Planned First Light Con Tracks

Pop Culture Track

      • The “Real” Impact of SciFi on Science & Engineering: Communication satellites (Clarke), robotic arms (Heinlein), evil AI (Butler)
      • Science & Engineering Fandom: Dr. Who, Marvel… slap a “quantum” label on anything and it works!
      • Hollyweird Science and Bad Astronomy: What overused tropes have you wanting to chew your own leg off? Sound in space? FTL travel? The 10% of the brain myth

Public Engagement Track

      • Citizen Science: How YOU can do fundamental research
      • Teaching Science & Engineering
      • Standing up for Science: Advocacy and resisting entropy

Discovery Track (what’s new and on the horizon)

      • Engineering Challenges for 2037: Can we fix it? Yes we can! Maybe… but if we had to pick 5 engineering challenges to solve, what would they be?
      • Everything Is 20 Years Away: From fusion (cold and hot) to curing cancer and limb regeneration. What are the technologies permanently 20 years in the future?

Astronomy & Space Track 

      • What hath JWST wrought? Little Red Dots enigma
      • Drake Equation vs. Fermi Paradox Cage Match: Is detecting intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos within the next 20 years a forgone conclusion or a boondoggle? Two conflicting hypotheses walk in. Only one walks out. 
      • Big Questions: the unanswered and the unanswerable.

Health, Medicine & Biotechnology

      • GLP-1, Minoxadil, Viagra: Better living through chemistry
      • The Demonization of Science: GMOs, climate change, vaccines, and more… 
      • Engineering and the Human Body: From replacement joints to spinal cord connectors, when can we quote Obiwan and say “He’s more machine than man.”

Fun Track (random topics of dubious importance)

      • Bottom 10 Most Ridiculous Stories of 2027 (so far): A cabal of skeptics and stand-up comics in a secret ballot have selected the most asinine papers that were actually published. **Our version of the Ig-Nobel Prize?
      • Top 10 Discoveries & Innovations: We polled our guests in advance and will announce the results in a press-conference-style panel.
      • Doomsday! How civilization will crumble… and when?
      • AI World Domination: I, for one, welcome our thinking-machine overlords
      • Sex, sex,  sex… Now, where was I? What science says about gender, sexuality, and cultural influences

Workshops

      • Public Engagement Bootcamp — how to become successful sharing the wonder of discovery.
      • Survive and Thrive In The AI Multiverse 
      • Kickstarting Citizen Science In Your Life