Antarctica+Eshaa

This month's Teen Science Cafe featured the very enthusiastic and existential Alex Rothburg. Rothburg is a ichthyologist for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. During his presentation, Rothburg coupled his research findings on the origins of the biodiversity of fishes that live in the Antarctic with an existential discussion on evolutionary biology and its implications on death. He particularly focused his research on ice fishes and was able to use death to explain the significance of life and the harmful effects of climate change.

As we entered, the tables were set up with pencils and bingo boards. With my iced tea in hand, I got ready for a presentation and was excited about playing games. As soon as Mr. Rothburg entered the stage, you could tell that he was very passionate about what he had been researching, making it a very welcoming and fun experience. As his presentation began, we were instructed to mark off words of our bingo boards as he mentioned them within his presentation. This was an effective and interactive way of presenting some buzzwords, such as anti-freeze proteins and the like. Within his presentation he mentioned many species that are being effected by climate change, such as lion fish which are being hunted. He also mentioned the effects that trawling has on ecosystems. The tone of the presentation pivoted slightly when he began to speak about life and death and relate it to evolutionary biology. He stated that death equals failure and that the evolution of thoughts leads to happiness. He also mentioned that the history of life is the history of evolutionary biology. He made lots of great connections between fish and humans by mentioning how the genomes of zebra fish could be used as a rosetta stone to link back to humans. Then there was a question and answer portion where an adorable little girl was able to make him reveal that whales are his favorite animal. This presentation was especially relevant to the course because it mentions lots of effects fishing industry practice has, such as the effects of the krill industry and trawling nets.