This article previously went out with PR4 (I think).
Once again, your heroic Science Programme Junta bravely puts finger to keyboard and tries to impart some information to its public!
First of all, thanks to everyone who has already come forward to participate, but we are, of course, still looking for enthusiastic volunteers and as many interesting ideas as we can get our hands on. If you can help us with either do not hesitate to get in touch via the Con address or the email address given below (which should be right this time, or the editor gets it in the neck...).
[ Unfortunately the major exhibition of Soviet and Russian space hardware reported in a previous version of this article will not be in the UK until 1996 or later and so can't be at Intersection. - editor]
In a more fictional mode, one thing we will definitely be running is a First Contact simulation. This will be run by Chris Boyce, who has run similar items at several Scottish cons, and will involve a number of people from CONTACT, the organisation that runs a yearly conference of First Contact discussion and role-play in California. The Intersection version will be designed so that people can play as large or small a role as they want, whilst regular news briefings and reports will be released from the Contact Centre in the Fan Fair.
Detailed background of the Contact game will also form part of the poster papers that will be on show in the Fan Fare. `Poster papers' are for short contributions, in any area of programming, that can be posted on the wall and read by people at the convention. In the science section, you might want to display an idea you have for an alien, the design of a planet, a new launch vehicle concept - anything that might be of interest to other fans. If you'd like to do poster, please get in touch with us so that we can reserve you some space.
Finally for this time, some news of one of our collaborators in organising the science programme - the Edinburgh International Scince Festival (EISF). Perhaps not as famous as the annual Arts Festival, EISF runs in April of each year and uses many of the same venues as its cousin. In 1994, its sixth year, EISF ran over 200 events, 12 exhibitions and 20 academic conferences. Clearly we'll only be able to bring you a flavour of what this is like, but we'll be bringing you the best of the festival, and are planning our own special scientific extravaganza with the help of EISF. If we're lucky, we might be able to tell you about this in the next PR...
One last thing! We'd like you all to welcome aboard Simon Bradshaw as the fourth member of the Science Programming Junta. Simon, is currently learning to drive communications satellites for a living. This means we now have two astronomers, a meteorologist and a space pilot running the science programme! So, with our eyes fixed firmly on the skies, we must bid you farewell until the next PR ...
Dave Clements, Science Programming,
d.clements@physics.ox.ac.uk