Prof. Sam Lawler
Prof. Sam LawlerTomorrow is my talk for the astronomy portion of the Physics & Astronomy Department at UBC, but it's open to the public, if you're in Vancouver tomorrow (Monday) at 4pm "The Kuiper Belt vs. the Billionaire Space Race" https://phas.ubc.ca/kuiper-belt-vs-billionaire-space-race
Now I guess I better finish putting together that talk (which mostly involved culling slides) before I go to bed... #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerTime to watch @debcha@saturation.social give a talk at UBC in the forestry department! Because I'm just leaning in to the theme of interdisciplinarity as much as I possibly can to end this week.
#ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerIt is WILD to be listening to this talk on infrastructure and where our materials come from after the week I've had here!
She just talked about the specific example of aluminum smelting using hydroelectric (which gives lots of energy without the externalities of CO2), meanwhile, I was emailing photos of space debris (which is mostly aluminum) to a journalist, and yesterday I visited a lab studying aluminum aerosols in the stratosphere from reentries... It's all connected!! #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerTime to watch @debcha@saturation.social give a talk at UBC in the forestry department! Because I'm just leaning in to the theme of interdisciplinarity as much as I possibly can to end this week.
#ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerAn astronomer in a meeting this morning referred to SpaceX as "a pet crocodile" and I think this metaphor is delightful, especially with absolutely no additional context.
Prof. Sam LawlerI could really use a good cat snuggle, but my cats are 1,000 km away (with a kind farm sitter, but still... I need a cat snuggle. And a goat snuggle. And a dog snuggle. And a llama snuggle...) #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerCommuting, aerosol chemistry lab tour, and UBC just trying to outdo itself with in-your-face beauty. You can't even see the 3 eagles happily flying above the whole scene.
Aerosol chemistry is scary stuff. They're doing work on testing out geoengineering ideas (seeing if there are weird chemical effects like ozone depletion or temperature changes). We chatted a lot about possible effects from reentries. Then I took a long walk outside.
Time for media interview 2 for today.
#ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerFirst media interview of the day done, plus I got a little bit of writing done on the train/bus this morning. Yesterday ended up being political science day, today is chemistry: I get to talk to an atmospheric chemist about how much satellite reentries are changing the upper atmosphere. I hope I will have time for a walk outside sometime today, because I will absolutely need it after chatting with the chemist... #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerAfter a whole day of hanging around and listening to political science academics talk about a wide variety of distressing current events, talking about anti-satellite weapons tests, having meetings about sunlight-as-a-service and other stupid satellite ideas, and many hours on transit, I desperately need to go rage-scream in a hay field, but I'm in a big city ☹
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Prof. Sam LawlerSomehow I just ended up giving a (completely unplanned) short lecture in an undergrad international law class at UBC about space debris in Saskatchewan! #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerToday I have a meeting about whether it's worthwhile for [big science org] to make a public statement against space weapons, and then a listen to a talk and participate in a discussion about anti-satellite weapons tests, then listen to a lecture on international space law.
While reading headlines about the US wanting to take over everyone. This is going to be... a lot.