In the last year, AI models have rapidly improved on public benchmarks measuring their ability to carry out research tasks autonomously. Such performance suggests that models may be capable of automating parts of the AI R&D process itself, thereby accelerating the pace of AI progress. However, there is still little ...
I am broadly interested in the conservation of Earth's biological diversity in the face of many interrelated threats, such as climate change, altered disturbance regimes, and land-use conversion. My research interests are in using remote sensing, geospatial technology, and machine learning to map and monitor our changing coupled human and ...
At a fundamental level, the macroscopic response of granular media depends on the spatial organization of contact forces between grains - the so-called force chains. Despite their critical importance, force chains in granular media have been characterized and analyzed almost exclusively in 2D systems. To address this knowledge gap, we ...
In this presentation I will discuss results from a range of thin-film quantum materials where magnetic field-enhanced or induced superconductivity is observed. These materials include layered intermetallics, refractory metal oxides, and kagome intermetallics. The surprising pervasiveness of this physics has quantitative and qualitative impacts on how the critical magnetic field ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Mechanisms of retron phage defense and bacterial-derived technologies for molecular recordingThe Shipman lab investigates the complex molecular machines that bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses and other bacteria, then draws on those mechanisms to invent new technologies that help researchers study and manipulate technically challenging aspects of biology. This seminar will touch on both the fundamental and technological components ...
The electrification of thermochemical processes with clean electricity has great potential as both an immediate and long-term solution towards the scalable decarbonization of chemical production. In this talk, I will discuss new paradigms in electrified thermochemical reactors based on high frequency electromagnetic fields. I will first discuss metamaterial reactors in ...
The IceCube project at the South Pole melted 86 holes 2.5 kilometer deep in the Antarctic ice sheet to construct an enormous astronomical observatory that is also the largest neutrino detector ever built. The experiment discovered a flux of neutrinos from deep space with energies more than a million times ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Superintelligence, Superpowers, and the Fate of the WorldJoin us to hear Buchanan describe how the deepest challenge is not the contest with autocracy but the conflict AI will force within democracies themselves. Every choice pits security against liberty, speed against caution, power against principle. This is the bitter struggle. Buchanan and Collins say democracies have every advantage ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $25 General, discount for members
One of the most profound questions in biology is also one of the simplest: what is life? A powerful way to approach it is to trace life's origins back to LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Although LUCA lived billions of years ago, microbiologists can infer many of its properties ...
Chemists continue to push the limits of catalysis, both in how much molecular complexity a single step can build and in how chemical synthesis can become more sustainable. In this talk, I will present my work with different catalytic systems in total synthesis and method development. I will first highlight ...
Extensive attention has been paid to the potential harms of media consumption generally, and social media use in particular, with relatively little consideration given to the potential psychological benefits of media use. This talk will address why this bias exists and its potential for unintended negative consequences. Evidence of how ...
Most natural diamonds form at depths of 120 to 200 km in Earth’s lithospheric mantle. A small fraction, however, originates much deeper. This group of diamonds, known as sublithospheric diamonds, includes some of the largest and finest diamonds in the world. These diamonds can contain mineral inclusions that represent some ...
A broad effort is currently underway to develop quantum computers that can outperform classical counterparts for certain computational, simulation or sensing tasks. The practical realization of such systems and exploration of their potential capabilities and limitations are central themes in the new field of quantum science and engineering. A central ...
The remarkable complexity of living systems emerges from networks of chemical reactions that operate persistently far from equilibrium. These networks sustain stable states despite incessant fluctuations, reorganize in response to changing environments, and process information with extraordinary fidelity. Yet the physical principles that govern their stability and constrain their function ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
AI and Education: A Conversation about Where We Are and Where We’re Headed - LivestreamIt’s a simple truth that the acceleration of artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed the academic landscape, and its influence is felt in the classroom, in research, and in the way students study. Hear from our top faculty in biology and astrophysics about how this rapidly advancing technology is changing the ...
Where: Cost: Free
Popping the Science Bubble: Chemistry & Neural CommunicationLearn about cutting-edge research happening at UC Berkeley, directly from the scientists themselves. Join Popping the Science Bubble in person or join us virtually on Zoom. Register by clicking here.This months presentations will be:Fits Like a Glove: How Weak Interactions Can Differentiate the Right and Left Hands of Molecules - ...
Our experiences, relationships, and surroundings don't just shape our memories. They can get “under our skin,” influencing how our bodies respond to stress and, over time, our emotions, behavior, and health. These responses are shaped by our biology, developmental histories, and the social and environmental conditions we live in.In this ...
Where: San JoseCost: $27
Gray Whales in San Francisco Bay - examining health and mortality in a new habitat - LivestreamWe are so pleased to have marine biology doctoral student, Josie Slaathaug, present her timely master’s thesis research. Amidst a shocking population decline and a declared Unusual Mortality Event throughout their range, gray whales began seasonally occurring in San Francisco Bay in 2018. As their occurrence continued, concerning numbers of ...
Dr. Kathi Meier will present the problems associated with mushroom poisoning from her perspective as a clinical pharmacist and toxicologist. This presentation will focus on answering questions regarding the population that develops mushroom poisoning and describe the danger of mushroom poisoning syndromes, including clinical aspects and interventions. Speaker: Kathi ...
Io's volcanism and Europa's surface bear witness to the dynamics driven by tidal interactions of the Galilean moons with Jupiter. While Europa and Ganymede host subsurface oceans, which makes them prime candidates for habitability, tidal heating is unlikely to have been constant over the age of the Laplace resonance. In ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Walk with a NaturalistJoin Shelby Hendricks, group tour and family programs manager, for an observation-based exploration of works currently on view through the lenses of art and science.These cross-disciplinary tours invite visitors to engage with artworks in unexpected ways, bringing a more-than-human dimension to scientific ideas while deepening our emotional connection to the ...
In this talk, we take the position that agent security must be approached as a systems problem: the AI model powering the agent must be treated as an untrusted component, and security invariants must be enforced at the system level. Through this lens, efforts to increase model robustness (the dominant ...
Liat Berdugo (Media Artist) on "Technologies of the Surface: Embodying the Gestural Interfaces of Everyday Technology" Julia Markel on "Which self does AI remember?" Vinod Menon (Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences) on "The Default Mode Network, the Self, and Consciousness in the Age of AI"
Professor Alexie Leauthaud (UC Santa Cruz) will discuss some of the largest challenges to our understanding of the universe and its basic ingredients. She will focus on some of the latest research on the nature of dark energy and will explain why recent results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument ...
Remember when everyone rushed to ship microservices without service discovery, circuit breakers, or tracing? AI agents are in that exact "wild west" phase right now. Everyone is building them; very few are thinking about the infrastructure underneath.Drawing from real-world experience deploying production agents across 120+ microservices, this talk bypasses the ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Southern Skies, Global Reach: Chile and Modern AstronomyChile is home to many of the largest and most advanced observatories on Earth, due to high altitudes, dry deserts, and low light pollution. Chile has become a center of cutting edge astronomical research, but this has been made possible by the collaborative efforts of multiple countries and the work ...
The Humanist Review of AI: Abundance & ScarcityWhat becomes scarce when intelligence is abundant? Artificial intelligence promises a new era of abundance - but how will it deliver on that promise? And what impact will abundance have on how our society works?This event marks the publication of the second issue of The Humanist Review of AI, a ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $45 General, $10 students, discount for members
Thursday, 11/19/26
The Fourthteenth Annual Eastman Distinguished Lecturers in Catalysis - LivestreamThe 14th Annual Eastman Foundation Distinguished Lectures in Catalysis will be held online and feature four younger-generation leaders in catalysis research, who will share their research insights as well as aspirations for future research. The program features a lecture from each speaker followed by an open panel discussion. Each year ...
Where: Cost: Free
Studying Marine Food Webs with Puke and PoopThe diets of marine predators can tell us a lot about the ocean’s health, fisheries ecology, and climate change. At the Point Blue Marine Laboratory, the contents of regurgitated pellets of Brandt’s cormorants (a common coastal seabird species) and scat of California sea lions are examined to understand what they ...
The success of transition metal catalysis in organic synthesis is rooted in decades of advances in fundamental organometallic reactivity. Bonding theory on d-block elements has allowed synthetic chemists to design novel and powerful catalysts that underpin modern chemical manufacturing. However, the increasing demand, cost, and environmental impact associated with many ...
The tropical Andes cover just 1% of Earth’s land surface but are home to roughly 15% of all flowering plant species. Much of this diversity arose recently and rapidly, in a landscape that was itself being built by mountain uplift and reshaped by Pleistocene climate cycles. How did so many ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
How to Use AI SafelyCurious about using AI chatbots, but afraid it will send you down the wrong path? You are not alone! Join the Mechanics' Institute “How to Use AI Safely” workshop to learn how to use popular AI chatbots to support your learning, rather than bypassing critical thinking.In this workshop we will ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $5 General, Free for members
SETI Live: What If Aliens Are Waiting for the Right Moment to Call?What if the key to detecting extraterrestrial intelligence isn't just knowing where to look, but knowing when to listen?Searching the vast cosmos for signals from another civilization is an enormous challenge. But what if intelligent civilizations could independently identify the same moments or locations as ideal opportunities for communication, even ...
Red giants and supergiants have large, tenuous envelopes that are gradually lost via winds. These winds are launched from a dense chromosphere supported by shock waves due to stellar pulsations and vigorous convection. The resulting mass loss is stochastic, episodic, and asymmetric, with profound consequences on stellar evolution. For exploding ...
Wireless networks of the future are envisioned to be highly heterogeneous. They will include flying nodes like UAVs as base stations, relays, and sensors. We will discuss the characteristics of the future wireless communication and sensor networks and present the role of UAVs. We will consider the deployment and trajectory ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
The Machine-Mediated Economy: When AI Becomes the Interface to EverythingWe’re entering an economy where AI increasingly sits between people and the companies, products and services they choose. Discovery, evaluation, comparison and eventually transactions are moving inside AI. What happens when your customer’s AI talks to your company’s AI before the customer ever talks to you? We’ll explore what this shift ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22 General, member discounts
Woodrats Offer a Window for Characterizing Temporal Structure of Truffle ReproductionDr. Chris Bivins is a mycologist and ecologist who recently completed his Ph.D. in Quantitative & Systems Biology at UC Merced. His research focuses on fungal ecology in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills, particularly on the interactions among truffle-forming fungi, plants, and mammals. Chris uses field surveys, DNA metabarcoding, and natural ...
Where: SebastopolCost: Free
After Dark: Glow OpeningYour favorite winter tradition returns - step into the art and science of light, bask in luminous artworks, play with optical illusions, and more.
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95 General, Free for members
Statistics about climate change can feel distant and easy to scroll past. Stories, music, and performance can make them feel real. This lecture asks how the arts transform environmental issues into experiences we can see, feel, and imagine.Cathryn Flores, PhD candidate in English at UC Davis, specializes in Performance Studies ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $27
Friday, 11/20/26
Coastal Walk at Pillar Point BluffJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful walk at Pillar Point Bluff just north of Half Moon Bay! You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about the area’s interesting natural history, from the coastal scrub habitat to the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve which hosts tide pools ...
For many years, various specialized filter technologies catered to the niche RF market. Even with the advent of mobile phones in the late 80s, filter technology was slow to respond or adapt. Early ‘brick’ phones supported only one or two radio bands using hand-crafted ceramic filters. Although these filters were the ...
Marsh Hike at Coyote PointStep into the baylands and explore the vibrant marsh ecosystem right outside our doors. Join CuriOdyssey educators for a guided hike through Coyote Point’s wetlands, where we’ll look for native plants, local wildlife, and signs of seasonal change.We will gather at CuriOdyssey before heading out to the marsh together. Participants ...
The success of transition metal catalysis in organic synthesis is rooted in decades of advances in fundamental organometallic reactivity. Bonding theory on d-block elements has allowed synthetic chemists to design novel and powerful catalysts that underpin modern chemical manufacturing. However, the increasing demand, cost, and environmental impact associated with many ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Saturday, 11/21/26
Baylands ExplorationsJoin expert EV docents for an exploration of the science and nature of the Palo Alto Baylands. What makes this habitat so special? How do the plants and animals survive the salty conditions? Why is it so different at different times of day or times of the year? How can ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Salamander Search! - Community Nature HikeAdventure awaits beneath the leaves! Join YSI for a guided nature hike through the beautiful habitats of Sanborn County Park as we search for signs of one of the forest’s most fascinating residents: salamanders!Along the way, we’ll explore the cool, damp environments these secretive amphibians call home, learn about their ...
Learn about pollinators and how native plants support them with naturalist Margaret Flaherty.Pollinators move pollen within or between flowers and play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity. Over 80% of flowering plants must be pollinated to reproduce. Learn more about how pollinators are essential to plant reproduction and plant diversity. ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Twilight Marsh WalkExperience the salt marsh at twilight on an easy stroll along refuge trails (about 0.6 miles). You will learn about the habitats at the refuge, the wildlife it protects, why the refuge was established and why it is just as important for us. This program is led by USFWS volunteer ...
Peter Gleick is one of the world’s true experts on water systems. In his latest book is When The Well Is Dry: How Water Fuels Violence and Shapes Peace, Gleick traces the history of water and violence, weaving together historical accounts, personal reflections, and analysis.Spanning over four thousand years, the ...
