Posted by: brunosan | August 30, 2010

Space Up DC

IMG_6301

Space Up is set of “uncoferences” about space. Last week was the DC edition, in wich I had the pleasure to participate. It was my first unconference and I must admit I liked it. I would say is perfect for small conferences where the level of enthusiam is high.

The attendees were coming from all walks of life, from rocket scientist with years of experience to kids with their mums. No specific background was required to attend or even host sessions about any topic. There was only common denominator, interest in space, and a strong commitment to collaborate. Some people brought audio and video resources, some broadcasted it and recorded it, some filled the wiki with content, …. A mother, a scientist, an enterpreneur, a kid, a professional, a journalist. All working together side by side.

Read More…

Posted by: brunosan | August 7, 2010

Divulgando en casa

Excerpt in English: Last outreach talk in Gijón was a special succes. Being an talk a the community center at the city where I was raised, it was particularly an honor. I got much interest and advertisement from the local and regional radio, tv and newspaper. The room was full and people made questions for more than an hour after the end of the talk. Thank you. You make it worth.

Un par de reflexiones a propósito de esta última charla:

Read More…

Excerpt in English: I will be giving an outreach talk at the community center in La Arena, in Gijón (Spain) on Friday 6th of August, at 7:30 pm. The topic of the talk will be an overview of the current understanding of Solar physics, the Sun-Earth relation and the place of the Sun in our Universe. Attendance is free.

El próximo Viernes 6 de Agosto, a las 7:30pm,  doy una charla sobre el Sol en el “Centro cívico de La Arena”. La charla está abierta a todo el público y no tiene coste. Durante una hora intentaré dar una idea del conocimiento actual del Sol, de su relación con la Tierra, y de su posición con el resto del Universo.
La charla cuenta con la colaboración de la Asociación Asturiana de Astronomía Omega (organización), NASA Goddard (material divulgativo) y el centro cívico de La Arena (local y medios informáticos).
Posted by: brunosan | July 16, 2010

Astronomy Night on the National Mall

Sunset. Everything is ready, just waiting for the dark side
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in cooperation with Hofstra University, organized yesterday an open and free star party, on the National Mall, in Washington, DC. This event is actually part of a bigger initiative to bring people to the telescopes while listening to music, called “Music and Astronomy Under the Stars“. On Flickr you can see some of the pictures I made.

Read More…

Posted by: brunosan | July 6, 2010

Science Advice in the United Nations

Knowledge and Diplomacy: Science Advice in the United Nations System

With such an appealing title, this book (2002, 120 pages, simple formatting, easy read) went straight to the top of my pile of books to read. You can get the pdf for free at the NAS press or the physical version for around 25$. I paid 10$ on eBay, but I wish I had my Kindle back then!

It is truly an interesting topic. The approach aims to respond on the tricky business of advising science from inside international organizations. The UN, for example, has made several clear calls to qualitatively and quantitatively strengthen science advice across and throughout its structure (e.g. Agenda 21 Chapter 31). The main goal of such an advisory body would be then to increase awareness, rule making, oversight but also local implementation, address emerging issues and coordinate global cooperation and response.

Read More…

Posted by: brunosan | July 2, 2010

Science & Technology Policy Fellow

It is a great honor and pleasure to announce that I have been granted a Fellowship in Science Policy at the National Academies, in Washington DC. As anyone could tell by the topics of this blog, I am quite interested in Science and Technology, and its relation with Society. I regard Science Policy as the ultimate tool to articulate this relation at large. I am, thus, really looking forward this professional opportunity.  Just few more weeks, on the 30th of August.

The Fellowship, called “Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program” is designed to engage its Fellows in the analytical process that informs U.S. science and technology policy. The host institution, the National Academies is a corporation created under Lincoln´s mandate almost 150 years ago. Its members serve as “advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine.”

Read More…

Posted by: brunosan | June 16, 2010

The power of a pale blue dot

In 1990 the Voyager 1 had past Saturn completing its primary mission. It was then when Carl Sagan requested to flip the spacecraft to make a picture of the Earth. Of course it was too far to see anything but a dot. And that was precisely the reason the proposal had such an important symbolic value. No human device was ever that far and able to make a picture. There were many practical complains as the Sun, from that distance, is quite close. It could damage the camera. Indeed, the reflections of the Sun light on the spacecraft can be seen as straight lines, one of them crossing the Earth position.

This is the picture, from Wikipedia, with a circle around the Earth’s position. Click to see it in full resolution and without the marker. Yes, that dot is the entire Earth, is here, is us.
PaleBlueDot.jpg

Read More…

Posted by: brunosan | June 5, 2010

Random Hacks of Kindness, and Understanding Risk

Random Hacks of Kindnes (RHoK) is “a community of developers, geeks and tech-savvy do-gooders around the world, working to develop software solutions that respond to the challenges facing humanity today”. Unfortunately I am not a developer myself. I do develop code, sometimes quite complex. Unfortunately space and rocket science lives in a too close programing environment to apply it to the real world.  I am however, close enough to realize how amazing it is, to understand it, and to follow its moves with great interest. This is one of these cases.

To top it all, the reception for the RHoK was held at the US State Department, in collaboration with Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, NASA and the World Bank. The symbolic value is certainly impressive.

Read More…

Posted by: brunosan | May 23, 2010

Google IO 2010 Developers Conference

I had the pleasure to attend The Google conference for Developers, in San Francisco. This conference is where Google addresses their beloved crowd of external developers.

Shiny Happy Screens, Shiny Happy People

Part of the successful business model for Google is to create an environment of openness and community where people not affiliated or paid by Google actually develop and contribute to its success. To avoid miscarriages of costly projects they like to hold the ideas and point them in the proper direction before releasing it to the wild. This conference is when new lines are announced and also when part of this transfer to the crowds occurs. They need a happy smart motivated crowd, and they are famous for doing so quite well. Free supplies of sweets, couches, sodas or even costly last generations phones are parts of this strategy. They want (they need) developers to willing to put many many hours, with the phones averages consumers will buy during the next year. Read More…

Posted by: brunosan | May 12, 2010

Working today at NASA JPL

Working today at NASA JPL. Sueños que se hacen realidad...

Part of my work is the preparation for the Solo HI instrument onboard Solar Orbiter. Just being on the team is awesome, we get to use the best hardware and learn from the best people. I am learning a lot about space hardware.

Today we had a meeting at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California. This is one of those places that made, makes and will make history. Space history.

Being (a tiny small) part of this future is just awesome. Read More…

Older Posts »

Categories