Tag Archives: physics

Killer Asteroids, and What We Might Do About Them

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These are notes from a presentation by Henry Spencer at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not Henry’s. I have amplified my notes with web links for further clarification. Here is the blurb from the convention program:

Near-Earth asteroids (and their cousins, comets) are interesting objects, possible future sources of metals and other materials… and potential threats to civilization and even life on Earth. The good news is, this is the only type of major natural disaster that we might actually be able to prevent. A look at what we know about asteroids (and comets), what sort of threat they present, and what we can do to anticipate trouble from them and maybe head it off.

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Atomic Bombs 101

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These are notes from a presentation by Henry Spencer at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not Henry’s. I have amplified my notes with web links for further clarification. Here is the blurb from the convention program:

The real history and technology (so far as they’re publicly known) of nuclear weapons, and the ways SF gets them wrong — aimed at authors, techies, and interested readers.

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The Periodic Table & Astronomy

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Notes from a presentation at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 7, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker is not responsible for any errors here.

Larry Bartozek will describe the intimate relationship between astronomy and the Periodic Table by looking at how everything we learn about the distant universe comes from dissecting starlight, and starlight comes from excited atoms changing their energy states. Topics will include a brief history of the universe, electron shell structure, spectroscopy on starlight and more! All of this comes from an understanding of the unique “fingerprints” of atoms in the light they give off. Larry will also show the work that he did on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Telescope.

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Web Site Updates

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I fixed some dead links and made other minor corrections and updates, but did not make any drastic changes in the longer pieces, so their style reflects the times when they were written, years or even decades ago. However, I think they are still relevant to the subjects being discussed.

Chicon 8

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Thursday

On Thursday, Sept. 1, Mia McDavid and I drove to Chicago for Chicon 8: The 80th World Science Fiction Convention at the Hyatt Regency Chicago . This was our 5th Chicon. Previously we had attended:

Despite some glitches, we really enjoyed the Con, and visiting downtown Chicago again.

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College Reunion

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I spent the weekend of June 16-19 at Carleton College. The occasion was my 50 year class reunion, for which I was a member of the gift committee, which in turn was a part of the overall planning committee. Mia (my wife) and I had a room on the third floor of Watson Hall, “3rd Watson” was how we would have referred to it back in the day. I don’t know if the current students refer to campus locations like that. I lived on “6th Watson” my senior year.

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