Exploring Exoplanets

The first event I helped to facilitate was “Sci-Fi and the Cosmos” on Tuesday afternoon. Along with Nanna Bach-Møller, Anja Andersen and Angelo Vermeulen, I was part of a panel that discussed fascinating details and debunked myths from cinema, gaming and pop culture. We showed clips from Arrival, Scavangers Reign, Interstellar and Star Wars and looked at the relationship between science fiction and science. Afterwards, the audience had the chance to ask questions and we covered everything from Warhammer 40k to the science behind science fiction and from the value of basic research to the place of humankind in our universe.

On Thursday, I organized a tabletop roll playing game (TTRPG) session together with Alex Panayotopoulos, Mary Pedicini, and Oriel Marshall. During 6 hours, the player had to handle the first big natural catastrophe of Habitat, a human settlement on an exomoon. Within four parallel tracks, the players secured the food supply, rescued lost workers, restored communications, and corrected the weather predictions. I was leading the science group and explored how contemporary research can be integrated into a TTRPG. My players dived straight into the topic and tried to protect Habitat through targeted improvements to the weather forecast and by fixing the environmental control system of Habitat.

Thursday continued to be exciting with the improve comedy show of the Improve Comedy Copenhagen (ICC). Based on scientific presentations of Nanna Bach-Møller, Till Käufer, Beatriz Campos Estrada, Christiane Helling, Katrien Kolenberg, and myself, the improve group made fun of scientific concepts and the academic way of life. From space telescopes trying to find a wedding ring to stars divorcing their hot Jupiter for a ultra-hot Jupiter, the comedians managed to get down to the essence and connected with not just the astrophysicists in the audience.