Science makes a buzzing sound

July 15, 5:26 PMSF Boomers ExaminerSuzanna Stinnett

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Eagle Spitzer Nebula

Astronomy benefits from technology at least as much as any other science, and with more spectacular results, I’d say. Just the images from the Hubble telescope are enough to make me swoon. I’ve got the Eagle Spitzer Nebula on my desktop and I regularly realize I’m just sitting there staring at it. (That’s it up top.) As Boomers keep prowling around learning about online communication and finding ways to teach each other, we must also be growing our brain capacity for all these activities.

The Science Buzz Cafe is the product of Daniel Osmer and Robert Porter, Ph.D., both of Sebastopol. Previous talks include Futuristic Energy Systems, Astrobiology (also by Mary Barsony below), and Physics Cabaret. July 17th, Robert Porter will talk about the "Magnetron: From WW II to your kitchen."

I can’t say it any better, so I’m posting the following review of last week’s Science Buzz Café which I attended, Thursday night at Coffee Catz in Sebastopol. Mary Barsony’s lecture was at least partially accessible to the layperson (that’s me) and all of it fascinating.

"MARY BARSONY PhD was back by popular demand.  Her earlier talk was about Astrobiology which was a pretty mind-boggling topic. Not to be outdone, even by herself, she came back for more with a talk about the cosmic origins of the very atoms of our bodies and she called it, "We Are Stardust". She took us through the early days of yesteryear when the universe was very young and about all the atoms we had on hand were such simpletons as hydrogen and helium. But then when things began to heat up from gravitational accretion and the forming stars provided the temperatures and the pressures to begin to assemble more and more complex elements from the H and He Leggo kit, until the various sizes and stages of stars began to get carried away with themselves and KABLOOIE!, and the stellar material was blown all over the place and then, and then... well, you get the idea. But you needed to be there. Her explanations were exceptional and the pictures beautiful as the crowd of almost 60 stuck around until well after 8 PM.

"Some scientist said it is interesting to ponder the apparent fact that the universe evolves in complexity, each stage promoting ever more maddening weirdness until that universe finally develops enough complexity to promote sentience so it can contemplate itself. Seemingly, that is where we humans came in. The trouble with scientists doing metaphysics is that it takes on the smell of credibility. But a nice fragrance, don't you think?"

Starry cheers,

Suzanna