Many events are being cancelled due to concerns related to COVID-19. While we strive to make sure information here is accurate, please check the host's website for up to date event details.
Nature Photography Friday Join other nature photographers (amateur and professional) on a meandering monthly excursion around the Modini Mayacamas Preserves and share your visions of nature with the world. After our field time, each of us will add a few of our best to an album that Friends of the Modini Mayacamas and ...
A Lighthouse on the Dark Cosmic ShoreMost of our universe is held together by invisible material, aka “dark matter.” We have no idea what dark matter is made of or how it came to exist in the first place. Come hear about how we might solve this mystery with the ...
The Festival of Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses (BAH!) is a celebration of well-argued and thoroughly researched but completely incorrect evolutionary theory. Six brave speakers will present their bad theories in front of a live audience and a panel of judges with real science credentials, who together will determine which speaker takes home ...
Face your arachnophobia or bathe in your arachnophilia on Friday, October 27th! Come on a naturalist-led walk into Joaquin Miller Park where we'll look for the many spiders that live amongst the trees and buildings here in the Oakland Hills. Large hackled-mesh weavers, false widows, and even the elusive Hyptiotes ...
Where: OaklandCost: $20 suggested donation
Saturday, 10/28/17
Healing Forest Walk We invite you to join us for a quiet, peaceful, and meditative walk through the forests in the Presidio. Let’s experience the beauty and magic of nature in this part of the city, and find ways for calm and balance within and around us.We will explore simple ways to connect ...
Experience the beauty and rich natural history of this 535-acre preserve. Our half-day guided nature walks are on Saturdays throughout fall and spring. Participants are divided into small groups and paired with a trained Bouverie volunteer to explore the mixed evergreen forest, flower-carpeted oak woodland and rugged chaparral. Guided Nature Walks ...
Point Bonita YMCA Outdoor & Environmental Education Open HouseThis October, come explore the magic of the Marin Headlands while learning about Point Bonita YMCA's Outdoor Education Program! The entire event is free and includes amazing coastal views, a tour of our campus, complimentary lunch in our dining hall, a naturalist-led hike to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, and examples ...
Cal State East Bay initiated its first science festival in1974 and its College of Science faculty, staff and students are particularly excited to kick off the Bay Area Science Festival with this Discovery Day.Approximately 50 activities are scheduled, with demonstrations, experiments, hands-on-activities, exhibits, lectures and much much more. Participation by ...
Where: HaywardCost: Free
Fixit Clinic CCXXXVI (236) San Mateo County CenterCelebrating repair by conveying basic troubleshooting skills, Fixit Clinics are do-it-together hands-on STEM-oriented fix-n-learn community-based exploration and discovery workshops where neighbors, friends, and families work collectively to learn about and repair their broken items.So bring your broken, non-functioning things -- electronics, appliances, computers, toys, sewing machines, bicycles, fabric items, etc.-- ...
Where: Redwood CityCost: Free
GGRO Hawk Talk & Raptor ReleaseOur Hawk Talks and Raptor Releases occur every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2 pm (weather permitting - heavy fog or rain cancels) during September and October, except for Fleet Week weekend. The Hawk Talk begins at noon, when a GGRO volunteer speaks about hawk migration and identification, and ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Fish DaysLearn about fresh water fish that are found in local ponds and rivers. Games show native and non native fish and how they arrived at Tule Ponds. Compare fishing ponds for people versus fishing ponds for wildlife. Explore how the early peoples of area went fishing as well as the ...
Do you sometimes see paw prints in mud or scat (poop) on the trails and assume that a dog left it? It could be from something else. Come along with me and I will show you how to distinguish and identify the markings of a gray fox. Gain some insights ...
This acclaimed program returns, featuring the convergence of art and science. Journey through ancient and modern worlds, from the nano to cosmic scale. Explore exhibits of microscopy, painting, video installations and sculpture, created by artists and scientists probing our world for deeper understanding.Learn about ancient ceramic intrigue, explore physics and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Jazz Under the StarsCome peer through our telescopes and see craters on the Moon, the visible planets, star clusters, and more while we listen to CSM's very own KCSM Jazz 91 FM. Dress warmly. Free parking in Marie Curie Lot 5. Directions here.
Adam Savage and Tested.com present Tested: Deconstructed, an evening of demonstrations of fantastic projects and conversations about the processes that make them possible. Join Adam Savage, robot builder Simone Giertz, the Tested team, and friends in the maker community as they reveal what makes their projects tick and the journeys ...
Advances in recent decades have allowed amateur astronomers to produce deep space and planetary pictures that rival those taken by professional observatories. This presentation will provide an overview of off-the-shelf instruments and methods anyone, with perseverance and patience, can use to take amazing astronomical images.Speaker: Jay GaBany, Advanced Imaging ConferenceEditor's Note: This ...
What happens when a top scientist and the cartoonist behind the popular geek web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal get married and birth a book? A hilarious and informative investigation into future technologies that will improve and/or ruin everything. If you’re a fan of Mary Roach, popular science, Reddit (to ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: $10 - $40
Seeing the Beginning: Insights from the Cosmic Microwave Background - RESCHEDULEDDo you ever wish we could look back in time? We can, by studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which reveals the fiery early universe when it was only 0.003% of its present age. This talk will show how studying the CMB allows us to learn about the origin, composition, ...
Cosmologists have now come to a detailed understanding of what our Universe was like as a child (400,000 years after the Big Bang) and what it is like as an adult (13.8 billion years later). But what was our Universe like as a teenager, when the very first stars and ...
Where: Mill ValleyCost: Free
Sunday, 10/29/17
Lake Anza and Wildcat Gorge Trail BioBlitzJoin our friends from WhollyH20 for a fun half day citizen science BioBlitz at Lake Anza and Wildcat Gorge Trail in Berkeley. Get ready to enjoy being a citizen scientist through simple observation and photo documentation.We'll be uploading photos to iNat (iNaturalist.org). We will do a short orientation to iNat ...
Join us a day of science at UCCE Elkus Ranch! Explore our agriculture, nutrition, and environmental education programs through hands-on activities presented by UC Cooperative Extension Advisors, Staff and Program Volunteers.Learn about pollination, beekeeping, aquatic insects and pests in your house.Sample fresh seasonal produce, learn to use edible herbs, taste ...
Where: Half Moon BayCost: $20 parking per vehicle
GGRO Hawk Talk & Raptor ReleaseOur Hawk Talks and Raptor Releases occur every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2 pm (weather permitting - heavy fog or rain cancels) during September and October, except for Fleet Week weekend. The Hawk Talk begins at noon, when a GGRO volunteer speaks about hawk migration and identification, and ...
This acclaimed program returns, featuring the convergence of art and science. Journey through ancient and modern worlds, from the nano to cosmic scale. Explore exhibits of microscopy, painting, video installations and sculpture, created by artists and scientists probing our world for deeper understanding.Learn about ancient ceramic intrigue, explore physics and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Dark Matter DayLearn all about how scientist and researchers are using accelerators and underground detectors to hunt for the mysterious particles that make up dark matter. Though astronomers cannot see dark matter directly, we know that dark matter drives the accelerating expansion of the universe. Watch our planetarium show Phantom of the ...
Wonderfest, the Bay Area Beacon of Science, shines light on the power of illusion with a live science + magic performance by physicist Marc “Zeke” Kossover, neuroscientist Dr. Luigi Anzivino, and master magician Robert Strong. Then St. Helena’s Cameo Cinema will present a special screening of The Illusionist(2006) - certified fresh by Rotten ...
Where: St. HelenaCost: $15
City Star Party @ The ExplOratoriumCome join us for our monthly San Francisco City Star Party. SFAA members provide telescopes for your viewing pleasure.
"We all know that learning is more fun when you’re drinking with friends and colleagues. Thus, Nerd Nite is a monthly event held in more than 90 cities across the globe!" - so sayeth the Nerd Nite website. Sharing concepts with booze. Such a simple premise, but when you add ...
Ants Don't Have WiFi: Enabling Robotic Agents to Collaborate and Compete without a Communication NetworkIn the animal world there is no WiFi - agents collaborate and compete by sensing and predicting the actions of teammates, rivals, predators, and prey. Likewise, in the engineered world, many of the most promising applications for autonomous robots require them to interact with other agents in the world by sensing and predicting their actions. ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
THE SUPER WORLD OF SUPER FLUIDSWhen cooled to temperatures below approximately 2 K (-271 C) liquid helium starts behaving in very peculiar ways. This behavior has come to be known as superfluidity and is a manifestation of the quantum nature of the system (known as a quantum liquid). Superfluids have been discovered in several other ...
Sila Kiliccote is the Managing Director of Grid Innovations at Stanford and the leader of the Grid Integration, Systems and Mobility research at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Prior to joining SLAC full time, Ms. Kiliccote worked as a demand response expert at Google and spent over 10 years at Lawrence ...
From the Pixar Film to the Empathetic Museum. Dacher Keltner from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley will chart the journey that the science of emotion has led him on in collaborations on Pixar’s film Inside/Out, Emoji at Facebook, and building emotion into museums and our on-line life.Speaker: ...
CRISPR DNA Editing Gets WeirdCRISPR has revolutionized our ability to easily alter genomic DNA, and has quickly created opportunities to change life in important, strange, superfluous and weird ways. Learn how CRISPR has manipulated myostatin to emulate muscular superheroes, manufactured mesmerizing micropigs, manhandled malaria in mosquitos, and might make ...
Genome editing technologies provide the unprecedented ability to modify genetic material in a manner that is targeted, rapid, adaptable, and broadly accessible. Advances in genome editing form the foundation for new transformative applications across all of biology, ranging from highly personalized therapeutics to control of mosquito populations in the wild ...
Since 2012 the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science have co-sponsored annual international symposiums on a variety of topics concerning research on Japan. This year the symposium, Drive for the Nobel Prize, will be examining Nobel-caliber research at Berkeley and in Asia.The ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Hands On Science: Spooky ScienceExplore what you eat: do you know about the biology, chemistry, physics and even math of your food? Get hands-on with science to find out! Join Cal scientists for some fun, food-related investigations at East Bay farmers’ markets during the Bay Area Science Festival.
Oppressive Heat: Climate Change and Civil RightsWhile solar panels and electric cars are typically associated with upper-class white people, the transition to clean energy is also a civil rights issue. Communities of color often live closest to factories and refineries that spew toxic pollution. That’s one reason why polls show more African-Americans and Latinos, compared to ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Drive for the Nobel PrizeSince 2012 the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science have co-sponsored annual international symposiums on a variety of topics concerning research on Japan. This year the symposium, Drive for the Nobel Prize, will be examining Nobel-caliber research at Berkeley and in Asia.The ...
This seminar will discuss two different topics: unmanned system control and diagnostics, both of which are fundamentally related to autonomy.First, I will discuss some interesting aspects of dynamics and control of unmanned surface vehicles including the development of a novel control algorithm. Also discussed will be my experience with RobotX, ...
Steve Cousins is CEO of Savioke. He is passionate about building and deploying robotic technology to help people. Before founding Savioke, he was the President and CEO of Willow Garage, where he oversaw the creation of the robot operating system (ROS), the PR2 robot, and the open source TurtleBot. Steve ...
India, with one of the fastest growths in energy demand and emissions, and some of the most ambitious renewable energy targets in the world, is in the midst of an enormous energy transition. In this presentation, Ranjit will share results from sections of his dissertation on analyzing India’s future low ...
The Russia Hack and the Challenge to American DemocracyWhen the F.B.I. called the Democratic National Committee in early fall 2015 and said they suspected a foreign state was inside the D.N.C.’s computers, few paid attention or thought it was anything out of the ordinary. Two years later, we regard it as a defining moment in the use of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Climate Change: The Defining Health Challenge and Opportunity of the 21st CenturyClimate change impacts human health directly and indirectly and no country is immune to its effects. The 2015 Lancet Commission concluded that anthropogenic climate change threatens to undermine the last 50 years of gains in public health. More hopefully, the Commission also agreed that a comprehensive response to climate change ...
From the director of Chasing Ice comes an epic adventure to capture our changing oceans.Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers, and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.With its ...
A noted science communicator, Foley’s presentations on global environmental issues have been featured at hundreds of venues, including the Aspen Environmental Forum and TED. Foley leads the greenest museum on the planet and one of the most future-focused scientific institutions in the world.He has also written many popular articles, op-eds, ...
How can you tell what’s fact and what’s fake when it comes to science? Join biological anthropologist Todd Disotell for an evening separating the factual from the fantastical. Dr. Disotell uses DNA evidence to test hypotheses on everything from the intricacies of our evolution to the existence of “Bigfoot.” His ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10
Women in Science: A Panel Discussion Exploring Gender in Scientific FieldsOur next Café Sci will explore the topic of gender in science with three female scientists from a variety of backgrounds. The presenters will include Janet Gunzer-Toste, PhD, Senior Project Manager at Genentech; Megan Jensen, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hopkins Marine Station Stanford University; and Patricia Burchat, PhD, ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Learning with limited supervisionMany of the recent successes of machine learning have been characterized by the availability of large quantities of labeled data. Nonetheless, we observe that humans are often able to learn with very few labeled examples or with only high level instructions for how a task should be performed. In this ...
Where: Santa ClaraCost: $5 General, Free for members
Today, “artificial intelligence” seems to be everywhere - in our phones, vacuums, hospitals, and inboxes - but it can be hard to separate science fiction from science fact. Many discussions about AI imagine a fully autonomous superintelligence that designs itself with little to no human intervention, making decisions in ways that ...
Where: AlbanyCost: Free
Thursday, 11/02/17
Exploring the Nano-World with Electrons - SOLD OUTCome and explore the inner workings of a cell! See how electron microscopes are used to peer deep into the world around us and even our very own cells. Look at the building blocks of life: DNA, RNA, proteins, and lipids, and see how they combine to form a cell. ...
Drop by our art study centers on Free First Thursday for an up-close look at treasures from the BAMPFA collections, laid out on the five tables in the seminar area. UC Berkeley scientists give us their take on a nonrandom selection of art from our collections. Works on view might ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Gold Foams as Advanced Biomedical Device CoatingsNanostructured materials offer tremendous opportunities for engineering advanced device components for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Nanoporous gold (np-Au), produced by a nano-scale self-assembly process, is a relatively new material and has mostly attracted attention for catalyst applications due to its high effective surface area, electrical conductivity, and ease of surface ...
This series explores the connections between great leadership and the actual achievement of sustainability and wellbeing for everyone, across generations.Speaker: Kate Brands, Google
The human world population is projected to reach 9.8 billion by the year 2050, according to the United Nations. To prepare for growing demands on increasingly limited resources, scientists are researching new and sustainable sources of nutrition. Insects, seaweed, and overlooked crops are on the menu, as well as 3D-printed ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: 17.95 advance, 19.95 door, AD members free
Cafe InquiryMeet up with rationalists, skeptics, and freethinkers south of San Francisco
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Design Lab NightLifeScience and art unite! This week, NightLife partners with the California College of the Arts to explore the many ways design impacts lives, culture, and science.Explore innovative ideas in fields from industrial and interaction design to illustration and architecture when African Hall transforms into a gallery full of projects, games, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
Astronomy Night: Are We Alone? Searching for Cosmic CompanyJoin us for our monthly Astro Night series at UC Berkeley! This month, come learn all about the search for intelligent life in the Universe. After, you are invited on our rooftop for stargazing and a grew view of the city!Speaker: Steve Croft, SETI
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Wonderfest - Pleasure vs. Happiness: The Neuroscience & Sociology of Two GoodsThe Declaration of Independence proclaims our right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but not to the pursuit of pleasure. What is the neurological difference between these two positive emotions of happiness and pleasure? Has society's exploitation of pleasure systematically weakened our grasp on happiness? What has caused the ...
Former chairman of the Sierra Club and co-author of the new book, Climate of Hope, Carl Pope will present an evening of environmental insights and inspiration. Climate of Hope, a collaborative effort between Pope and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, elicits hope and motivation regarding the power of cities, ...