In the quest to reduce energy while preserving comfort in the building sector, we need tools that enable efficient evaluation and benchmarking of energy, water and indoor environmental performance. This offers a great challenge since today's buildings are complex, they are rarely operated optimally, and recently adopted evaluation parameters are ...
Fire and Ice with Mad ScienceExplore "magical" chemical potions, the wonders of dry ice, and the dynamics of air pressure. Some of the topics the mad scientists will investigate include: the three states of matter, a gassy taste test and a super spectacular bubbling potion.
Where: San JoseCost: Free
NASA Family Night at Chabot Space & Science CenterDestination Station is NASA Johnson Space Center's national awareness campaign that promotes research opportunities, educates communities about activities preformed on the International Space Station, and communicates the real and potential impacts of the station on our everyday lives. This special NASA visit to Chabot will include Astronaut presentations, autographs, demonstrations ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free with admission
Spring Break in Death Valley Pre-trip MeetingSpring Break in Death ValleyPre-trip Meeting 3/9/12 @ SJSU Duncan HallThe week long course itinerary varies from year to year depending on the weather season that affects plant life and road access. An emphasis is placed on distinctive geologic and biologic features to enhance the participants learning experience. Professors and staff skilled in ...
Where: Cost:
Come to Foothill Observatory and join us in the exploration of our Universe!Foothill Observatory Friday Evening ProgramCome to Foothill Observatory and join us in the exploration of our Universe!Foothill Observatory is open for public viewing every clear Friday evening from 9:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. Visitors can view the wonders of the universe through the observatory's new computer-controlled 16-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Views ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost:
Saturday, 03/10/12
Family Birding and Nesting Box Building Class Learn how to identify local birds and then make a nesting box to take home at a fun family class at Pepperwood Preservem. Register online at Brown Paper Tickets and search for "Pepperwood".Each family will receive materials to construct one box as well as information about placing the box on their ...
Where: Santa RosaCost: $10 Adult, $5 Children
Dinosaurs and Fossil FunUnleash your inner paleontologist and join us for some fossil fun at YSI Vasona. Find clues hidden in fossils, while learning about dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. Participants will dig in our Paleontology Pit and make a fossil model to take home!Spaces are limited. Advance registration is required for all ...
Where: Los GatosCost: $10/adult, $5/child, free for Members
Society of Toxicology Outreach EventThrough interactive drama and experiments, families get to explore the field of toxicology. Learn about the effects of toxins on living organisms and the ecosystem, and see what we can do to prevent and reduce toxins' negative effects. Professional toxicologists will share actual experiences from their careers in toxicology, while ...
Science and creativity in the 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 ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $30 with discount code 'Schmooze'
Children's Discovery Museum: Snow Day!It's a Snow Day at the Library! Using instant snow, children will experiment with the properties of a polymer, compare real snow to instant snow, and discover how the elements (water, salt) affect instant snow. Space is limited to the first 30 children in attendance.
What 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 ...
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 ...
Black Holes- the Harmonic Oscillators of the 21st CenturyIn the twentieth century, many problems across all of physics were solved by perturbative methods which reduced them to harmonic oscillators. Black holes are poised to play a similar role for the problems of twenty-first century physics. They are at once the simplest and most complex objects in the physical ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Screening and Discussion of 'Beyond the Light Switch'"Beyond the Light Switch" takes viewers on an enlightening and comprehensive journey into the inner workings of the electrical power infrastructure, from a first-of-its-kind coal plant in West Virginia to natural gas wells in Pennsylvania, from the inside of a nuclear reactor under construction in Tennessee to wind farms in ...
March LASER Event6:45pm-7:00pm: Socializing/networking.7:00-7:25pm: Indre Viskontas, "Music that Moves: The Art and Neuroscience of Effective Performance" We are constantly bombarded by a cacophony of sounds and yet music still has the power to influence us, often outside our awareness. What is it about this art form that draws people in? What distinguishes ...
According to astrophysicist Adam Frank, specific human conceptions of time don't last forever and our "modern" version is already in the midst of a radical change. In his new book, About Time, Dr. Frank argues that new ideas in cosmology are pushing the revolution in time to its final stage. ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, $6 Members, $10 Seniors
At our March café, we are pleased to host astrophysicist Frank H. Shu who will lead a discussion focused on nuclear energy.Shu will survey current energy sources and argue that our effective strategies to mitigate the worst effects of climate change include: (a) carbon capture and sequestration of the emissions ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Creating System-On-Chips: Mixing HW & SW SuccessfullyThe scale and complexity of chip design has exploded in the last twenty years.Starting with a brief review of the hardware design and verification techniques used over the last two decades, this presentation will explore how chips have evolved into System on Chips (SoCs), and will explore the emergence of ...
Debbie Miller, naturalist and author of Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, will share her experiences hiking and canoeing in the wildlife-rich western Arctic. Ms. Miller, a freelance writer and photographer and resident of Alaska has traveled extensively in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She vividly describes ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members & Seniors
'First Life'New Film by David AttenboroughFrom the fog bound coastline of Newfoundland to the deserts of North Africa and the rainforests of Queensland, in First Life David Attenborough finds evidence in fossils and living animals of an extraordinary period in Earth's history, half a billion years ago, when animals first appeared ...
Pi Day, now celebrated by number lovers around the world, originated in 1988 at the Exploratorium. Join us as we celebrate the never-ending number 3.14159 . . . (and Einstein's birthday) at our last pi celebration at the Palace of Fine Arts.Pi Day Schedule:1 p.m.: Meet Pi Day founder, Larry ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free with admission
A Post-Equinox View of Saturn's RingsSaturn's Equinox 2009: Oblique lighting exposed vertical structure and embedded objects. The rings were thecoldest ever. Dr. Esposito will show how images inspired new occultation and spectral analysis that show abundant structure in the perturbed regions.The rings are more variable and complex than we had expected prior to this seasonal ...
In recent years, there has been significant interest in the applications of printed electronics for the realization of flexible displays, fully-printed RFID tags and embedded sensors. Printing of active circuitry is expected to enable a dramatic reduction in the overall cost of these systems, allowing for integration of electronic barcodes ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Real-time Field Monitoring of Levees within Comprehensive Health Assessment FrameworkAssessing the health of and maintaining civil infrastructure has been an increased concern worldwide in the wake of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the summer 2007 flood events in the United Kingdom. The variability of properties within geotechnical systems makes predictions of soil behavior extremely difficult, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Building a Water Resilient CityThroughout the world, wastewater treatment and stormwater management systems are being re-thought. No longer considered a waste product, stormwater and other "waste" waters are now being managed, and sometimes reclaimed, in innovative ways that increases their resource value.There are clear connections between sewer system protection, stormwater management, and potable water ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Can we meet our renewable goals for 2030 and 2050?The California state legislature has set aggressive Green House Gas emissions reduction goals of 60% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. Achieving these goals requires combining strategies that significantly rethink how we plan and operate our power networks. In this talk I address how to rethink the dispatch of conventional ...
Electricity Economics: Time of Use Rates and Demand ResponsePanel discussion led by Professor Severin Borenstein, E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business, Co-Director of the Energy Institute at Haas, and Director of the University of California Energy Institute.Panel: Mary Ann Piette (Director of Research): Lawrence Berkeley National Labs Roger Levy ...
Flash memory holds the promise of revolutionizing data storage and data processing as well. Sadly in the form of the SSD it has always broken this promise in the past. Principally flash SSD has suffered two major problems that have rendered it unusable in any high performance setting. SSDs have been unable ...
Pioneering cardiologist and geneticist Topol says that medicine is poised to go through its biggest shakeup in history. An unprecedented convergence of technologies, such as the ability to digitize human genomes and the invention of wireless tools, is gaining momentum, thrusting the medical field into the digital era. Topol describes ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $8 Members, $7 Students
'Shelter in Place'Film by Zed Nelson. It is the vast, sprawling complexes of oil refineries and petrochemical plants that help make the Texan economy one of the largest in the world. But does the wealth come at too high a price to local residents? This alarming film is an intimate portrait of ...
Where: OaklandCost: $5 Donation
Ask a Scientist's PI DAY Puzzle PartyAsk a Scientist's PI DAY Puzzle PartyTrying to decide how you're going to celebrate Pi Day (3.14) this year? Avoid the congested airports and typical math holiday madness, and join us instead for Ask a Scientist's Pi Day Puzzle Party - a boisterous math and logic puzzle competition, hosted by the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost:
Marilin vs. Marilyn: Lowly Adjunct Lecturer Challenges Woman with Highest IQIn a recent issue of Parade magazine, Marilyn vos Savant answered a question posed by a reader on how to combat the "onslaught of pseudoscience" in television shows. Marilyn answered that pseudoscience is only one of the many ways misinformation is disseminated in our society and, while, it does a lot of damage, "… we ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: FREE
The New BiologyThe development of new biotechnologies has resulted in an explosion of data that inform about the living world. I will describe one of these new approaches, SMRT DNA sequencing, emerging from a 3-person effort at a university through a silicon valley startup to a public company with currently more than ...
A Guided Tour to Possible IT-facilitated Future Scenarios with Global ReachIn this R-rated talk (where "R" stands for "Research" ...) we will visualize future IT-facilitated scenarios in the new worlds created after the "Bit Bang". Examples of these new worlds which continue to invade and modify our lives - hopefully for the better - will be given; personalized genetically adapted ...
Speaker: Penny Herscher, President and CEO, First RainRoom ENG 189.
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Who is Catalyzing Life Science Startups? New Opportunities for FundingIt's becoming a more frequent occurrence that investors and drugmakers are getting involved in building companies from the ground-up. Third Rock Ventures has a renowned model for "launching" new ventures and Johnson & Johnson's COSAT program sets out to "identify and nurture promising technologies". There are also a few firms ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: $60
Emerging Trend in Engaging Engineering Tools to Biological ResearchNew discoveries in molecular biology, genetic engineering and experimental tools that were developed over the past 60 years have revolutionized the study of "omic" technologies. Living organisms can be studied and classified based on genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome. Metabolomics enables scientists to investigate the relationship between an organism's genotype ...
Get a head start on celebrating St. Patrick's Day this year with a pint-and-pedal-powered edition of NightLife. Join the folks at the United Irish Cultural Center for a performance by traditional Irish step dancers, and learn from local community organizations what it truly means to be green. Plus, learn the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, $10 Members
Award Winning Documentary 'YERT' (Your Environmental Road Trip) with Filmmaker Mark Dixon50 States. 1 Year. Zero Garbage? Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road - traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage - to explore every state in America (the good, the bad...and the weird) in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens ...
Years before making The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, filmmaker Judy Irving had begun researching her favorite bird, the Brown Pelican. She is now in mid-production on Pelican Dreams and will show excerpts from this work in progress. The film features a young pelican that landed-tired, hungry, and confused-on the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $5 General, Free Members
Return of the Harbor PorpoisesBill Keener, cofounder of Golden Gate Cetacean Research, created to study the porpoise, will tell us of their disappearance by the 1940′s, the mystery of their unexpected return in recent years, and how you can help by reporting your porpoise sightings.
