Your source of news about the people, places, things, and events across Second Life.
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Saturday September 11
10 AM to 11 AM SL time
This is an abbreviated replay of June 5 presentation with a Fireside Chat attached.
Dr. Alex Hastings will lead part of the tour discussing the world of Titanoboa, 60 million years ago. How and why was the snake so big? What else lived in those murky waters? Plus he’ll share what it was like finding Titanoboa fossils in the Cerrejon coal mine.
Linda Kelley’s Ecosystem
Linda will talk a little about what it takes to bring fossils to life and particularly building an ecosystem from what is shown and not shown in the fossil records. For her this entailed doing a lot of literature review and sussing out how all these things could plausibly fit together. In addition to the fauna that shared space with the Titanoboa, and the kinds of flora, this included reading about geologic changes during that period and estimates of Paleocene weather.
Creating an Animated Animesh Titanoboa for Second Life
Dr. Greg Bollella will discuss the process for creating, texturing, rigging, and animating an animesh object for Second Life. Most of the presentation will be an overview of the processes with more detail for a few very interesting techniques and observations. The workflow and tool-chain are important and will be presented. The tools used were, ZBrush, Maya, Photoshop, Substance Painter, and Substance Designer. Of particular interest is that no images were used in creating the textures for Titanoboa, only math!
For more on the event, Click Here.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/104/125/1114
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Saturday September 11
9 PM to 10 PM SL time
The dynamic geology of the Asia-Oceania region might be viewed as a metaphor for the history of the area itself. While living in harmony with earth, water, fire, and air during tranquil times, each generation is reminded of the tension and power inherent in these elements, in the form of earthquakes, violent seas, volcanoes, and typhoons, just as they are aware of the tension and power of the human forces in the area.
While we will concentrate on geology this hour, it is difficult not to look at geography as well, that is, the relationship of people to the land. The Asia-Oceania region is a complex array of blends and contrasts. Just as it hosts some of the oldest and youngest physical features, plus the tallest and deepest points on Earth today, the land was also host to some of the earliest and most recent human origins, plus some of the oldest and youngest human cultures.
Join me as we explore the dynamic geology of the Asia-Oceania region, the harmony and tensions inherent in the earth, water, fire, and air that are influenced by it, and how this affects the lives of the people who live there.
For more on the event, Click Here.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32
"Ingenuity: First Aircraft on Mars!"
Saturday September 4
10 AM to 11 AM SL time
First we will examine the conditions and mechanics of flight and what makes Ingenuity’s performance a “Wright Brothers” moment.
Then we will follow Ingenuity’s progress from the drawing board through the dozen or more flights it has taken so far, with a look at how it can operate when its ‘pilot’ is 100s of millions of miles away, plus a peak at possible missions it might undertake in its future.
Finally, we will explore where and how other craft might operate in our solar system now that this technological breakthrough has been achieved.
— Dr. Phil Youngblood founded the CIS/Cyber Security degree programs at the University of the Incarnate Word, following retirement from naval aviation and research at NASA.
In the Auditorium
For more information, Click Here.
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"Flight"
Saturday September 4
9PM to 10PM SL time
As we experience astounding innovations in areas like material science, descriptions of the benefits to the environment and your comfort in the cabin will be deployed. Thank you for choosing the Science Circle. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your Flight!
A presentation by Karthik P., Graduate Student
In the Auditorium
For more information, Click Here.
10 to 11 AM
The last two presentations in this series explored particle physics, the world of the very small, and our solar system, the much larger space that surrounds our more familiar world. In this episode we will explore one area of how science is applied to create technology by examining how the very small, and relatively simple, world of computer electronics is employed to create the more familiar and complex worlds we represent on devices we can carry around with us.
First, we will briefly look at how transistors, the components that create the ‘1s and 0s’ used to store and transmit everything, are made so small that billions can fit into the chips that form the ‘brains’ and ‘memory’ of every computer.
Then we will step through how transistors and other circuitry work together to create the logic of an electronic calculator.
Finally, we will step through how the processor, the ‘brain’ behind operations, works with memory and peripheral units to process a computer program (commonly called an application or app) that instructs your computer to do all the wondrous things we do with them these days.
Presentation by Dr. Phil Youngblood
For more information, Click Here.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32
Saturday April 17
10AM to 11 AM
From the bizarre world of the very small, the subatomic particles that make up everything we know, we turn our attention to the macro world, namely our sun and the objects which orbit it. In this case, one of the small particles within this ‘atom,’ just one among a billion other star systems that comprise our galaxy, itself only one of billions of other galaxies in our known universe, is the only home we have, the ‘third rock from the sun’ we call Earth.
I do not think humans really appreciated how special the Earth is until we were able to travel beyond it. I remember during the Apollo 8 mission, the first that time humans left Earth’s gravity, how the contrast of the ‘blue marble’ in space rising over the drab, lifeless moon brought a stark realization to everyone who witnessed it that we live on a fragile, ‘goldilocks’ planet with just the right conditions to make the surface habitable for life as we know it. It was this realization that inspired Earth Day in 1970 and the movements since to preserve what we have here for future generations.
During the 1960’s, space exploration seemed part of the Space Race and Arms Race, a product of the Cold War. After a few missions to the moon, humans have not ventured outside Earth’s orbit. However, robotic spacecraft have not only helped us to better understand our home planet but have also probed deep into space and the worlds beyond ours to try to understand our place in the universe, to answer the questions of how unique our planet is, whether there may be life elsewhere, and to understand how it all began.
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in space exploration. In just this last year there have been three missions to Mars, and several more to our Moon, the Sun, and the smaller bodies of the solar system, by a handful of nations, not just the Cold War rivals. There are also several commercial entities planning serious efforts to exploit the resources on the moon and beyond, and cooperative efforts to put a space station around the Moon, with a base on the surface to follow.
Join me as we explore how we ventured out beyond our home and the amazing discoveries we have made about our solar system and its inhabitants and the world beyond, some exciting recent and current plans for further exploration, and what all this might mean for our future.
Presentation by Dr. Phil Youngblood
For more information, Click Here.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32
Saturday February 27
10AM to 11AM SL time
To aid everyone in the audience in getting the most from our presentations, The Science Circle is introducing a series of presentations that seek to explain popular and important topics in different fields of science. Each presentation will start with a basic understanding that most pre-college students may have and gradually work up to the types of things that experts know, and still do not know, about each topic, all within an hour.
For this month’s Panel discussion, the topic is Gravity. Gravity is something so present in our lives that we may take it for granted, but it is also what makes possible some of the most fantastical concepts that explain, and objects that make up, our known universe.
Panel Host Matthew Burr will start by reviewing that we understood about Gravity until the beginning of the 1900’s, based on Newtonian mechanics.
Dr. Phil Youngblood will then review the new ideas that Einstein discovered at the turn of the century regarding the relativity of space-time.
Dr. William Wall will conclude by talking about Einstein’s field equations and the more exotic aspects of gravity associated with massive objects.
On March 20, Phil Youngblood will continue the series with an explanation of “Elementary Particles” at different levels of understanding.
For more information, Click Here.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32
Saturday January 9,
10 AM to 11 AM SL time
The last time The Science Circle presented on the COVID-19 pandemic was back at the beginning of April when we were alarmed that the number of known cases in the world had reached 1 million. By the time of this presentation, a conservative estimate of the number of cases worldwide will have reached 100 million, with no end yet in sight. One bright piece of news in recent days, however, has been the beginning of vaccinations in some countries and the unprecedented race to create more vaccines.
Over three Saturdays from 9 January through
23 January, we will revisit one of the most pressing issues of our
times, now a year after the novel coronavirus was identified.
On the first Saturday (9 Jan), Phil Youngblood Ph.D., will talk with you
about where we have come over the last year and perhaps what we will
see in 2021, as well as the many ways the pandemic has taken a toll on
us this past year.
On the second Saturday (16 Jan), Robert A. Hendrix, MD, will present the medical side of the pandemic, that is, what we have learned about how this new virus affects the human body and how the vaccines work.
Finally, on the third Saturday (23 Jan), we will hold a “Fireside Chat” intended to address the types of issues that is of most interest to our audience about these issues.
For more information, Click Here.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32
