Tag Archives: science

Looking back at the 1969 Worldcon

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Seeing Larry Niven at Windycon 51 reminded me that back in 1969 I went to the World Science Fiction Convention for that year, St. Louiscon. It was my first Worldcon and only my second SF con. I went with friends from the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club, which I had discovered the year before. Some of us put together a costume presentation for the masquerade, in which we won the prize for best group costume. For this effort we dressed up as characters from Randall Garrett’s novel Too Many Magicians. The novel does not say much about how the characters were dressed, so someone in our group (I am sorry to say I have forgotten who) suggested an 18th century look and help us pull it off.

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Chicagoland: Capricon 45 and St. Luke’s

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Mia and I enjoyed Capricon 45. It was held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, February 1-4, as it was when we attended last year and three years ago. As on those occasions, we were very happy to be at a con in downtown Chicago again, with an almost infinite supply of places to eat and drink in walking distance of the hotel. As in previous years, some of our Chicagoland fannish friends did not attend, but others did, and we enjoyed seeing them again.

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Windycon 2024

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My wife Mia and I spend the weekend of November 8-10 in Chicagoland at Windycon, a science fiction convention that we have frequently attended since the 1970s, and which we went to last year. This was Windycon 50. I went to Windycon 3 back in 1976, and Mia and I both went to Windycon 5 in 1978.

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Capricon 2024

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Mia and I enjoyed Capricon 44. It was held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, February 1-4, as it was when we attended two years ago. We were very happy to be at a con in downtown Chicago again, with an almost infinite supply of places to eat and drink in walking distance of the hotel. It is much more alive than downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis, and the people seemed friendlier. As happened in 2022, some of our Chicagoland fannish friends did not attend, but others did, and we enjoyed seeing them again.

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Lucy’s Tour of the Trojan Asteroids

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Notes from a presentation at Capricon 44, Chicago, Feb. 2, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker, Bill Higgins, is not responsible for any errors here.

Bill Higgins

The two swarms of frigid Trojan asteroids, circling the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter, have never been visited by spacecraft. NASA’s Lucy mission plans to change that. Launched in 2021, Lucy’s intricate trajectory will eventually fly by eleven asteroids, including eight Trojans of varying size and composition far beyond the main Asteroid Belt. Passing through the asteroid belt on her way to the distant realm of the Trojans, Lucy’s first flyby this past November held surprises—and if all goes well, the best is yet to come.

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Dust.. from… SPACE!!!

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Notes from a panel at Capricon 44, Chicago, Feb. 2, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here.

Bill Higgins, Henry Spencer

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sampler has returned with a bounty of asteroid dust. Our panelists discuss what the findings have been so far, what is still to come, and what it all means.

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Phosphine on Venus again

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Phosphine on Venus: Another Look

Back in 2020 there was a report that Phosphine had been found in the atmosphere of Venus. Since Phosphine can be a sign of life that caused some excitement. I posted about this three times:

  1. Possible Sign of Life on Venus
  2. More about phosphine on Venus
  3. Phosphine on Venus: Not so fast

The last of these was in reference to Re-analysis of the 267-GHz ALMA observations of Venus: No statistically significant detection of phosphine? At the time that seemed like the end of the story.

However, there have been a lot more observations since then and some re-re-analysis of the earlier work, leading to Phosphine Confirmed Deep Within Venus’ Atmosphere, A Possible Sign Of Life. I am looking forward to seeing the technical details.