Schrödinger Sessions II Debrief

One month ago, I was fortunate enough to attend the Schrödinger Sessions II (SS2), a "science for science fiction writers" workshop at the University of Maryland (UMD), organized by the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) and focusing on quantum physics. The workshop was free, including lodging in a UMD dormitory and breakfast and lunch every day, and it was totally worth paying for my travel there and back.

I first got interested in quantum mechanics (QM) back in high school, when I'd had enough math and science education to grasp how subatomic physics actually worked. Well, that's what I thought. Quantum phenomena are super weird, you guys. But they are incontrovertibly real, even if they seem non-intuitive; as several of our SS2 lecturers mentioned, QM is possibly the most well-tested experimental science, and the results are reproducible and undeniable. We don't know why the universe works this way, but we know that it does.

#jqi

A video posted by Curtis Chen (@sparckl) on Jul 30, 2016 at 9:14am PDT

If you want to try deciphering my notes, here they are in one massive Google Doc.

This may actually be the best explanation of antimatter I have encountered to date. #jqi pic.twitter.com/zzxBDPs2nI

— Curtis C. Chen 陳致宇 (@curtiscchen) July 29, 2016

And here are some excerpts from others' blog posts:

"JQI is what they call low energy quantum mechanics. This involves quantum computation, low temperatures, superconductivity-- all of those sorts of things we can do in a relatively small lab. High energy quantum mechanics and physics, those things done at the Large Hadron Collider and supernovas, aren't done at JQI. That didn't prevent us from asking about it."
— Steven Popkes (day 2, day 3)

"And lest any of the participants leave the U Md (College Park) campus without their brain having exploded, we also covered -- bonus material -- some cosmological speculations and the recent first detection of gravitational waves."
— Ed Lerner

"FYI: Next year, 2017, JQI plans to offer a similar seminar for a different professoinal group, Physics for Journalists, and then, pending funding, re-offer this same session as I attended, Physics for Sci-Fi Writers, in the summer of 2018."
— Sally Ember (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

BTW, the gravitational waves Ed mentions above were detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which is pretty freakin' awesome. That evening lecture by Peter Shawhan was also where I learned about "squeezed light," and like most things during SS2—laser cooling, ultra-cold Bose-Einstein condensates, and quantum computing algorithms, to name just a few—it legitimately blew my mind.

Looking forward to more of this today. #jqi #staywoke pic.twitter.com/XUPYlJ6KcS

— Curtis C. Chen 陳致宇 (@curtiscchen) July 29, 2016

I am definitely, as one person put it, "confused at a higher level" now. And I'm glad to know that even trained physicists continue to argue about the philosophical interpretations of QM. Nothing out of SS2 directly informs anything I'm currently working on, but I look forward to seeing what my subconscious does with it after a few months or years.

OH: "Why don't you just use the variance of the two quadratures?" #jqi #LunchBreak

— Curtis C. Chen 陳致宇 (@curtiscchen) July 29, 2016

Some of the other awesome writers who attended SS2:

• Carolyn Ives Gilman (a past Hugo and Nebula nominee!)
• Christine Taylor-Butler
• Dominica Phetteplace (YES HER)
• Greg Scheckler
• Guang Ming Whitley (who celebrated a birthday during the workshop)
• Heather Bouwman
• Jen Foehner Wells (who has the best Twitter handle)
• Jennifer Povey
• Kate Gorman (who creates locative fiction)
• Kristen Miller
• Kristina Yee (creator of the award-winning animated short Miss Todd)
• Sarah McCarry
• Terri Hughes Burton (now working on The 100)

Apologies to anyone I've forgotten to mention. You're all fantastic and I'm glad I got to hang out with you for a few days!

#jqi pic.twitter.com/WtYpgHO3Ft

— Curtis C. Chen 陳致宇 (@curtiscchen) July 30, 2016

EPILOGUE:

On the way home from the workshop, Southwest cancelled my Saturday night flight (unclear whether due to weather or computer meltdown) and the earliest rebooking was Tuesday morning. Fortunately, my high school pal Tony lives in the area, so I was able to stay with him, catch up on the last eight years of our lives, check out the Udvar-Hazy Center, and also meet up with some DC area Sea Monkeys for lunch.

Life finds a way.

I'm on a Boat!

One. More. Time:


http://youtu.be/avaSdC0QOUM

This is probably the last time we'll be sailing on the now-annual JoCo Cruise. We've done all five tours so far, and while it's been lots of fun, it is a long journey, and the inconvenience is starting to outweigh the novelty. But don't worry, we can find plenty of other opportunities to commune with our fellow nerds.

Meanwhile, though, we're enjoying our week in the Caribbean—including a tour of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico! Where my mobile phone will also work without any special setup! That'll be important for reasons which should become clear next week. #waitforit

I Witnessed Orion's First Flight

It was beautiful and awe-inspiring, and I hope to see more space flights soon. Our future is up there.

Whether or not you believe all the #JourneyToMars hype, no matter how critical you might be of the Space Launch System (SLS)—if you don't feel something when you watch a rocket launch, please consult a medical professional, you freaking Grinch.

http://youtu.be/6Hn8qnsucwo

I cried when Orion lifted off—even more than I did when DeeAnn and I watched the STS-124 launch in May of 2008. Last Friday, when that Delta IV Heavy hit its second launch window, I was standing less than three miles from the pad. I felt the heat from the engines. For a moment, I honestly couldn't decide whether I should just watch the blurry scene through my tears, or blink and risk missing any of it.

Others in my NASA Social group got brilliant recordings of the EFT-1 launch—I didn't even try. Check out our photo pool on Flickr, some of which I daresay rival NASA's official images:

Favorite of the #Orion EFT-1 launch photos I took. You can see the shock diamonds in the rocket exhaust #NASASocial pic.twitter.com/sMGzxPjYsL

— Denny Atkin (@dennya) December 8, 2014

Don't even get me started on how great our amateur videographers are:

http://youtu.be/2siA3sOS61A

And for a real treat, listen to Danny Sussman's audio recording with headphones on:

But what I'm really looking forward to is Alison Wilgus' forthcoming comic about the event. Alison is a fantastic writer and artist, and she was one of my Clarion West classmates this summer. It was a complete coincidence that we both got into this NASA Social—we live on opposite coasts, and I didn't even know she had applied until we were tweeting at each other about the movie Interstellar and other space-related topics. Second-best surprise ever!

Just made travel arrangements for my 1st @NASASocial trip, can't decide if I'm more excited about seeing @NASA_Orion or @aliwilgus XD

— Curtis C. Chen (@curtiscchen) November 15, 2014

Alison drew a wonderful comic about her previous NASA Social rocket launch experience, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-K (TDRS-K) launch in January of 2013. Incidentally, this is possibly my favorite single panel from that comic, because I'm a weirdo:

You can read the entire comic on Alison's web site. And if you enjoy it, sign up for Alison's newsletter to get updates on her future projects!

I don't have much more to say about my NASA Social week. It was amazing, informative, and incredibly inspirational. I brought back some souvenirs, but nothing compares to the indelible memory of seeing that rocket rise from the ground and disappear into the clouds.

One. More. Time:

http://youtu.be/afWAw1cmJJU

If you have a couple of hours to spare, I recommend watching our Orion pre-launch briefing, which was video-conferenced between several NASA facilities around the country and included a lot of great information. My fellow NASA Social attendees asked some excellent questions about the future of America's space program.

Finally, I threw together a slide show of my own photos from last week. They're neither spectacular nor comprehensive, but should give you an idea of what the trip was like:

I was born after the Apollo missions ended. No people have walked on the Moon in my lifetime. I hope I live long enough to see human beings land on Mars. I really do.

@NASA_Orion @ExploreSpaceKSC @NASA #Space #ToBoldlyGo #OrionSplashdown pic.twitter.com/Jf8R5KGuBU

— Joe D (@Tooboldlygo) December 5, 2014

I am in Titusville

As mentioned previously, I'm here as part of the NASA Social event for Orion EFT-1 at Kennedy Space Center.


instagram.com/p/wHjzqKGphj

Look for my tweets in the Orion NASASocial - KSC stream this week! You can also watch the briefings on NASA TV later today.

I'm going to KSC!

Last month, I submitted my name for one of NASA's #JourneyToMars promotions—specifically, the Orion Test Flight "Boarding Pass" shown above, where they'll etch your name into a computer chip that flies aboard the spacecraft.

While I was poking around the web site, I also registered for the associated NASA Social event, because why not?

And I got in.

So I'll be at Kennedy Space Center the week after Thanksgiving with a bunch of other folks from the Internet to watch the Orion launch and tour some NASA facilities and meet people working on the project and I don't know what else.

Even better, I'll be rooming and carpooling with my fabulous Clarion West classmate (and NASA Social veteran) Alison Wilgus! Follow us on Twitter if you dare. :)

Just made travel arrangements for my 1st @NASASocial trip, can't decide if I'm more excited about seeing @NASA_Orion or @aliwilgus XD

— Curtis 小說作家 Chen (@sparCKL) November 15, 2014

Friday Flash Fiction: "Dying on Mars"

Speaking of Mars:


http://youtu.be/-lsKEE78Izg

If you think about it, just about every piece of unmanned exploration equipment we've sent into space--every rover, every probe, every satellite--has been sent out there to die. But that's okay. Because it's what they did before dying that's important.

Read "Dying on Mars" at 512 Words or Fewer

SnoutCast #134: The Doubleclicks

A conversation with @TheDoubleclicks, Angela and Aubrey--as seen in WarTron! [Get their music from Bandcamp]

[ Download mp3 - 25 MB ]

00:59 - "nerdy"
02:07 - will we ever stop talking about WarTron?
04:16 - sister act
05:28 - earlier: a band named Charisma
08:56 - "Deadlines are good!"
11:04 - creating the "Imposter" song
16:30 - all about the Ladies of Ragnarok tour
22:27 - you can go to Puzzled Pint if you finish writing your erotica song
26:29 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast .

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Tom Cruise Crazy" by Jonathan Coulton; excerpts from "Imposter" by The Doubleclicks

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

  

Friday Flash Fiction: "Extra-Vehicular Activity"

Though this piece was not directly inspired by the toothbrush that saved the ISS, it seems appropriate to mention that bit of news.

I don't have an ending for this story yet (or much of a beginning, to be honest), but I'm working on it.

Read "Extra-Vehicular Activity" at 512 Words or Fewer

Mars Stowaway

My tax dollars at work:



You, too, can send your name to Mars!

Look Ma, No Gravity!

Video from my Zero-G flight on May 6th:


http://youtu.be/9mrQ883FVmM

I'm the one with the water bottle and the green octopus, and yes, I do find out, on the second-to-last parabola, why NASA calls their plane "the Vomit Comet." Hey, I paided mah money, an' I wants th' full experience.

Motion sickness aside, it was amazing. Being truly weightless feels like nothing else in the world-- as it should, I suppose. And I can't wait until I can be in zero-gee for more than thirty seconds at a time.