I heard from the National Science Foundation today that my grant will be funded. It's about $240k over three years and will be used primarily for student support (both graduate students and undergraduates). I spent much of last year focusing on grant writing in order to secure long-term support for myself and my students and postdocs. I've done that, and don't have to worry about doing more for a few years, but that means its time to actually DO all the proposed work. Given how much of it there is, and how many people are involved now (me, two postdocs, two grad students, 1-3 undergrads), I'm probably going to have to be more of a manager and facilitator rather than the primary mover.
For the outreach component, I included an idea to assemble an anthology "Diamonds in the Sky" that would be in support of an astronomy class. I've budgeted for some reprints as well as new stories (at ten cents a word), and plan to do this in the second year of the grant. It'll probably be available for free online, but I'll look into a number of options. Given the educational angle and the decent pay rate, I hope to get some big names in SF with the right expertise to contribute (e.g., Brin, Benford, Haldemann, etc.) along with some of the usual suspects from the "Analog Mafia." The part of the proposal discussing the anthology is in the extended entry.
Astronomy through Science Fiction: Diamonds in the Sky
Anecdotally, a significant fraction of astronomers were inspired to study science by reading or watching science fiction, e.g., Star Trek. Not only does science fiction spur an interest in science as a career, but it reaches a very broad audience. Even relatively obscure novels have tens of thousands of readers. Science fiction at its best educates and shares the results of research in a way that other venues do not. The PI first learned about special relativity from Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, the space elevator concept from Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise, and tidal forces from Larry Niven's story "Neutron Star.''
The PI is a science fiction novelist. The first novel, Star Dragon (Tor, 2003), features a relativistic voyage to explore the accretion disk powering the dwarf nova system SS Cygni. The second novel, Spider Star (Tor, 2006), features a dark matter``planet.'' Reviews noted:
"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure." -- Locus Magazine
"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love." -- Booklist starred review
"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."-- Publishers Weekly
"All you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
These reviews all mention some variation of ``hard'' in describing the book. Hard, in the context of science fiction, means that the science is rigorous despite the speculative element, and the events are constrained by known science. Most science fiction these days is far from hard. Star Wars, and to a lesser degree Star Trek, and other ``sci-fi'' shows don't play with the net up: spaceships ``whoosh'' through the vacuum of space, magically have gravity, break light-speed willy-nilly, and most aliens look and act like humans wearing odd make-up. For every scientifically accurate movie like Contact or 2001: A Space Odyssey, there are dozens of implausible ones like Armageddon or Attack of the Clones.
The NSF sponsored a meeting last year called "Communicating Astronomy to the Public." Catherine Asaro, the president of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) (and wife of astronomer John Cannizzo), gave a talk and found a warm reception. Science fiction can reach people that more traditional approaches miss, or fail to fully engage.
The PI proposes editing an anthology of hard science fiction stories that contain accurate science and emphasize fundamental ideas in modern astronomy. The working title is Diamonds in the Sky. The stories would mix reprints and new fiction, and the PI would use his connections with the science fiction community to secure the rights to the reprints (e.g., Niven's ``Neutron Star'') and commission new stories from award-winning hard sf writers like Gregory Benford, Joe Haldeman, David Brin, Robert Sawyer, etc, (the PI knows them all). Topics to be covered might include: stellar evolution, size/time scales in the universe, black holes, the solar system, extra-solar planets, tidal forces, and more. The PI would write forewords and afterwords to the stories, including discussion questions and mathematics as appropriate.
This would not be a commercial venture. The anthology would be developed with an electronic or print-on-demand publisher that would keep it free or inexpensive for readers and would keep it in print indefinitely. Andrew Fraknoi in the past has edited two volumes of astronomy and science
fiction through Bantam, but these books are now out of print and not readily available. Fraknoi also maintains a list (http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/scifi.html) for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific that catalogs science fiction stories that cover particular science topics, but this is just a list, and tracking stories down in print isn't so easy, especially for class use. Diamonds in the Sky could be used as the basis for, or as an enhancement of, astronomy courses at the a high school and college level. It would be available indefinitely through download or print on demand, and designed to support an astronomy course. The cover will feature the Pleadies, which indeed do sparkle like diamonds in the sky.
The PI will continue to attend science fiction conventions and give science presentations (e.g., ``Highlights from the Hubble Space Telescope'' at the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston in 2004). These presentations are standing-room only, and represent science results taken directly to the most interested members of the public.
Wyoming hosts a summer ``Astronomy Camp'' for high school students (supported by NSF grants to Dale and Kobulnicky). They plan to expand their program and have invited Brotherton to develop science-fiction activities to introduce some astronomy topics in a fun way. In one activity, students will be split into two groups and given different planetary systems with different kinds of suns and planets, and have to invent plausible alien species that then must communicate.
The anthology Diamonds in the Sk, the sf convention presentations, the summer workshop, and the PI's own novels have the potential to reach over a hundred thousand people over the next few years. Success would bring increased understanding of our universe and an enhanced sense of wonder to the public, and, perhaps, inspire some bright young kids to pursue careers in science.
Posted by Mike at June 6, 2005 5:53 PM