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.

[Cybling] Okay folks, we have W.A. Thomasson with us now.
[Ryan] Hello.
[Cybling] And we're going to ask him a few questions.
[Cybling] If you have questions for our guest, please just ask. But please, let the guest answer one question before you ask another.
[Cybling] W. A. you first started out as a biochemist, then switched into science medical writing. Why?
[Thomasson] Two reasons. 1st jobs teaching biochemistry in college dried up..
[Thomasson] second I found that writing about science is easier and more...
[Thomasson] fun than doing science.
[Cybling] lol
[Ryan] Thomasson: you seem to have been involved in what I consider pretty high-tech stuff. What kind of things did you do?
[Cybling] you've written on subjects from air motors to Viagra... sounds pretty difficult to me! How hard is it to learn techincal writing?
[Thomasson] Meaning as a scientist before I switched to science writing?
[Ryan] yes
[Kai] whoa
[Thomasson] Okay...my research was on an esoteric field...hormonal control of protean granual accumulation in the fat body of berosophila prior to metamorphosis.
[Ryan] umm
[Ryan] In english...?
[Ryan] LOL
[Thomasson] lol
[Kai] Thomasson first off i like to say that i really like science and all and it is cool but sometimes i need help where can i go to find help on which kind of science i want to look up like marine biology
[Thomasson] Ok. The insects that undergo metamorphosis accumulate large amounts of protein in their fats...
[Thomasson] which is sort of like the liver...
[Thomasson] before metamorphosis starts. This is a reserve of protein for the process.
[Thomasson] And I was trying to find out what the signal was that turns on the process of accumulation.
[Ryan] Ah.
[Ryan] Did you find out?
[Thomasson] Kai...oh my. Of course there's lots of stuff on the internet and the web, but...
[Thomasson] where you would find a guide to what you want to look up... I'm sorry I really can't tell you.
[Kai] kk
[Kai] i might have to check my local college or library
[Thomasson] Ryan....as usual, the answer was partial and ambiguous. The molting hormone. seemed to be sufficient but not necessary.
[Thomasson] As though there were some backup mechanism.
[Kai] i'm like so drawn into science because i think it is cool
[Thomasson] It is really not nearly as hard as you might think...you need a quick mind to pick up things in science writing...
[Ryan] When did you give up on continuing your search for the answer? Is that when you began writing?
[Thomasson] and you need to realize that you don't need to know everything.
[Thomasson] In some ways the trick is to know when enough is enough.
[Ryan] Ah.. I suppose you thought you knew enough.
[Thomasson] Ryan... it actually... I'm hesitating because it's a little ambiguous and a long time ago...
[Thomasson] I was not very actively pursuing my research during my teaching...
[Ryan] Ah..
[Thomasson] but it was when I gave up my teaching to go to writing that I gave up my research.
[Cybling] Ok...
[Cybling] you're on a panel tomorrow on Nanotechnology and Clarke's Law. What is Clarke's Law?
[Thomasson] Clarke's law, actually his 3rd law, is that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
[Kai] nanotechnology is cool
[Cybling] Do Nanotech being dealt with in SF in a magical way is really very SF and not necessarily a fantasy story then?
[Kai] must learn more
[Thomasson] That is what the panel will be discussing.
[Thomasson] Whether many SF writers have in fact used nanotech to do things that are only possible in Fantasy and are not in fact scientific.
[Cybling] jSo there's still a big division between the SF and Fantasy groups?
[Thomasson] There's always a bit of attention and there's always a blending. The blends are many cases among my very favorite stories...science fantasy.
[Kai] So Mr.Thomasson is it kinda true that nanotechnology can kinda do certain things based on a certain kind of code a programmer puts in it???
[Cybling] The Future of the Human Form is another panel you're on Friday. We're changing the way we look?
[Thomasson] I'm having a little trouble answering because my expertise is more in wet nantoch...
[Thomasson] that is to say bio-nanotechnology.
[Thomasson] It's ... and also what is possible now which isn't much is not the same as what will be possible 100-200 years from now.
* Kai nods
[Thomasson] When we will be putting in codes, but they won't look much like today's computer codes.
[Kai] but could say we use this technology to like control robots and some sorts of stuff
[Thomasson] Cybling...we'll almost certainly change the way we look over the next few centuries.
[Thomasson] either by genetic engineering by post-natal types of modifications or both.
[Thomasson] Kai, nanotech is about the very very small technmology..
[Thomasson] and some of these very small things have been analogized to robots. I personally would prefer to analogize them to cells.
[Cybling] Kai...more follow up on Nanotech?
* Kai nods
[Kai] i might want more info on this
[Kai] see what i can learn
[Ryan] Did you always seem to have a natural talent at science or did you struggle it through it most of the time?
[Thomasson] Kai...it's all speculative at this point...
[Thomasson] except what's going on in our learning about genes and gene functions...
[Stormwindz] 3Try Nature, they have some articles online, Kai.
[Thomasson] which is basic science but speculations on what we will do with this are decades in the future. And at an SF...
[Thomasson] con, of course, we're speculating about the future.
* Thomasson nods
[Kai] i read some articles on genes
[Cybling] Okay...back to human modification. When do you see us starting to make changes in our appearance and what do you see happening first?
[Thomasson] I think we will start to make changes when we understand genes and their interactions well enough which will be...
[Thomasson] several decades in the future. Not sooner than 20 year and not later than 50 years.
[Thomasson] The first changes are hard to predict because it depends on what people want at that time...
[Thomasson] we could see things as simple as green hair or purple skin that people would think are cool...
[Thomasson] like nipple rings today.
[Cybling] If you have questions for our guest, please just ask. But please, let the guest answer one question before you ask another.
[Kai] hmmm
[Cybling] you also have a panel that talks about human modication...boon or bane?
[Thomasson] That's right.
[Cybling] which side are y ou on?
[Thomasson] I am on the side that it will be a boon.
[Thomasson] That there is very little that can go wrong...
[Stormwindz] What about the class question
[Thomasson] by the time we start doing changes we will understand the genes well enough that there will be very few surprises to rise up and bite us.
[Kai] Lets say Mr.Thomasson that we have a certain kid at a certain age and later on in his life he is the same size same everything until he reachers about lets say 20 wouldn't the fit in human modication or not
[Thomasson] . hmmm
[Thomasson] You mean that you freeze him in size for a number of years...
* Kai nods
[Thomasson] yes that would certainly be an example and I think that it would be possible.
[Ryan] Thomasson: Did you always seem to have a natural talent at science or did you struggle it through it most of the time? For both your time during high school and your time as an adult.
[Cybling] folks...it's nearly 8 so let's take a couple more questions before we let thomasson get on with the convention.
[Stormwindz] Do real
[Stormwindz] oops
[Kai] k
[St4rchild] Have you heard of the recent study results of the antioxidant that may bring about breakthroughs in enlonging the human life span?
[Thomasson] I always found the reading part of science very easy.
[Thomasson] I was not that good in the lab part of it. Which is probably why...
[Thomasson] I now find it easier to write about science than to do it.
[Thomasson] St4rchild I have heard of research on antioxidants...
[Thomasson] I am not convinced we're anywhere near the level at which they will extend the human life span.
[St4rchild] mmhmm
[Cybling] Okay folks...let's give Mr. Thomasson a hand.
[Cybling] Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
[Stormwindz] Yes, thanks!
* Ryan smiles.. Thank you for coming...
[Kai] Thomasson is cool
[Cybling] Yes he was... I just grabbed him as he was walking away...
[Cybling] to talk him into joining us in the near future at Cybling for a longer chat.
[Ryan] LOL