Scitech Talk Descriptions (in numeric order) (count 57)

What's the purpose of memory? How accurate is it? Why do we remember some things and forget others? When does our brain decide which is which, and when does it do the necessary maintenance? This solo talk integrates and expands on existing theories of memory mechanisms, and of the function of sleep and the meaning of dreams.

What do we do when we get to Mars? What will we eat? What will we do? How will we live? For five years now The Mars Society has been answering these questions with the Mars Analog Research Station projects in the Canadian Arctic, the Utah deserts, the Australian outback, and the geothermal fields of Iceland. Mars Society members give an in-depth look at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, the most advanced simulation study of how we plan to tackle the human exploration of the Red Planet.

How do we make a lunar colony pay in the same way colonies on Earth traditionally paid for their creators? Is pure science the way to go? A launching pad for reaching the rest of the solar system? Industrial applications? A mix? If we can't make a permanent human presence on the Moon pay, will it ever be viable in the long-term?

How we get the news is changing before our eyes. Newspaper circulation is down dramatically. Online blogs and podcasts have put reportage in the hands of average citizens -- for both good and ill. Advances in camera and satellite technology make it simple for reporters to bring the public stories from the most far-flung parts of the planet. What will the future bring? And how will we know what to believe?

NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers have been traveling the red planet for over two years now. Each Rover has inspected over four miles of red sand and rock, craters and dunes, looking for evidence of water. Mars Society members will give you a tour of Mars by way of the twin Rovers' points-of-view.

. Historical elements, Mutual Assured Destruction, strategic counterforce, and "bunker busters." What are the near-future scenarios for the next 5, 25, and 100 years? What are their probabilities? And what's the role of SF literature and cinema in steering popular culture toward and away from nuclear scenarios will be studied.

Many SF writers and SF fans are scientists in real life. How do they combine the two? What is doing science for a living really like? Are we all really mad scientists who want to rule the world?

How does our brain work? Is it like a computer or do things get processed in entirely different ways? How do the connections work? Why does one thought lead to another, sometimes seemingly unrelated idea (unrelated in the eyes of someone not thinking our thoughts, that is)?

With science budgets declining, does non-applied research have a future? What does this mean for researchers? For research? What will a world without basic research be like?

Our distinguished panel of experts explains why certain widely-seen SF and fantasy elements that seem absurd actually have legitimate explanations. Come hear why it makes sense for barbarian sword babes to wear chain-mail bikinis, why computers on starships never crash or lock up with indecipherable error messages, and why male scientists in SF are always really good looking guys who are irresistible to brilliant, beautiful women.

A talk by Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer on, well, bad astronomy and popular misconceptions.

What can you believe?

Eventually, the inner solar system will be crowded. Will we explore, exploit, and settle the vicinity of the outer planets? How about comets? The fringes of interstellar space? How? Why?

Practical and fun demonstrations of physics and other scientific stuff.

XCOR Aerospace, Inc. is a small NewSpace company located on the Mojave Airport/Spaceport, founded with the idea that everyone should be able to afford a ticket to ride into space. Since their inception in September, 1999, they have designed, built, tested, and perfected five generations of rocket engines, flown their test bed demonstrator -- the EZ-Rocket (a modified Long EZ aircraft with two XCOR rocket engines) -- 26 times, setting one official world record and several unofficial records. The company wants YOU to be able to go to space and are here at WorldCon to tell us how they can accomplish that.

Barbie says "Math is hard!". Women scientists talk about how science fiction gave them confidence to pursue careers in male-dominated fields such as theoretical chemistry and nuclear physics. What sort of resistance or encouragement did they encounter? How can we get the next generation of girls excited about math and science?

In recent years, China has made a concerted push to explore space. Come hear about what they've been doing lately and whatever we know about what they've got planned for the future.

Generations of engineers and agronomists have turned California's deserts into lush farmland. Nearly 80% of California's water is used for agriculture. What is the long-term environmental impact of this water diversion and artificial fertility? Are California's farms a triumph of human ingenuity or an unsustainable house of cards? Should industrial countries become net importers of food from more fertile places, or can we rely on an ongoing technological cornucopia to feed the rich nations?

A discussion of old and new ideas about space propulsion. Old standards: laser sustained propulsion, tethers, nuclear rockets, wormholes. New ideas: the Alcubierre warp drive, tachyon propulsion, axion ramjets.

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, debunks the "face on Mars" and other topics dealing with Mars pseudo-science.

The promises of the future and why they haven't been kept.

A presentation from one of the scientists involved with the Cassini mission to Saturn.

Women scientists have featured prominently in many science fiction stories. Panelists talk about the image of women in science fiction stories, from the classics to today. How accurate are the depictions? And are these women scientists really scientists or just secretaries in lab coats?

Medicine is evolving at an amazing pace. New discoveries, technology, etc. are announced every day. What will medicine be like in 100 years? Will we have tricorders and neuroscanners like in Star Trek? How about growing or cloning organs? Will we be using organics to solve problems instead of nanobots?

What's going on with the European Space Agency? What missions have they undertaken recently and what's planned for the future?

We have some fun with science things and attempt not to blow up the place.

Our panelists will entertain you (and frighten you) with personal experiences and other true stories about the R&D business.

Good idea? Bad idea? Inevitable whether or not we think it's good or bad? How do you define a weapon when a rock dropped from space can create massive damage?

Like the car manufacturers of the 20th century who tested the safety of their vehicles by crashing them with human "dummies" inside them, we design and build space ships today and do the same tests tomorrow!! The ship will need to travel a specified distance under it's own power to enter. The Pirate Pilot will either be a raw egg or one filled with jello, previously decorated.

A discussion on the realities of space travel.

What are our options for future space exploration? What should we be doing? Where should we be going? How can individuals get involved? Should it be government sponsored or come from the private sector?

A selection of chemical reactions with last year's Worldcon chairman. So it shouldn't be TOO dangerous.

What are we on the verge of discovering? Gravity waves? Quark substructure? Tachyon neutrinos? Natural wormholes? Lab-made black holes?

It has been 34 years since we last stepped foot on the Moon, and Mars is beckoning to us. Plans are bring laid right now to return to the moon and from there go on to set foot on the Red Planet. Mars Society members take a look at all the current plans for exploring and eventually colonizing Mars.

A paper on Disability: Where Science Fiction meets Science Fact focusing on assistive technology, attitudes towards disabled people, medical advances, and medical rationing. We'll discuss various visions of "Disability Future" (both utopian and distopian) and which has the most likelihood of happening.

Is super-miniaturized science the wave of the future or just another passing fancy?

There are some people who think the slick and easy answers of science fiction have turned people off to the hard and slow progress real space exploration takes. Why did we go to the moon and then turn back?

A discussion of how scientists discover, analyze, and work around spacecraft problems. Do they still do it like they did in "Apollo 13"? See how the scientific method really works.

Where are the Extraterrestrials? Why haven't we been contacted? A gold mine for SF ideas, the academic study of this problem has come a long way in the last 10 years. Are we victims of a galactic conspiracy, or is the forest full of wolves?

At some point, it seems pretty likely there will be clones. Body parts at first but, eventually, cloned beings. What rights would they have? What rights won't they have? What about for robots or androids?

Sex between two people - the morals of that are pretty well worked out and everyone knows where they, um, stand on the subject. But we've already got sex toys, and in recent years, with the advances of technology, "teledildonics" has brought computers into the bedroom. What's going to happen with sex in the future? Sex with not just dolls but androids? With specially created clones? Are there any rules? Should there be? What about moral issues? (This will be a late evening panel.)

Flip-open communicators and the global central computer were science fiction twenty-five years ago. Today cell phones and the internet are ubiquitous. Technological advance keeps turning science fiction's starry eyed dreams into reality -- almost. This panel discusses SF dreams come true, and how the reality has turned out to differ from the vision.

Suppose we had a Moonbase? What kind of physics, astronomy, astrophysics, biology, etc. could be done there? Would this be strictly a science station, like our bases in Antarctica, or would colonization soon follow?

Just what are the implications of global warming? What's the real science behind the opinions? What is being done to minimize the impact of continued fossil fuel use and all the other factors contributing to this potential environmental disaster?

Perpetual motion machines, converting water into gasoline, and the Dean drive. Famous scientific frauds all. But what are some others? And how do you distinguish a real scientific breakthrough from flummery?

Why should you care? What's out there? Do you need licenses? If you do it, can you quit your day job?

Dinosaurs have always been near and dear to the SF fan's heart. Come hear about new discoveries that reveal dinosaur lifestyles, exiting new finds from China and other places, the latest on the relationship between dinosaurs and birds, and more.

What would the world be like if molecular technology proved feasible? Would it become a dystopia far worse than anything imagined by Huxley or Orwell, or a socialist idyll, of people living free from the fear of poverty, death or pollution, in a land with more than enough material goods for everyone?

Indoor plumbing led to polio epidemics. Lead in paint and gas poisoned people. To what extent is modern science and technology responsible for figuring out whether or not something that seems good is also going to cause serious problems?

The Singularity has become the hot topic in science, at least at science fiction conventions. What is it? And what does it mean for the future?

Current planned, and proposed space science, applications, and transportation missions being undertaken by NASA. And just how likely are they to happen?

How are computers changing? What do the advances in micro-technology, superconductivity, graphics, etc. mean to the future of micros, minis, and main frames?

Anecdotes from the world of space exploration.

What it's like to work on a space mission. Horror stories, favorite moments, how life imitates science fiction, SF influences, and more.

How did ancient peoples living on the banks of the Nile know that crocodile dung had medicinal properties? A discussion of the innovations of the ancient world before the scientific empirical method and double blind studies were de rigeur.

Spintronics -- technology that harnesses electron spin as well as its charge -- has already dramatically changed the world we live and work in today. IBM Almaden Research Center scientist Kevin Roche will introduce you to this emerging technology: what spin is, what it does and how we are beginning to harness it, as well as a virtual tour of his laboratory and the giant robots they use to study these nano-engineered materials. He also promises to do it in terms that won't make your head spin.

The Arctic Ocean could be an open sea within our children's lifetime. Melting ice sheets from Greenland and Antarctica are raising sea levels. Can we build dikes around Florida and the Gulf states? How will America handle the rising tide? How will the rest of the world cope, and how will the West deal with populations displaced by shoreline change?