Earlier Highlights (9)

In December 2006, I was one of the members of the evaluation committee of the 4D2U project, featuring interactive three-dimensional visulation of astrophysical simulations, for research as well as educational purposes, at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

<- In November 2006, Jun Makino and I released ACS 1.3, a new version of our Art of Computational Science project. Our main addition is a new version of our introductory volume Moving Stars Around.

Also in November, New Scientist posted short responses to the question ``What do you think (or hope) will be the most significant breakthrough in your field in the next fifty years. My response focused on the discovery of life elsewhere in the Universe.

<- In October 2006, I published a preprint titled Virtual Laboratories, to be published in Progress of Theoretical Physics. In this paper, I describe the suggestion by Jun Makino and me to extend the Open Source approach to an Open Knowledge initiative.

Also in October, the spiked web site featured invited contributions from a number of scientists in answer to the question What inspired you to take up science? My contribution was titled Traveling to the Edge of the Known.

<- In September 2006, I participated in a one-day workshop on Multi-scale, Multi-physics Software Frameworks, at Drexel University, with topics ranging from climate modeling to simulations of gravitational radiation produced by binary black holes.

Also in September, I started a series of dialogues about the nature of knowing, between me and several volunteers, on our Ways of Knowing web site.

<- In August 2006, I participated in the General Assembly meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, where I gave talks at the Joint Discussions 06 and 14.

In July 2006, I participated in a fascinating interdisciplinary workshop in Hakone, Japan, organized by the new Japanese National Institute for Natural Sciences. The topics ranged from astrophysics and plasma physics to various areas in biology.

<- In June 2006, our B612 Foundation presented several papers at the NASA Near Earth Object Workshop held in Vail, Colorado. I co-authored papers on The Gravity Tractor, The Asteroid Tugboat, and Trajectory Dynamics.

Also in June, we added a large number of transcripts of dialogues between Steven Tainer and me on our Ways of Knowing web site.