We are entering a great era when it comes to research tools for the study of deep space. But as new technologies create datasets we're able to distribute globally, we need to consolidate our gains to make them available to broader audiences. That's why the creation of a Web-based utility called COSMOS SkyWalker is such heartening news. Using it, huge and minutely detailed images from sources like the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys can be managed for presentations and study over the Internet. The problem is no small one. Compare the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF), which contains some 10,000 galaxies, to the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS), housing no less than 2 million. The image areas on these surveys are contiguous and made up of an extraordinary number of data pixels, some 1010 pixels for COSMOS. That kind of scale makes it all but impossible to show both size and detail at the same time. Shipping the complete COSMOS ACS image over the Internet, even in...

Centauri Dreams continues to champion innovative tools that get scientific findings out to a broader audience. On that score, be aware of QCShow, a freely downloadable player that synchronizes PowerPoint and PDF presentation materials with audio. We've discussed this software before, when QCShow's parent company, New Mexico-based AICS Research, made sessions from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts meeting in 2005 available. Now a weekly series of recorded lectures on astrobiology has launched in this format. Short of attending a conference on astrobiology yourself, it would be hard to top the list of participants here. Planet hunter extraordinaire Geoff Marcy (University of California, Berkeley) leads off with a 52 minute talk entitled "Exoplanets, Yellowstone & the Prospects for Alien Life." As the discoverer of roughly 70 of the first 100 exoplanets to be found, Marcy's thoughts on planetary diversity and its implications for life are well worth hearing, but he's followed up in...

It's fascinating to watch as new publishing models unfold using digital tools. Coverage is uneven at present, but the day will come when the average conference makes its proceedings available in audio and video format on the Web, with the once essential printed volume now playing a supporting but still vital role in libraries and on the shelves of researchers. On the journalism side, the growth of weblogs and self-publishing tools makes possible the coverage of stories from a wider variety of perspectives than ever before. We're a long way from the demise of printed books, but electronic publishing is beginning to offer new options for authors as well. One harbinger is the arrival of an new e-book called Kosmos: You Are Here, billed as "a look at science, life, evolution, cosmology and other fundamental concepts," and written by a community of online volunteers with proceeds going to support the YearlyKos political conference this June. Cosmology, geology, evolution and climate...

It's a pleasure to report that the proceedings volume for last June's New Trends in Astrodynamics conference in Princeton has been published. You can find the contents here. Three papers tackled issues with interstellar implications: Gregory L. Matloff, Travis Taylor, Conley Powell, and Tryshanda Moton, "Phobos/Deimos Sample Return via Solar Sail" Ann NY Acad Sci 2005 1065: 429-440. An examination of sail technologies for a practical mission within the Solar System. Marc G. Millis, "Assessing Potential Propulsion Breakthroughs," Ann NY Acad Sci 2005 1065: 441-461. A summary of the methods, findings, and benefit predictions of breakthrough propulsion physics. Paul A. Gilster, "The Interstellar Conundrum: A Survey of Concepts and Proposed Solutions," Ann NY Acad Sci 2005 1065: 462-470. A look at the ingenious ways theorists have envisioned taking us to the stars with near-term technologies. The Princeton event was a marvelous experience (my recollections are online), not just in the...

Ernst Rutherford once said that a good scientist should be able to explain his work to a barmaid. Rutherford's point was well-taken. He did not mean to say that every layman could or should be brought to understand the details of every scientist's experiments. But he did believe that scientists have an obligation to communicate their findings and to keep in touch with the community around them. Which inspires a reminiscence on the same subject. Back in 1972, I was a graduate student taking a course in Indo-European linguistics, feeling overwhelmed with the details of sound changes as they moved through evolving languages and fascinated with their derivations in the modern world. One day in our campus cafe, I overheard two fellow students from the class discussing their work. Christmas break approached, and one of them observed, "My parents will want to know what I'm studying. How can I possibly explain Indo-European to them?" And my thought was, if you can't explain what you're doing...

Springer's series on astronautical engineering produces expensive books, as the 1999 publication of Colin McInnes' Solar Sailing: Technology, Dynamics and Mission Applications made clear. There is no more thorough analysis of solar sailing in print, but the title was designed for professionals and printed in small quantity, with a corresponding pricetag. I was able to snag a used copy for about $100, though Amazon now has a few for $70 or so. High quality, high expense information continues to flow, raising the question of how we can open up its pages to a wider audience. Now Stephen Kemble's Interplanetary Mission Analysis and Design is out from Springer at $179. Like the McInnes title, it's a solid, detailed work. Of particular interest is a thorough discussion of gravity assist and transfer techniques, along with sections on deep space communications and navigation that update earlier references. Mission designs from nuclear to ion propulsion are presented along with specific deep...

Centauri Dreams sometimes laments the status of our research tools. Bibliographic coverage of the major journals online is spotty; some offer full text but only for recent issues, others are confined to abstracts, and access even at university libraries depends upon the services to which the library has subscribed. Pre-1995 items are rare online. People sometimes call the Internet a 'digital library,' but building the tools to make it a true library will clearly take a generation. Nonetheless, exciting developments in spreading the news about research are happening in the digital arena, such as the heartening trend toward recording and disseminating scientific lectures in MP3 format. And even more promising is a new tool for creating audio and image slideshows to distribute conference presentations in PowerPoint and PDF format. QCShow, a freely downloadable player from AICS Research in Las Cruces, NM, synchronizes slides with audio to produce a low-bandwidth way to 'attend' key...