Electronic Interfaces for Bacteria-Based BiosensingIn this talk, I will present our work to co-opt the natural detection capabilities of bacteria for hybrid biosensing platforms. We will cover the following techniques: (i) embedding current-producing bacteria inside a conductive polymer matrix to enhance current generation in a microbial electrochemical system; (ii) observing large numbers of chemotactic ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
California TypewriterCalifornia Typewriter is a documentary portrait of artists, writers, and collectors who remain steadfastly loyal to the typewriter as a tool and muse, featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, David McCullough, Sam Shepard, and others. It also movingly documents the struggles of California Typewriter, one of the last standing repair shops ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost:
Hardcore Natural History: From Chautauqua to SteinbeckThis is a story of immigration of people to America seeking a better life and a place to call home. It is a story about John Steinbeck’s maternal ancestors, the Hamilton family; his grandfather Samuel, great aunt Mary and great uncle Robert Hamilton, the three of whom emigrated from Ireland ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: $10 General, $5 Member, $15 all at door
Green Friday: Tales of BeesCalifornia is home to many species of native bees as well as introduced species such as the European honey bee. They are amazing creatures and important pollinators in natural, agricultural and urban landscapes. Dr. Hafernik will introduce the natural history of bee species in the Bay Area and discuss threats ...
Experience the beauty and rich natural history of this 535-acre preserve. Our half-day guided nature walks are on Saturdays throughout fall and spring. 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 ...
Where: Glen EllenCost: $20 General, $15 Members
Girls Day @ The Tech: Science SafariBring the whole family to Girls Day @ The Tech: Science Safari, an event devoted to providing girls with opportunity, inspiration and fun with STEM learning. We’ll offer special hands-on animal-themed activities designed to empower girls along with their siblings and parents. You’ll engineer a device to help move Pandas ...
Where: San JoseCost: free with the purchase of general admission ticket
Trekking the ModelJoin a Ranger or docent on a guided tour of the Bay Model, a 1.5-acre hydraulic model of the San Francisco Bay and Delta. Discover the stories of the two major operations that took place at this location between 1942 - 2000.Â
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Celebrating Stephen Hawking: Astronomer Andrew Fraknoi Discusses His Life and WorkScientists and science enthusiasts are mourning the passing of Stephen Hawking, one of the great minds and spirits of our time. In this introductory, non-technical talk, Bay Area public astronomer Andrew Fraknoi will briefly summarize Hawking’s life, and talk about the importance of his scientific work. No background in science ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Sunday, 05/13/18
Marine Science Sunday: Back from the Brink - Saving SpeciesThis month we celebrate the work taking place to help save endangered and threatened marine mammals found along the California coast and Pacific Ocean, including the threatened Guadalupe fur seals, Southern sea otter, the rarest seal in the United States, the Hawaiian monk seal. Docent-led tours will take you around the ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Monday, 05/14/18
Cool Clean TechDecoupling economic growth from carbon emissions will require new technologies to get the job done. Some of that innovation will come from established corporations, but much of it will come from creative entrepreneurs building new products and fresh ways to power our economy. Some of those inventions are cool. Others ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Salt formations are ideal regions for geologic storage. Their extremely low permeability, ease of mining, and propensity for creep means that they can be relatively quickly developed, used for storage of all types of media (solid, liquid, and gas) and are generally self-sealing to imposed damage in relatively short geologic ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
What Is Quantum Cognition?In this talk I will provide a review of Quantum Cognition which is an approach to construct cognitive models based on the mathematics of quantum probability theory rather than classical probability theory based on Boolean algebra.Despite the success of traditional cognitive models based on the laws of classical probability theory, ...
Reliable qubits are difficult to engineer. What can we do with just a few of them? Here are some ideas:1. Dimension test. An n-qubit system should have 2^n dimensions, but systems with just polynomial(n) dimensions can look like they have n qubits. Is nature really exponential? We give a test ...
This is a strange moment in the history of our planet - its intelligent life has rapidly altered its climate in a way that threatens their welfare, and the state of the earth system that supports them. We will discuss the risk of heat to the health of the habitable ...
Electrochemistry is used widely today, spanning from production of hydrogen and metals such as aluminum and Li-ion batteries. We will discuss current and future opportunities in using electrochemistry to power cars and buildings, and to make chemicals and fuels with energy from the Sun. Research towards establishing design principles in ...
On July 14, 2015, something amazing happened. More than 3 billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at more than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members and Seniors
For thousands of years people have wondered, “Are there planets like Earth?†“Are such planets common?†“Do any have signs of life?†Today astronomers are poised to answer these ancient questions, having recently found thousands of planets that orbit nearby Sun-like stars, called “exoplanetsâ€. Professor Sara Seager will share the ...
Two Astrophysics LecturesNot-so-simple stellar populations in nearby, resolved massive star clustersUntil about a decade ago, star clusters were considered "simple"stellar populations: all stars in a cluster were thought to have similar ages and the same metallicity. Only the individual stellar masses were thought to vary, in essence conforming to a "universal" initial ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Microbial Mat Taphonomy: Modern Insights into One of Earth's Earliest EcosystemsMorphological and geochemical signatures in fossilized microbial mats inform our understanding of early life. These reflect biological processes and environmental conditions at the time of formation, as well as degradation processes that overprint these signatures. Microbial mats from Little Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands, provide a model system for ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Enabling Digital Transformation at the EdgeThe “Edge†is exploding all around us! According to Gartner, the global market for edge computing is expected to grow to $6.7 billion by 2022, up from about $1.5 billion in 2017. This unbridled growth is presenting significant opportunities, and challenges, for enterprises and service providers.Digital Transformation is top-of-mind with ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
CHASING NEW HORIZONS: INSIDE THE EPIC FIRST MISSION TO PLUTOIn July 2015, humanity’s fastest spacecraft, “New Horizons,†flew by Pluto, revealing details of its surprisingly active surface and atmosphere for the first time. Come hear the mission’s Principal Investigator, Alan Stern, and noted planetary scientist and author, David Grinspoon, discuss their unique, insider’s view of how we got to ...
With its 13-year mission at Saturn now complete, Cassini takes its place as the most spectacularly successful interplanetary mission in the history of NASA. In its final 10 months (from December 2016 to September 2017), Cassini has transformed itself into a whole new mission with its Grand Finale, including 20 ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Wednesday, 05/16/18
MÄlama honua: Bridging traditional knowledge and modern science through observationIn June 2017, HÅkÅ«le‘a - a traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe - completed a three year voyage around the world sharing the message of mÄlama honua (translated as “to care for island Earthâ€). The voyage bridged traditional knowledge and modern science to communicate the changing conditions of our islands and oceans. ...
Where: Moss LandingCost: Free
The Big One: Earthquake Fact & FictionScientists know, as well as we know the sun will rise tomorrow, that California will experience another large earthquake. But what details do we have? What will this earthquake be like? How accurate is the portrayal we see on television? Earth & planetary scientist William Hawley will answer these questions ...
Fire and Fuel: Founders and FundersHow do a founder and a funder take an idea and build a pioneering company? Before there was Uber or Airbnb, TaskRabbit helped birth the sharing economy. Leah Busque’s entrepreneurial fire as has taken her from IBM software engineer to founder of TaskRabbit to venture capitalist. Ann Miura-Ko is a ...
Calling all young scientists curious about their surroundings and all makers, crafters, and those who enjoy exploring the outdoors. Meet science educator Jack Challoner as he discusses Maker Lab Outdoors, which focuses on projects that can be done outside, or that emphasize the earth and environment. Jack will  lead a series ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Amazon Lambda and the Transition to Cloud2.0The Lambda service from Amazon, and similar services from Microsoft and Google, signals the arrival of the Actor/CSP model in the cloud. The current Lambda services are the beginning of an evolutionary path that will ultimately replace the VM-based cloud usage model of today. In this talk Jack Mills will ...
Where: SunnyvaleCost: Free
Nerd Nite SF #96: Singing Science, Star Wars Law, & SF Transportation!Dodge those un-prettily parked sidewalk scooters and don’t trip on the way over to this month’s nerdering, where a singing scientist talks Bell’s palsy; a certified Legal Geek reviews the rules of a galaxy far, far away; and a transport expert tells us if it’s maybe okay to toss aforementioned ...
Rescheduled to May 16 If ye value critical thinking, and if ye scorn the flim-flam man, join us, your friends. We are a group who informally discuss the latest in science or pseudoscience over good eats & ale. Sponsored by Bay Area Skeptics.WHY: Because we’re curious creatures.
What happens to water from your toilet, sink, or laundry after it goes down the drain? Find out on a surprising and fascinating tour of EB MUD's Sewage Treatment Plant, near the foot of the Bay Bridge in Oakland. Learn about the history of cleaning our formerly polluted Bay, the ...
Where: OaklandCost: free preregistration is required
Wildflower and native plant hike on Albany HillSearch for late-spring wildflowers on this relatively challenging walk. Margot Cunningham, who organizes native-plant restoration on Albany Hill, leads as you climb about 340 feet up the north and east slope and head back down on the west. Wear long pants and closed-toed shoes with good traction. Bring water and ...
Where: AlbanyCost: Free
Understanding Redwood Giants: Using Science to Protect the Tallest ForestsJoin Emily Burns, Director of Science for the Save the Redwoods League, for a morning in our Redwood Grove. Home to endangered species and notable for their remarkable carbon storage capacity, coast redwood forests stand today in a rapidly changing world. Save the Redwoods League is applying climate change, genomic, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $20 General, $15 Members
Tackling Big Data with the ZooniverseCitizen science - the involvement of hundreds of thousands of people in the research process  - provides a radical solution to the challenge of dealing with the greatly increased size of modern data sets.  Zooniverse.org is the most successful collection of online citizen science projects which have enabled over 1.7 ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Lab and Lunch: The Secret Behind California's Goldilocks WeatherCalifornia is known for weather that is rarely too hot or too cold, but have you ever wondered why? Come hear from visiting meteorologist Tom Di Libreto about the climate systems that make us the Goldilocks state for pleasant weather and how that might be changing.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free - Registration required
Cosmological parameters from strong gravitational lensesRecent measurements of the Hubble Constant (H_0) through distance ladder techniques have revealed a noticeable tension with the Planck H_0 value that was obtained under the assumption of the cosmological “standard modelâ€, i.e., a flat Lambda cold dark matter cosmology. Is this tension an indication that modifications to the standard ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Hard Earth Talk: Wanting LessTechnology is the sexy path to a more-sustainable future. Behavioral change, though, may prove more effective. If people felt less urge to consume, they’d have less need for technologies to minimize their consumption’s environmental harm. But getting people to curb their appetites is hard. One potentially powerful tactic has been ...
This talk will cover the history of the human rotavirus vaccine- starting with the discovery of human rotavirus in Australia in 1973. I will then discuss how the early epidemiologic studies were facilitated by breakthroughs in modern viral diagnostics and the fact that the rotavirus is shed in very large ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
'Of the Sea'Today, fishing is a rare and challenging way of life - Few California fishing families remain, due to complex regulations, high cost, and competition with cheap farmed and imported seafood. Struggling to revive a fading way of life, fishermen and entrepreneurs are creating new models for how to support sustainably ...
Everything Matters: Copper8:00 PMMalleable, conductive copper enabled the Bronze Age and is an essential element for life. In some invertebrates, copper binds to oxygen in the blue blood pigment hemocyanin. Explore its significance with host Ron Hipschman and environmental scientist Seira Ashley Adams, who’ll share its chemical role in spiders.=======Maker Faire - ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $17.95 advance, $19.95 at the door
Augmenting Cognition through Data VisualizationAs datasets get larger, it has become increasingly important to manage visual attention and augment cognition. My research has focused on developing novel techniques to draw a viewer's attention to regions of interest in large datasets. These techniques are specifically designed to increase the efficient completion of tasks and to ...
Where: Santa ClaraCost: $10 General $5 IEEE, Free IEEE
In July 2015, on a visit to California for some shorebird work, Jonathan Vargas met Steve Howell. Steve Howell is a well-known birding tour leader and author of bird books and publications. The two birded together and talked about the first Big Day Howell did in San Blas with Peter ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $5 General, Free for members
