Sawyer has written over a dozen novels and won both Hugo and Nebula awards for his work. He's set a number of his books at famous Canadian science facilities, and he's excited to witness the everyday workings of another exceptional lab.

Sawyer told the CBC:

I spent a lot of time visiting science labs over the years, but it's always the VIP tour. You are in and you are out in a couple of hours, and everyone has shown you all the things they want you to see but none of the day-to-day grind of the work as well. I want to get the flavour of that.

The synchrotron, called the Canadian Light Source, uses magnets to speed up subatomic particles in beams of light so that their behavior can be observed and experimented on. It can be used to study everything from theoretical physics to applied medical science.

I had a chance to hang out with Sawyer during WorldCon last year, when we went with a group of writers to visit another famous facility: the old NORAD base located deep under Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. He's a truly nice guy, and pleasingly obsessed with e-books. Sawyer's next trilogy, coming out this year, is about how the World Wide Web evolves into an artificial intelligence.

While Sawyer is in residence at the Saskatoon facility in June and July of this year, he'll also make himself available to local writers who would like to book hour-long meetings with him.

Image via Canadian Light Source.

Heather admitted that she and her husband played Star Wars music in their wedding. But that's nothing to be ashamed of, when you consider that through this meetup I discovered that here on the prairies there is another human being besides me who thinks Doom is a great movie - it was Phreak711, who (I'm sad to report) also likes Knight Rider. So maybe it's not so good that he shares my passion for tongue-shooting aliens after all.

Pam arrived first and took home a copy of Shadow of the Scorpion. Congrats, Pam!

The verdict? Great meetup, and Saskatoon geeks should have io9 meetups more often! If you're in Toontown and want to arrange the next meetup (maybe not on New Year's Eve, eh?), feel free to use the comment here to set it up. Or start a thread on io9's Facebook group.

Photo via Ani.

Photo via Melanie.

Lewis Casey, an 18-year-old in Saskatchewan, had built a small chemistry lab in his family's garage near the university where he studies. Then two weeks ago, police arrived at his home with a search warrant and based on a quick survey of his lab determined that it was a meth lab. They pulled Casey out of the shower to interrogate him, and then arrested him.

A few days later, police admitted that Casey's chemistry lab wasn't a meth lab - but they kept him in jail, claiming that he had some of the materials necessary to produce explosives. Friends and neighbors wrote dozens of letters to the court, testifying that Casey was innocent and merely a student who is really enthusiastic about chemistry.

On December 24, Casey was finally released into his parents' custody, pending a trial to determine whether he was building what police called "improvised explosive devices." Yesterday Casey's lawyer told local journalists:

My client is a very intelligent young man . . . he's very keen in chemistry, a very curious young person and very capable, very knowledgeable in the area and he was always curious with regard to chemistry, chemical compounds, chemical reactions, that kind of thing. So from my client's point of view, it's completely innocent insofar as he had no intention of creating any explosives or explosive devices. As people probably know, anything in your house can constitute or be used in chemical or explosive devices, including sugar and cleaning compounds, Mr. Clean, bleach, detergents, all those sorts of things.

It's unclear what made police raid Casey's house. They claim that they got a tip from a woman who sold Casey fertilizer and was concerned about it. Certain kinds of fertilizer are used in the production of crystal meth.

The case is reminiscent of the Steve Kurtz case in 2004. Kurtz is a New York artist who uses biotech equipment in his work, and police arrested him on suspicion of terrorism after discovering his home chemistry lab.

Casey is now living at home, but he is no longer allowed to engage in chemistry experiments except under supervision in school labs. He is also required to inform the chemistry department of the charges against him. His trial continues on January 26.

This is a stark example of how scientific curiosity is still regarded with suspicion - even in an era where home labs are becoming more and more common. Good luck to Casey - let's hope his next home lab is even bigger and cooler than the one he recently lost.