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USS Alaric Comm. Richard Heim, CSO |
The Alaric's Science Department focus recently has been concentrated on helping to build Region One Sciences and Starfleet Sciences programs. In addition, we helped run the USS Alaric's gaming room at April's Region One Summit and helped run Alaricon 2003, the ship's 21st anniversary open house in August.
I have done a lot of traveling the past 12 months as part of my real-life job. Whenever I visit a city, I like to stop by any science museums in the area. I have a lot of away team reports to talk about in this section, so I'll try to be brief.
Close to the heart of downtown Atlanta is SciTrek, Georgia's Technology Adventure. Exhibits include Simple Machines: How Things Work, Electric Magnetic Junction, Color Factory, RoboMars, Brain: The World Inside Your Head, Color Shadows Frozen Figures, and (under construction while I was there in January) The Challenger Learning Center, among many others. The SciTrek brochure describes the museum as "an educational resource dedicated to engaging people of all ages and backgrounds in exploring and experiencing technologies that affect their lives and inpiring and educating young people as they become the innovators of the future." I found the exhibits to be geared mainly toward young kids, so parents - bring your family! SciTrek's address is: P.O. Box 54248, 395 Piedmont Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30308, phone number 404-522-5500, web page http://www.scitrek.org .
While in Atlanta for a Fantasm (NOT the movie) convention in April, we spent some time at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. This is a beautiful facility near downtown adjacent to Piedmont Park on Piedmont Avenue, with entrance at 14th Street and Monroe Drive. They have many different species of plants in their outdoor gardens and indoor conservatory. This is a wonderful place to visit, but be careful if you have hay fever. Walking through the gardens and conservatory in the middle of spring pollen season will overwhelm any allergy shots you may be taking! Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, phone 404-876-5859, e-mail info@atlantabotanicalgarden.org, web page: http://www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org/home/index.html .
In May, I traveled to Edmonton, Alberta to contribute to the Canadian Participation in the North America Drought Monitor Workshop. Edmonton is the home of the Odyssium, whose slogan is "The fun of finding out." This science museum has three levels chockfull of exhibits to entice and educate the mind! For example, Mystery Avenue explores crime solving and detective work, The Body Fantastic discusses biology, The Greens' House in The EPCOR Environment Gallery illustrates ecology, and they have an Imax Theater. The TransAlta Science Lab is available for school science classes. Most of the exhibits were geared to children, along with two specialized galleries: Explorer Gallery (where kids could play and exercise) and Discoveryland (a todlers' playpen). Space Place had many fascinating displays on astronomy, along with an interactive computer terminal. This computer was hooked up to a site called Science Data:
I spent way too much time at this terminal! It is an Asteroid Impact Simulator for Museums & Planetariums. You specify the asteriod/comet's diameter, density, velocity, angle of impact, type of planet being hit, and target surface material. Then the program would tell you the size of the impact crater (or if the impact was enough to destroy the planet). Believe me, under the right conditions a comet impact could smash the Earth to space dust! A very interesting and exciting web site to visit, check it out! According to their web site, a CDROM game version is coming soon to a PC near you!
The Odyssium is located at 11211 - 142 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T5M-4A1. Phone number 780-451-3344, email info@odyssium.com, web page: http://www.odyssium.com/ .
Greensboro, NC, hosted this year's STARFLEET International Conference. Greensboro is also the home of the Natural Science Center. I spent a couple hours at the Center before the IC and thoroughly enjoyed myself! The exhibits are mainly geared to children, and the museum has a strong educational program with several science labs (in fact, a class was in session in the Geology Lab while I was there). Exhibits include the Gem and Mineral Gallery, Living Stream Water Garden, Weather Alert Gallery, Rosa Sternberger Nutrition Center, Sigmund Sternberger Health Gallery, Dinosaur/Paleontology Gallery, Lemur Galledry, and Kid's Alley, among others. Perhaps the most exciting area for children was the Petting Zoo, where they could touch farm animals and more exotic critters. The Natural Science Museum is located at 4301 Lawndale Dr, Greensboro, NC 27455, phone (336) 288-3769. Their web page used to be http://www.greensboro.com/sciencecenter/information.htm, but that url doesn't work any more. However, there is a paragraph describing the museum at http://www.news-record.com/discover/museums.html . I wrote a brief review from info at their web site when it was active a couple years ago. The review can be found at: http://www.ussalaric.org/cc/cc0105.htm#CSO . You can also do a google search on Natural Science Center of Greensboro to find several links to pages that discuss the museum.
Check out the Alaric's science department web page:
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USS Appomattox Cmdr. Debbie Artrip (formerly Ens. Chris Johanson), CSO |
Participating in fund raisers for the ship. Planned activities for an Amazement Square appearance on March 15. Discussed 7 activities that tied in Star Trek with today's science. Have taken and passed several courses in Vulcan Academy of Science.
Interesting article:
- In large crowds, it's easy to remain just another anonymous face among a mass of strangers.
But in certain situations - annual business conferences, trade shows, conventions, cocktail parties, or "social mixers" for singles - remaining disconnected and uninvolved can be counterproductive.
So, to help people break the ice and "network" at large gatherings, a startup company called nTag has developed a unique and high-tech solution.
The nTag devices are plastic badges that look like electronic versions of the name badges commonly worn by trade show attendees. Inside the nTags are basic computer essentials, including 128 kilobytes of memory, a two-line display and wireless communications technology.
The tags can store and display simple information - the name and business affiliation of the wearer, for example - that would be required at most common business conferences or other public gatherings.
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USS Heimdal VAdm. Willy Smith, CSO |
Activities:
We enjoyed our chapter's February meeting guest Pam Early, former Aerospace Education Officer for NASA. Pam gave an excellent talk about various topics, including:
The tiles that have been recovered were twisted, indicating structural failure. The temperature in the left wheel well got up to 3,000 degrees. Pam says the committee performing the investigation contains experts from many different fields, and they will take however long they need to do a thorough job. No shuttle missions will be scheduled until the committee releases its findings.
Right now the astronauts on the space station are fine; they have supplies to last until June. If they need to leave before then, there is a Soyuz ship attached to the station. Station construction is behind schedule (are you surprised?).
We always enjoy it when Pam comes to speak to us. She's very knowledgeable, and she'll tell you things you won't hear on the NASA channel. Hopefully things will get back on track once the problem has been identified and replaced or upgraded.
Department strength is up to 4 members.
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USS Hornet Capt. James Delantonas, CSO |
It was a tragic weekend in January - the shuttle Columbia blew up while reentering. (Anyone remember the Challenger?) I wrote a poem about the Columbia.
Columbia was a bird that flew in space. Its wings in many colors, its body beautiful, it soars up in space. Columbia was many things, that's why space called her and she listened.
Columbia went into space for 17 days and came down, not softly, but with a crippled wing. It came down broken, its 7 eggs scattered.
Columbia was like the Starship Enterprise: its missions the same: Space, the final frontier: these are the voyages of the starships Columbia and Enterprise. Its ongoing missions, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilizations, to boldly go where no one have going before.
We always face dangers when we go up to space, and that's why the crew of Columbia will never be forgotten. They were so brave, and as one parent of one of the crew said: "Their deaths are not in vain, it will go on." (meaning the missions).
I am adding one more thought: The crew of Columbia will be remembered beyond........., the brave souls will live. The brave crew took with them the hopes, the risks, and the dangers of space with them when they blasted off. Why did they do it??????, you ask........... because space was calling them, that why. Both the crews of the Columbia and Enterprise wanted to go. William Shatner (Kirk) made a point, When Spock asked him why he (Kirk) wanted to climb a mountain. He replied, "because it's there." My thoughts go out to the families of the Columbia's crew. "Live long and prosper." "Peace and long life."
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USS Jurassic PO Denise Clark, CSO |
As the newly appointed DC of Science (February 2003), I would like to say 'Hello'. It is my hope that the science department will provide useful, informative and, above all, fun information for everyone aboard the U.S.S. Jurassic. As you have already seen, I am sending current science information from a variety of sources. As the weeks go by, I will be expanding the topics as I research new sources of information.
Activities:
We continue to add members to the Science Department (up to 7 members by the first of September).
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USS Pathfinder Lt. (jr) Patty Heany, CSO |
Activities and plans include:
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USS Renegade Capt. Janice R. Graham, CSO |
Activities:
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USS Reprisal LTC Dennis Relyea, CSO |
Activities and plans include:
Awards:
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USS Wasp Cmdr. Cyndi jo Ashby, CSO |
Greetings, Captain and all fellow crewmen ... dateline, January 2003.
It's been a strange winter so far and hopes everyone has been keeping warm and toasty. There's been a lot happening on the scientific front and we've been busy complying a database of usual facts. I've been studying the science departments on various ships through out the fleet trying to pick a style that suited my staff and me. I have come to the conclusion that I am unique, different and in charge therefore I should run a Science Dept that reflects it.
Global Warming, Paranormal Activities, and Crypto zoology are just the beginning. Astronomy has had its fair share of poor reporting as stellar cartography becomes up and running I plan begin reporting on "bad astronomy."
Since conditions are not favorable for outdoor away missions indoor studies have been the order.
We have been keeping tabs on SoHo and the Sun's affect on the whole System. Global Warming? How about Solar System warming? While it is a fact that Earth's Ice caps are melting it also appears that Mars is suffering the same fate. Could this be true in all of our Solar System? Our recent attempts to photograph Mars through the lens of the telescope has so far only yield blurry masses of darkness surrounded by even darker darkness.
Science Report for February 2003:
Telescope mounted in preparation of many Mars observations. The night skys have been absolutely beautiful.
In light of the Shuttle disaster I'd like to focus my report on this event.
How the mighty have fallen. Life forever has changed. We have lost another Shuttle. I have been researching the Space program and I find stress everywhere. Oh, if we only lived in an age of Star Trek technology. I stand in awe those astronaunts that bravely risk it all to keep us advancing forward in technology. I am very angry at the underfunding of NASA. I feel we have lost our first love. Politics have made policy where it had no business. It sickens me to know that we as a nation are prepared to throw money to the military machine take out Saddam yet we make our Space agency penny pinch.
To know that those astronauts had no methods of surviving an emergency landfall sickens my stomach. This should have never been acceptable. I lived in the dream that we were invinsible. I am guilty of being lulled into believing shuttle/spacestations missions were common place occurances no more risky an undertaking than a drive to work. I heard Richard C Hoagland on Coast to Coast Am urging people to contact the White House before the President gave his State of the Union Address to let President Bush know about Americans support greater funding of NASA and project Promethesis. More information can be found in the Richard C. Hoagland link on the left side of this page: http://www.seedopenu.org/
Contact information for government officials and media outlets at: http://www.enterprisemission.com/help.htm
July 2003:
Found this at: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,59434,00.html :
A handheld, battery-powered baton may someday take the place of MRI or CT scans for cancer screening. The new device measures just 30 centimeters and cuts the normally 40-minute cancer screen down to just five.
Doctors simply run the baton over the patient's body and information on irregular tissue is displayed on a computer. The device can only detect whether a tumor is present, so patients would have to undergo further scans to determine other information, such as tumor size.
Tests are still being conducted to establish how accurately the baton detects.
August 2003:
I invite everyone to join the email-newletter at www.badastronomy.com, a site that promotes "good astronomy" and points out "bad astronomy" in the media and such.
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to beam aboard this page.
