Threatened Oceans - Damaged Habitat & Plastic PollutionOceans and coastal waters of Central California are in peril because they are recovering from a myriad of historical destructive human actions and also are threatened by modern human actions. Historical threats that have had long-term effects include extirpation of keystone species such as sea otters, development, pollution, and fishing ...
Where: SausalitoCost: $20 advance/$$25 at door, free for members
Free Family Fun Day at YSI - Calling all local Science Agent Recruits!Attention all local Science Agent Recruits! Your presence has been requested for a Youth Science Institute first-ever secret mission. MISSION CODE NAME: Free Family Fun Day 2015 This year's theme: "Secret Science Agents" Your Mission includes: - Having Fun - FREE crafts and experiments, - FREE instructor-led ...
Where: Los GatosCost: FREE!
Science Saturday: Cool CatsCan you leap as far as a bobcat or pull as much weight as a mountain lion? Test your abilities and learn what makes these cats such cool predators. Compare their differences and similarities, examine skulls and real bobcat fur, as well as other activities! Join us for a fun ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: Free
The Dangers of Bridging the Golden GateFind out the dangers for which the bridge engineers had to design and prepare-above and below the sea surface.Meet Ranger Will Elder at the Battery Godfrey parking area off Langdon Court near Merchant Rd. and Lincoln Blvd.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free, reservations required
BayMobile Visits the Bay Model Visitor CenterAquarium of the Bay's BayMobile is coming to the Bay Model! Using our Mobile Bay Lab, visitors will experiment with the science of climate change and meet some of Aquarium of the Bay's animal ambassadors. All Bay Model visitors are welcome to stop by for this hour long program.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Water you Gonna Do?! Interact with and learn about the three phases of water, explore how rising global temperatures change the water on our planet, and discuss the effects of rising sea level on wild habitats and people.Target audience: 2nd grade and up.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Introduction to the Botany SeriesNew to plant science? This class aims to be a fun introduction to the world of plants, and features short lectures, hands-on activities and educational games. We will survey other classes in the Park Academy botany series, and cover topics such as plant parts, using plant keys, scientific plant names, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Donation appreciated
It's Ptough to be a Pteropod! Measure and observe changing chemistry in an ocean-like environment, explore the complex food web, and discuss potential solutions to slow that change.Target Audience: 4th grade and up.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
5 Tools You Can Use to Find the Elusive Gray FoxDo you sometimes see paw prints in mud or scat (poop) on the trails and assume that a dog left it? It could be from something else. Come along with me and I will show you how to distinguish and identify the markings of a gray fox. Gain some insights into the fox's nature and ...
Where: FremontCost: Free
Jazz under the StarsSee the first quarter moon and more thru our telescopes, while listening to KCSM Jazz 91 FM. Dress warmly and come by anytime between 6 & 10 p.m. Free parking in Marie Curie Lot 5. Directions here.
Learn how 3D printers work and why they are so popular. Watch a 3D printing demonstration. Use modeling software to create fun designs. You'll learn some materials science and walk away with a 3D model you can keep!Ages 10 and upRegister here.
Where: BerkeleyCost: $40
Monday, 03/02/15
A Survey of Optical Cluster Surveys Galaxy clusters, as the largest peaks in the cosmic density field, play an important role in astrophysics and cosmology. As the most dramatic features of large-scale structure, the abundance of clusters provides a key opportunity to test our understanding of structure formation and cosmic expansion history. In recent years, observational ...
Speaker: Daniel L. Sanchez is a Ph.D. candidate and a researcher in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. He is interested in quantitative analysis to inform public policy, focusing on bioenergy and climate policy. Daniel has previously held positions with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Green for All, and the California ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Deciphering the Good-Turing Enigma: Estimating Probabilities of Unlikely and Unseen EventsIn their legendary WW-II effort to decipher the enigma code, I.J. Good and Alan Turing derived an equally enigmatic estimator for the probabilities of unlikely and even unseen events. It estimates the probability of events by considering not just the number of times they appeared in the sample, but also ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Large-Scale Solar: TomKat Center Seed Grant ResearchWith the occurrence of extreme weather events increasing and the effects of climate change impacting our food and water resources, the imperative to transform our energy system is self-evident. The TomKat Center Seed Grants fund research from across Stanford University that has the potential to contribute to a sustainable energy ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Tuesday, 03/03/15
It's Life Jim, but Not as We Know It: The Prospects of Life in Titan's SeasThe prerequisites for life are thought to be: (1) a liquid solvent; (2) chemical building blocks; and (3) an energy source. Life like we have on the Earth uses water for its solvent and organic molecules for its building blocks. Hence searches for Earth-like life can focus on habitable zones ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
View From the Top: Robotics in Soft Tissue Surgery: Current State and Future DirectionsHalf a million soft-tissue surgeries were performed with the aid of robotics in 2014 - from mitral valve repairs, to throat cancer resections, to single-incision hysterectomies. This trailblazing leader in computer and robotic-assisted surgery will highlight the field's great promise and significant technical challenges.Speaker: Dr. Gary Guthart, Intuitive Surgical
How can we make sense of all the wacky weather around the country? The American West is hot and dry and the East is seeing massive snowstorms and wicked cold temperatures. Scientists say that we should expect dry periods to get drier and wet periods to get wetter. As columnist ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Student
Why is the Mission of San Francisco called 'Dolores'? Yet, the city was called 'San Francisco'!?We'll explore along water routes where creeks once flowed, before the city grew up. (Some are still flowing, hidden). We'll delve into both practical and political sides of local drinking water, sewers, wells, hydrants and ...
This talk proposes that the notion of the human nervous system as an impressible, malleable entity continuously remade by contact with its environment lies at the heart of nineteenth-century U.S. cultural politics. Theorizing "impressibility" as a nineteenth-century keyword linking race and sexuality, the talk explores how scientists, reformers, and writers ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Clean CloudCan Silicon Valley companies be cool and green? They still have a way to go, but several companies are getting cleaner. Two years ago Greenpeace gave Facebook poor grades for its data centers. After its Unfriend Coal campaign the activist group now gives Facebook high marks. And eBay lobbied the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Nerd Nite North Bay #5: Gaming the Gamers, Elevating Elephants and Brewing Big Beers!BEER SPEAKS. THE LAB INTERPRETS.Scaling up from home brew and experimental beers to the full throttle industrial scale needed to satisfy America's inexhaustible thirst for good craft beer presents unique biological challenges. Over the last nine years the lab at Lagunitas has evolved with new technologies to shorten testing time ...
Where: NovatoCost: $5
Wednesday, 03/04/15
Free First WednesdayFree museum admission all day, to anyone from anywhere, at Bay Area Discovery Museum
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Free Wednesday at UC Botanical GardensEnjoy free admission to the UC Botanical Garden on the first Wednesday of the month. Parking is limited. Docent-led tours for groups are not available on Free Wednesdays. No admission after 4:30 pm. In order to minimize the impact on the plant collection, ensure the safety of visitors, and to ...
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Cancer care is a complex and complicated process involving diverse practitioners, multiple specialists, and a range of inpatient, outpatient, and home care services with numerous transitions for the patients. In order to achieve the triple aims of cost, ...
The future of energy holds fascinating challenges and opportunities. The challenge: As society's size and energy appetite grow, we must seek solutions that facilitate penetration of renewable energy and enhance efficiency across the transportation, building, and power system sectors. The opportunity: Low-cost sensing/actuation and the pervasiveness of Internet-access enable a new ...
A leading global health researcher and former journalist, Professor Gavin Yamey will speak with Paul Costello, Stanford Medicine's chief communications officer, on timely and pressing issues in global health. Gavin Yamey is associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine and is Lead of the Evidence to ...
Kidney cancer is diagnosed in more than 330,000 people each year worldwide, and accounts for 2.4% of all adult cancers and over 140,000 deaths annually. Incidence rates have been increasing sharply with unexplained variation in different countries and ethnicities. Epidemiological studies have identified several lifestyle and host risk factors, among ...
NVIDIA's first 64-bit ARM processor, code-named Denver, leverages a host of new technologies to enable high-performance mobile computing. Implemented in a 28-nm process, the Denver CPU can attain clock speeds of up to 2.5 GHz. This talk will outline the Denver architecture and describe some of its technological innovations. In ...
Humans are a unique species among the 5 million species on this planet. More specifically we represent an extreme outlier species on many easily measured dimensions from our fraction of earths biomass and nutrient cycling, to levels of social complexity, to extra somatic phenotype, energy capture, and cumulative technological evolution. ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
The handiwork of imagining the submicroscopic:Embodied performances as interactional resources for learning chemistryAbstract: Both practicing scientists and students alike use gestures and their bodies to share and develop new ideas with others. Embodied performances are a particularly useful resource for collaboratively imagining the submicroscopic, three-dimensional, and dynamic phenomena of chemistry. In this talk, we'll explore how creating spaces for, attending to, and ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Speaking Public Health... Publicly!A lecture on effective ways to communicate public health issues to the general publicSpeaker: David Tuller, UC Berkeley
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
California Drought PanelWater in the West is convening three experts to discuss the causes, policy implications and possible responses to California's ongoing drought, including what a fourth year of drought will mean for the state. Topics will include:The current state of the drought and its physical causes;The role of climate change on ...
From the dawn of the Space Age in the 1960s that led to the Apollo Landing on the Moon to the cosmological discoveries captured visually by space observatories and satellites, advances in our understanding of the universe have stimulated the imaginations and curiosities of people from around the globe. Beyond ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Sentinel Mission: Finding the Asteroid Headed for EarthAsteroids, which hit our planet at least twice each year, are the only natural disaster for which we have a technological solution. We are all living with the threat of a three-minute experience that could transform our lives and our planet forever. On Feb. 15, 2013, for example, an asteroid impact ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: Free ($3 parking)
The Coming Ice AgeThe Global Warming Myth has been conflated with climate change, air pollution and rising CO2 levels despite the lack of real evidence to support it. The bottom line: Competition in international markets is not good for American business. So, do your damndest to keep the developing countries in their place. ...
Where: SebastopolCost: $5
The Martian: The Future of Manned Missions to MarsNew York Times bestselling author of "The Martian", Andy Weir, joins Dr. Pascal Lee, Chairman of the Mars Institute, to discuss the science, both fact and fiction, of this sci-fi thriller. Don't miss this far reaching conversation moderated by NASA Scientist, Dr. Margaret Race.See weblink for registration and box meal ...
What is a human being? One short answer is that it is an individual that started out as a fertilized egg with genes from a male and a female that has developed into a fully functional biological being. But now, there is a growing group of scientists that would say ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $27 General, $24 Members
The Evolution of the Reflector Telescope, Part 2With the success of George Ellery Hale and George Willis Ritchey in building large reflecting telescopes at Mt. Wilson in the early 20th Century, this type of instrument became the dominant type of telescope of professional astronomy. New innovations were developed in mirror making, mounting machinery, and detector technology. Reflecting ...
Sunset/Full Moon Walk to the Point Bonita LighthouseJoin park staff and docents for a tour down the Point Bonita Trail, through the hand carved tunnel and out to the Lighthouse. We will walk along a half-mile trail which is steep in places. Arrive early as parking is limited. Meet at the Point Bonita Lighthouse trailhead. Dress warmly ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
After Dark: Extended CinemasImmerse yourself in visual storytelling that extends the possibilities of cinema. See aspects of film rarely displayed: unusual film formats with Dino Everett and an insider view into projectionists' techniques with Paul Clipson. Enter worlds created by Elise Baldwin-investigating collective memory-and by Wet Gate, a 16mm projector–playing ensemble. Experience Thad Povey and Mark Taylor's multiturntable record player, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General; $10 Members; Free for Lab Members
Cafe InquiryMeet up with rationalists, skeptics, and freethinkers south of San FranciscoCafe Inquiry is a social event hosted by the Center for Inquiry|San Francisco. We'll meet at Café Borrone http://www.cafeborrone.com/ next to Kepler's Books. Look for CFI t-shirts.For more information or if you have questions please email sf@centerforinquiry.net ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Osteopathic Medicine: Myths and RealitiesGet an in-depth look into the field of osteopathic medicine from Gina Moses, M.Ed. She addresses the nuances of osteopathic medical education and how that differs from allopathic medicine. Moses also highlights the growing need for medical practitioners in the United States and how physicians trained in osteopathic medicine are ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
From black holes to superconductors (part 2 of 2)The Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics announces the second mini-course by Stanford physics faculty on recent fundamental advances in theoretical physics. The winter quarter's lectures will be by Professor Sean Hartnoll.Black holes have the remarkable property of irreversibility: if you fall into a black hole you can't get out (classically). This ...
Positive PsychologyThis one hour interactive program on positive psychology will explore the causes and practices of happiness in daily life.Instructor: Frederic Luskin, PhD Director, Stanford University Forgiveness Project
Felicia Marcus will give a sense of California water's setting (basic hydrology, infrastructure, etc), discuss the drought's impacts and the state's actions to address them, and will talk about how California water management is changing (and needs to change) to cope with the impacts of climate change, population growth, and ...
Golden Gate park is a canvas on which the city's ambitions were sketched. San Francisco was the first major city on the coast. We'll discover many firsts in the Park because it was where ideas were tested. We'll see where a major railroad came right into the park, where the ...
Where: CACost: Pay what you wish!
Somatic Robots: Neural-Structural Integration - Time ChangeSomatic Robotics approaches the design of physical structure and control intelligence as a single integrated task. The Mind / Body duality of western thought, and the associated separation of control theory from mechanical engineering, are inadequate at providing insight to biology or future robotic systems. To understand how we control ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance ProgramConventional wisdom suggests that individuals and firms often fail to undertake energy efficiency investments that are predicted by engineering models to have private returns greatly in excess of their costs. Policymakers have seized on this so-called energy efficiency gap with a wide variety of interventions that promise both private benefits ...
As part of the 2015 Faculty Arist Recital Series at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, neuroscientist and soprano (and Inquiring Minds podcast host) Indre Viskontas is joined by Grammy-nominated pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi in an exploration of the mind through music. Why does one piece 'go viral' while another languishes in obscurity, ...
We are quite literally not who we were years, weeks, or even days before. The stuff that makes our body is being replaced all the time, from the chemicals in our cells to the very cells themselves. What lasts is not our literal substance but rather a pattern that is ...
