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 ...
