The Times that Shaped the Science: Guy Consolmagno, Shana Worthem, Brad Lyau, Ada Palmer
-There always was a conflict between the status quo and explorers of natural law but severe moments of confrontation were rare. The church only saw threats in things that were almost true not that which is believed to be false (Arianism, Jainism, Heresies)
-The building blocks of modern science were done by people who were doing research and philosophy that agreed with the status quo but ended up upsetting it which changes the status quo over time
-From 1400-1700 more people read for enjoyment and books decreased in cost from a house to a months salary. Coffee shops expanded knowledge through having places for people to discuss things, as with any social network (drugs, essential material, transportation, new organizations)
-There are many acceleration events in progress and discovery; new wealth, resources, population rarity, leasure time, technology
How to tell the Ducks from the Rabbits: Ian Stewart
-This fellow and a friend are trying to determine how the eye and brain work by using optical illusions. Here is a link to a bunch.
-There are four types: Illusions 1 (Ambiguous information presented to both eyes like the spinning dancer), Illusions 2 (Not present and non ambiguous information is presented to both eyes like the moving circles), Rivalry (Conflicting information is presented to each eye like the duck/rabbit), and Impossible Figures (Information seen by both eyes is impossible like these).
-The brain moves between possibilities with the same information provided by the eye.
Are Utopias worse than Distopias: Klaus AE, Mogensen, Tom D Wright, Stephanie Saulter, Jans Savell, Maria Candia
-One persons utopia is anothers distopia
-Utopias are a way of discussing how something should be or how good it is. Distopia is the opposite
-An optimist believes we are living in the best of possible worlds while a pessimist believes it is true.
-Encourage those who seek the truth but fear those who claim to have found it
-Utopias are good thought experiments for what could and should be, aspired to
James Webb Telescope: The Premiere Telescope for the Next Decade: Norma J Watts
-Will be launched October 2018 and reside beyond the Earth but using the Earth to block out solar saturation of the telescope thirty days after that
-Will use a large infra red telescope to see further than ever before to capture points of time much closer to that of the big bang
-Launch and deployment plan video here
-More info here and here
Space Medicine: Dr Kjell Lindgren
-There are long periods of boredom and short moments of terror on the ISS
-He found an EZV tool in a drawer that was missing for eight years. They have a lot of drawers on the ISS
-Only time he got goosebumps was seeing the aurora borealis...that and an extra dose of radiation
-Because of the higher CO2 levels and weightlessness, there is more congestion in space
-70% of the people get zero-G sickness in space and it takes about two days to recover
-The increace in height is due to loss of curvature not lengthening of the spine. Also lose caluses on the bottom of the feet, and skin comes off in sloughs, but get calluses on the top of feet from using them to steady yourself
-Still learning how to prevent the optic nerve at the back of the eye from changing to prepare for longer space time
-Groups of people in a space is not allowed beyond 30 minutes. Cannot be in an enclosed space or in cabinets for any long period of time either.
War on Science: David Clements, Jonas Arnquist, Nicholas Whyte, Rachel Coleman, Renee Sieber
-Science is not epistemology but a process to the truth. Its findings cannot be debated only what the findings tell. Debate about the findings do not dispute the process as long as the process is correct and unfalsifyable
-The anti-fillintheblank is not the lone hero fighting the evil group but they instead are ignorant of the process
-The skills to be a scientist does not mean they have the skills to be a good communicator. The anti-fillintheblank are good communicators when talking emotionally to others who are also emotional.
-There is lots of attacks on accreditation. Trust but verify and evaluate the risk and analysis.
-Why cannot people listen for more than two sentences? Its because of a change in temp of our society
-Five methods of denying science acronym is FLICC (Fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry picking, and conspiracy theories. Good video is here.
Prisoner and Portmeirion
-This was supposed to be a panel of countering surveillance with sousveillance but it was cancelled and I was unaware of the change. It was a muddied love-in of the Prisoner TV show and the shooting of it at the resort of Portmeirion. Being in the front row it was hard to leave.
Supermassive Black Holes: Joni Tammi
-Radio telescopes can be used to observe the energy generated by the plasma jets shooting out of black holes, due to the energy collapsing into it. The energy only comes out of the top and bottom but it is conjectured that there are a lot of black holes out there from the energy observed so far
-Black holes are defined as matter collapsed under its own gravity, surrounded by an event horizon, which nothing can get out.
-Our sun cannot become a black hole as it needs 40% more mass and it will give off more mass as it ages (whew)
-Because space curves around mass, the real and observed location of objects are in different locations as seen by the observer
Had supper at the Hesburger in the convention hall of falafel burgers. It is a Finnish chain that has expanded beyond its borders. The burger and fries were good as well as the accompanying cider.
Also that night was the Hugo awards. As we preferred to chat and have drinks, we met in the Winter Garden area and livestreamed. It was odd because the official livestream did not work and we instead has to get it from a fellow in the auditorium through a South Korean re-streamer. Isn't technology cool. The alcohol here was licorice based and not bad. For the winners of the Hugos go here. Some of the ones I chose to win, won. Others were head scratching but not too much head scratching.
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