Free Sunday at the California Academy of SciencesMuseum Free DaysFree Day ChangesThe Academy is changing its free day policy to target more working families, who were previously unable to come on the Wednesday free days. We hope that this change to weekend dates will allow a wider range of people to attend.Starting in 2012, the Academy's monthly ...

Selling Cleaner Cookstoves in India: The Business and Consumer PerspectivesBurning of biomass for cooking is associated with serious health problems among the 2.5 billion people around the world that do not have access to modern fuels. Indoor air pollution from traditional stoves causes an estimated 1.6 million premature deaths annually from cancer and respiratory infections. Moreover, incomplete combustion products ...

Butterflies 101"Butterflies 101" for the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco butterfly biologist Liam O'Brien speaks and shows slides on the fascinating variety of Bay Area butterflies, as well as his project to save the rare Green Hairstreak butterfly

Benjamin Dean Lecture: SOFIA: Astronomy from the StratosphereAs SOFIA Science Mission Operations Director, Young directs, supervises, and provides technical and management guidance for the combined Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and Deutsches SOFIA Institute (DSI) staff. He also manages the airborne observatory's equipment, instruments, support facilities, and infrastructure. SOFIA is a highly modified Boeing 747SP airplane that ...

Empowerment and Dementia: How Best to Engage Those with Memory and Behavioral ChallengesThrough Aging Matters, Mahakian's basic principles of care involve promoting self-esteem and independence above all. She will discuss how to help promote emotional well-being of older persons with memory impairment through self-empowerment and validation. Murphy will introduce the life journal to develop and use when caring for seniors with Alzheimer's ...

San Francisco Math Circle Teachers' CirclePlease join us for the next SFMC Teachers' Circle with speaker Matthias Beck on. The topic for the evening will be Two-Stacks-of-Cards Derangements.Matthias's research is in discrete & computational geometry and analytic number theory. He is interested in lattice-point enumeration problems for polyhedra, which give rise to a rich interplay of geometry, ...

The Untold Story of How Billions in Government Savings is Likely to Result from Current Administration IT ReformsInformation technology (IT) is critical to the workings of any modern organization, and most certainly to citizens' interaction with government. The design and development of large IT projects is a difficult, expensive, and error-prone endeavor, and even large corporations often fail at it. Add to this the challenges inherent in ...

Market surveys and genetic monitoring of the whale meat tradeSpeaker: Dr. Frank Cipriano, SFSU Biology

Dimitar Sasselov: The Life of Super-EarthsThe discovery of a new Earth, or other world, may be in our future, says Sasselov. But a truly "alien" life form is more likely to emerge from our planet's natural environment or in a petri dish at a research lab. In the past year, we have witnessed unprecedented breakthroughs ...

Rational Solutions to Cubic EquationsBeginning with simple principles that go back to the ancient Greeks, the talk will then turn to basic questions raised by Euler and Fermat.  Answers have led to surprising applications (secure Internet commerce) as well as to the solution of famous conjectures (Fermat's Last Theorem), while some fundamental problems remain ...

Sex Itself: Conceptualizing Sex Differences in the Human GenomeModern Thought and Literature graduate Sarah S. Richardson ('09) returns to Stanford to give a talk in honor of the program's 40th anniversary. Richardson is now Assistant Professor of the History of Science and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. As an historian and philosopher of ...

Seismic Geology of the Pacific StatesSpeaker: Richard Ely, Geology Dude

A Visual Tour of San Francisco's Native WildflowersMargo Bors has been doing habitat restoration and documenting San Francisco's native plants and habitats for more than 15 years. She is an artist who has had numerous solo exhibitions in both art and photography, including several at the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture in Golden Gate Park.Margo Bors ...

Slumber with the StarsSpend a night under the stars or with some really cool exhibits. Join us for Slumber with the Stars, Chabot's family night out. An overnight in the Center includes games, a guided hike, the live Planetarium Show Cosmos 360, Exclusive Telescope Viewing with an Astronomer (Weather Permitting), After Hours Exhibit ...

All About OwlsLearn all that you've ever wanted to learn about owls here at the refuge! Where do owls eat? How do we not hear them when they flap their wings? Are owls the brainiacs of the bird world? Through an interactive presentation and owl pellet dissection, we'll find the answers to ...

Oh Where Oh Where is the Little Grey FoxCome learn about the California grey fox, the only canine which can climb trees. What do they look like? Where do they live? What do they eat? Where have they been seen? What's in our habitat that makes them unique to the Bay Area? Program is a 1- mile hike ...

Climate Action and Adaptation Tour at the EcoHouseDraw inspiration to reduce your impact on climate change, and climate change's impact on you. We'll present ideas for do-it-yourself projects with a tour that features our toolshed built with 4 different natural building methods--strawbale, rammed earth, clay, and cob--all topped with a living roof; our ground-breaking constructed wetlands and ...

Mysteries of Wastewater TreatmentThe San Jose-Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant treats hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater from millions of people every day using some of the most advanced treatment technologies available. Come and learn about what it takes to make this interesting process happen through a slideshow and hands-on activities ...

Younger Lagoon Reserve TourExperience the wildlife and natural beauty that make Younger Lagoon an exceptional local treasure on this docent-led tour to the lagoon and its beach habitat. Learn about the ongoing research and habitat restoration work that help this vital ecosystem thrive. Tour includes a short hike and is best suited for ...

Integrated Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and WastewaterBy the end of the 20th century, the United States had about 15,000 wastewater treatment plants and 13,000 landfills. These systems were designed to prevent environmental harm and to protect public health. Other factors, such as energy costs and climate change, were not a consideration. Waste and wastewater were collected, ...

Current state of Cyber InsecurityA study conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Symantec titled "Enhancing Authentication to Secure The Open Enterprise" found that organizations today are rapidly opening their networks to make information more available to address the need for greater business agility. However, opening windows into the enterprise can bring unwanted and ...

Quantifying the Role of Interacting Forest Disturbances: The Combined Effects of an Exotic Insect Pest and Deer HerbivorySpeaker: Dr. Anne Eschtruth, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, U.C. Berkeley

Bits and Bytes - The Legacy of Hazardous Waste Management in Silicon ValleySuperfund is EPA's program to identify, investigate and clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the United States. In the Silicon Valley alone there are 25 Superfund sites (www.epa.gov/region9/superfund), each with a long history of soil and groundwater contamination and ongoing remedial activity.At our February café, Alana Lee ...

Mysteries of the oscillations of gas accreting onto black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfsDr. Wagoner will survey the QPOs (quasi-periodic oscillations) seen in the luminosity fluctuation power spectra of compact objects accreting from a binary companion star. There is little understanding of the different frequency relationships in these systems. Dr. Wagoner will focus on the theory and observations of black holes, and compare ...

Imperfect Competition, Consumer Behavior, and the Provision of Fuel Efficiency in Light-Duty VehiclesSpeaker: Carolyn Fischer, Resources for the Future

Pritzker Lecture: Stem Cells: Not What They Used to Be Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In many tissues, they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still ...

Transforming Energy in the Twenty-First Century Energy use is fundamental to modern societies and a primary way we humans interact with climate, ocean pH, and many other natural systems that provide essential services.  It is time to change the energy mix to reduce those impacts.   Estimates of available resources indicate that there is no shortage of ...

Breaking Trail: An Inspirational Evening with Arlene BlumBest known as the leader of the first American team to summit Annapurna I in Nepal and author of "Annapurna: A Woman's Place", Arlene Blum played a leading role in more than 20 successful mountaineering expeditions, including climbs of Denali and Everest. She is also the founder of Green Science ...

The Sturgeon in San Francisco Bay: How critical can a 10,000 year old Bay be for a 100 million year old fish?Michael McGowan, fisheries oceanographer and aquatic ecologist, will discuss his research on how the ecology of the green and white sturgeon differ in their life history and in how they use the Bay.

Electronics Waste Roundtable Discussion: Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative's Annual Roundtable DiscussionA policy-driven market for recycling electronics and developing longer-lasting devices is developing. This burgeoning field is being created to protect people and the environment from the toxic materials inside electronic waste. At UC Berkeley on February 17th, from 2:30-5:30 pm, nine regional and national experts from nonprofit e-waste advocacy groups, ...

Wild Mushroom Management in SpainDavid Pilz presents "Wild Mushroom Management in Spain: What might be applicable here?" He had the opportunity to visit Spain last June to participate in a "Micosylva" conference and field trip regarding how Spanish provinces are proactively co-managing timber and forest mushrooms to enhance rural economic development. One of their ...

Single-celled Microbes in Polar Ice: A Proxy for Evolution over 100 Million GenerationsAlthough glacial ice is the purest naturally occurring solid on Earth, it does contain dust particles and micron-size bacterial cells transported by winds from desert soils and oceans. Glacial ice contains a network of liquid veins within which microbes live, metabolize, and die, but do not grow. Using scanning fluorescence ...

The Science of Bread and Cheese Walking TourIt's the little things that make life deliciousThese two ancient foods owe their glory to microscopic magic. Stroll through quaint San Francisco neighborhoods while stopping at parks and shops to explore the role of unseen organisms in creating flavors and textures. Get your hands on some gluten, admire the microbes ...

Nocturnal Wonders What happens in the marsh when the sun goes down? Which nocturnal creatures are stirring when we're ready for bed? Join us and learn about the nighttime critters who visit the refuge. We'll explore their habitats, follow in their footsteps by making tracks, and take part in a few other ...

Shedding Light on Dark MaterSpeaker: Dr. Stephen J. Asztalos, Nuclear Engineer/Researcher

Invented in San Francisco Walking Tour Science and creativity in a city of innovationSome of the City's most interesting natives aren't people, but the brainchildren of make-it-happen San Franciscans that have changed the world. Explore the science behind the creations of some of SF's important imaginators, learn a bit about the neuroscience of creativity, and experiment ...

EU Environment Policy: Present Trends and ChallengesAs a result of the EU's Environment Policy, the citizens of Europe can count on clean drinking water and fewer pollutants in the air. While early EU environment laws made this possible through a focus on emissions control, EU environment policy today takes a much more strategic approach and environmental ...

Quantum Theory of the ClassicalProf. Wojciech Zurek of LANL will give the Applied Physics/Physics colloquium.

Technology Future Shock: Society, Policy and Innovation in the Digital WorldSpeaker: Dan Reed, Corporate Vice President of Technology Policy and Strategy, Microsoft

History of the U.S. Army Corps of EngineersJoin Ranger Bill to learn about the "When/Where/Why/What/How," the diverse, complex, many faceted missions, goals and objectives of the USACE's "Birth" in 1775 under General George Washington.

Accepting the Absurd: How Skepticism is Revealing the Nature of the UniverseAccepting the Absurd: How Skepticism is Revealing the Nature of the UniverseOur current understanding of the universe incorporates ideas that seem absurd: Space is expanding and accelerating. Most of the "stuff" of the universe isn't the protons and neutrons that a generation was taught to believe.Why does science take these ...

Exploring 7 Billion: Population, Inequities, and our Changing ClimateIn late October, 2011, Earth became home to 7 billion people. For every one person alive at the turn of the 20th Century when many of our grandparents were children, there are now more than four. The world's resources are not growing in step with humans. Our dramatic resource exploitation ...

Modern Finance: Friend & Foe! - Economic Science through Visual ArtSpeaker: TBA

Michio Kaku: Physics of the FutureIn Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku -The New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible - gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over three hundred of the world's top scientists, who are already inventing the future in ...

Bedtime with the BeastsWhat goes on in the Zoo once the rest of the guests leave? You'll find out when your group spends the night at the Oakland Zoo! A variety of themes allows you to visit the rain-forest, be a detective and snoop your way around the Zoo, or even create your ...

Explore Weimar Falls and Fern Canyon at Pepperwood PreserveExplore the misty moss covered canyons and beautiful waterfalls of Pepperwood's remote east side on an off-trail adventure.  This is a strenuous 6 mile hike with an elevation loss and gain of about 1,000 feet.  Participants ages 12 and up are welcome. Register online at brownpapertickets.com and search for "Pepperwood".See how ...

Bay Model Visitor Center Grand Reopening CeremonyCome help us celebrate the grand reopening of the Bay Model after 21 months and $15.5 million worth of renovations and construction. The Bay Model has been given new life through use of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2010, which financed all construction including a solar power generation ...

The Road Towards Scalable 1 Gb/s Broadband AccessSpeaker: Cedric Lam, GoogleRoom 101

Science at the Theater: Extreme ScienceNeutrino hunting in Antarctica, The world's most powerful mictoscope, and Microbes that love extremes.

Structural Biology of VirusesStephen C. Harrison, Ph.D., will be giving the 41st Annual Linus Pauling lecture entitled "Structural Biology of Viruses".

Physical Predictions in the Quantum MultiverseWhere particle physics and cosmology meet, and the implications regarding the nature of the universe.Speaker: Professor Yasunori Nomura, UC Berkeley

Olfactory homing and dispersal of coral reef fishes in the Great Barrier Reef, AustraliaSpeaker: Dr. Vanessa Miller Sims, RTC