Category Archives: science fiction

Back from Bajor

I spent part of this past weekend at a science fiction/Star Trek convention in Maryland called Shore Leave. A friend of mine who runs the science programming for the con asked me to come down and give a couple of talks about topics in astronomy. I used to do lectures at Star Trek conventions a lot back when I lived in Denver, and only last year I was a speaker at the World Science Fiction convention in Boston, but it had been a while since I spoke at a Trek-oriented fest.

It was a lot of fun and I’d forgotten just how impressive some of the folks who “build” their own costumes can be. The Klingons in particular are quite good at their costuming and role playing. At least, they were at this con.

My talks were ostensibly about my last book (Visions of the Cosmos) and also about another project I work on, the Gemini Observatory public outreach. The talks went pretty well and I had a great time talking to folks afterwards. The questions are always intriguing at these things, and people are really well-informed. Well… most of the time…

One fellow cornered me during the autograph session on Friday and told me a wandering (but pretty strange tale) about being an abductee, how he was adopted by the Bush family and the Reagans, and how he couldn’t talk about any of it. All with a very serious mien. I kept looking for the Candid Camera crew… waiting for somebody to jump out of the woodwork yelling, “surprise…” but he was deadly serious about it.

Another thing I like about cons are the dealer rooms. You can usually find something pretty cool in these places, even if it’s just a t-shirt with a witty saying. I found a few neat things for me, the husband, and my folks, who are visiting with us for a while.

If you haven’t been to a con in a while (or have never been to one), give it a try. It’s gone beyond Trek, that’s for sure!!

Rainy Night Rumination

This is one of those nights when the fog lays low and the sky is completely shrouded. No stargazing tonight! So, let’s talk about science fiction again.

Robert A. Heinlein is one of my favorite authors. I re-read several of his books each year, ranging from the short stories that make up The Past Through Tomorrow to his posthumously published Grumbles From the Grave. There’s a lot of science in his books, but really what sets his work apart is the storytelling. At its heart, science fiction still remains a genre about characters and what happens to them. Now, those characters might be robots or they might be 1,000-year-old men or equally old women being rejuvenated, but they gather your interest immediately because they tug at your emotions. You might not realize you’re learning a little science along the way as you follow the exploits of Lazarus Long or Maureen Johnson or Libby or Pixel or any of a dozen other well-cast characters.

There are so many great people spread across the science fiction universe, and I look forward to visiting each one every time I pick up one of the hundreds of SF books I own. My current list includes a re-read of many of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series of books. There’s plenty of science, lots of characters to which she has done something, and we get the privilege of watching them work their way out from under whatever she’s loaded on their shoulders. All the while using cool space ships, advanced biological technologies, and faster-than-light travel.

So, if science fiction is largely about people, where does the science come in? I once had somebody ask me to point out what I learned about astronomy in these stories I was constantly reading. Just off the top of my head, I could point to ideas like light-travel time, the constraints of slower-than-light travel, the makeup of neutron stars, the life cycles of stars and planets, and the structures of ice worlds. Sure, I also learned about those things in astronomy class, but often I’d read about them in my SF books first, and only later learned the technical aspects in my coursework. Somehow the SF stories made those objects seem more alive—more real.

I do think that an interest in science fiction is what keeps me “in space” mentally, if not physically. The fact that I could soar to the planets in my imagination, led by the storytellers of science fiction, has always kept my interest in space travel and astronomy alive. The human face and endless possibilities my favorite authors trolled out in front of me like bait may well be why I like science so much!