Science Improv Blitz
- SPEAKER: Wonderfest Science Envoys and Improv Comedians
- WHEN: 7:00 PM, Friday, November 1, 2013
- WHERE: StrEat Food Park, 428 – 11th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
- HOW: Presented as a public service by Wonderfest, the Bay Area Beacon of Science, and the Bay Area Science Festival
- ADMISSION: FREE!
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From ancient conjurers to quick-handed con artists to big ticket Las Vegas illusionists, magicians throughout the ages have been expertly manipulating human attention and perception to dazzle and delight us (or scare us, or steal our watches). Of course you know that the phenomena of 
We humans often do battle with creepy invaders of our living spaces. Come and learn the latest research on the biology, detection, and control of three particularly villainous house guests. You might be surprised to find which room in your home is their favorite target. We will have a lot of fun, and there will be props a-plenty to go around.
Roger Ebert wrote of this terrific little film:
“There’s no shame in being a parasite. We join a venerable guild that has been on this planet since its infancy and has become the most successful form of life on the planet. But we [humans] are clumsy in the parasitic way of life. … [Other parasites] are expert at causing only harm that’s necessary, because evolution has taught them that pointless harm will ultimately harm themselves. If we want to succeed as parasites, we need to learn from the masters.”**
While self-confidence is a prized human attribute, too much confidence can be obnoxious, pernicious, and even deadly. This audience-participation skeptalk will present a simple 10-question quiz to measure an important aspect of individual self-confidence. With analysis and discussion of these measurements, audience members will be better able to calibrate properly their personal levels of self-confidence. The ultimate goal will be a “healthier skepticism” toward one’s own depth of knowledge about the world. 
If doomsday is coming in 2012, it had better hurry! On December 1st, with just one month to meet the legendary “End of Days” before 2013, Wonderfest invites you to a more rational examination of doomsday. End of Daze: Does Hollywood Get Doomsday Right? presents uber-droll planetary scientist Chris McKay introducing a special screening of 2012’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Get the explosive truth — as best we know it — about how days might reallyend if a monster asteroid comes to town. Don’t miss the rapture of this fundraising event for Wonderfest and Variety Children’s Charity. It’ll be a blast!
Since at least the beginning of the written record, epidemics of infectious disease have swept through plant and animal populations, including humans, and altered the course of history. The unexpected, diverse, and seemingly sophisticated composition and behavior of these naturally-occurring epidemic agents has prompted many to proclaim Mother Nature to be a far more effective bioterrorist than Man could ever be. Yet, recent developments in the ongoing biology and biotechnology “revolution” may force us to reconsider this conclusion. New insights and capabilities in the life sciences, as illustrated by the recent creation of novel transmissible and virulent bird flu viruses in the laboratory, suggest that humans might rival Mother Nature for this dubious distinction.
