Earlier this semester, I attended a Zoom event that was run by Macaulay Honors College as part of their @Macaulay Author Series. This particular event featured discussion with Dr. Charles Liu and Allen Liu, and was moderated by Anne Hwang. Dr. Liu works at CSI CUNY as a professor of Astronomy and Physics. His research is focused on deep space objects, and he was the Honors Director at Macaulay Honors College for CSI Campus for six years. Allen Liu has a BA from Harvard in Mathematics and has a lifelong passion for astronomy. Together, with Dr. Karen Masters, they have co-authored a new book called, 30-Second Space Travel. This event was a discussion of that book.

@Macaulay Author Series with Dr. Charles Liu

Macaulay offer this series of events to shine a light on the work of current Macaulay students and alumni, as well as on the college itself. This serves the dual purpose of helping our fellow Macaulay scholars call attention to their work as well as allowing Macaulay to showcase how it, as an institution, is producing many students who are working at the top of their fields. Anne Hwang, a junior at Macaulay, majoring in Media and Film studies, moderated the event. She would ask questions of the panelists, to stimulate and direct the conversation, and ask follow-up or clarifying questions as required. During the event attendees could enter questions in a Q&A chat, that could be picked up by Ms. Hwang and presented to the participants. At the conclusion of the event, questions were read from this Q&A chat, as well as opening up the floor for questions to be asked directly by the attendees.

Bite-sized chunks of general information can be more instructive than more detailed, longer formats. Dr. Liu spoke about the “30-Second…” series that this book is a part of. The publisher has been producing many of these books, Dr. Liu has contributed to one previously. The series presents deep topics are presented in a compendium format, where major parts of the topic are presented in short overviews that provide the reader with a general idea of each topic, that will, hopefully, stimulate them to independently research topics of interest to them. In this way, reader’s interests are piqued on many topics without ever becoming overwhelmed by technical detail, and thus become turned off.

Publishing is as much about collaboration as it is about independent study. Due to the broad scope of the book, a lot of the discussion centered around the world of publishing, and in particular, scientific publishing. Both Dr. Liu and Allen Liu spoke of way they, and Dr. Masters, collaborated to complete the project. They would each take areas centered around their own expertise, ensuring both a full coverage of the topic of Space Travel, as well as limiting duplication of effort. This book covers fifty topics of interest related to Space Travel. Dr. Liu also discussed, in depth, how he was approached by the publisher to write the book, and how he set about convincing the publisher to have this book co-authored, as opposed to having him act as editor to other’s works. Dr. Liu discussed how this format is more in line with how he works when preparing scientific articles for journal publication and why he favored this format when producing this book.

The question of “How?” is often more interesting than “What?” or “Why?” While there was discussion around certain scientific concepts relating to space travel that are explored in the book, the discussions around the process behind its construction is really where this event shined. By going through the process for this book, it really helped to build an appreciation in me for the process of scientific writing in general. I grasped how science is rarely produced in a vacuum. It is through partnerships and knowledge sharing that really helps scientists progress their, and our, understanding of the natural world. I really enjoyed this event and recommend that people search out this series of events from the Macaulay website. From this event, and looking over the other events from the past year, I felt honored that I had been accepted to be part of, and hopefully positively contribute to, such a body as Macaulay Honors College.

The book 30-Second Space Travel can be purchased here:- https://www.amazon.com/30-Second-Space-Travel-inventions-destinations-ebook/dp/B08SBG5GZ1

The collection of recordings of Macaulay events can be found here:- https://macaulay.cuny.edu/news-events/macaulay-events/