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Index to our previous shows
Shows from September, 2002
Shows from August, 2002
July 30, 2002 - Barnaby Wainfan
July 20, 2002 - Lois McMaster Bujold
Shows from June, 2002
Shows from May, 2002
Shows from April, 2002
Shows from March, 2002
Shows from February, 2002
Shows from January, 2002
Shows from December 2001
Shows from November, 2001
Shows from October, 2001
Shows from September, 2001
Shows from August, 2001
Shows from July, 2001
Shows from June, 2001
Shows from May, 2001
Shows from April, 2001
Shows from March, 2001
Shows from February, 2001
Shows from January, 2001
Shows from November - December, 2000
Shows from September - October, 2000
Shows from July - August, 2000
Barnaby Wainfan
On Tuesday - July 30th, 2002 - our guest was aeronautical engineer extrordinaire Barnaby Wainfan discussing the creative process behind engineering. Along the way we talked about the relationship between science fiction and real science, the connection between art and engineering and listened to some of his songs about love, death and the laws of Physics.
Trust me. These things all really do go together.
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Engineering is one of the most misunderstood arts that humans practice. On the one hand it must strictly follow the laws of physics, and yet on the other hand it requires great creativity and imagination to design something that has never existed before. People who only look at the role physics plays in engineering can come away thinking that everything an engineer does is dictated by handbooks, textbook equations and computer codes.
But nothing could be farther from the truth.
I like to say that doing engineering is like writing highly structured poetry. You can write a poem that has 200 unbroken lines of unrhyming words and it might be a good example of free verse poetry, but it won't be a haiku or a sonnet.
In a similar vein, an orbital rocket the size of a small plane - and which has tiny little propellant tanks - might look spiffy flashing across your TV screen, but it cannot be considered to be something that has been engineered. Real engineers must consider Delta Vs, Isp, mass ratios, propellant characteristics, aerodynamics, structural strength, materials properties, engine characteristics and hundreds of other things when they are designing the ships that will take us to space. And doing this is not easy.
Great engineers can intuit how a design will come together, but their intuition is guided by a 'gut-level' understanding of how the laws of physics work. And then those engineers will go back and do the calculations to verify that their intuition was right. If the numbers don't work, then they start over again and solve the problems that were bedeviling their design. But no matter how much intuition they bring to the process, their final answer must be one that does not violate the laws of physics.
And this brings us to Barnaby Wainfan. Simply put he is one of the brightest engineers I have ever met. And he understands - and can explain - the dynamic relationship between creativity and engineering better than just about anyone I know.
Barnaby is the lead aerodynamicist at a major aerospace company. He designs and builds his own airplanes. He consults with various companies on aerodynamics. He has even appeared on an episode of Junkyard Wars where he led a team of people in the construction of a glider in just 10 hours. And it is my personal pleasure to count him as a good friend.
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Barnaby is not just a brilliant engineer, he is also a talented songwriter. Working with his friend Steve Desmond - Barnaby did the words, Steve the music and performance - they have put out a CD of their songs that captures a bit a Barnaby's outlook on the world. These songs cover the range from the earthy pleasures of being in love, the thermal challenges raised by sleeping with your lover, the pain of losing your friends, the inarguability of natural law and just about everything else under the Sun. Love, Death and the Laws of Physics joyfully plucks on the strings of divergent emotions. I enjoyed it a great deal. Highly recommended. You can get a copy by going to Barnaby's web site.
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We are pleased to be able to bring you three of the songs from Love, Death and the Laws of Physics on this installment of Hour 25. Please note that the songs you hear here have be converted to mono and had their bit rate reduced to make them more "low connection speed" friendly. The actual cuts from the CD are in full stereo and at normal CD bandwidth. These songs are presented with the kind permission of Barnaby Wainfan and Steve Desmond and are Copyright © 1999 by Barnaby Wainfan and Steve Desmond. All rights reserved.
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Listen to this show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:45:41}
Or
- Click here for the show's intro music.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening. {13:58}
- Click here for the Barnaby Wainfan Interview. {1:18:14}
- Click here for the intro to Barnaby's music. {0:40}
- Click here for "Thermodynamics". {3:39}
- Click here for "The Ghost of Isaac Newton". {3:38}
- Click here for "Absent Friends". {3:04}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:47}
Or for more Hour 25 Interviews
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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The Great Hour 25 Disk Crash of 2002 - On-Going News
As a result of our recent hard disk crash the Hour 25 newsletter mailing list has vanished into the digital darkness. It would be very helpful if subscribers to the Hour 25 Newsletter would resend their email addresses to me {wwjames@earthlink.net} so I can reconstitute the Newsletter mailing list. {If you have done this "post-crash" then I have your email address and you don't need to do anything.} New editions of the newsletter will start coming out "real soon now".
In the same vein, if you previously sent in an entry for the Karen Willson Five Word Challenge, now would be a good time for you to fish around in your "sent mail" folder and resend your entry. Or come up with a new one and send it in. {And please put "Five Word Challenge" or some approximation thereof in the subject line of your email to make it easy for me to keep track of your entry.}
Links for more information relating to this show
Barnaby Wainfan
You can find out more about Barnaby Wainfan by going to his Web Site. Information about his experiences on Junkyard Wars can be found here, information about the Facetmobile can be found here, and information about ordering his CD can be found here.
Barnaby does some work as a consulting aerodynamicist for Kolb Aircraft. You can find out about their vehicles by going to their Web Site.
The Experimental Aircraft Association is an organization that supports people who design and build their own aircraft. To find out more about them, go to their Web Site.
Junkyard Wars is one of my favorite TV shows. You can find out more about it by going to their Web Site.
If you enjoyed this show and would like to know when other interviews are uploaded to the Hour 25 web site, then send an email to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I will add your name to the free Hour 25 Newsletter mailing list. That way you'll get a brief notice in your email every time a new show gets uploaded to the web. {People who have subscribed to the newsletter before should do so again as I am having to regenerate the Hour 25 Newsletter Mailing List following the Great Hard Disk Crash of 2002. «Sigh».}
Concerning the Hugos and Nebulas
Information about the winners of the 2001 Nebula Awards can be found here. I think you'll not be surprised to see that a number of the winners and nominees have been guests on Hour 25 over the last year.
Information about the Hugo nominees for this year, and about ConJose where the winners will be decided, can be found here. Again, it looks like one of your best ways to see who is going to get nominated for a Hugo is to watch and see who has been on Hour 25.
Asteroids
You can read about the position paper by Simon Worden at this SpaceRef web page.
The place to start any of your explorations into asteroid science is The Minor Planet Center. This is where astronomers report new asteroid discoveries and it serves as a focal point for disseminating information about asteroids.
Click here to view a web site with a great introduction to asteroids including many images and animations. Another good introduction to what is known about asteroids can be found at this Sky & Telescope web site or at this NASA site.
Click here to visit a web page with information about the double asteroid 90 Antiope. This page includes pictures and movies of this fascinating object.
Click here to go to the home page for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission. It is filled with background information about the project and contains reports of the mission's most recent discoveries along with many pictures and movies of 433 Eros.
For more images of asteroids, you should check out this web site from The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC). Additional data about asteroids can be found at the Planetary Data System Small Bodies Node.
The NEODyS web site contains information about all Near Earth Objects in a searchable database along with web pages for each individual object.
You can obtain orbital elements for any asteroid at this searchable on-line database.
You can find many links leading to many resources concerning asteroids and comets at this NASA GSFC web site and at this site.
You can learn about the asteroid research being done by previous Hour 25 guests Dr. Dave Tholen, Dr. Bill Bottke and Dr. John S. Lewis at their web sites. Dave's Site Bill's Site John's Site.
You can find information to help you in observing asteroids at this web site sponsored by the British Astronomical Association.
Spacecraft missions bring us pictures of asteroids that show details that have never before been seen. And somebody's got to name all of those new details. Go to this web site sponsored by the USGS to find out about the nomenclature being developed for the features seen on asteroids.
Click here to go to the web site for the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking project at JPL.
Information about asteroids that may be dangerous is collected at the JPL Potentially Hazardous Asteroids web site.
Click here to go to a NASA web page discussing asteroid impact hazards. Information about the Torino scale for asteroid impact dangers can be found here.
The Space Frontier Foundation sponsors The Watch, which is a program dedicated to doing something about the hazards presented by asteroid impacts. Click here to find out more about this project.
Additional information about the use of asteroid resources can be found at the web site for the Space Studies Institute, at the web site for Projects to Employ Resources of the Moon and Asteroids Near Earth in the Near Term (PERMANENT) or at this site.
For On-Going Updates on Space News
The Reusable Launch & Space Vehicle News web site web page that is part of the Hobby Space web site is a really good place to watch for news about, well... Reuseable Launch Vehicles and related subjects. I check it out just about every day and often find news there that doesn't show up anywhere else. Give it a look. {And while you're there be sure to check out some of the site's other pages. Wow! Is there a lot of information there.}
The Space Today web site is a great place to find space news from all over the 'net.
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
ISS News
The Florida Today web site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.
Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Return to the Index for this month's shows
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The Great Hour 25 Disk Crash of 2002 - On-Going News
The recent hard drive crash on the machine used to create much of Hour 25 continues to wreck havoc with production of the show, but things are slowly coming together. {Of course work on repairing the computer problem is split between doing that, working on new shows, working a full time job as an orbital mechanician, teaching college and various other endeavors.
It would be very helpful if subscribers to the Hour 25 Newsletter would send resend their email addresses to me {wwjames@earthlink.net} so I can reconstitute the Newsletter mailing list. New editions of the newsletter will start coming out "real soon now".
In the same vein, if you previously sent in an entry for the Karen Willson Five Word Challenge, now would be a good time for you to fish around in your "sent mail" folder and resend your entry. Or come up with a new one and send it in. {And please put "Five Word Challenge" or some approximation thereof in the subject line of your email to make it easy for me to keep track of your entry.}
We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast of Hour 25.
This Week - Lois McMaster Bujold
On Saturday - July 20th, 2002 - our guest was Lois McMaster Bujold discussing her newest book Diplomatic Immunity.
Lois McMaster Bujold is one of the most popular authors working in science fiction today and without a doubt her most popular literary creation has been Miles Vorkosigan. His story stretches over a bookshelf full of novels covering the life and times of of a colorful individual who can't seem to stay out of trouble.
But for my money, her most memorable story has been Falling Free. This book is science fiction at its best. In this novel Lois explores what it means to be human by telling a story featuring humans who have been genetically engineered to be well adapted to working in micro-gravity. The most noticeable modification to these people is that they have arms where the rest of us have legs, thus leading to their being called "quaddies". The story's problem revolves around what happens when technological change renders this new form of humanity obsolete. Who will decide the fate of this artificially created group of people?
I was completely taken by this story when I first read it in Analog a number of years ago and continue to think that it shows the level of thought provoking speculation science fiction can achieve. If you haven't read Falling Free you should do so right now, 'cause it is really fabulous.
Well as you might imagine, my question for Lois any time I've seen her has been, "When are we going to get another quaddie book?" And now I can pause for a moment, catch my breath and stop bugging her because she's just written that new quaddie book, Diplomatic Immunity.
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In this book she combines her most popular character, Miles Vorkosigan, with the quaddies. And as you might imagine, all hell breaks loose. {Some people just can't seem to avoid trouble.} I won't spill any secrets by telling you much more about the story here - Lois talks about it in the interview. Instead I'll just point out that Diplomatic Immunity combines thought provoking characters, an action packed plot, interesting situations and good writing. Give it a read, I think you'll enjoy it.
{And if you haven't read Falling Free.... Can there be any question about what I think you should do???}
Listen to this show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:15:39}
Or
- Click here for the show's intro music.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening. {16:50}
- Click here for the Lois McMaster Bujold Interview. {56:20}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:48}
Or for more Hour 25 Interviews
- Click here to listen to a previous Hour 25 interview with Lois McMaster Bujold.
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Links for more information relating to this week's show
Lois McMaster Bujold
To learn more about Lois McMaster Bujold and her books, visit her Official Web Site.
You can go here to find out more about Baen's WebScription service.
This link will take you to a discussion area operated by Baen Books where you can chat with people who are interested in the books of Lois McMaster Bujold and other authors. And this link will take you to the home page for Baen Books.
For another interview with Lois, check out this web page from the "A Girls World Web Site".
More information about Lois and her previous book, The Curse of Chalion, - including sample chapters you can read on-line - can be found at the EOS Books page at the HarperCollins web site.
Information about The Reader's Chair audiobooks can be found at their web site. {These folks are doing unabridged versions of all of the Miles Vorkosigan books and they have a most excellent adaptaion of Falling Free. Highly recommended.}
If you enjoyed this show and would like to know when other interviews are uploaded to the Hour 25 web site, then send an email to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I will add your name to the free Hour 25 Newsletter mailing list. That way you'll get a brief notice in your email every time a new show gets uploaded to the web. {People who have subscribed to the newsletter before should do so again as I am having to regenerate the Hour 25 Newsletter Mailing List following the Great Hard Disk Crash of 2002. «Sigh».}
Concerning the Hugos and Nebulas
Information about the winners of the 2001 Nebula Awards can be found here. I think you'll not be surprised to see that a number of the winners and nominees have been guests on Hour 25 over the last year.
Information about the Hugo nominees for this year, and about ConJose where the winners will be decided, can be found here. Again, it looks like one of your best ways to see who is going to get nominated for a Hugo is to watch and see who has been on Hour 25.
For On-Going Updates on Space News
The Reusable Launch & Space Vehicle News web site web page that is part of the Hobby Space web site is a really good place to watch for news about, well... Reuseable Launch Vehicles and related subjects. I check it out just about every day and often find news there that doesn't show up anywhere else. Give it a look. {And while you're there be sure to check out some of the site's other pages. Wow! Is there a lot of information there.}
The Space Today web site is a great place to find space news from all over the 'net.
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
ISS News
The Florida Today web site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.
Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Unless otherwise noted the entire content of this web site is Copyright © Warren W. James, 2000-2002.
All rights reserved.
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