[NMScience] January Events at the Museum

[Connealy, Selena, DCA]

January Events at the Museum 
www.NMnaturalhistory.org <http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/> 

Voices in Science Lecture Series
The Space Elevator and Our Future
Bryan Laubscher, Ph.D.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008, 7 p.m.

One of the most innovative ideas for the future of space travel is the
"Space Elevator." A feasible design has now been developed.  Come and
hear about this fascinating idea, the, history of the concept, the
motivation for wanting to develop such a radical technology, and ponder
the kind of world we will live in when Space Elevator technology is in
use. (Our planetarium show, "It's About Time" features the concept of a
space elevator.)

Bryan E. Laubscher received his Ph.D. in physics in 1994 from the
University of New Mexico with a concentration in astrophysics. Bryan has
just returned to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) from a year-long
Entrepreneurial Leave to Seattle. There he started a company to develop
the strongest materials ever created. These materials are based upon
carbon nanotubes--the strongest structures known in nature and the first
material identified with sufficient strength-to-weight properties to
build a space elevator. At LANL he is a project leader and has worked in
various capacities for 16 years. His past projects include LANL's
portion of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Magdalena Ridge Observatory and
a project developing concepts and technologies for space situational
awareness. Bryan led space elevator development at LANL until going on
entrepreneurial leave in late 2005.

Cost: $2 public/$1 members, seniors, students
Questions? Call Tish Morris at 505-841-2882.
You may reserve tickets by contacting Chris Sanchez at 841-2872,
chris.sanchez at state.nm.us 


Voices in Science Lecture Series
"How Cosmic Catastrophes Killed the Mammoths"
Richard Firestone, Ph.D.
Thursday, January 10, 2008  7 p.m.

We are just beginning to understand the importance of cosmic
catastrophes to life and climate on Earth. New data indicate that
numerous impacts, large and small, have plagued Earth relatively
recently. Hear about cutting-edge research on Ice Age events that caused
extinctions and mutations that may have led to the emergence of modern
man. Learn about a meteor explosion over the Arctic 35,000 years ago
that embedded micrometeorites in the tusks of mammoths and bison skulls.
Find out whether a comet might have been the cause of the extinction of
mammoths and other large Ice Age animals.

Dr. Richard Firestone has degrees in chemistry and nuclear chemistry and
has been a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since
1979. Author of over 200 publications and seven books, he is a
consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and does
experimental research at the Institute of Isotopes in Budapest. In 1990
he was asked to help explain the presence of metallic microspherules and
high levels of radioactivity at a Paleoindian site in Michigan. This
question ultimately led to the publication of the book Cycle of Cosmic
Catastrophes and a recent article by an international collaboration of
25 authors in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Cost: $2 public/$1 members, seniors, students
Questions? Call Tish Morris at 505-841-2882.
You may reserve tickets by contacting Chris Sanchez at 841-2872,
chris.sanchez at state.nm.us 


 



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