Getting to know the community of Stonewall

Hello all!

Though I have only been with you all a few days, it has so far been very enjoyable. I wanted to take a minute to ask a question and see who had a chance to respond.

Star Trek is a world of science, philosophy, and exploration. So many facets of it have influenced our lives in many ways that the general population may not realize. Computers, Flat-panel TVs, cell-phones, even aspects of space travel were illustrated on Star Trek (pulling from many great writers for inspiration) and engineers have used it as a template ever since.

So I'd like to ask what kinds of science and technology excite you? Some of you I have seen on here say they are scientists, engineers, educators, and it's all so wonderful. What catches your interest? What do you read about? What gives you hope for the future? Astrophysicists since the 90's have refined a theory of Warp drive (mostly just a thought exercise at the moment) to a point where it does actually seem quite plausible. That, with advances in anti-matter research and developments in Higgs field studies, could mean that the exploration aspect of Star Trek could very well be realized. This excites me! It's amazing and I hope we keep going!

So I want to know what you all think! This is a great group for it, especially considering the contributions of gay men and women in the fields of science, society, and culture (Allen Turing, Oscar Wilde, Arthur C. Clark, Eleanor Roosevelt, just to name a few). :)

My inspiration... Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I myself have always been enormously intrigued by astronomy since i was a kid. More recently, the some 890+ extra-solar planets that have been discovered in the past decade is just incredible to say the least, and a fraction of those have been confirmed to be orbiting their star at around the same distance as earth is from our sun. With time and better telescopes coming to fruition, we'll be able to see them in more detail, and even confirm whether or not they could support life as we know it.

iPhone/pad and Droid users can download an app called "Exoplanet" that is updated regularly as these distant worlds are discovered. You can also explore these systems in full 3D view, as well as the entire milky way galaxy. If you don't already have this app, I would download it immediately. It's amazing.

I've also joined www.planethunters.orgwww.planethunters.org which allows members (free membership) to quickly look at histograms and ID the anomalies appearing within them as those signify potential planets based on the varying brightness of that star over a period of time. I do a few graphs on my lunch hour at work. Those results are then examined more closely by the pro-astronomers around the world, and then documented as discoveries are made.

890 planets and counting, and that number has no where to go but up.

Between this, the developing concept of warp-drive you mentioned and the higgs-boson findings, the prospect of life beyond Earth...we live in truly exciting times.

As for books, i've enjoyed reading "Physics for the Rest of Us" by Roger S. Jones as well as "Secrets of the Night Sky" by Bob Berman as my favorite exploratory books.

Star Trek has driven my passion for it all, always reminding me that nothing is impossible.

Steve

This is a really awesome topic, Daniel. Thanks for posting it.

When the original iPhone came out I was so psyched because of it's innovative touch-screen interface. It reminded so much of a Starfleet datapad, albeit smaller and of course the iPad. When I think about how the processing power I hold in my hand once had to fill an entire room only a generation or two ago it truly does boggle my mind.

I work for a skincare website and as such have had access to light-therapy devices which utilize hand-held infrared and LED lights that pulse to reverse the visible signs of aging and clear acne. Sound like a dermal regenerator to you? This technology was developed by the US navy and is being used to treat much more serious medical conditions like certain forms of cancer.

The advances in warp drive theory are very exciting. I remember that the graphical representation of the TNG Enterprise's warp field always seemed to oscillate around the ship. Scientists are only recently saying that in order to sidestep the tremendous power requirements that had made warping space so implausible the warp field around the object must be made to oscillate in size and frequency so I wonder just how long that potential solution has been around? We may not see phasers and hovercars and interstellar travel in our lifetimes but I'd say there's a much better chance than there was.

I'm not an engineer or scientist. My background is in literature, art, and philosophy. But Star Trek inspires me in these areas, as well. The idea that humanity can come to a point that we see each other as equal, that we put aside the differences (after much difficulty) to create a society where anyone can achieve as far as they desire, and where the human endeavour focusses on discovery rather than warfare, these inspire me in my own work.

What an awesome topic and such great answers so far!

As a scientist myself, I get excited about all sorts of stuff. Even with the rapid advancement of technology in the last century, it seems like the coming decades may yield even more life-changing scientific discoveries and technological achievements.

I'm a biophysical chemist and geneticist, so I tend to get professionally excited about those possibilities. Right now I'm doing a postdoc on developing some new instrumentation, but I hope to one day work on algae-based biofuel. There are some really promising proposals to turn algae into fuel producers for humanity. A big advantage of this process is that it creates fuel compatible with our current infrastructure, but all of the CO2 and other nasty byproducts released upon use is pulled out of the atmosphere when the fuel is created in the first place, making the whole process carbon-neutral. Additionally, it provides us with another source for plastics and fine chemicals, which is something that other alternative energy sources like wind and solar can't provide.

Outside of my own work, I'm very excited about all the recent advancements and near-future possibilities of astronomy and space travel. The fact that private companies are starting to take over more routine aspects of space travel is very cool, and it is freeing NASA up to do even cooler things. On top of that, I can't believe that some scientists at NASA are actually attempting real, laboratory experiments to create warp bubbles based off the ideas of the Acubierre Warp Drive.

It's actually gotten me so jazzed that, the next time NASA puts out a call for astronauts (they do it every few years or so), I'm going to throw my hat into the ring!

WOW, haha sofar great responses. Yeah I've been following mostly photovoltaics and advancements in liquid-metal batteries. It's incredible to think that every surface of a building can now generate its own electricity. And why not? Every second of every day the Earth is hit with more ambient energy than has been used by the entire run of human civilization. I've seen images of German neighborhoods like this; with their European green surroundings they are quite beautiful... though I still can't -for the life me- figure out why the most powerful nation on the planet cannot get with the program in a meaningful way (actually I know exactly why but not the place to be negative). Call me a pragmatist, but my biggest passion is for not-to-distant future advantages. Better energy usage, algae refinement and use, and of course computer tech.

Haha, I really cannot wrap my head around the mathematics behind purposed methods of FTL travel and advancements in space travel with my art school education. Though I do read what I can and keep to date, I am far from an expert. However, I do see what benefits will come from the investment. One of my favorite is Vertical Farming: such a concept of advanced agriculture which may be required for survival in inclosed Mars habitation could be engineered on Earth into something like Archology (ref. Mass Effect): the creation of urban centers that produce both energy and agricultural needs locally, drastically reducing resource consumption.

I think for me, as an educator for most of my professional life is the current worldwide revolution in education. You can see some of the symptoms of this inevitable change already occuring in developed countries by the way in which education-inflation has increased. Where 10 years ago a degree was required to do a job, now a masters is required. Though the job requirements really havent changed.

The problem is, society itself has changed. When the whole system of education was created, particulariky that of western civilization, it was devised to meet the needs of industry ( moreover the industrial revolution). This is why, wherever you go (as remarkable as it sounds), from Rio to London, the structure of education is exactly the same. At the top are maths and languages and at the bottom are the humanities; from music to drama. Regardless of where you go, this is repeated. How many of us were benignly steered away from subjects we liked in school because we we were told (whether informally or formally) ; " Dont study art, you cant be artist...Dont study music, you cant be musician". But this rhetoric is profoundly misguided. Time and time again, we see children demonstrate particular talent(s) in one or more areas, butwe squander them, pretty ruthlessly because the system of education prioritises subjects that are favourable to industry. But society has moved on a great deal since the advent of the industrial revolution.

Why isnt music taught with the same presence of math? Mathematics is of course important, but so is music, drama, dance et al.

This is where I think the greatest societal change will begin, as is already underway in many developed countries. Tailor-suited education that focuses the talents and potential of children to help nurture skillsets so they can self-actualise and be whom they were always destined to be. Definitely not steered into a direction of employment to work at some nameless corporate entity factory.

This I think would probably be the most positive contributive factor to human progress in the 21st century. Well rounded individuals with their potentials reached, free to claim their niche in the world and be all the more happier for it.

Apologies for any typos, im on my samsung tab at 2am. :)

Ozy--for comparison, my mom is about to turn 74. She said when she was a kid (in a two-room schoolhouse, with one teacher going back and forth between the two rooms teaching all grades), that the teacher stressed the importance of getting an eighth-grade diploma so you could get a job.

That is a very interesting point Ozzy, something I have heard repeated a few times on TED talks. The factory-like educational system derived for producing adequate labor for an industrial society (well for the masses. the wealthiest of people have it a bit different). I suppose we are locked into a very unique situation; on one side there is the need to expose all people to the capabilities and creativity of human kind while the other is to respect that we have a massively overpopulated species that cannot get the kind of resources or advantages required without first a basic understanding.

There is an important aspect in a more well-rounded education; for example Einstein. His success came, besides his mathematics logic, from a unique creative capability allowing him to "see" the vary phenomena that he wrote about. Long before CGI could have been thought of as a means of creating realistic imagine of an abstract concept. There is a lot to be said about fostering this ability.

I honestly believe that it has been in the last 100 hundred years or so that our understanding of the universe (and ourselves) has been turned on its head by scientific discoveries. There are certainly results that I enjoy (gizmos and gadgets) as well as things that peak my interest for the future.

However, my largest hope is that we as a civilization cease from trying to tear each other down and succeed in a dog-eat-dog type of world. Instead, I hope for the day that all people live from an attitude of trying to lift each other up and inspire each other to be the best that that they can be. To me, that is the only claim to any semblance of importance that the human species can have.

For his part, Roddenberry's work has been a wonderful inspiration to untold numbers of people to strive for knowledge and discovery. For as much as we like to think that we understand, there is so much more to learn and we've only just begun.

Quote by Baothezar

I feel that science, math and tech is way important. because it takes years to become learn it and become good at it. while art requires the same dedication, i see it as more of a hobby.

But again, thats because the humanities in general are stigmatised as "inferior" to other subjects such as mathematics or languages. But this just isn't true.

most people dont have that spark to better themselves. And that is what is see as one of the bigger problems. People settle and not fight for their education.

I have to disagree, having worked in the education system, I've yet to see a single child without that spark, as you put, which i'd describe as creativity in a patricular field of interest. What happens is, many kids are educated out of their creative capacity, because their particular field of interest is either viewed as inferior (your previous quote is a perfect example of that) or actually stigmatised. So the musician that should have ended up on stage giving pleasure to thousands, is now a Mcdonald's chef flipping burgers. That's the tragedy of western education, as I see it.

I agree with Ozy on this one. I think the creativity and capability we have is universal, not stronger in some than others. Look back at an anthropological history of our species. Cave paintings, bead making, stone crafting, dancing, these things predate language and writing. Even speech is believed to have started out more as singing and eventually was simplified as a form of daily communication. Scans of the cranial cavity in Neanderthal remains has suggested the formation of their frontal cortex and speech centers might have been more adapted to song rather than speech.

As I stated earlier the biggest problem is shear number. It is hard for all people to be given the opportunity or accessibility when population density is high and resources or few or badly distributed. However, as education becomes more accessible we see the positive results.

Economically we see stabilization and greater community contribution. We work together to overcome hardship rather than tear each other apart (sorry doomsday prepers, but evidence shows that we are more likely to work together in bad times instead of killing each other for supplies. Exp- Super Storm Sandy). Education becomes even more accessible and as that opens new opportunities for people to specialize than we see greater attention to our careers and social circumstance; this generally reduces birth rate substantially. This is why we see fewer native Europeans being born in their own countries than we see immigrants or white people in the US. The greater the resource cost and educational expectations per child, the more cautious people will be to limit how many they have. Also access to birth control, etc etc.

Point being, as we become a more evenly educated society than the more our numbers and use of resources will stabilize. Now there are still cultural issues to work out of course (those that demand greater numbers of children to be born or limit/deny the use of contraception) but as we become more educated these older social norms begin to die off.... hopefully sooner rather than later.