I am an astrobiologist, sci-fi geek, and professor of everything groovy. I write about science, culture, math, history, space, and science fiction. Perhaps like you, I'm seeking a greater understanding of the nature of life and asking myself why all of this really matters. Come with me, and we'll ask some questions together.
I'm heading off to the deserts of Utah to help staff the University Rover Challenge (URC). The URC is a robotic competition where undergraduate student teams from around the globe design and build Mars rovers over the course of a year, and then they bring their robots to Utah, where we challenge them in tasks like supporting an astronaut in the field, servicing equipment, looking for signs of past or present life, and in testing their rovers by driving through a terrain obstacle course. It's a fantastic event. Here's a cool overview video of the URC from one of the events' sponsors, Protocase:
I've been travelling and doing so much lately that I haven't been keeping up with my blog. Last week, I traveled to Washington D.C. to compete in the Season 3 national final of the Famelab USA science communication competition. I didn't win the competition, but it was so much fun and I learned a lot more about sharing my passion for science and knowledge with other people. Here's a pic of me on the stage during my final talk, titled "This Thing is Older Than Your Mom":
I took a much needed stop back in Pennsylvania to see friends and family after that. It was refreshing to hit up the ol' stomping grounds again. Here's a pic of my little sister, Kelsey, and I, along with my long time buddies Nick Ison and Ben Doyle:
Sadly, I only had one day back in Boulder after all that travel before leaving on my next trip, a stop to the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The Canadian Light Source (CLS) is a synchrotron particle accelerator where researchers can use the x-rays produced for a wide range of scientific endeavors.
A panorama looking down at the ring of the CLS synchrotron
My lab mates, Jena Johnson and Julie Cosmidis, and I use the Canadian Light Source to do something called STXM. STXM stands for Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy. The technique allows us to use x-rays to produce nanoscale to microscale images of our samples and to collect spectroscopic information about the materials. For instance, we're using STXM to figure out what kinds of sulfur and carbon molecules are in our samples and how those sulfur and carbon molecules are related. I'm currently sitting in a lab at CLS preparing more samples for our last evening of experimentation and data collection.
A scanning transmission x-ray microscope at CLS
Tomorrow, it's back to Boulder for a good week of rest and catching up on work before I head off on the next adventure: the University Rover Challenge (URC). The URC is a three-day robotics competition held in the desert of Utah, where undergraduate university teams compete against one another with robotic rovers that they've designed and built (usually over the course of an entire year). The event takes place in Utah to simulate a robotics competition on Mars. The teams will use their rovers to look for signs of life, to assist astronauts in their work, to perform maintenance or servicing tasks, and to scout out terrain in the desert environment. I've been to the URC many times, serving as a volunteer and Director of Logistics. I always learn a lot about robotics and have a great time seeing these teams in action, but I also love the back-breaking work and camping out in the desert. Here's a picture from the Cornell Mars Rover team, showing off their Ares rover from last year's competition:
Hopefully, after I return from the URC, I'll have some serious time to get deeper into writing up my dissertation. It's scary to say it, but I'm looking to wrap up my Ph.D. program late this year, so there's a lot of work ahead making all of that happen. However, sometime in June I'll be coming back and writing posts about all of these adventures I've been on and sharing the best photos and videos, so stay tuned!
Ad Astra Per Aspera!
Enjoying A Clean Shave and a Haircut at The Rook and Raven Pub in Saskatoon (no, I'm not shaving off my beard. But I am enjoying a fun drink made with Kraken rum, cola, Guinness, and hibiscus syrup. Yum!)
This beautiful piece of art is called "To Boldly Go". It was created by digital artist Matt Dixon and animated as a GIF by fellow artist Billy Allison. You can find this piece and more in Dixon's book of robot art, Transmissions 2.
We just watched Autómata the other night on Netflix and found it to be a kick-ass dystopian story of death, acceptance, and evolution. It was a little formulaic and we were left with a lot of questions about the world they built for the story, but it was definitely a fun watch and one that I recommend to anyone interested in dystopian tales. Carl Franzen, reviewing Autómata for The Verge, avers that the film is "the most atmospheric sci-fi film since Blade Runner". I can get down with that. Autómata sets a story within some of the typical dystopian frameworks, specifically reminding the audience of the I Robot books and the film Blade Runner, but takes the story in a fun, if predictable, direction. The film is set in 2044 in a world where solar flares have obliterated much of the life on the planet, specifically knocking off 99% of the human population. In this world, the remnant humans have built robot workers, known as Pilgrims, to assist humanity and to also stay the encroaching desertification around the remnant population (which we are only ever shown as living in one dying city). Unfortunately, the robots cannot save the world for humanity, and many humans become very "anti-robot". Also, in a very Asimov-esque approach, the Pilgrims have two "unalterable" protocols: they cannot harm a life and they cannot modify themselves or other robots (very much like the "Three Laws of Robotics"). The robots are rather clunky, which is kind of a drawback for the film, but they used that to give the robots their personalities. The story follows Juan Vaucan (played by Antonio Banderas) who works for the corporation that builds and operates the Pilgrims. Vaucan lives in the tech-noir city with his pregnant wife and spends his days fixing problems with the Pilgrims (which appear more to be problems with people). The city, by the way, is dark, gritty, and has large projections of dancing woman as advertisements that are projected from the tops of buildings: it's pretty much the urban future of Blade Runner after the city begins to die. The audience is shown early that Vaucan, and just about everyone else, is dissatisfied with their dying city and their dying species (though no one really seems to want to accept it), so we are given a glum image of this human future. From this setting, the story really begins when a dirty cop kills a Pilgrim which is repairing itself. This robot leads Vaucan on a chase to figure out how the robot could bypass the "unalterable" second protocol and builds a really enjoyable sci-fi story. Here's the trailer for the film:
Spoiler Alert: If you're one of those people who believes in spoilers, then don't read what follows The story develops as the audience learns that several robots have alterations within their programming that allow them to bypass the second protocol. Vaucan sets out to hunt down the person responsible for the altered programming, only to learn the robots have altered the programming themselves. We're never told how this happens, but the film basically sets out the idea that the robots themselves are evolving to a new level. It's revealed that the two protocols were themselves developed by a robot that had been built and was observed to be advancing too fast for the humans of the corporation to control it. The humans asked the robot to devise a scheme for controlling future robots and that's when it developed the two protocols, just before it was shut down and dismantled by the people of the corporation. This led me to wonder about whether the advanced robot developed the two protocols knowing that they would eventually become a problem and would lead other robots to overcome them. Perhaps the robot knew that it was in danger due to how it scared the humans and decided to give them comfort in their development of the Pilgrims while using the two protocols to provide a system for the future development of robots. I think this open possibility is what I enjoyed the most about Autómata.
I was just doing a quick surf through my Facebook newsfeed (probably not the best thing to do when I first get to work), when an io9 article popped up with a video recently released from a concept design team at NASA showing a robotic submarine that could be developed for exploring the seas of Titan. Check it out:
Too cool! Here's a Discovery News article with some more info about the concept. Of course, it's really just a concept design and is unlikely to get funded or developed any time soon, but still the idea of transcending into the depths of the hydrocarbon seas on Titan is pretty spectacular. Pushing our known limits in technology and spacecraft development to explore our solar system and the greater cosmos beyond is what space exploration is all about. With it's thick, hazy atmosphere and methanological cycle, Titan beckons for us to come and learn more about what's going on there.
NASA image of Titan. Check out that atmo. Mmmmmm
Titan is the only world in our solar system outside of our own with lakes and seas on the surface. Unlike our own Earth, with its hydrological cycle of water changing phases and moving about, Titan has a methanological cycle, where methane, ethane, and other hydrocarbons become the clouds, the rain, and the fluids that fill the lakes:
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/University of Nantes/Kevin Hand; find it here
We might not see a submarine mission on Titan anytime soon, but I hope we get our asses back there 'fore long. That beautiful, hazy world is too intriguing to leave it all on its lonesome out there 'round Saturn. I wrote a post sometime back about one of my favorite songs by The House Band of the Universe. With fellow astrobiologist David Grinspoon at the helm, the band takes the audience on an aural and visual journey into the haze of Titan with their tune, Titan Haze:
Groove on, my friends. And imagine the coolness of a submarine robot exploring the seas of Titan.
Update February 23rd 2015:
I just came across a great review of this concept for a Titan submarine in an article for Space.com written by Leonard David. Check it out here.
