Because of these several impediments, as well as other technical difficulties, you will find typos and occasional replication of text. In our humble opinion, typos show that the logs are of *live* chats, not canned interviews, and minimal editing of these logs has taken place.

Eric Schulman's Home Page

[Cybling] Folks please welcome Eric Schulman.
[Cybling] Eric Schulman has a Ph.D. in astronomy, was an astronomy instructor at the University of Virginia, and serves on the editorial board of the Annals of Improbable Research
[Eric_Schulman] Howdy!
[Cybling] Eric. Is this your first WorldCon or are you a regular at this?
[Kimmo] Good morning from all of us in Finland, Eric. Well, all of us in this room. That is, me.
[Eric_Schulman] Neither. I was at the last Chicon but that was my first and this is my second. This is my second Con (and first Worldcon) as a panelist.
[Eric_Schulman] Hi, Finland!
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] ASTRONOMY!
[Cybling] Wonderful! That last Chicon was about 9 years ago, correct?
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] Sorry fot the delayed reaction...
[Eric_Schulman] Yes indeed.
* Serenah_SS_Suchomimus is trying to master like - 20 things at a time
[Eric_Schulman] I think it was '91.
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] for^
[Cybling] If you have questions for our guest, please just ask. But please, let the guest answer one question before you ask another.
[Cybling] Eric, you're the author of A Briefer History of Time (1999, W.H. Freeman), is a humorous and educational look at the 53 most significant events of the past 15 billion years.
[Cybling] Can you tell us what one or two of those events were?
[Eric_Schulman] Well, the subtitle of the book is "From the Big Bang to the Big Mac". Two of the events were the Big Bang and the development of agriculture. :)
[Cybling] LOL
[Cybling] I like that sub-title
[Eric_Schulman] You can read the whole list through http://www.radix.net/~fornax/hist
[Cybling] Wonderful...thanks for the URL Eric.
[Eric_Schulman] The book covers astronomy, planetary science, chemistry, biology, anthropology, history, and technology, all in a fun and easy-to-read format. :
[Eric_Schulman] :)
[Cybling] When did it come out Eric? Is it on the shelves now?
[Eric_Schulman] It came out in 1999 and it is on the shelves, but not in Finland AFAIK. It can be obtained through Amazon.Com and it's foreign subsidiaries, however.
[Cybling] Do you foresee it going to paperback or in e-book form for us low-cash types?
[Eric_Schulman] It's a trade paperback at the moment ($14.95 USD). W.H. Freeman isn't doing e-books yet (I think), but there's always hope for the future.
[Cybling] Oh... well that's very affordable then.
[Cybling] Folks...any questions on whether you're world shaking events might be ones that Eric has listed in his book?
[Cybling] You also write a bimonthly column for Mercury Magazine entitled "Armchair Astrophysics."
[Eric_Schulman] The book is on Life, the Universe, and Everything, so if you have questions or comments on any of those things, I'd be happy to chat about them. :)
[Eric_Schulman] Mercury is the magazine of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. My column is intended to summarize astrophysical topics for professional astronomers, astronomy educators, and people who are just intersted in astronomy but don't have much background. I've been writing it since 1999. So far I've covered topics in cosmology (the origin and evolution of the Universe) and on Life in the Universe.
[Cybling] Now am I wrong or doesn't an Astrophysicist have to look outside now and again?
[Cybling] Get out of the armchair so to speak.
[Eric_Schulman] In theory. :)
[Eric_Schulman] A lot of astronomical observations are coming from space these days, though. So many astrophysicists get their data from NASA via FedEx rather than going to mountain observatories to obtain it themselves.
[Cybling] Oh...am I confusing astrophysics with astronomy?
[Eric_Schulman] They are very similar.
[Cybling] LOL FedEx ad Astra.
[Kimmo] Eric's Amazon link (as per yesterdays "traditional cut-and pasting" :P
[Eric_Schulman] In practice, astrophysics tends to be a bit more based on theory than astronomy, but really the two are almost interchangable.
[Eric_Schulman] As an astronomer I did both. I did optical and radio observing in Arizona, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Chile. I also used data from X-ray satellites.
[Cybling] Okay. Thanks, was feeling more ignorant than usual just then.
[Cybling] Eric, A panel you're going to be on this Sunday is... The Search for ET
[Eric_Schulman] Yep. One of my favorite topics!
[Cybling] you're one of the folks who's actively looking for Extraterrestrial life via radio waves?
* RedRaptor listens very intently now
[Eric_Schulman] No, I'm just one of those thinking and writing about it. :)
[Eric_Schulman] Now with SETI@home everyone can participate in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, which I think is very cool.
[Eric_Schulman] I did some observing at Arecibo a number of years back. That's where the SETI@home data comes from.
[Cybling] Oh, lol. I was about to ask you about that. I was curious as to whether they were getting any results.
[Kimmo] 881 packets! ;)
[Eric_Schulman] They have found some signals but nothing that's very convincing.
[Eric_Schulman] How many of you participate in SETI@home?
* Kimmo raises hand
[Cybling] I used to have the program on my computer, but I went through a couple of hard-drive crashes. Haven't reloaded.
[RedRaptor] I was thinking of it, but don't totally understand it
[Cybling] Eric, can you explain how it works?
[Kimmo] http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
[Eric_Schulman] Astronomers at Arecibo make radio observations of all sorts of objects. While they are doing those, they also observe portions of the sky that they dont' really care about.
[Eric_Schulman] These data are still saved, however, and the SETI@home folks are taking these data and sending them to people all over the world. These people use the CPUs of their home computers to search the data for possible signals from ET.
[Eric_Schulman] Plus you get a funky screen saver out of it! :)
[Cybling] Eric, is the romantic vision of a lonely astronomer observing the cosmos through a telescope gone? Is it going to be radio astronomy or other techniques from now on?
[Kimmo] Hey... wait a minute... I'm processing data nobody cares about?
[Cybling] LOL
* Kimmo looks shocked and appalled ;)
[Eric_Schulman] Kimmo, the data have been used to further the study of one subfield of astronomy, and now you're using them again to further the study of another subfield (SETI).
* Kimmo nods
[RedRaptor] question
[Kimmo] Yeah, I think it's definitely worthwhile, especially as it really has zero impact on how you use your computer.
[RedRaptor] how often do you need to be online for SETI@home to work?
[Eric_Schulman] There are still astronomers who observe at opical telescopes. They don't look through eyepieces anymore, though. All the data are taken with charge-coupled devices (CCDs like those in your camcorders).
[Riesengrosser] Hello
[Eric_Schulman] The program will work on a set of data and then let you know when you need to go online again in order to send back the results and get new data.
[Eric_Schulman] Hi, Riesengrosser.
[Cybling] Folks...we have about 8 more minutes with Eric.
[Cybling] He's an honest to goodness Astrophysicist and we don't get to meet them often.
* Eric_Schulman waves
[Cybling] Any final questions about ET? Astronomy?
[Cybling] Okay...one final one from me...I use My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza Pies to remember the solar system.... but they keep finding new planetoids out at the fringes.
[Cybling] is there a new mnemonic I can use?
[RedRaptor] lol
[Eric_Schulman] If you want an mnemonic for memorizing all the named asteroids I think you may be out of luck. There are something like 10,000 of them. :)
[Cybling] LOLOLOL
[RedRaptor] what's the 10th planet called?
[Eric_Schulman] There is nothing remotely as large as Pluto out there, though. And pluto is half the size of the next largest planet, Mercury. So I think you're ok.
[Kimmo] RedRaptor: Not very often (re: setiathome). Depends on the speed of your computer. Once a day or once every second day. It's really up to you, you can go longer without connects too.
[Eric_Schulman] No 10th planet as yet. There may be no 10th planet at all.
[Riesengrosser] Enjoy your Pizza:-)
[RedRaptor] okay, was just wondering from the mnemonic
[Eric_Schulman] Every so often some astronomers conclude that particular data imply that there is a 10th planet. Lately it's been that the comets don't appear to be distributed exactly randomly through the solar system.
[IWant2BFree] hi
[Eric_Schulman] Although this is suggestive, it's not yet very convincing.
[Eric_Schulman] Hi, IW2BF
[Cybling] Okay thanks. I'll stop waking up in the middle of the night worrying about it, or else stop eating pepperoni pizza.
[IWant2BFree] hi eric
[IWant2BFree] :)
[Cybling] Folks...let's thank Eric Schulman for joining us today to talk about astronomy and his panels here at Chicon.
[Cybling] Let's give him a hand!
* Cybling applauds
* Eric_Schulman bows
* IWant2BFree claps
[Eric_Schulman] Thanks. It's been fun!
[Kimmo] Thanks, Eric. Hope you have a great rest-of-the-con
* IWant2BFree gives eric a standing oation
[Kimmo] (said with only a little jealousy since I can't be there ;)
[IWant2BFree] will u be back eric?