International Migratory Bird DayJoin PRBO biologists on this very important day for international migratory birds as we explore riparian habitat, check mist-nets for songbirds and observe biologists band and release songbirds. Meet at the Muir Woods National Monument parking lot for a shuttle ride to PRBO's mist netting station at Redwood Creek. (The ...
Where: Mill ValleyCost: Free for members
Guided Nature WalkExperience the beauty and rich natural history of Audobon Canyon Ranch's 535-acre Bouverie Preserve. 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 range from two to five miles. Visitors of all ages are ...
Where: Glen EllenCost: Donations appreciated
Naturalist 101: Birding BasicsColorful, crafty, swift, and musical-birds are overhead and in our backyards-playing a major role in our ecosystem. There are songbirds, shorebirds, raptors and more. So what are you really seeing and hearing? Celebrate International Migratory Bird Day by learning the essentials of how to identify these amazing animals in this ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $10 Members
New Frontiers in Computing ConferenceWhile social networks have already transformed the way a generation lives, the ways in which information is generated through social networks and ways in which that information is analyzed and used are now rapidly evolving. Understanding emerging technical avenues in social media and building on them is the goal of this ...
Where: StanfordCost: $25 - $50
SF McLaren Park BioblitzNerds for Nature is thrilled to co-host a BioBlitz day in McLaren Park, co-organized with Save McLaren Park, iNaturalist.org and Bay Nature Institute.After a free picnic lunch and and instructions for the event, we will break up into teams and expert naturalists will lead us on three-hour tours to identify, photograph, and geo-tag McLaren's flora and fauna.Learn ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Majestic Redwood Sunset HikeTake a 1-mile adventure through the towering coastal redwoods to view the sun set over Monterey Bay. View historic logging areas and discuss the future of our remaining majestic redwood groves. Meet at the park entrance station on Pole Line Rd. Bring layered clothing. Reservations required. (408) 842-2341
Where: WatsonvilleCost: Free
San Mateo County Astronomical Society Star PartyThe City of San Carlos Department of Parks and Recreation and the San Mateo County Astronomical Society have open Star Parties. These events are held in Crestview Park, San Carlos California. Dates and Sunset times are below. Note that inclement weather (clouds, excessive wind and showers) will cause the event ...
Where: San CarlosCost: Free
Deep Space IndustriesDeep Space Industries is a new company dedicated to exploring, characterizing, retrieving, and processing Near-Earth asteroids for fuel, building materials, and planetary defense.Speaker: Dr. Jim Luebke, Deep Space Industrites
Where: Mill ValleyCost: Free
Sunday, 05/12/13
International Migratory Bird Day Bring your family and friends to celebrate International Migratory Bird Day with PRBO! Meet many Bay Area organizations working to conserve migratory and other bird populations, take a walk with expert birders, observe PRBO biologists safely band and release songbirds during a mist-netting demonstration at Redwood Creek and play fun ...
Where: Mill ValleyCost: Free
Life on the Edge: Endangered Species Along the Coastal Trail HikeYou are invited to join Brent Plater of the Wild Equity Institute on a 5-mile hike along the edge of the North American continent. We will explore San Francisco's beautiful habitats and learn about the endangered species that call the area home. During the hike, we will search for Marbled ...
Where: San FranciscoCost:
Marine Science Sunday - Mahalo: Meet the Hawaiian Monk SealThe Hawaiian monk seal is the most endangered seal or sea lion in the United States. With a population of only 1,100 and declining dramatically each year, we may be the last generation to see and experience this magnificent animal. This month we celebrate Endangered Species Day with Mahalo: Meet ...
Where: SausalitoCost: FREE
Headlands Helping Hands: Mother's Day in BloomSpring has sprung with thousands of native plants and flowers hugging the hills. We'll head into the hills to identify blooms, practice field sketching techniques, and learn about popular pollinators. Then we'll stop by the Headlands Native Plant Nursery for a stewardship and seed planting project.
Experience 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. Younger Lagoon is excellent for bird watching and seeing animals that call the reserve's intact coastal dunes home, such as: bobcats, foxes, seabirds, raptors, and ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free with admission
Monday, 05/13/13
Summit to SeeA monthly cross-country hike to a high point or other highlight of the sanctuary with natural history, photography, birding, etcPlease dress for the weather and bring at least one quart of drinking water. You may also wish to bring a hat, an extra layer, and a snack. There are no ...
Where: GeyservilleCost: Free
May LASER Event6:45pm-7pm: Socializing/networking.7pm - 7:25pm: Lucia Ayala Asensio (UC Berkeley) on "Fluid Skies - or how to combine art, history and cosmology"A collaboration between an art and astronomy historian, an astrophysicist and an artist.7:25-7:50pm: Sara Loesch-Frank (Lettering Artist) on "Follow the Glow: Metallic Leaf and Unusual Media in Art"Many people are ...
Cheryl Strayed's writing has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including The New York Times Magazine, Vogue and The Best New American Voices. Her debut novel, Torch, was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award and selected by The Oregonian as one of the top ten books of 2006 ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: $22
Tuesday, 05/14/13
Life before genetics: autogenesis, information, and the outer solar systemThe investigation of the origins of life has been hindered by what we think we know about current living organisms. This includes three assumptions about necessary conditions: 1) that it emerged entirely on Earth, 2) that it is dependent on the availability of liquid water, and 3) that it is ...
3D Printing and Beyond: Disrupting Manufacturing through Incremental Fabrication?3D printing enables the fabrication of parts directly from digital models an effort mostly of independent of geometric complexity and with straightforward design rules. Its widespread adoption is creating a new ecosystem for designers, engineers, and kids alike, with new tools, business models, collaboration opportunities, and much more.No longer limited ...
This talk will provide an overview of major data mining areas and their practical application. It will cover the history of the development of data mining and will detail key techniques such as: Recommender Systems, Machine Learning, Graph Mining and Text Mining. Each technique will be illustrated with a practical ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Jaron Lanier, author of 'Who Owns the Future?' & 'You Are Not a Gadget'Lanier's expertise in computer science, music, and digital media helped him develop a profound understanding of technology and its impact on society.But with advancements come hardships and according to Lanier, we are facing greater challenges than ever before. The rise of digital networks has not only forced our economy into ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: $12 - $40
The Modern Origins Story: From the Big Bang to Habitable PlanetsThe scientific understanding of our origins began in earnest with Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, and others, and has since evolved into a rich, detailed, and well-tested model. Direct observations of the infant universe now show that it was remarkably smooth compared to what we see around us today, with only tiny ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Mathematics as metaphor: From curved spaces to quantum topologyMathematics seems to develop by revisiting a few basic motifs over and over again. This talk will describe some of these classical and modern motifs, their appearances in astronomy, chemistry and architecture, and their echoes in the paradoxes currently facing physics. It will be accessible to an audience of all ...
The true puffballs, or Lycoperdaceae (Agaricaceae, Basidiomycetes), are an extraordinary group of fungi. They are edible, medicinal, and have very fascinating ornamentation and characters. Stephanie Jarvis has been working on a monographic study of the puffballs of California for almost six years, recently becoming her Master's Thesis from San Francisco ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
The Social Network Effect Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. Is it possible that the popular social networks of the modern day net are having profound impacts on the neural networks of our brains and on our psychological functioning? How are our virtual, social worlds changing ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22/27 General, $20/25 Members
Wednesday, 05/15/13
Software-Defined Networking at the Crossroads SDN was developed over five years ago, amidst much hope and naivete. In this talk I will discuss both SDN's past and future, highlighting the follies of our youth and outlining the challenges ahead. Given Stanford's role in the advent of SDN, I recognize that this talk is a massive ...
Being a Mars Rover: What It's Like on the Surface of MarsOn Aug. 6, 2012, many people around the world gathered around TVs and computers to await news of NASA's latest mission to Mars. The complex, yet flawless landing of the rover Curiosity led to worldwide acclaim. What has NASA's youngest robot been up to since then, and what has it ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: Free ($3 Parking)
Chroniclers of Technology: An Evening with David Kirkpatrick, Steven Levy & John Markoff David Kirkpatrick, Steven Levy and John Markoff are three of the most prolific tech writers in the country and have been friends for almost 30 years. Levy is a senior writer for Wired Magazine and the author of seven books, many of them bestsellers, on everything from computer hackers and ...
Throughout the history of Homo sapiens, skin pigmentation has been a highly labile trait, and similar skin tones have evolved independently numerous times. Skin pigmentation results from an evolutionary compromise between the conflicting demands of protection against ultraviolet radiation and production of vitamin D, and represents one of the best ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, 10 Seniors, Free for members
Brian J. Ford 'The First Microscopes: What Could They Truly Reveal?'If you have had the pleasure and privilege of hearing Brian Ford speak, you know that he always surprises his audience with his insightful presentations on science, and microscopy in particular. We have invited Brian to speak about the astonishing views that early microscopes presented to scientists of the ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Multiple Universes & Cosmic Inflation - The Quest to Understand Our Universe and Find OthersAbout a decade ago, scientists established a broad and deep understanding of how the observable universe has evolved from a hot, dense state 13.7 billion years ago. This understanding points to an early epoch during which the universe expanded at a stupendous rate to create the vast amount of space we ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Thursday, 05/16/13
STEM Speakers Series: Gaming/RoboticsAttendees will have the opportunity to hear about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) classroom integration from experts in the field as well as use the STEM Center equipment for hands-on exploration.Each night the agenda is: 3-4pm Open House, 4-5pm Speakers Series, 5-6pm Open HouseSpeakers: Angela Sveda, Rolston Middle School; ...
Where: Redwood CityCost: Free
BIGBOSS: A STAGE IV DARK ENERGY REDSHIFT SURVEYBigBOSS is a Stage IV dark energy experiment based on proven techniques to study the large-scale mass distribution of the universe and to provide experimental data for validation of competing cosmology models. BigBOSS will search for stalled baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) waves, remnants of the early universe, which serve as ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Built for Speed NightLifeSatisfy your need for speed at the NightLife premiere of the Academy's latest exhibit, Built for Speed, which explores what it takes for animals and boats to be fast in fluid. Take part in a Q&A with the designers behind the boats of ORACLE TEAM USA, the America's Cup defending ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, $10 Members
'Who Owns the Future?'A Renaissance Man for the 21st century, Jaron Lanier (You Are Not A Gadget) is a computer scientist, composer, visual artist, musician, and author who writes on numerous topics, including high-technology business, the social impact of technology, the philosophy of consciousness and information, Internet politics, and the future of humanism. ...
Learn the many ways to make color-from neon signs to oil slicks to rainbows and more. You'll learn all about light, how it's made, and how it interacts. Ron will demonstrate many of the concepts, and you'll take away materials to build your own spectroscope. You'll see color in a ...
Did you know that Alaska supports more than 80 percent of all the seabirds nesting in the United States? And that close to a third of the world's shorebird species come to Alaska to breed? Nils Warnock will talk about the many ways that Alaska is important to different bird ...
Professor Brian A. Barsky from UC Berkeley will present an overview of his research combining computer graphics with optics, optometry, and photography. This research has investigated mathematical models to describe the shape of the cornea and algorithms for cornea measurement, scientific and medical visualization for the display of cornea shape, ...
Where: Santa ClaraCost: Free
Rethinking Invasive Species in San Francisco BayCould a new non-native mud shrimp be good for the sub-tidal ecosystem? Michael McGowan, fisheries oceanographer and aquatic ecologist, will discuss how an invasive species may actually be beneficial.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Friday, 05/17/13
History of the U.S. Army Corps of EngineersJoin Ranger Bill to learn about the "When/Where/Why/What/ How," the diverse, complex, many faceted missions, goals and objectives of the USACE's "Birth" in 1775 under General George Washington.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
A Newton Workshop"Philosophy, Theology, and the Problem of the Earth's Motion"Andrew Janiak, Duke Universityand"A Tale of Two Treatises: Newton's Scientific and Prophetic Work in the Late 1680's"Robert Iliffe, University of Sussexfollowing discussion led byGeorge Smith, Tufts UniversityMichael Friedman, Stanford UniversityPaula Findlen, Stanford UniversityRoom 307
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Night School: PromThe 2nd Annual geeked out prom is here! Join us to make new memories and relive the old. Dressing up is not a must, but we think you'll have more fun! Music, drinks, live shows and beautiful views every third Friday.21 and over.
Where: OaklandCost: $12 General, $5 Members
Houge Park Start PartyMeet with members of San Jose Astronomical Society for a Star Party, weather permitting.
