Social by nature: from animal minds to inclusive Science communities - LivestreamJoin us on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science for an inspiring inaugural lecture by Professor Claudia Wascher, Social by Nature, exploring what it means to be social, both in the animal kingdom and in the scientific community.Drawing on her comparative research on avian cognition, Professor Wascher ...
The vertical export of biological material out of the surface ocean is a key component of biogeochemical cycles and food supply to the deep ocean and benthos. I will present companion studies from the highly-productive Chukchi shelf of the Arctic Ocean, in which we connect traditional sediment trap measurements that ...
Where: Moss LandingCost: Free
Introducing the Agentic AI Risk Management Profile - LivestreamOne of the most important recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) has been the emergence of agentic AI, or AI agents, systems that can act autonomously to plan and carry out tasks. While these systems present many of the same risks as other advanced AI systems, their ability to operate ...
Food consumers have long been demanding a healthier and more ecologically sustainable food system. Yet labor is rarely part of the discussion. In this talk, Minkoff-Zern will draw on her co-authored new book, Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food System , which chronicles labor across the food chain ...
Speaker 1: Ben Gordon“George Lucas has a Moon problem”Speaker 2: Dr. Tabetha Boyajian“The Moon as an Observatory”Click here to watch on YouTube
Where: Cost: Free
How to AIArtificial intelligence - a.k.a. AI - is here and it’s not going anywhere. So who gets to use it and benefit from it? Is it a danger or is it a useful tool? Wall Street Journal columnist?Christopher Mims says AI is nothing to be afraid of. For people who take the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22 General in person, $10 online, discount/member
The Arctic: An Emerging OceanDon’t miss out on an evening celebration of a philanthropic milestone and the exploration of an increasingly important development in the Arctic. It will be a night of film clips and discussion, music and food and beverages - plus, of course, conversations and networking with other people with interest and ...
In the month of February, The intersections of Climate Change lecture series will host a panel discussion with Dr. Shehnaz Hussain and Fire Captain Jamie Gabriel. They will discuss ongoing research in cancer being the leading cause of death among California firefighters and why preventative interventions remain elusive.
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
Washington's White Birds of Winter: Snow Geese & Swans - LivestreamWell-known wildlife biologist Martha Jordan will present a program regarding the changing landscape that our swans and snow geese now face in migration and on their wintering grounds. You will learn about their life history, biology, and what influences their distribution across our state and the flyway, with a focus ...
The first trillionths of a second after the Big Bang are amongst the most mysterious periods in the Universe’s history, yet the physics governing this era remains largely unknown. Our current best model for describing the cosmic expansion during this tiny fraction of a second is “inflation” - a brief, ...
What if intimacy is an act of intention, not chance?Once pushed to the cultural margins, BDSM has quietly reshaped how we talk about pleasure, consent, power, and emotional connection. In this provocative and illuminating talk, Shelby Devlin explores how practices rooted in kink - clear communication, intentional power exchange, and ...
Invest in Cures Rare Disease ForumJoin LaunchBio to explore the transformative potential of impact investing in addressing rare disease challenges. This annual forum highlights the promise of venture philanthropy and innovative collaborations, offering hope for the commercialization of therapies that could revolutionize the treatment of rare diseases.Learn from venture leaders, advocates, researchers, and entrepreneurs as ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $35 Early Bird (Jan 12), $55 After
Marine ecological communities face numerous disturbances, some of which are becoming stronger and more frequent due to climate change. These range from chronic “press” disturbances, such as warming and pollution, to acute “pulse” disturbances, such as heatwaves and storms. Characterizing the population dynamic responses to these stressors has been a ...
The increasing penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) brings opportunities and challenges to the operation of power distribution systems. Conventionally, the DER hosting capacity of a local electric power system is commonly represented as a static value that is determined by evaluating DER’s impacts on grid reliability considering “worst-case” conditions, ...
Science on Tap: Great White SharksTake a deep dive into great white sharks with Dr. Barbara Block and her team Monterey Bay White Sharks out of Hopkins University! Dr. Block has worked with filmmakers to create an incredible new short documentary that will be shown as well as discussions and insights with audience Q&A to ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: $25 General, $10 Members, Students free with ID
NightLife: Mix & MingleMeet-cute meets science. It’s a Valentine’s vibe for every relationship status. Singles, couples, friends, and curious cuties welcome.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Varies
Skills for a Workforce of Humans, Agents and RobotsAI-powered agents and robots are already technically capable of performing an increasing share of human work. So how can workers, managers and organizations adapt to the dramatic shift? A new McKinsey Global Institute report offers a roadmap. While AI is transforming the workplace at unprecedented speed, people will remain essential for ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
After Dark: SexplorationsSlip into something comfortable and dive into all the ways that nature gets it on.
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95 General, Free for members
The Night of Science - Fact, fiction and the future of Autism SpectrumJoin us for an evening of conversation as we explore how cutting-edge science is reshaping our understanding of the brain.Hosted by UCSF Associate Professor, Danielle Swaney, We’ll hear from Dr. Matt State, a leading expert in psychology and psychiatric genetics, who takes the stage for a flash talk presentation, “Fact, ...
The ocean gives us life - but it’s also one of the least understood places on Earth.We often hear about plastic pollution, overfishing, and dying coral reefs. But what’s actually happening in our oceans right now - and what stories are missing from the conversation?In this timely talk, marine conservationist ...
Wilson’s Phalaropes and Red-necked Phalaropes are exceptionally unique shorebirds that specialize in hypersaline habitats. Nathan will discuss the challenges facing phalaropes within the San Francisco Bay and across their intercontinental migration. He will discuss monitoring data within the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, how saline lakes like California’s Mono Lake ...
Evolution Gone Wrong describes why the human body is uniquely prone to aches and pains. From poorly fitting teeth to blurry vision, torn menisci to difficult births, the history of our imperfections is rooted in our past. To understand our anatomy, we take a tour around the animal kingdom from ...
Where: Cost: Free
Friday, 02/13/26
Evolution Days 2026Each year, the Essig Museum celebrates the birthdays of Charles Darwin (February 12th, 1809), Alfred Russel Wallace (January 8th, 1823), and Henry Bates (February 8th, 1825) with special behind-the-scenes tours of our collection in the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB). Join us for a special look at our collections featuring ...
Astro 101: Intro to Observing the Night SkyThis event is one of several different introductions to astronomy offered by SJAA and aims to get you started observing the night sky. During this event, you'll get an overview of the types of sky objects we observe (stars, planets, nebulae, galaxies and more), the tools we use to do ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
In Town Star PartyCome join San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) for an evening of stargazing. Event details:Events are held at the parking lot of our headquarters, Houge Park, San Jose. The event duration is 2 hours. SJAA volunteers will share night sky views from their telescopes.Please refrain from bringing your own telescopes ...
Join us for a series of fun and engaging days of creativity and sustainability. Let’s come together to transform plastic waste into beautiful works of art that examine the connection between plastic and ocean life cycles, and inspire change. Your created pieces will be part of a community art installation ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Evolution Days 2026Each year, the Essig Museum celebrates the birthdays of Charles Darwin (February 12th, 1809), Alfred Russel Wallace (January 8th, 1823), and Henry Bates (February 8th, 1825) with special behind-the-scenes tours of our collection in the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB). Join us for a special look at our collections featuring ...
New technologies have the potential to greatly enhance and expand the functioning of human memory, but they can also come with unintended consequences. Having access to smartphones and the Internet, for example, has changed how people remember (and often what they forget). In this talk, I will provide an overview ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
Junior Rangers at the Refuge: Bird Beak BuffetLove 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 February, we'll discover how the Refuge can support over 280 species of birds ...
Brian is a marine ecologist who works on the foraging behavior, habitat associations, and spatial ecology of seabirds, and tries to incorporate these perspectives into spatial models of seabirds and their prey. Brian has worked on marine or aquatic birds within California, Alaska, Maine, Nova Scotia, and Wisconsin, and works ...
Classical methods for achieving nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkyl electrophiles (SN1 and SN2) have limited scope and are not generally amenable to enantioconvergent variants that employ readily available racemic coupling partners. In this talk, the use of radical chemistry in combination with transition-metal catalysis to address the dual challenges of ...
Designing, constructing, maintaining, and upgrading civil engineering infrastructure requires fresh thinking to reduce materials, energy, and labor. Meeting this goal depends on a deeper understanding of infrastructure performance - during construction and throughout its service life - enabled by innovative monitoring. The future of infrastructure will rely on smarter information: ...
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 ...
The computational resources required to describe the full state of a quantum many-body system scale exponentially with the number of constituents. This severely limits our ability to explore and understand the fascinating phenomena of quantum systems using classical algorithms. Quantum simulation offers a potential route to overcome these limitations. The ...
Spectroscopy and microscopy have the potential to reveal the structure and dynamics of complex materials, ranging from chromophores in solution to molecular aggregates, nanomaterials, and even quantum sensors. Yet, disentangling these signals and extracting an intuitive picture of how excitations form, move, and transform is one of the most persistent ...
Human manipulation is a dance of contact - carefully choreographed by physics, geometry, perception, and control. Despite extensive theories of contact physics and our advanced learning methods, achieving generalizable robot dexterity in the open world remains elusive. The challenge lies in the “hybrid” nature of contact: interactions are non-smooth and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Popping the Science Bubble: Psychedelics, Neuroscience and Vision ScienceLearn about cutting-edge research happening at UC Berkeley, directly from the scientists themselves. http://bit.ly/PtSBBerkeley (register at the link).This month's presentations will be:What a trip!: How psychedelic drugs reopen critical periods of development - Makenzie Wilkinson, NeuroscienceVisual processing and the limits to acuity - Lauren Sigda, Vision ScienceAttend in person or register here to ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Finally, something goodStefan Sagmeister has designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, HBO, and the Guggenheim Museum. He’s a two time Grammy winner and also earned practically every important international design award. Stefan talks about the large subjects of our lives like happiness or beauty, how they connect to design ...
Why do countries rich in oil so often experience political instability and human rights conflict??In this lecture, Mona Shomali explores the idea of the “resource curse”??"a theory in international development that helps explain why vast natural wealth can fuel inequality, violence, and environmental harm rather than prosperity.?Drawing on real-world case ...
This talk will cover all things Sonoma County fungi: My obsession origin story, where to find mushrooms, important trees to learn, edible mushrooms, weird mushrooms, resources to utilize, mushroom stories, and more.Speaker: David Healy, Teacher
