Balticon 42: Monday Science Sessions

It was my last day to get my geek fix. I bribed the kids with some pool time and was good to attend a few more sessions. I made it to the last few minutes of Twist and turns at Mercury by Dr. Robin Vaughan, APL, Learning disability as an analog for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by H. Paul Shuch, PhD, Life in Darwin's Universe by Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. and the first half of "Artifacts ID- Hands on 18th and 19th century pieces from Virginia" by TeriLee Edwards-Hewitt, Alexandria Archaeology.

NOTES:

Twist and turns at Mercury

Dr. Robin Vaughan, APL

There is a 15 min lag time for communications with the satellite.

Learning disability as an analog for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

“Aliens Among Us - SETI League’

H. Paul Shuch, PhD

We delivered a special message in 1974 which equaled a small pamphlet about earth in a binary code. At this point he pulled out his guitar and broke into a filk tune. “It takes a long time to talk to ET, EM velocity can’t exceed C”

The idea that aliens first contact with us will be our TV singles of I Love Lucy are pretty much impossible. TV signals may travel but won’t be received as a TV image and sound.

NASA had a SETI program which they started on the 500 year anniversary of Columbus landing. NASA’s SETI program was operational for 1 year when congress shut it down because we had not gotten a response. The program cost each tax payer 1 cent a year. The SETI League took over the operations with many of the same people working on the program. Their website is www.setileague.com. The SETI Institute (CA) uses large donations for a large telescope for a targeted approach to looking for communications from other galaxies. The SETI League (NY) has members in 65 countries, uses lots of smaller donations and uses a sweep approach for communications. The programs are redefining communications. In 1959 they considered gamma rays and decided against it. Instead they worked with the more possible microwaves. In 2000, they are looking for new ways to communicate such as zeta waves.

Human Learning Disabilities or Alien Communication Differences

Aspergers – geeks, poor social skills, very intelligent.

ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder, multitaskers, need to command their attention

Autism – lack of attempt to communicate, hyper focused, speak and think metaphorically (example: Star Trek September 1992 Darmok)

Different language - each industry has its own language, need to find a common language for communications (example: techno babble vs. psychobabble)

Time – how a groups sees time: a sundial has the least moving parts and time appears to move slowly; an hourglass has the most moving parts and time appears to move quite quickly. How you perceive time determines the urgency to reply to communications.

So if there is life out there we need to be patient and try to communicate in multiple ways.

Life in Darwin 's Universe

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr

Life in Darwin ’s Universe – the natural history perspectives of the search for life on other worlds. Are we alone? Yes. Frank Drake vs. Enrico Ferni.

Evolution does not expect an outcome of intelligent life or technological advanced society.

N=N* Fp Ne F1 Fi Fc FL

N= number of communication ETI in the galaxy

N* = Stars in Galaxy

Fp = stars with planets

Ne = habitable planets

F1 = planets with life

Fi = involve intelligence

Fc = want to communicate

FL = exist for billion of years (persist)

Star Trek universe N= 3,330,000 communicating universes

Carl Sagon universe N=0.1 communicating civilizations = 1 per 10 galaxies

Life needs an active recycling planet. This uplifts (volcanic, fusion, etc) and weathers the minerals etc to redistribute materials need for life. Activity can be fission (core fission, volcanic, etc) or hydro activity. 4-4.3 billion years ago pheo and proto earth collided and make up our current planet and moon. The rim region of space is metal poor and has less tectonics. The core region of space has more masses colliding.

Common assumptions for fir EIT is life progresses towards intelligence, technology and both will persist. Some animals are problem solving such as elephants, parrots and octopus. Others are tool users such as the otters, ants, and woodpeckers. Bottlenose dolphins do use sponges to pick up spiky things. Animals with one don’t necessarily evolve to do both. Floresiensis (homo flores aka “hobbits”) from 2 histories ago (1500-200ka) were another branch of humans. In the evolution of species often technology only changed when the ‘wet ware” or brains changed. Only in modern man has a group of people who were innovative and the technology changed without a ‘wet ware’ change.

Other obstacles are Sustainable (22 centuries); food growth; ‘oops’ – nuclear, bomb/accident, war, etc; environment – extinction events might not wipe out the technical group but might affect their climate and cause resources to be focused on food rather then communicating with us; fission reaction in the planet may run out and the bio sphere will die, and the sun expanding and destroying the bio sphere.

N=0.0002667 is less than 3% of milky way galaxies would have communicating ETI in any given million years. “Rare Earth” hypothesis. Yet we still have a chance to explore wonderful new worlds with low technology (N=2.667) or unique animal grad worlds (N=1,070,000). There is much to discover out there even if they can’t communicate with us.

"Artifacts ID- Hands on 18th and 19th century pieces from Virginia"

TeriLee Edwards-Hewitt

Twelve years ago they thought the oldest settlement in the Washington DC area was only 8,000 years ago. Now they have recently found proof that there were Indian settlements here as long ago as 13,000 years ago. The sites were found in Alexandria and Georgetown. Some of the discoveries were made because of the recent Wilson Bridge project expanding the bridge and the efforts to make sure the new sound barrier does not disturb graves in a American Civil War cemetery.

The American Indians used tree bark to clean their teeth. There are records of how they thought the settlers had bad teeth. Before the Civil War there was a common family toothbrush that had replaceable bristles. The bristles were commonly made out of boar or horsehair and were secured with copper wire. As the men went of to war they started to carry their own brushes and it became common for each person to have their own.

Balticon 42: Sunday Science Sessions

I'm in geek heaven. There are times I really wish I could be everywhere at once. Sunday's Balticon (www.balticon.org) programming was packed with science programming I wanted to attend. I wasn't able to attend the sessions on Life, the universe and the second law of thermodynamics by John Ashmead nor the Lasers and optics by Matt Reitan. I was able to cut a deal with the family so I could attend several other sessions though. EPOXI and a new extra solar planet exploration by Dr. Timothy A Livengood (Bio and Voyage In DC), A stroll through the forest/jungle of modern astrophysics by Dr. Yoji Kondo, Ancient myth narratives by Rabbi Alan Yuter (wikipedia: Jewish Museum of Maryland) , and James Webb Space Telescope by Laura A Burns. I managed to catch the last 15 minutes of the Pots, poniards and people by Barry M Gittlen, PhD (Baltimore Hebrew University). Unfortunately Dr. Carey Lisse was not able to make it to give the session on Cassini's observations of the Saturn system. The Saturn session was replaced with a presentation of a thesis on quantum time.

The talk on astrophysics was definitely a bit over my head but the speaker Dr. Yoji Kondo is such a sweet wonderful guy I couldn't leave. Until I did some web searching to post this I had no idea how much he has accomplished. I found bios and awards for him on multiple sites including: Balticon bio, wikipedia bio, and NASA News .

The talk on quantum time was delivered by an excellent speaker but I just couldn't follow the physics. Chemistry kept me from going on to an oceanography degree and I’m imagining physics would have accomplished the same. It is difficult for me to wrap that kind of math around in my head.

Unfortunately I only caught the last 15 min of Barry M Gittlen PhD talk on an ancient olive oil factory town in the Middle East. The little bit I was there for was fascinating. Hopefully the excavate more and he does a follow up talk soon. Is a part of “Ask the Archeologist” so I might have other opportunities to learn about his findings. ‘James Webb Space Telescope’ (NASA education site and NASA JWST home page). Yeah, I took more notes and a few websites. Both talks were too short. The audience could have easily kept them busy with an hour of follow questions and discussions. All of the sessions are an hour long.

NOTES:

EPOXI and a new extra solar planet exploration

Dr Timothy A Livengood

Demotion of Pluto from planet status is not unprecedented. The Then there were the talks on ‘EPOXI and the new epoch of extra solar planet exploration’ and

demotion was in the "works" for years.

Planets are named for Roman Gods while other heavenly bodies are named for Greek Gods. Names do not use other myths or religious group deities because it can be a sensitive cultural matter. Not all groups want their God(s) or Goddess(es) use for naming heavenly bodies.

Watching Doppler changes is currently the most common way of discovering new planets. The changing colors (Doppler) are caused by the sun/star's movement or wobble which indicate there is a planet or planets. If you imagine a parent swinging a child in a circle, the child moves and the parent moves (wobbles) too. This wobble affects the light from the star and from the planet (farther and closer away). The wobble proves there is a planet even if none is seen. It can be proven by the light frequency measurements.

Planets known in our solar system = 8

Planets known outside of our solar system = 287

Recommended doing a Google search for "extra solar encyclopedia" and "EPOXI".

There are 6 methods to find planets. Eclipse photometry is the least expensive method. This one just requires a good mass produced telescope, $5,000 camera, and freeware software, totaling less than $10,000.

EPOXI/EPOCH will do it with eclipse photometry.

EPOCH =

Extrasolar

Planetary

Observation &

Characterization

EPOCH is an intensive follow-up study of stars that we already know host a planet. A space craft with a limited view and using already existing equipment. It will measure the brightness changes as the planet orbits the sun. The data will be used to study eclipsing planet and eclipsing stars.

EPOXI was originally to study comet. It is orbiting the sun rather than orbiting Earth. EPOXI can look at an object for 3 to 4 weeks. It has stable radiation levels and a defocused ("crummy") camera. It will also be used to study Earth.

Quantum Time

John Ashmead

His disorientation which he will be presenting in 3 weeks to a

conference for physics in Montréal.

Is time quantized in the same way space is quantized? Time: one

second at time or as a whole. Relativity: time/space. Quantum

mechanics: space is fuzzy, time is a parameter.

Pots Poniards and People

Barry M Gittlen

Pots have been discovered with ancient Hebrew letters saying for Aisha (a goddess). Another said ‘pot Gaia’, the Greek earth goddess with the names of 5 Syrian kings names listed. In the first layer (deepest) there were lots of pig bones showing they were a common food source but the last layer had none and this is the layer which had the inscriptions written in Hebrew. The olive oil factory town they have been excavating could produce up to 1,000 tons of olive oil in a season.

James Webb Space Telescope

Laura A Burns

James E. Webb 1906-1992

James Webb helped develop the science path for NASA, prior it was just exploration. He led Apollo. He was NASA’s second Administrator and began the proposal for a space based telescope. The telescope named in his honor is the only one named for an administrator.

Hubble vs. James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): The Hubble is a serviceable satellite in an earth orbit pattern and uses high resolution images. The JWST is a non serviceable satellite which will be in orbit at L2 (1.5 million kilometers) and will use near and mid infrared. The JSWT has a mirror larger then Hubble’s. Compared to the Spitzer the JWST will have a larger field.

The JWST will have 4 main science goals. 1) To end the dark ages: 1^st light and reionization, what are the 1^st galaxies. 2) The assembly of galaxies 3) Birth of stars and protoplanetary bodies 4) Planetary systems and the origins of life.

While developing the JWST they had to predict what technology would be available to make the project work and then try to develop it along side of developing the satellite. Its mirror is 6.4 meters and will fit into a 4 meter rocket via “satellite origami”. There are 18 mirror segments and each one has 7 actuators to help align them all to make one continuous surface. The primary mirror segments actuators align the mirror on 6 planes of movement and the 7^th can be used to warp the center of the mirror. The mirror segments are cut from a single sheet of barium which is then coated with gold plating to make the reflective surface. The solid piece of barium weighs 100 kg prior to drilling and weighs 13 kg after the mirror is completed.

The launch date for the JWST is 2013 and has a project life span of 5 years with funding to continue through 10 years after launch. Currently there is no way of getting humans to L2 to service the JWST. There is an O-ring on the JWST incase we are able to have humans or robots service it prior to the end of the project life span. The Hubble is the only serviceable satellite in orbit and there is a large cost associated with those services. The cost of the JWST project, as of 2007, is $4.5 billion (US) over it’s 25 year life span covering design, building and operation. This comes to about $15 of taxes per person in the US – total.

There is an unofficial Lego kit of the JWST and it can be found at www.jwstinlego.com

Balticon 42: Masquerade

Well we pulled it off. William insisted the cats had to have white bellies so there was last minute bellies pinned onto all three cats. Little Cat W and Little Cat S appeared in the green room about 40 min before stage call. Plenty of time to get ‘oos’ and ‘aws’ from their adoring fans in the hallway and get their professional photos taken before lining up with the other young fans to go on stage. There were 8 young fan (under 13) entries. Our mischievous cats were the last ones to go onto stage.

(Listening to the rules in the Green Room)

William wanted to go on before cue and Selena wanted to stay back stage to watch the giant screen. Tim managed to get them onto stage but they stopped before hitting their mark and then over shot it. I was on the other side trying to get them to wave to the audience. Well they did at least look at the audience at least once. The message relayed to me from the tech crew was I was herding cats. Yes I was and this time they were even dressed as cats. The audience seemed to love them. The folks in the hall taking amateur photos had fun with them too. They returned to the stage to get their ribbons. We picked up their certificates on Sunday to add to their scrap books.

Since their hats and bows were store bought and the kid gloves too I didn’t enter into the workmanship competition. The kids seemed to have more fun with it all showing up closer to show time. For me to enter the workmanship competition we would have had to be there 2 hours before the show. We did that the last 3 years and then the judges decided not to judge the adult made kids costumes at the last minute. One friend from the green room suggested I might have been a bit too much competition for a novice. The flattery helped but I don't think I'm that good yet.

William wants to go on stage next year by himself as a super hero. I can work with that and we can have one of us in a "ninja suite" ready to go on with him just in case he decides he wants company on stage. Tim's cat shirt and pants should make for a comfortable ninja outfit for quite a few years to come. Selena seems to love the attention of the photographers and being on stage. We'll have to think of some thing for her to go back on stage next year too.

My little stars shined.

Balticon 42: Saturday Science Sessions

Since I couldn't live in the science room and needed to not only trade off with the kid so my husband could enjoy some time at the con, I also wanted to spend some time with the family. I missed the talks on Fungal Movement - The Microscopic Circus by Nicholas P Money, PhD and Poultry Feathers to Plastic by Dr. Walter Schmidt. Both peeked my curiosity but I just couldn't attend. I did manage to attend the Messenger Update by Noam Izenberg, JHU-APL and Dinosaurs - The Update by Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. Yes and this geeky science groupie took more notes.

Mercury: Messenger Update

Noam Izenberg, JHU-APL

Messenger has multiple cameras: wide angle and high resolution cameras. They are using filters to get color images which shows the different properties of light effected by the type of rocks, rock age, etc. One other tool is the ultraviolet spectrum for determining rock types.

Should be in the July issue of "Science".

NASA’s website for Messenger and Messenger on Wikpedia.

Dinosaurs - The Update

Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.

At Balticon just about every one of Dr. Holtz sessions fills to capacity in minutes. He is a wonderfully animated speaker who truly loves his subject matters and enjoys passing that interest on to the audience. The first time I heard him speak he said he had been coming to Balticon for years as a con goer and was flattered when they first asked him to speak. When he is not speaking at Sci-fi conventions, writing books, working in the field and filming TV shows he teaches at the University of Maryland Department of Geology. I can just imagine the wait list for his classes.

I was hanging on his every word and memorized by the PowerPoint slides. The few notes I did take barely scratches the surface of everything he covered.

Dino status determined by placement in history and evolution not by size.

New critters are being discovered at an amazing rate. One of the ones is "old frog" which is an ancestor of modern frogs and salamanders. This is just one of the 44 new dinosaurs names in 2007 and the 16 so far this year.

65 to 66 million years ago an asteroid is high on the list of causes for the "impact winter" causing the end of the rein fo the dinosaurs. But there is a new theory of the "easy bake oven" for the actual killing off of the big critters. They could not hide from the initial heat while the smaller ones could find protection. The food source was also effected. The smaller critters and the scavengers had more opportunity to find food and shelter to survive.

In World War II red/green color blind people were used as pilots since they could "break through" or see through camouflage. What can be a handicap under one circumstances can mean survival in another.

Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. at University of Maryland and on Wikpedia.

His most recent book: Holtz, T.R., Jr. (illustrations by L. Rey). 2007. Dinosaurs: The Most Complete Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages. Random House

And coming to TV this summer in “Dinosaur fight club” on National Geographic, late summer.

Balticon 42: Friday Night

(Dr. Don Thomas taking questions after his talk)

Friday night is the first night of Balticon and it is my night to play. So what do I do? I got straight to the science room. Dr. Donald Thomas, retired astronaut was giving a lecture on some of the science experiments he conducted on his 4 space missions and oversaw on the space station. Yes, this science groupie took a quick picture and asked for an autograph.

When I told him I dragged the kids outside on a clear winter's night to watch the stars, satellites, and the moon he recommended doing a Google search for "ISS sightings". When he went on to say pointing out the Milky Way, etc I told him I live in the DC metro area. We both agreed it is not the best location to view stars.

I am such a geek. I took notes during a lecture at a sci-fi con.

Dr. Don Thomas (STS-65, 70, 83, 94)

NASA Johnson Space Center, Huston, TX

4 space shuttle flights

17 years with the program

Science experiments on the Shuttle

Experiments on the 2 week long shuttle missions ran up to 30 hours a day while on the space station there averages only 15 hours a week. This is just a small sample of the experiments he described and those were just a small sample of those done on his four missions.

Combustion science: in space there is no warm air rising to shape a flame. In space a burning flame looks perfectly round.

Japanese Red Belly Newt egg and embryo development were studies to see how space affect the development of the inner ear auto lift. The inner auto lift is a gravity sensing organ in many species including humans. The newts born in space had auto lifts twice the size of those born on earth.

Fish were studies to see how they would be affected by space. Fish not only use an auto lift but also use their eyes to determine which way is up. They had the fish in a tank which had lights mounted on four sides: top, bottom, right and left. They would randomly change which light was on. The fish would adjust their swimming orientation with the light "on top" no matter which light was on. After a while the fish adjusted to the change in the light source much quicker.

They grew human colon cancer cells in space so the 3-deminsional cell structure could be more easily studied. Similar cells are grown on Earth for research but those structures are flattened because of the natural gravity they are exposed to making some research more difficult.

Ham radio in space, evidently some of the astronauts snickered at the idea but once in space the opportunity to talk to students around the world became quite popular.

Most cities and country boarders cannot be seen from space with a few exceptions. The boarders of Israel can be easily seen from space because they use their land so differently than their Arab neighbors. Most of Israel's land is being irrigated and supporting farms. There is another country in South American which also can be seen. It is preserving their rain forest while its neighbors are clearing theirs. The Washington DC and Baltimore metropolitan area also stand out, partially because of DC's diamond shape design.

On the shuttle there are 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets each day. Each one shows how small our atmosphere is. It is just a mere 25 miles thick. Each day a thin layer of that atmosphere made up of sodium and oxygen are activated by the sun and they glow at night surrounding the Earth's night sky with a band of green light. This light is called "air glow".

On one of his missions he watched the comet Hail Bob sail across the sky and sink below the horizon. After a moment he realized he had just watched a comet set. Then just 90 minutes later he watched set all over again.

After returning to Earth he had to re-adjust to the Earth's gravity. His inner ear had shut down. This is quite normal and usually takes about 24 hours to fully get back to normal. For those on the space station it can take 2 weeks. He says that is why you often see newly returned astronauts look "drunk" when turning a corner or turn their heads.

Earth KAM: students can control what photos are taken by programming a camera on the space station. It is a great way to get the next generation excited about space and science.

In 2004 President Bush set out the directive for us to go to Mars. This directive means the Space Shuttle program will be retired in 2010 to save funding for Mars mission projects to be funded. Each Space Shuttle trip in the 1990's cost about 1/2 billion dollars (US$). From now on 90% of NASA's efforts and funding will be going to the moon and Mars. They hope to be on Mars in 40 years. This will not be a trip for any of us. It will be the trip of a life time for our children.

Right now I cannot imagine my children going off to college let alone to Mars. If it becomes their dream, it will be mine too.

Catching Up

The March of Dimes WalkAmerica here in Fairfax was a great success. We had over 1,400 walkers plus all of the volunteers. The hoopla after the walk was great. We had Mad Science of DC making slime with the kids. Big Country Amusements donated a fantastic castle moon bounce. My Gym entertained the kids while Hills Science Diet weighted the pups and handed out treats. Go-Go the clown painted faces. DragonSong pulled through and was a FANTASTIC band. I only heard raves about their performance. Marty Kaplan took fanastic official photos of the walk and festivities. Everyone had a chance to tour the Mom and Baby bus which provides prenatal care to under privilege high risk areas. Starbucks got everyone ready for the walk with free coffee. Someone even got us cheerleaders to greet the walkers as they finished. I'm not sure how we will top this next year. I missed my goal and only raised $1,100 (http://www.walkamerica.org/personal_page.asp?w=682598) but the chapter raised $1.3 million for research, equipment, and education to prevent premature births and help those who are born too early.

I survived my first Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1270&px=3209129). I didn't even try to camp out to walk the second day. With the injuries from the car accident I knew better then to try. My goal was to walk as far as I could on the first day. I had walked 15 miles in one day back in middle school for the March of Dimes but as one of my team mates pointed out I was MUCH younger then. With her words ringing in my head and a promise to my godmother to carry her daughter Rachel's picture as far as I could I walked just over 17 miles. Only 2 of my teammates walked farther and actually did the full 26 miles the first day AND they also did 13 more miles the next day. Most of the rest of the team walked 13 miles each day. We raised over $34,000 and were in the top 20 teams for fundraising. Next year we hope to do more training walks and fundraisers before the walk.

One day a week a group of us met to make blankets over lunch for Project Linus (http://www.projectlinus.org/index.shtml). Project Linus gives blankets to children in the hospital (if some one ask the hospital about the program), to homeless children and children who have lost a parent or sibling to one of the on going wars. After 8 weeks we donated about 2 dozen blankets. I didn't think I would get my knitted baby blanket done in time so I made 5 fleece blankets. The no-sew fleece blankets took about an hour and a half each. The knitted one took 40 minutes for just 3 rows and it is a LOT of rows. The knitted one is finished so I'll tuck the ends in and put in the next batch of donated blankets.

We went to Balticon (http://www.balticon.org/)again this year. We had a great time. The kids still aren't sure what to think of Klingons. They both took stage for the Masquerade's Young Fan division. William went on as My Hero, Zero from Schoolhouse Rock. Inspite of 2 bands recently doing covers of the song it was amazing at how many 20-somethings never heard of My Hero Zero. I was feeling old but William loves his costume. As left stage from his initial walk and from getting his award he announced he wanted to go back and make them clap again. Selena went up on stage as a Baby Fire Elemental. Tim found a copy of Disco Inferno (Burn Baby Burn) for her to dance to. She walked out to center stage with me and once she heard the music stared to do a cute little toddler dance. I had to all but drag her off of stage after her dance and after she got her award. During the awards she kept walking out towards the audience and sachet back and forth across the stage. Kids under 13 get ribbons and certificates for going on stage. The 'big kids' (13-99) have to work for theirs by doing a presentation or mini play. For some reason the Young Fans are not judged for their workmanship no matter who makes them. There are no awards or even comments on what was good or needed work for me. Now I just need to dream up costumes for them to wear for next year. I want to out do what I did this year for the next show.

In mid April I sorted everything that had landed in the sunroom over the past year. A friend said he could take what we had planned out for the room and make it happen. A year earlier over 1/2 of the electricity in the room shorted out. We were down to one dim ceiling light and one outlet working in one very long skinny room. The plan was too clear all the stuff out, demo the awful damaged cheap paneling and replace it with a fully framed, insolated, rewired renovation in 5-6 weeks. There were a few days I stayed up until 2 am to make sure everything was ready for him to do his part and well there are times the work got done and other times he decided to take a day or weekend off without any notice. I think the plans were lost or trashed and after 3 months of work or weekends off we requested work to stop so we could all sit down with the plans and see where we should go from here. I can't wait for the room to be done so we have a place for the dinning room table and so I have a place I can do some sewing. I can't make the new curtains for the room until I get the machine to its new space.