|
The third annual Citizen Science Conference was held at the University of N
evada in Las Vegas on 13-15 January 2005. Attendees at this fast-paced conference heard high quality talks on topics ranging from glass blowing and statistics to stratospheric balloons and a novel kind of Foucault pendulum. Aviation pioneer and engineer Dr. Paul B. MacCready summed it up best when he said that he has attended only one professional meeting with topics as diverse as those addressed at the Citizen Science Conference.
Early conference attendees were treated to a half-day guided tour of the spectacular Red Rock Canyon. This tour was a prelude to a presentation by Dr. Jonathan Price of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. The conference began Friday morning with welcoming remarks by Dr. Shawn Carlson, Founder and Executive Director of the Society for Amateur Scientists.
Harlan Brothers began the lecture series with an intriguing talk on "Rubbing Shoulders with Newton: A New Look at a Fundamental Constant of Nature." Harlan discussed novel methods for deriving
the universal constant e. The new methods provide simpler means for arriving at e than the method proposed by Isaac Newton.
Monty Robson, who was scheduled to speak on "Amateur Astronomy at McCarthy Observatory ," was unable to attend the conference. In his place, two SAS members presented some of their work. First, Forrest M. Mims III presented two PowerPoint presentations. The first, which was entitled "New Findings About the Extraordinarily Rare Devil's Cigar (Chorioactis geaster), was about a very rare and exotic fungus found only in a few places in Japan and Texas. The second was "Signatures of Volcanic Eruptions and El Ninos in Rings of Hill Country Cypress (Taxodium distichum)." Next, artist, writer and naturalist Aleta Karstad presented a talk about the Bishop Mills Natural History Centre in Ontario, Canada. She also showed her latest commercial project, a superbly designed field notebook called "The Nature Journal."
Dr. John Lighton of Sable Systems International spoke on "The Citizen Scientist and Environmental Regulations: Making Measurements That Make a Difference." John is well known for his design and development of simple instruments and methods capable of measuring the physiology of insects and small mammals. His lecture discussed the importance of making careful measurements and conducting appropriate data analysis when gathering evidence to challenge violators of environmental regulations and laws. An interesting sidelight of John's lecture is that he once lectured to students in the same lecture hall when he was on the faculty of the University of Nevada.
Dr. Lin Chambers of NASA's Langley Research Center spoke on "Opportunities for Citizen Scientists to Investigate the Earth's Atmosphere." A cloud specialist, Lin spoke about various ways citizen scientists can access and study NASA data. She is responsible for various education initiatives at NASA, including "The CERES S'COOL Project" for observing clouds.
Mark Streitman, President of New Jersey Chapter of the Society for Amateur Scientists, spoke on "The Foucault Pendulum from the First SAS Conference to a Commercial Product." This talk covered the design of a novel electronics controller and improved suspension apparatus for a commercial Foucault pendulum that will soon be available for the school market.
Gary Coyne, a professional scientific glass blower and author of
"The Laboratory Companion," spoke on "Sodium Migration in Borosilicate Glass at High Temperatures: What are the Ramifications and Benefits?" Comments were made about the exceptional photographs in Gary's presentation.
Dr. Garry Mahon, a research geneticist with the European Union in Luxemburg, has a strong statistics background. He spoke about the statistical relationship of "Thrombosis and Cancer."
Steve Hansen, editor and publisher of The Bell Jar, presented an insightful talk on "Vacuum Technology and the Amateur." Watch future issues of The Citizen Scientist for more from Steve Hansen.
Dr. Jonathan Price peppered his talk on "Geological Issues in Nevada and the West" with references to how amateur scientists can play a valuable role in investigating and reporting on geological features not yet studied by professional geologists.
Ana Soto-Canino illustrated her talk on "Radical Botanicals: Disappearing Plants, Scientific Illustration, and the Need for an Ecological Vision" with her novel pointillism of a botanical specimen underlain by strips of gold leaf.
On Friday evening, Dr. Paul B. MacCready of AeroVironment, Inc. presented the Winfree Lecture. The lecture and the demonstrations afterward are the subject of a separate news article in this issue of The Citizen Scientist.
The Saturday lecture series began with two presentations on "The Future of Science Education in America: How we are going to change it." Cindy Lee Duckert, an engineer, pilot and educator, began the session with a talk on science for kids. She stressed the importance of teaching science from an early age and cited her experience as an experienced home school teacher. Heather Smith,
Director of Program Development for LABRats, Society for Amateur Scientists, provided a full progress report on the program's objectives and status. Dr. Shawn Carlson, Executive Director of the Society for Amateur Scientists, spoke about his vision for empowering young people with a working knowledge of science through LABrats.
Dr. Alanah Woody of the Nevada Rock Art Foundation spoke on "The Rock Art of Nevada: Art for all times." She showed examples of well preserved rock art along with examples of rock art that has been defaced by vandals or by wind and moisture.
John Powell , President of JP Aerospace, spoke about his company's amazing program of flying student ping pong ball payloads on stratospheric balloons in "Airships to Orbit (ATO) and Ping Pong Balls" . He also described his vision for suborbital balloon platforms, microsatellites and orbital transfer vehicles.
Scott Little lectured on his observations of "Guppies and Alpha Male Feeding Patterns." This research was based on three male guppies, one of which exhibited dominant characteristics.
Pete Friedrichs , electrical engineer, author and innovator, gave an intriguing talk on "Post-Apocalypic Engineering? Experiments in the Construction of Functional Radio Equipment from Virtually Nothing." Pete described and showed do-it-yourself headphones, capacitors, coils, diodes and even point-contact transistors.
New Jersey's hyperactive SAS Chapter presented a "Chapter Round-up." First, Mark Streitman, the chapter's president, presented a detailed review of his progress in developing and commercializing a transportable, digitally-regulated Foucault pendulum. (Mark also maintained the projection system during the entire conference, and this is the subject of a separate news story in this issue of The Citizen Scientist.) Next, Peter Torrione gave a progress report on his effort to develop a working scanning electron microscope. Ana Soto-Canino (see above) is also a member of the New Jersey chapter.
William Appleby spoke about his research into the destruction of the Hindenburg dirigible. Bill's article on his Hindenburg research, and an accompanying editorial, were published in the 17 December 2005 issue of The Citizen Scientist.
John Heller of the Astronomical Society of Las Vegas concluded the afternoon session with a talk on "Amateur Astronomers in Las Vegas."
Dr. Shawn Carlson hosted the Benjamin Franklin Award Banquet on Saturday evening. He passionately spoke about his vision for LABRats and the serious efforts by the Society for Amateur Scientists to raise funds to begin the program.
Shawn presented the the Benjamin Franklin Citizen Scientist Award and a check for $1,000 to Forrest M. Mims III. The plaque accompanying the award reads, "Society for Amateur Scientists presents the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Citizen Scientist Award to Forrest M. Mims III for his extraordinary achievements in atmospheric science, for his tireless devotion to advancing science literacy and for realizing the ideal of the citizen as scientist. Presented January 15, 2005." The acceptance speech and lecture discussed the electrical discoveries of Benjamin Franklin and science in the Mims family.
The final session of the Citizen Science Conference was a well-attended morning poster session. Some of the posters were by those who had presented formal lectures on Friday or Saturday and others were standalone exhibits. Based on the many discussions around each exhibit, it's fair to conclude that the poster session was a highlight of the conference.
The conference planners and organizers at the Society for Amateur Scientists deserve recognition for the many long hours they invested in organizing the meeting. They include Shawn Carlson, Denise Todd, Heather Smith and Nancy
Scarduzio. Much time went into reviewing the abstracts, preparing the program, finding a lecture hall at the University of Nevada, setting up the Red Rock Canyon tour, finding a nearby hotel and arranging for the lunches and the banquet. Thanks to their careful planning and the fine collection of presentations, the 2005 Citizen Science Conference was a memorable event.
Forrest M. Mims III 
|
