The Venus Fly trap and other Amazing Carnivorous PlantsJohn Bartram was the first to introduce the Venus Fly Trap into cultivation. Family members of all age are invited to discover some of the fascinating and beautiful plants that can eat insects. Get up close with the amazing leaf adaptations as you learn more about them.
Where: BerkeleyCost: $15 General, $10 Members
2015 Stanford Brain BeeThe Stanford Brain Bee is a local qualifying round of the International Brain Bee (IBB), a neuroscience competition exclusively for high school students ages 14-18. The Stanford Brain Bee involves both a written component and a live oral Q&A session. In addition to the competition, students will have the opportunity ...
Over the past few decades, hundreds of new planetary systems have been discovered, many of which show remarkable diversity compared with our own Solar System. A key step towards characterizing these planets is the determination of which planets occupy the Habitable Zone (HZ) of their host stars. In this talk Professor Kane will describe the properties of ...
This month we celebrate the animals that are the champions of the cold: Animals of the Arctic. We recommend teaming our free classroom program at 12 pm and 2 pm with a Docent-led tour at 11am, 1pm or 3pm for a truly immersive marine mammal experience.FREE Classroom Programs: Animals of the ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Solar Astronomy Sunday January 11th., at the Lindsay Wildlife MuseumPlease join Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society for a public Astronomy program and learn about the Sun.Society members will provide safe close-up views of our Sun using Solar-filtered telescopes (weather permitting). Activities for young and old will demonstrate how our nearest star works, and how our Solar System developed.
Where: Walnut CreekCost: 0
Tree Frog TreksCome see Tree Frog Treks as they encourage children to see themselves as part of a larger system of natural life in which every organism plays an important part. Their naturalists will introduce children to creeping, crawling and slithering co-workers, from tiny Pacific Tree Frogs to 14-foot-long Burmese Pythons. They ...
Where: LafayetteCost: Free
Monday, 01/12/15
Oil AheadWhat impact will plunging oil prices have on California's efforts to cut carbon pollution? One result will be to ease the sting drivers will feel at the pump when gasoline is included in the state's cap and trade program starting January 1st. The oil industry and regulators have been sparring ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $7 Student, Free for Members
What do the color blind see?This apparently straightforward question is not straightforwardly answerable, but it remains irresistibly intriguing because of its theoretical connection to the nature of the neural representation of color and the physiological basis of color deficiency. Red-green color blindness (dichromacy) was originally conceived as a loss of one cone type, but in ...
Shell recognizes the importance of broadening the frame of the energy and climate change discussion. There needs to be substantial additional amounts of energy to meet growing population levels and increasing standards of living worldwide. At the same time, we recognize the need to reduce CO2. Energy is fundamental to ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Your Brain on Drugs: Novel Clinical ImplicationsGet an introduction to the latest scientific findings on addiction's effect on the brain in an incisive talk by UC Berkeley professor, Mark D'Esposito. Understand how certain circuits in the brain that normally guide goal-directed behavior are malfunctioning in the throes of addiction. Dr. Esposito also explains novel cognitive and ...
6:45pm-7:00pm: Socializing/networking.7:00-7:25: Pireeni Sundaralingam(Poet and Neuroscientist) on ""Abstract...Read more7:25-7:50: Meredith Tromble(San Francisco Art Institute) on ""Abstract...Read more7:50-8:10: BREAK. Before or after the break, anyone in the audience currently working within the intersections of art and science will have 30 seconds to share their work. Please present your work ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Tuesday, 01/13/15
Theia's date with destiny: possible conditions leading to a Giant ImpactThe Giant Impact theory is the leading explanation for the Moon's origin, but mysteries remain in the conditions leading up to the event. Collisions were common during the turbulent infancy of the Solar System and led to a small set of terrestrial planets. Dr. Quarles presents a numerical model that ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Adventure Tuesday Club: Counting With CrittersA four-week class, for ages 4 to 5. Adult attendance is not required. Numbers are everywhere, especially in nature. "Count" on meeting some animal ambassadors.Register online with the link listed below.Class ID: CC-390
Where: Walnut CreekCost: $80.00 (Member: $65.00)
Lunchtime for the FishWatch Ranger Ondrej feed the hungry inhabitants of our fresh and salt-water tanks. Get familiar with some of our Bay Area aquatic neighbors. Watch the different feeding styles of the rock cod, sea stars, and rainbow trout.
Current global disease control efforts focus largely on attempting to stop pandemics after they have already emerged. This fire brigade approach, which generally involves drugs, vaccines, and behavioral change, has severe limitations. Just as we discovered in the 1960s that it is better to prevent heart attacks then try to ...
From Aristotle to Einstein, great minds have failed to grasp basic ideas in physics. Aristotle thought that all objects naturally prefer to be at rest; Einstein believed that, "God does not play dice." Both these geniuses were mistaken, and, today, plenty of everyday geniuses continue to misunderstand key ideas in ...
Black Oystercatchers are Monterey's charismatic signature bird of the rocky intertidal ecosystem, one of California's and the west coast's iconic habitats. Until recently, little was known of the population status and distribution of Black Oystercatchers in California. It is a Special Status Species of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: Free
Groundwater: California's Real Buried GoldCalifornia stores far more water than falls as rain or snow, or can be held in reservoirs. But this hidden treasure has been treated first-come, winner-take-all. California's new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and just-passed Proposition 1 bring opportunities to use groundwater more wisely. Environmental attorney Tina Cannon Leahy, Principal Consultant ...
Where: AlbanyCost: Free
Nature is Rebounding: Land- and Ocean-sparing through Concentrating Human ActivitiesJesse Ausubel is an environmental scientist and program manager of a number of global biodiversity and ecology research programs. Ausubel serves as Director and Senior Research Associate of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University.He was instrumental in organizing the first UN World Climate Conference which was held ...
This talk reports recent advances in underwater robotic vehicle research to enable novel oceanographic operations in extreme ocean environments, with focus on two recent novel vehicles developed by a team comprised of the speaker and his collaborators at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. First, the development and operation of the ...
Where: Moss LandingCost: Free
Realizing the next growth wave for semiconductors A new approach to enable innovative startups The semiconductor industry has evolved from its early days of startups and spinouts financed by venture capital to an era of specialization associated with the rise of foundries and fabless companies to today's structure characterized by consolidation and dominance by a few leaders in each of the product areas. Looking ...
Can Apple sell the world on clean energy? As a beloved brand and the most valuable company on the planet, it is uniquely positioned to influence global culture and individual behavior. What are Apple and its Silicon Valley brethren doing to drive toward a clean and sustainable economy?Scientists say governments ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $15 Members, $10 Student
Wolves of California: The Long Journey HomeCalifornia is celebrating one of its most inspiring conservation stories: the return of the gray wolf, after being absent for decades. To prepare for their return, the California Wolf Center is forging a visionary path for wolf recovery that focuses on solutions, instead of conflict. Come learn about the true ...
"Grange Future" celebrates the history and contemporary expression of 'the grange idea.' From the 19th century populist movement that backed the early campaign for an "information commons" in the form of Rural Free Mail delivery, to public banking and Farmers co-op banks, this vital movement is re-emerging to confront information ...
Monthly Bird WalkJoin us in search of resident, migrant, and vagrant birds in the Garden's many bird friendly micro-habitats. Both beginning and experienced bird watchers are welcome! Bring binoculars if you have them. Advance registration required. (Includes Garden admission.)
Where: BerkeleyCost: $15 General, $10 Members
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY – LEVERAGING BIOLOGY TO ENABLE LUNAR IN SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATIONIn 2010, the United States set exploration milestones for sending humans beyond the International Space Station to the Moon and Mars. In President Obama's National Space Policy address, he declared the objective of these missions was to "live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods of time, ultimately in ways ...
Get ready for a night of mind-bending, cutting-edge science visualization.Discover what it means to live in a connected world and be among the first to peep the Academy's newest planetarium show Habitat Earth.From the comfort of your planetarium seat, explore the vast networks of life-from sea to space-that power the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, $10 Members
The Digital Publishing LandscapeEveryone designing websites and publications needs to know how to design directly on their computers using interactive software, which can be shared with others. This lecture by Diane Burns, internationally recognized graphic designer, describes the differences between interactive PDFs, reflowable ePubs, fixed-layout ePubs and tablet apps and helps you keep ...
Is there a constitutional right to "physician-assisted suicide"? What about a "dignified death"-and what is a dignified death? Should terminally ill patients facing mental incapacitation or unbearable pain have access to fatal ingestion-also known as physician aid in dying? Or would that jeopardize our society's progress toward more compassionate, comfort-based ...
Is there intelligent life on other planets? UC Berkeley Professor of Astronomy Geoffrey Marcy, a pioneer in the discovery and characterization of planets around other stars, discusses new telescopic and biological observations that provide clues. A co-investigator of Kepler, the NASA space-born telescope dedicated to identifying Earth-like planets, his research ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $25 - $35 General, Members less 10%
Ospreys in the Bay AreaThe last decade has seen a remarkably rapid expansion of Osprey nesting into San Francisco Bay tidelands. From a single nest reported in 1990 in Vallejo, numbers have risen to 27 nesting pairs in summer 2014. What's behind this increase? What conservation challenges do nesting Osprey face here, and how ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $5 or free for members.
Surgical Approaches to Facial PainTrigeminal neuralgia (TN) is one of the most common causes of facial pain characterized by recurring brief episodes of electric shock-like pains. This talk will focus on surgical approaches to treating this difficult disorder.Speaker: Casey H. Halpern, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Neurology and of Psychiatry and Behavioral ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Ice Plants, Mattress Wireweed & Other OnslaughtsHave you seen how much of our coastal parkland is now covered in succulent ground cover, hardy New Zealand vines, and just too many highly invasive species? Come hear Lew give us the low down on ground cover invasive plants. He's been working with the Presidio Trust, and before that the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Friday, 01/16/15
Technology Innovation at GE HealthcareCome hear about recent innovations and opportunities at GE Healthcare with former CTO, Michael Harsh!Room: Auditorium
