Like many others, I have received my schedule for Worldcon/Loncon 3/That Big Science Fiction Convention Thingie. I get to participate in an exciting range of items, in addition to giving my usual bouncy SPAAAACE talk, this time about Rosetta. Dates and times aren't final. Name replacement to protect pseudonymity. Also: Wheee!
Liechester Square: Getting London Wrong
Thursday 14 August 19:00 - 20:00
If there's one thing you can guarantee about the reaction to any piece of SF set in London, it's that British fans will delight in nit-picking the details: you can't get there on the Piccadilly Line! So who are the worst offenders? Whose commodified Londons do we forgive for the sake of other virtues in their writing? Do we complain as much about cultural errors as geographic ones, and if not, why not? And given London's status as a global city, is it even fair to claim ownership of its literary representation?
Tony Keen,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nanila, Cherry Potts, Mike Shevdon, Russell Smith
Scientists Without Borders
Friday 15 August 13:30 - 15:00
Science may strive for objectivity, but all scientific communities are grounded in their host cultures. The panellists talk about working in different scientific cultures, working in multinational teams or transporting a team or project elsewhere.
Guy Consolmagno SJ , Katie Mack,nanila, Sharon Reamer, Rachel Berkson
Secrecy in Science
Sunday 17 August 13:30 - 15:00
What role does secrecy have in science? Should drug companies be allowed to hide trial data from their competitors? Should scientists be allowed to publish papers and not the data they are based on? Is there a place for commercial confidentiality in space missions? But if everything is open, how will anybody get commercial benefit from new inventions and discoveries? And do we really want DNA sequences for super-flu, and the designs for dirty bombs and plutonium refineries to be available to all?
David L Clements , Katie Mack, Heather Urbanski, Carolina Gómez Lagerlöf, Sunil Patel,nanila
Rosetta talk
Monday 18 August 11:00 - 12:00
Into the heart of the comet
nanila
The Scientific Culture
Monday 18 August 15:00 - 16:30
Is there a scientific culture? The success of The Big Bang Theory, XKCD and PhD Comics suggest that there is, but if so, what is scientific culture? What values and attitudes can there be in common between fields as diverse as biology and cosmology? What experiences and views are shared by scientists across such disparate fields, and why are they different from the experience and views of non-scientists? Is this important, and should SF writers and fans be taking notes?
David L Clements, Katie Mack,nanila, Prof David Southwood, Rachael Acks
How space missions happen
Monday 18 August 16:30 - 18:00
How do space missions like Hubble or Curiosity come to happen? Where do the ideas come from and what happens after that as mission proposals go to NASA, ESA and others and work their way through the system? What problems and benefits do different funding agencies have? And why do budgets sometimes expand, delays stack up and satellites explode?
Jordin Kare, Geoffrey Landis, Stephanie Osborn, Prof David Southwood, Laura Burns,nanila
Liechester Square: Getting London Wrong
Thursday 14 August 19:00 - 20:00
If there's one thing you can guarantee about the reaction to any piece of SF set in London, it's that British fans will delight in nit-picking the details: you can't get there on the Piccadilly Line! So who are the worst offenders? Whose commodified Londons do we forgive for the sake of other virtues in their writing? Do we complain as much about cultural errors as geographic ones, and if not, why not? And given London's status as a global city, is it even fair to claim ownership of its literary representation?
Tony Keen,
nanila, Cherry Potts, Mike Shevdon, Russell SmithScientists Without Borders
Friday 15 August 13:30 - 15:00
Science may strive for objectivity, but all scientific communities are grounded in their host cultures. The panellists talk about working in different scientific cultures, working in multinational teams or transporting a team or project elsewhere.
Guy Consolmagno SJ , Katie Mack,
nanila, Sharon Reamer, Rachel BerksonSecrecy in Science
Sunday 17 August 13:30 - 15:00
What role does secrecy have in science? Should drug companies be allowed to hide trial data from their competitors? Should scientists be allowed to publish papers and not the data they are based on? Is there a place for commercial confidentiality in space missions? But if everything is open, how will anybody get commercial benefit from new inventions and discoveries? And do we really want DNA sequences for super-flu, and the designs for dirty bombs and plutonium refineries to be available to all?
David L Clements , Katie Mack, Heather Urbanski, Carolina Gómez Lagerlöf, Sunil Patel,
nanilaRosetta talk
Monday 18 August 11:00 - 12:00
Into the heart of the comet
nanilaThe Scientific Culture
Monday 18 August 15:00 - 16:30
Is there a scientific culture? The success of The Big Bang Theory, XKCD and PhD Comics suggest that there is, but if so, what is scientific culture? What values and attitudes can there be in common between fields as diverse as biology and cosmology? What experiences and views are shared by scientists across such disparate fields, and why are they different from the experience and views of non-scientists? Is this important, and should SF writers and fans be taking notes?
David L Clements, Katie Mack,
nanila, Prof David Southwood, Rachael AcksHow space missions happen
Monday 18 August 16:30 - 18:00
How do space missions like Hubble or Curiosity come to happen? Where do the ideas come from and what happens after that as mission proposals go to NASA, ESA and others and work their way through the system? What problems and benefits do different funding agencies have? And why do budgets sometimes expand, delays stack up and satellites explode?
Jordin Kare, Geoffrey Landis, Stephanie Osborn, Prof David Southwood, Laura Burns,
nanila