The biogeography of species is shaped in part by physiological traits that govern tolerance to environmental conditions. The diversity of such traits should thus adapt to the range and relative frequency of abiotic conditions globally, but the slow imprinting of the environment on trait evolution is unobservable. In this talk, ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
The Exceptional Botanical Diversity of the Siskiyou CrestThe Siskiyou Crest has one of the highest concentrations of officially designated botanical areas on National Forest lands in the country. Along the ridges, slopes and canyons of the Siskiyou Crest, from Mt. Ashland to the Smith River, are 31 officially designated Botanical Areas that recognize concentrations of rare species, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost:
Saturday, 05/16/26
An Easy Intro to Feynman's QED, Part 2: Adding Alternative Histories - LivestreamIn his February 21, 2026, talk, Terry discussed how Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman devised a radically new way to represent quantum mechanics mathematically by fully accepting both Einstein’s controversial insistence that photons must be localized particles of energy and that all wave-like behaviors of those particles are real and must ...
Where: Cost: Free
National River Cleanup Day at the EECVolunteer to help clean up litter at the Environmental Education Center!Join us for National River Cleanup Day! We'd love your help picking up litter from the roads and trails around the Environmental Education Center (EEC) to help keep our waterways and wetlands clean!Please note, volunteers under the age of 16 will ...
Where: AlvisoCost: 0
Stanford Medicine: Health Matters ShowcaseVisionary scientists. Expert health care providers. Thought-provoking presentations. Hands-on activities. It’s all waiting for you at Health Matters 2026.Whether you’re looking for the latest insights to support your heart health or simple tips to improve your nutrition - and everything in between - we’ve got you covered.Join us on the ...
Dr. Yvonne Cagle, MD, PhD, is a NASA Astronaut, aerospace physician, Brigadier General in the California State Guard USAF Retired, senior flight surgeon, and biotech inventor whose career has helped shape the future of human spaceflight and global health. Her work bridges science, medicine, the military, and space exploration with ...
Where: San CarlosCost: Free with admission
Family Bird WalkJoin us on a fun, family, feathered Family Bird Walk! This program is especially recommended for families with children ages 5-10.Let family walks become a shared time of nature learning! We’ll begin by helping kids create their personal bird watching field guides, and then head out onto the trails to ...
Point Bonita Lighthouse has been a guiding light welcoming people and ships to the San Francisco Bay since 1855. The last 170 years have left the lighthouse with many fascinating stories to tell - about its lighthouse keepers, how it came to be in its current location, and more!Rangers offer a ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Sunday, 05/17/26
Junior Rangers at the Refuge: Slough SleuthsBecome a Junior Ranger as you explore your local National Wildlife Refuge!Love learning about new habitats? Curious about wildlife? Our Junior Rangers at the Refuge program is perfect for your family! Join us each month as we explore the Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge through fun, educational activities.This ...
The United States faces the need to build generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure while meeting a growing electricity demand. I will present results from several ongoing analyses that quantify the costs, benefits, and technology investments needed across the country for a variety of policy and technology scenarios. We use a ...
A mechanistic account of how our environments shape how we learn is critical for understanding individual differences in behavior. In this talk, I will propose that specific statistics of experienced environments shape reward learning across multiple nested timescales via a meta-learning process, focusing on the example of environmental controllability. The ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship and the Evolving U.S. Nuclear Deterrent - LivestreamThe United States has not conducted an explosive nuclear test since 1992, yet confidence in its nuclear deterrent has been maintained through the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program. Over the past three decades, this effort has driven major advances in high energy density science, materials science, experiments, simulation, and high-performance computing, ...
Dr. Ryan Chin will share the vision for the Sustainable Mobility Center (SMC). Dr. Chin will discuss how grand challenges are powerful instruments for making non-incremental impact on sustainable mobility at a global level. He will also share his previous work on electric, shared, and autonomous mobility systems in both ...
As humans return to the Moon through NASA’s Artemis program, it’s worth asking: What are the most daunting points of a journey to the Moon and back? In its early days, the U.S. space program had little experience with rockets, reentry, or even the lunar surface itself. The same engineering ...
I will describe the physics of graphite crystals with rhombohedral stacking, where the competition between electron hopping within- and between- the graphene planes leads to a flat electronic dispersion and the crystallinity leads to a near total absence of disorder. The high electronic density of states and Berry curvature??"-both of which ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
My Year With AI: Joanna Stern Hands Over Her LifeWhat happens when you let artificial intelligence run your life?As AI tools move from novelty to necessity - writing emails, making decisions, translating languages, and organizing our daily routines - the line between human judgment and machine assistance is getting blurrier by the day. But how close are we, really, ...
Much of the universe - dark matter, dark energy, and the forces shaping cosmic evolution - remains invisible to us. So how do astronomers study what they can’t directly observe?In this lecture, Xiaosheng Huang, Professor of Physics & Astronomy at the University of San Francisco, explores how scientists use gravitational ...
Where: OaklandCost: $27
Poisonous Mushroom Outbreak: The State Health Department Perspective - Livestream Join us to learn more about the California Department of Public Health's Toxicological Outbreak Program and how they have responded to the ongoing outbreak of amatoxin poisoning cases this season. This talk will include an overview of the toxicology of amatoxin poisonings and a discussion of health implications.Speakers: Russ ...
As Earth orbit grows more crowded, the risks we face from re-entering space debris are growing alarmingly. A key challenge that we face in understanding the hazards posed by these objects, and their impact on the environment, is that we cannot easily track them once they enter the terminal phase ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
May Butterfly WalkJoin our butterfly docent specialist Sally Levinson and Andy Liu for a guided walk through the Garden in search of butterflies, as you learn about their plant relationships and amazing life cycle. Bring binoculars if you have them.Registered children welcome. Pre-registration is required, space is limited.Fee includes admission to the ...
HOW FLOWERS MADE OUR WORLDJoin us for a very special evening in the Redwood Grove with two-time Pulitzer Finalist David George Haskell in conversation with KQED radio host Alexis Madrigal as they explore the fascinating revelations in Haskell’s just released book How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries. In his book, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $45 General, $40 Members
Joanna Stern: 'I Am Not a Robot'Humankind is only a few years into the AI Age, but you can get Joanna Stern’s lessons on what to expect and what it means for you.We keep being told that artificial intelligence is going to help us do just about everything. Make us healthy. Personally tutor each student. Run ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $25 General, member discounts
Join Van for an overview of the California Bird Atlas project, one of the most ambitious community-driven research efforts ever undertaken in the state. While 44 states have already completed a statewide breeding bird atlas, California has long been an outlier. That is now changing. The Atlas officially launched in ...
While public debate continues, forests and natural systems are already adapting to a rapidly changing climate. The real challenge isn’t just environmental - it’s how we understand risk and respond as a society.In this lecture, Dr. Chris Swanston, Director of Science at Save the Redwoods League, draws on decades of ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $27
Stars Up, Down and All AroundOur guest lecturer this month is one of our own, Dan Smiley. Dan will be sharing about past and future travel opportunities for those who like to combine astronomy with travel. We will learn about a few upcoming opportunities, including the Golden Gate Star Party in northern California, OzSky in ...
The story of our existence can be told as a passage through nine interwoven realms - each revealing a new layer of cosmic information. For example, there’s the Middle Realm, where we humans live; the Realm of Life, where organisms flourish across the vastness of space; the Cosmological Realm, where ...
Speaker: Chris Mi, San Diego State UniversityAttend in person or watch online (See weblink)Editor's Note: At the time of our posting to the calendar, another seminar in this series is scheduled at the same time, with Emily Grubert as speaker. One of these is in error. We will update our ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
After Dark: Staying AliveWhat does it take to survive - and thrive - in a digital world? Tonight, join the fire department to learn hands-only CPR. Then dig into conversations about algorithms and driverless cars, guided by Exploratorium scientists. Enjoy expert talks and ponder: How do crowds move through cities? How are algorithms ...
Join us for a very special Birdy Hour! SFBBO's Director of Regional Strategies Dr. Nathan Van Schmidt will answer your questions about our new initiative, Saline Lake Connections. This initiative is bringing together several existing programs (phalarope surveys, California Gull walkthroughs, and gull abatement research) into one integrative program focused ...
Where: Cost: Free
NightLife: SensesBe among the first to experience Vivid: Immerse Your Senses, our newest exhibit, and step into an after-hours escape of sight, sound, and sensation at NightLife.
Marilyn Latta will share information about living shoreline efforts in San Francisco Bay led by the State Coastal Conservancy and a diverse mix of partners. Living shorelines utilize natural materials and nature-based and hybrid green-gray approaches to protect shorelines from sea level rise and enhance habitat for fish and wildlife. ...
Only a decade ago, projects like Galaxy Zoo relied on global human effort to classify millions of galaxies by eye. With the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s first light now underway, these approaches no longer scale. Its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will image tens of billions of galaxies, ...
