Science Circle

Open Board Meeting
2019-02-01 07:00 - 08:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Auditorium
Every first Friday of the month, we hold an open board meeting for the benefit of our members. Here you can contact us with your questions, create ideas and hopefully together with us, give substance to our plans for the future.
During every open board meeting we display a screen with our current statistics, updated monthly and are there for your information.
Program

Opening
Subjects from the board of directors
Supporting hostesses and hosts sought
Do we need a second region?
Questions & ideas from our members
Closing

NOTE: a transcript of all board meetings is stored and made available to the board of directors for future reference. It will not be publicly available.
If this time does not suit you, please send your questions etc via IM, notecard or email to Jes or Chantal. We will submit your question, idea or comment to the board and provide you with the answer.

Climate Change
2019-01-26 10:00 - 11:30 | Auditorium
Monthly panel discussion
With this week as subject “Climate Change”

Moderator: Matthew Burr – Beragon Betts

Panel participants:

Keith Eric Grant
Phil Youngblood
William F. Wall

Listen to the podcast episodes of Phil Youngblood & Matthew Burr Episode 1 & Episode 2

To make your questions visible to our host and panel members, have your questions be preceded by 3 stars ***

Ultra Deep Science Drill Ship
2019-01-19 07:00 - 08:00 | Abyss Observatory in Japan Open Grid
Photo: JAMSTEC
Where? Abyss Observatory in JOGrid (OpenSim)
Enable your OpenSim access here
hop://jogrid.net:8002/Abyss Observatory/491/302/140
Who? Hajime Nishimura, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC),
Yan Lauria, Museum director of Abyss Observatory in SL/OpenSim

Abstract:
I was working on development of ultra deep science drill ship “Chikyu” (“the Earth” in English) from 2001 to 2005.
I built 3D model of “Chikyu” in Science Sim (one of OpenSim grids hosted by Intel) as joint project with ScienceCircle Foundation and JAMSTEC in 2011, but Science Sim was closed and I imported “Chikyu” to JOGrid (Japan Open Grid hosted by Tokyo University of Information Science) in 2014 and continue to improve until now.
”Chikyu” is first and only science drill ship which has well control capability for core sampling through deeper penetration by 2,500 m Riser drilling system which has 9,000 m drill strings, 2,500 riser pipes, Blow Out Preventer (BOP) and mud circulation system for cuttings recovery from drill hole compatible with commercial oil drilling.
https://www.jamstec.go.jp/chikyu/e/
In current phase, “Chikyu” is engaging at 2,500 m depth water and drilling 5,200 m from the seafloor in plate subduction zone under strong Kuroshio current (more than 2 m/sec).
Target is seismic zone of the plate interface fault system at a location where it is believed to be capable of seismogenic locking and slip, and to have slipped coseismically in the 1944 Tonankai earthquake.
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/chikyu/e/nantroseize/expedition_358.html
In future phase, “Chikyu” will be upgraded for 4,000 m riser and 11,000m drill strings which enable to reach crust-mantle boundary.
Chikyu’s drill will have to go through 4000m of water and 6000m of crust to be able to reach the mantle, which makes up roughly 84 percent of our planet’s volume.
The researchers also want to investigate the boundary between the oceanic crust and the mantle to figure out how the crust formed. Plus, they want to see if microbial life exists that deep inside the planet.
To do this requires new techniques to drill out 7,000 m below the seafloor, in regions where ambient temperatures can reach 250 degrees C
http://www.gm.univ-montp2.fr/spip/spip.php?rubrique185&lang=en
Remark;
I’ll use voice chat in English and Japanese.
The region is 512m x 512m (Varregion of OpenSim) and there are huge amount of prims, so you may be difficult to move depend on your PC and Internet.
Please try Hypergrid teleport in advance the presentation.

An excursion led by Hajime Nishimura “Ultra Deep Science Drill Ship” at Abyss Observatory in Japan Open Grid (JOGrid)
Hajime Nishimura / Yan Lauria

Previous work in the Library
Previous work in the Film collection

Optics for Photographers
2019-01-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
A tutorial on “Optics for photographers”.
This tutorial is intended to teach practical optical concepts to persons who are photographers but have not had formal training in optics and may have acquired misleading notions from camera advertisements, the common talk on forums, and the like.
The tutorial outline is shown below.
Optics for Photographers
by Robert Lawson Brown, Ph.D.
Physicist and Photographer

Pinhole Camera
– Making a Pinhole Camera
– Using a body cap on a regular camera
– Raytracing
Field of View
– Sensor Size and Image Distance
Magnification
– Object Distance and Image Distance
The relationship of pinholes optics to lens optics.
Focal length
Depth of field
ISO, Aperture, and shutter speed.
Choosing the right lens.
Perspective is about where you stand.
Thumb through my portfolio.

What is Entropy?
2019-01-05 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
WHAT IS ENTROPY?
“Entropy is disorder.”
You’ve learned this from popular culture, you’ve learned this in your physical science, chemistry, or biology class.
But what does that *mean*? We have an intuitive sense for what “disorder” is, but how do you really define it rigorously for a scientific concept?
There are two ways to approach it; one is as a term in thermodynamic equations, the other is as a fundamental concept from statistical mechanics (on which thermodynamics is based).
In this talk, I will try to convey the true fundamental definition of entropy at a level that anybody can understand. We will roll dice, we will talk about how physical systems can be more “ordered” or “disordered” in a rigorous sense, and hopefully we will shed some light on what entropy really is.
Podcast Interview with Rob

— Rob Knop
Homepage
Blog
Previous work in the Library
Previous work in the Film Collection

Open Board meeting
2019-01-04 07:00 - 08:00 | Auditorium
Every first Friday of the month, we hold an open board meeting for the benefit of our members. Here you can contact us with your questions, create ideas and hopefully together with us, give substance to our plans for the future.
During every open board meeting you will find a screen above the water with our current statistics, these are updated monthly and are there for your information.
Program

Opening
Subjects from the board of directors
Podcast promotion
YouTube: Quality of our videos and content
Questions & ideas from our members
Closing

NOTE: a transcript of all board meetings is stored and made available to the board of directors for future reference. It will not be publicly available.
If this time does not suit you, please send your questions etc via IM, notecard or email to Jes or Chantal. We will submit your question, idea or comment to the board and provide you with the answer.

Biodiversity, Life on Earth
2018-12-31, 2018-12-24, 2018-12-17, 2018-12-10, 2018-12-03, 2018-12-01 | Your RL Environment
The earth is home to around 10 million described forms of life and biologists estimate the total amount of different species at about 40 million species.
Importantly, variation in environment leads to an uneven distribution of these species on the planet. Think of how humans tend to cluster within cities many of which are near water (Cairo and the Nile for example).
Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is richest in the tropics. These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 percent of earth’s surface, and contain about 90 percent of the world’s species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans.

The health of life on the planet is measurable by scientists as Biodiversity: the variation observed at the genetic, species, and ecosystem level United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Global trends towards population stabilization, poverty alleviation, and urbanization are rewriting the future of biodiversity conservation and offering new hope for the world’s wildlife and wild places, according to a surprisingly optimistic paper recently published in the journal BioScience.

Is this your personal experience as well? Is the diversity of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and insects extensive and developing positively in your own living environment?
We would like to organize a worldwide overview exhibition about biodiversity with you.

Put together, in December, a general list of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and insects, of species that you encounter daily; this simplifies counting and noting.
Start with counting on Tuesday January 1, 2019 and finish on January 31, 2019.
Photos!!!!! Enchant us with beauty. Natura Artis Magistra (“Nature is the teacher of art”)
Describe in a notecard where you found these species: Your country of residence & the environment: urban, rural, coastal, mountainous, desert, forest area.
Average temperature of January.
Note recent floods, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, droughts and other disasters in your area, influencing species populations.
Register with Chantal before January 15th. Slide screens available for free.

Grab your camera and capture the most beautiful encounters for us!

January 1st – January 31st Counting life
January 1st – January 24th Photographing
January 24th – February 7th Photo exhibition in SL & vote for your 3 favourites via the website
February 12th (Darwin Day) Announcement winners
February 16th The three winners describe their photo
1st Price 5000 Lindens
2nd Price 2500 Lindens
3rd Price 1000 Lindens

In order to give a complete picture of the diversity,
we will organize this project in different seasons,
namely January, April, July and October,
with as final piece a retrospective of 2019 in December.

Gene Editing
2018-12-29 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Monthly panel discussion, this week “Gene Editing”

It has been an eventful year for CRISPR gene editing technology. Come join our expert biologist panelists for a discussion of the year in genome modification. After a brief overview of the technology, we will discuss some of the highlight gene edits and their purpose, the end of the patent battle between Broad and UC Berkeley, European ruling on regulations of genetically modified crops, and on gene editing the human germline. Expect an informative and lively discussion of what’s new including the ethics and potential of the technology.

Recommended information sources
Explainer for a popular audience
Introduction to CRISPR
Radiolab – Antibodies Part 1: CRISPR Jennifer Doudna, Eugene V. Koonin, Beth Shapiro, Carl Zimmer
Radiolab – Update: CRISPR Jennifer Doudna, Kevin Esvelt, Eugene V. Koonin, Beth Shapiro, Carl Zimmer
Radiolab explaining CRISPR in bacteria
How Does CRISPR Compare to Other Gene-Editing Techniques?
The bold plan to end malaria with a gene drive

Moderator: Beragon Betts

Panel participants:

Dr. Mary Anne Clark
Dr. Stephen Gasior

To make your questions visible to our host and panel members, have your questions be preceded by 3 stars ***

"Ultra Deep Science Drill Ship"
2018-12-29 07:00 - 08:00 | Abyss Observatory in Japan Open Grid

Space Shuttle Launch/Re-entry and International Space Station
2018-12-22 07:00 - 08:00 | International Spaceflight Museum
“Space Shuttle Launch/Re-entry and International Space Station” at International Spaceflight Museum in SL
Title: “Space Shuttle Launch/Re-entry and International Space Station”
When? 22th Dec.(Sat) 7 am PST/ 15:00 GMT/ 24:00 JST
Where?
– Abyss Observatory at Farwell
– International Spaceflight Museum in SL
Who?
Hajime Nishimura, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC),
Yan Lauria, Museum director of Abyss Observatory in SL/OpenSim
Abstract:
I was working on development of Japan Experiment Module, “Kibo” (“Hope” in English) of International Space Station (ISS) Program at Japan Space Development Agency (current JAXA) 30 years ago.
When I visit International Spaceflight Museum (ISM) in SL, I found ISS at that time didn’t have “Kibo”, so I proposed to provide “Kibo” to ISM members, and made “Kibo” with help of my friend, unico Bailey and docked to the ISS in 2014.
Last year, I found my friend, pyo Igaly made a very nice Space Shuttle ride so I proposed to ISM members again. I and pyo checked final launch, re-entry and landing sequences of space shuttle, and finally pyo installed the new space shuttle ride at ISM on this summer.
Pyo also made new version of Newton cannon of Exploratorium.
I had several remote class rooms for children at RL science museum in Japan using Newton cannon, Space shuttle ride and ISS exhibits.
At first, I’ll guide you to new Newton Cannon at the sky of Abyss Observatory (Farwell). You can learn about relation between initial launching speed and the orbit of spacecraft.
Next, we’ll move to ISM, you can experience Space Shuttle launch and landing.
The atmospheric re-entry sequences of the winged space shuttle is very tricky and it has been improved much better than I was involved in the space station project.
(Launch)
(Re-entry and landing)
At the ISS exhibit, I’ll talk about design features of US-Russia complex, uniqueness of space environment and living pattern of astronauts there.

— Hajime Nishimura
Previous work in the Library
Previous work in the Film Collection

Interactive tour of Brodmann’s Brain
2018-12-15 10:00 - 11:00 | Whole Brain Health
Join us for an interactive tour of Brodmann’s Brain! Within this giant cortex we can see and stimulate the fMRI mapped areas which correlate to fear, desire, love, coordination, meditation, speech, and more!
This model and others being developed provide a platform for exciting educational opportunities in biology, psychology, and health, behavioral, and social sciences. Sponsored by Whole Brain Health on Inspiration Island, featuring brain research post-doc OsanGar, Thuja Hynes and Lissena Wisdomseeker.
Previous work from Lynne Berrett (Lissena Wisdomseeker) in the Library
Is this the first time you will attend a presentation with us?
Follow this link first.

Science Fiction in Movies
2018-12-08 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
The sequel to “Science Fiction in Movies”
A slide presentation by Tagline & a second panel discussion led by Beragon
Panel participants:

Tagline
Mike Shaw
Syzygy Asymptote

Open Board meeting
2018-12-07 07:00 - 08:00 | SC Board parcel
Every first Friday of the month, we hold an open board meeting for the benefit of our members. Here you can contact us with your questions, create ideas and hopefully together with us, give substance to our plans for the future.
During every open board meeting you will find a screen above the water with our current statistics, these are updated monthly and are there for your information.
Program

Opening
Subjects from the board of directors
Podcast interviews; What would you like to ask our scientists?
Live Streams YouTube & FB
Questions & ideas from our members
Closing

NOTE: a transcript of all board meetings is stored and made available to the board of directors for future reference. It will not be publicly available.
If this time does not suit you, please send your questions etc via IM, notecard or email to Jes or Chantal. We will submit your question, idea or comment to the board and provide you with the answer.

The Cambrian Explosion...
2018-12-01 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Monthly panel discussion
With this week as subject “The Cambrian Explosion”

Moderator: Beragon Betts

Panel participants:

Alex Hastings
William F. Schmachtenberg

To make your questions visible to our host and panel members, have your questions be preceded by 3 stars ***
Example
*** Alex, are you currently working on an excavation?

Trivia
2018-11-24 06:00 - 07:00 | Auditorium
While the American part of SC celebrates Thanksgiving, the remaining cultures share an online hour of Science Trivia.
Come join us at this favourable time for Australia, Japan, India, Russia and Europe!

VWBPE 2019
2018-11-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Auditorium
Following the upcoming “Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education” (VWBPE) we invite you to participate in the consultation with our board Saturday after Mike Shaw’s “Recent developments in solar cells- perovskites” presentation.

VWBPE March 2011
(Including Deepthinker Oh, Yan Lauria, Arisia Vita, Quaezar Agnomen, Vic Michalak and Chantal)

In recent years, SC has twice participated in this international, annual conference in Education and we would like to discuss with you how we will implement our third contribution in April 2019. Our objective for participation is obviously aimed at raising awareness and expanding our network.

VWBPE 2019 re:Vision – Call for Proposals Opens
Rising from VRevolution, our Legacy of learning seeks to re:Vision the future of creation within the ecosystem of digital spaces that comprises VWBPE.
The call for proposals for VWBPE 2019 is now open.
Re:Vision plays a role in how multifaceted communities are contributing to and expanding best practices in virtual spaces to support play, creation, and learning. VWBPE invites you, the innovator in these endeavours, to share your re:Vision at the conference. When you submit your proposal, consider how your community contributes to the knowledge base of innovation and change through the increasingly complex landscape of digital technology.
In keeping with this vision, VWBPE welcomes the collaborative partnership of vLanguages.
Following the success of 2018, we continue the three conference presentation formats this year: Spotlight Presentations, Hands on Technology Workshops, and Compass Points Roundtable Discussions. Details of the formats and tracks are found in the Call for Proposals.
The deadline for Presentation proposals is 14 January 2019.
Proposals for Exhibits and Immersive Experiences are open now as well. The deadline for these is 11 February 2019.
How do you re:Vision the old to make way for the new in these brave new digital spaces of play, learning, and creation? What are your colleagues and collaborators working on? Encourage them to submit a proposal as you do the same. VWBPE wants to hear from you!

"Recent developments in solar cells- perovskites"
2018-11-17 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Harvesting energy from sunlight continues to be an active area of research which has the potential to benefit society at large. The best silicon-based solar cells have efficiencies around 25% after decades of research. Recently, solar cells based on materials which adopt a structure analogous to the mineral perovskite have shown the potential for high-efficiency conversion of light to electricity. This talk will illustrate the basics of how a solar cell works, why the perovskite structure seems to work for this application, and the various pros and cons of the particular varieties of perovskite used in such cells.

— Mike J. Shaw
Previous work in the Library
Previous work in the Film Collection

Is this the first time you will attend a presentation with us?
Follow this link first.

Art History Tour
2018-11-10 07:00 - 08:00 | Motoko Museum of Art History
Title: Liberalism vs. Conservatism in Art? – Art History part.3
I presented twice about Art History before.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 (Saturday, Nov 3rd 2018)

I and comet Morigi installed The Modern Museum as a collaboration platform for finding cross-disciplinary relation in modern history. And motoko Moonwall expanded my idea, introduced 2nd axis, “Left eye’s Art” vs. “Right eye’s Art” in her Art history museum but she died by lung cancer in 2015 before completion.
She introduced “Mannerism/ Baroque” vs “Classicism/ Renaissance”, combined two Art historians, Heinrich Wolflin and Gustav Hocke, but both studies are based mainly on Eastern Art and not enough for finding relations between Eastern world and Western world.
So I proposed new hypothesis, memory of “Hunting (migratory) life in glacial period” vs. “Agricultural (Sedentary) life in Holocene”.
It is interesting that several researchers in evolutionary psychology, cognitive neuroscience, etc. have similar idea for “Liberalism” vs “Conservatism” in politics.
Location guided tour Motoko Museum of Art History
Tour in voice, in English and Japanese.
Presentation Nov 3rd
Liberal or Conservative in USA
English
Japanese
Upper/Lower Chamber of G20 country
Left-Middle-Right Eye’s Art

— Hajime Nishimura
Previous work in the Library

Art History part 3
2018-11-03 07:00 - 08:00 | History of Art museum
Title: Liberalism vs. Conservatism in Art? – Art History part.3
I presented twice about Art History before.
Part 1
Part 2
I and comet Morigi installated The Modern Museum as a collaboration platform for finding cross-disciplinary relation in modern history. And motoko Moonwall expanded my idea, introduced 2nd axis, “Left eye’s Art” vs. “Right eye’s Art” in her Art history museum but she died by lung cancer in 2015 before completion.
She introduced “Mannerism/ Baroque” vs “Classicism/ Renaissance”, combined two Art historians, Heinrich Wolflin and Gustav Hocke, but both studies are based mainly on Eastern Art and not enough for finding relations between Eastern world and Western world.
So I proposed new hypothesis, memory of “Hunting (migratory) life in glacial period” vs. “Agricultural (Sedentary) life in Holocene”.
It is interesting that several researchers in evolutionary psychology, cognitive neuroscience, etc. have similar idea for “Liberalism” vs “Conservatism” in politics.
Locations: Presentation at lecture hall of Epidaurus of The Science Circle
and short guided tour at Motoko Museum of Art History
Presentation is in voice chat in English and Japanese.

Liberal or Conservative in USA
English
Japanese
Upper/Lower Chamber of G20 country
Left-Middle-Right Eye’s Art

— Hajime Nishimura
Previous work in the Library

Open board meeting
2018-11-02 07:00 - 08:00 | SC Board parcel
Every first Friday of the month, we hold an open board meeting for the benefit of our members. Here you can contact us with your questions, create ideas and hopefully together with us, give substance to our plans for the future.
During every open board meeting you will find a screen above the water with our current statistics, these are updated monthly and are there for your information.
Program
1. Opening
2. Does the board have subjects to discuss?
3. Concentrated topic with members
4. Questions & ideas from our members
5. Closing

NOTE: a transcript of all board meetings is stored and made available to the board of directors for future reference. It will not be publicly available.
If this time does not suit you, please send your questions etc via IM, notecard or email to Jes or Chantal. We will submit your question, idea or comment to the board and provide you with the answer.

"Science Fiction, movies & series"
2018-10-27 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Monthly panel discussion
With this week as subject “Science Fiction, movies & series”

Panel participants:

Tagline
Mike Shaw
Syzygy Asymptote

Moderator: Beragon Betts

1. Europa Report
2. Ex-Machina
3. “Extinction” – a very recent movie on Netflix
4. “Gattaca” – not as recent a movie about genetic nature versus nurture
5. “I, Robot” – movie based on Isaac Asimov stories about robots.
6. “The Matrix” – this is science fiction, but with problems. Exciting movie though.
7. 2001 A Space Odyssey
8. Surrogates (2009 – with Bruce Willis)

Registration of future panel participants via Beragon Betts

Exploratorium
2018-10-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Exploratorium region
Following the coming departure of the Exploratorium from SL (April 2019) we visit the interactive Second Life museum together.

The exhibitions are in their current state, for us as an educational institution, unusable and we would like to hear from you which of these exhibitions are worth replicating in Mesh and should be made available in our own region.
In all likelihood, the vision and years of work of Paul Doherty for the Exploratorium in a Virtual World will inspire us and enable future projects in physics, astrophysics, mathematics and technology.
Join us Saturday at 10 AM PDT, discover and experiment with the many exhibitions, photograph or write down your favourites and talk to us about new ideas!
Wikipedia about Exploratorium

"Analog Computing Devices"
2018-10-06 10:00 - 11:00, 2018-10-06 07:00 - 08:00 | Auditorium
“Analog Computing Devices”
A spectrum of devices that were used for a thousand or more years before the modern electronic computer, including the abacus, astrolabe, quipu, slide rule, the Antikythera device, Babbage’s calculators, and other tools used to calculate and compute numbers and dates and positions or record them
Phil will show and describe them and compare how they work to the digital computer.
A large abacus and slide rule and possibly other devices he can demonstrate during the presentation in an interactive session with the audience!
Phil Youngblood / Vic Michalak

— Phil Youngblood
Previous work in the Library
Previous work in the Film Collection

Is this the first time you will attend a presentation with us?
Follow this link first.

Open Board Meeting
2018-10-05 07:00 - 08:00
Every first Friday of the month, we hold an open board meeting for the benefit of our members. Here you can contact us with your questions, create ideas and hopefully together with us, give substance to our plans for the future.

During every open board meeting you will find a screen above the water with our current statistics, these are updated monthly and are there for your information.
Program
1. Opening
2. Does the board have subjects to discuss?
3. Concentrated topic with members, this month; FB & Crowdfunding & social media support
4. Questions & ideas from our members
5. Closing

NOTE: a transcript of all board meetings is stored and made available to the board of directors for future reference. It will not be publicly available.
If this time does not suit you, please send your questions etc via IM, notecard or email to Jes or Chantal. We will submit your question, idea or comment to the board and provide you with the answer.
