The "Earth and Meteor Encounters" presentation will explain what we know now about gravity that we didn't before, where it comes from and why it's important. Speaker Bio Mr. Richard Michael is the Senior Flight Director and CEO of the Challenger Learning Center of the San Joaquin Valley, located at the former Castle Air Force Base, Merced, CA. Mr. Michael has a Bachelor degree in Japanese, a Master degree in Mathematics, and is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science. After retiring from the airline industry as Chief Pilot of Pacific West Airlines, Mr. Michael began a teaching career as an elementary school teacher. Currently, as the CEO of the Challenger Learning Center he and his staff offer Science and Math programs to students using a Space Station and Mission control simulator. The simulator was developed as an educational tool with the help of NASA. This is the second presentation in this year's Science on Saturday lecture series. The series is co-hosted by LLNL's Science & Technology Education Program and Sigma Xi.