A panel on Terraforming Venus leads to some unexpected connections with a lecturer from Akureyri's University of Iceland.
Saturday brought one of those chance encounters that make con-attending worthwhile. I wandered into a panel titled ‘Transforming Venus’ that I hoped would be about Terraforming, rather than a study of Pamela Sargent’s novels (not that I have anything against the lady – rather that Terraforming is one of my pet interests at present).
The presenter was late, and I nearly left, but at about ten past the hour we started, so I’m glad now that I didn’t. The session was indeed about making Venus more earth-like, and the presenter turned out to be a Vice-Dean at the University of Akureyri in Northern Iceland.
The presentation itself was full of good, hard science with some SF tossed in, and was excellent.
But because she had started late, she ran out of time, so invited anyone interested to come along to the bar afterwards for a chat. I did so, and mentioned that I’d been in Akureyri six months earlier.
We ended up joining a larger group for a curry and talking Iceland most of the evening. I now have both a good friend and someone who I can bounce ideas off about Terraforming – she can tell me when I’m talking rubbish!
