Sir Joseph Banks (1743 - 1820) was an English naturalist and botanist who accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific. During the expedition, 30,000 plants were collected and The Banks Florilegium was created but not published until 1989. Banks is credited for introducing the genera Acacia, Banksia and ...
Extensive dunes on Titan have been observed by Cassini and are inferred to be made of mainly organics produced photochemically from the atmosphere. However, it has been a mystery how the organic sand particles are createdâ€"either by transforming the small aerosol particles in Titan’s atmosphere into larger sand sized particles ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
Pathways to STEMHow does one take a kid from Compton on a life journey and academic career path to Professor in Neurobiology at UC San Diego by way of UC Berkeley (B.A.), Harvard University (Ph.D.), and postdoctoral studies at California Institute of Technology? The answer is simple: Access, Mentorship and Advocacy! ...
Magnetism in Amorphous AlloysMost condensed matter textbooks start by introducing crystal symmetries and the periodic lattice as foundational to the field. Yet, it has long been known that the amorphous structure supports ferromagnetism, superconductivity, and a host of other condensed matter properties. Superconductivity theory was famously expanded from the original Bloch ...
Reactive sulfur species, such as H2S and sulfane-sulfur compounds, play key roles in different (patho)physiological processes. In addition, these small molecules are also key targets for new donor motifs that function both as important research tools and pharmacological agents. Aligned with this importance, our lab has recently developed a palette ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
$5 First Friday: The Art & Science of Hip-HopMusic is simultaneously an art and a science, and the two disciplines are closely related. Science and music are formed on the foundations of curiosity, creativity, and mathematics and results of both serve to enlighten and inspire us. Join us as we explore the dynamics of hip-hop music and discover ...
A computational and molecular biologist, Dr. Richardson specializes in the design of genomes. Dr. Richardson earned her B.S. in Biology at the University of Maryland College Park; with the support of a prestigious DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship she earned a Ph.D. in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology from the Johns Hopkins University ...
Bald Hill Broom BustPlease join One Tam, MMWD, and Marin County Parks for our annual Bald Hill Broom Bust! Volunteers will focus on containing the spread of French and Scotch broom monocultures and also eradicate pioneer patches.We can meet at Deer Park and hike, bike or carpool to the site. Group leaders will ...
Where: FairfaxCost: Free
Community Groundhog DayPay-what-you-wish on Community Days, when ExplOratorium entry is on a first-come, first-served basis. Entry is subject to capacity; admission is not guaranteed.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Pay what you wish
Full Circle FalconryJoin Environmental Volunteers for a Saturday live birds of prey show presented by Full Circle Falconry. Have you ever wanted to see a bird of prey up close? Come meet some amazing raptors face to face and learn their stories! Let’s find out the differences between hawks and falcons, both mighty ...
Calling All Eco-Explorers! Youth ages 5-15 will be up to their elbows in FREE, hands-on activities. Learning through fun interactive, nature science experiences and regional field trips, your kids will find out all about the Bay Area ecosystem and become the next generation of Citizen Scientists! We have extended Welcome ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Sequence your food! Next-Generation Illumina sequencing for 16S/ITS metagenomicsNext Generation Sequencing & Meta-genomics : Bring in your fermented foods to be analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of the 16s and/ or ITS marker genes. This a two day class taking place Saturday and Sunday(11:00AM-6:00PM) at the Omni Commons.Metagenomics is the study of genetic materials recovered from a population. These ...
Where: OaklandCost: $60
A Fungus Among UsFrom truffles and yeast to ringworm and toadstools, fungus is all around us. Explore the farm looking for examples of these life forms and learn more about their importance in our world.
Where: FreemontCost: Free
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.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Low Tide WalkMSI takes to the tidepools for a treasure hunt of nature's beautiful intertidal secrets. We'll spend our time taking advantage of the low tide to reach the outer edges of Pillar Point, and take in spectacular views as we slowly retreat to shore. Will we find crabs, sea stars, eels ...
Where: Half Moon BayCost: From $20
Low Tide WalkLow tides don't always happen at the most opportune times so were heading out again to check out Pillar Points sub-tidal zones and take in the spectacular views as we slowly retreat to shore.Register at weblink.
Where: Half Moon BayCost: $20
Sunday, 02/03/19
Tilden Fungal FairCelebrate the fruits of winter! View hundreds of local mushroom specimens, mingle with the mycological community, and enjoy presentations by guest speakers at this day-long special event.
Archaeology, the study of human history & prehistory through analysis of physical remains, is embracing modern technology. Advances in digital imaging and mobile capabilities are transforming the ways archaeology is practiced, experienced, and understood. This talk will explore remarkable breakthroughs in archaeology by visiting exemplar field projects from around the ...
Registration opens for Marine Science Camp February 4th at 8:00am! Marine Science Camp provides hands-on curriculum for budding marine scientists in K-12th grade. Participants experience marine life up close in a fun, safe, and exciting atmosphere. Our knowledgable instructors lead week-long explorations of the SF Bay and Pacific coast, including ...
Where: Redwood CityCost: $385-$1400
Measuring the Hubble Constant with Gravitational WavesThe first detection of binary neutron star merger by Advanced LIGO-Virgo and the discovery of the optical counterpart allowed for the first independent measurement of Hubble constant with gravitational waves. In this talk, I will summarize latest cosmological measurements with gravitational waves, and discuss the future aspects of them. I ...
A discussion of the growth and augmentation of work experience (time effect), the career socio-economic, cultural and regional impact (place effect), relates achieving career success to that of progression in human capabilities (people effect) is presented. Success can be measured in many different ways, and by a variety of criteria ...
As the AI revolution is poised to impact nearly every industry, as well as government, education, family, and social life, concerns are mounting about how training computers to think like us can amplify some of the worst parts of ourselves. Is our training data teaching machines to adopt human biases ...
Suppression of the exciton Bose condensate in TiSe2Cux by metallic screeningThe transition metal dichalcogenide semimetal 1T-TiSe2 exhibits a Bose condensate of excitons traditionally referred to as an “excitonic insulator†(though the material is not technically insulating) and highlighted as “excitonium†in the popular press. Using momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS) experiments with meV energy resolution, we showed the experimental signature ...
Programmable proteins that detect and cut specific DNA sequences were uncovered by research to understand how bacteria fight viral infections. In collaboration with Emmanuelle Charpentier’s laboratory, we determined how the enzyme Cas9, which is part of CRISPR-Cas adaptive bacterial immunity, can be harnessed as a powerful technology to alter genomic ...
People and Robots SeminarDespite massive interest in self-driving cars, the problem of how to ensure the reliability and safety of intelligent autonomous systems remains unsolved. In this talk, I will discuss approaches to safe autonomy based on Algorithmic Improvisation, a framework for automatically synthesizing systems with random but controllable behavior. Algorithmic improvisation can ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
From Nonlinear Optics to High-Intensity Laser PhysicsThe laser increased the intensity of light that can be generated by orders of magnitude and thus brought about nonlinear optical interactions with matter. Chirped pulse amplification, also known as CPA, changed the intensity level by a few more orders of magnitude and helped usher in a new type of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Devices and Decisions for Smart Buildings This panel, moderated by Strategic Energy Alliance Executive Director Richard Sassoon, will feature organizations that seek to optimize when energy is consumed in order to improve building efficiency. Some of these organizations are developing new products, while others emphasize making smart choices as users of electricity.Panelists: Matt Duesterberg, CEO of ...
Restoring Climate Health Through Innovative SolutionsPeter Fiekowsky founded Healthy Climate Alliance with the intention of restoring the climate to its preindustrial climate health. He hopes to accelerate an emerging array of innovations to reduce the level of carbon in the atmosphere and to preserve and rebuild Arctic ice. While reducing emissions is important, he promotes ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $10 Members, $8 Students
The Sound of Darkness? Assuming the standard cosmological model, different data sets lead to inconsistent values of the Hubble constant. In this talk I will reformulate this discrepancy in terms of the sound horizon - the comoving distance traveled by sound waves from the beginning until recombination of the primordial plasma. The sound horizon ...
I will describe two projects in which we characterize complex systems - supercooled liquids and conjugated polymer aggregates - through single molecule or single particle fluorescence imaging. First, in supercooled liquids - systems that display behaviors consistent with the presence of heterogeneous dynamics - we investigate the time scales over ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Adding Numbers and Shuffling CardsPersi Diachonis, Stanford University, Depts. of Statistics & Mathematics, will give the Advanced Physics/Physics Colloquium.
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Hard Earth Talk: How Biodiversity Loss Hurts Human HealthThe Anthropocene -- the current geological age, shaped largely by human actions on the climate and the rest of Earth -- has been called the “sixth mass extinction.†One reason that’s a problem is that roughly half the new drugs approved in the United States over the past quarter century ...
Drone technology has been increasingly used by public agencies for emergency and disaster response, including the recent devastating wildfires in California. However, the volume of information drones can collect quickly has resulted in a pressing need for rapid data processing and visualization. This lecture will walk through the use of ...
Regardless of the application, calculating a particular statistic and associated p-value is not necessarily the biggest challenge in designing an experiment, especially given the availability of open source software packages such as scipy and statsmodels in Python. Instead, ensuring that the assumptions required for a statistical test are actually satisfied ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Testing Fuzzy Dark Matter and Fifth Forces with Binary Pulsars I will show how properties such as spin, mass, and couplings of ultra-light (fuzzy) dark matter can be tested with binary pulsars by searching for secular variations in the orbital parameters. In particular, if fuzzy dark matter is a carrier of a vector fifth force, for example B-L, the constraints ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Understanding Aquatic Communities Through Remote Sensing Rosenberg Institute Seminar SeriesAquatic macrophyte communities play an important part in the Sacramento-San JoaquinDelta ecology. Part of the lower food web, they are ecosystem engineers that impede recreational and commercial use of the Delta waterways and cost millions of dollars in herbicide control programs every year. Remote sensing offers a ...
Capture and permanent geologic sequestration of biogenic CO2 emissions may provide critical flexibility in ambitious climate change mitigation. However, most bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) technologies are technically immature or commercially unavailable. Here, I evaluate low-cost, commercially ready and/or small scale BECCS technologies. These include CCS at existing ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
New Forms of Reading / New Forms of DesignIn her wide-ranging practice, Swiss designer Julia Born explores new ways of engaging with textual and visual material on the printed page and in the exhibition site. She has works in close dialogue with artists, such as Uta Eisenreich, Shannon Ebner, Moyra Davey, Michael Auder, and Wendelien van Oldenborgh, to ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Talk on California Native FernsCCNH naturalist Angela Pai will give a talk on California native ferns for San Pablo Neighbors Education and Restoration Society (SPAWNERS) covering ecology, basic identification, and common ferns in the area.Join SPAWNERS for this fascinating look at local ferns.
February Bird WalkWhile winter birds are still abundant in the garden, this month we will be looking for the earliest of our spring migrants: Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds flying north from Mexico. Rain or shine! We suggest bringing binoculars if you have them, and layers in case it is a chilly morning.Speaker: ...
Planet Formation Post-KeplerThe message of the Kepler space mission is this: super-Earths abound in the universe. These are planets 1 - 4 Earth radii and 2 - 20 Earth masses, composed of solids and gas in proportions of 100:1 by mass. We describe how super-Earths/sub-Neptunes form within circumstellar disks of gas and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Quantifying and Measuring Phase Noise in RF and Microwave SignalOver the past years, Phase Noise has become critical parameter for the performance of many systems ranging from cellular receivers, highspeed digital systems, and target detection and identification systems. Currently, Phase Noise is a very important design parameter for all top-of-the line signal generators and frequency synthesizers. In this seminar, ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
After Dark: CraftIn a world increasingly synthetic, robotic, and removed from human touch, commune with the soul of things made by hand - yours or someone else’s. Sip craft beer, experience the work of local craftspeople and meet them face to face, and get your own hands working on something new at ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, $14.95 Daytime Members
Cafe InquiryCenter for Inquiry San Francisco's monthly get together to talk about whatever interests us.
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
SF Beer Week NightlifeCelebrate SF Beer Week with a foam-filled evening of brews. Sip your way through a pop-up beer hall with dozens of local breweries slinging crowd favorites and limited releases.Pop-up Beer Hall (1st floor) 6:00 - 10:00pm -----> Take your time tasting the mighty fine selection of seasonal specials from different brewers including:CalicraftDrake’s ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
Donor Power: The Influence of Climate PhilanthropyLarge, established foundations such as Hewlett - Packard and Bloomberg have been some of the earliest funders addressing climate change. But grantmakers and grantseekers are not always fans of their policy-centric and top-down approaches. Meanwhile, a new wave of midsize foundations are seeding policies and research institutions that are shaping ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Astronomy on Tap Santa Cruz #11 - What’s Up at Lick Observatory?Lick Observatory, above San Jose, has a long history of being at the forefront of science and technology, starting with the most advanced telescope in the world at the time in 1888.  Dr. Elinor Gates will describe some of the current research being done at Lick Observatory, ranging from discovering ...
Despite its universal scope (every little thing) and precision (better than 10 parts per billion), quantum physics retains profound mysteries. What is really going on down there in the heart of matter?! Atom interferometers are instruments that rely on the quantum "wave nature" of matter for measurements of fundamental constants AND ...
Where: SunnyvaleCost: Free
Friday, 02/08/19
The Ethnobotany of Eden: The Colonial Quest for Green Gold in the Humid TropicsThe colonial era witnessed a fevered quest for the healing flora of the equatorial latitudes. Subscribing to ancient Eden notions of plant-people relations, European physicians and scientists were motivated by the belief that God had planted botanical cures for diseases in their places of origin. While many colonial bioprospectors subscribed ...
Discrete Microfluidics for More Efficient Pharmaceutical Compound TestingIn 2012, the declining efficiency and increasing cost of pharmaceutical research was noted in a phenomenon termed “Eroom’s lawâ€, to distinguish it from the efficiency of “Moore’s law†in transistor development. Though the reasons for this phenomenon are myriad and varied, the efficiency of drug development and commercialization ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Community Science Connecting People with their Watersheds Green FridayCommunity Science Connecting People with their Watersheds. Community Science, also known as Citizen Science, is taking the scientific research and public education arenas by storm. What does this new form of scientific inquiry have to offer to watershed research?  What kinds of deep connections are made by the general public engaging ...
Turtle Observer TrainingBecome a trained Turtle Observer and you will monitor and record behavior of the native Western Pond Turtle on Mt Tamalpais. The required orientation includes observation techniques, a discussion on turtle biology, methods for engaging the public, and a walk to a lake. Volunteers will monitor turtles from February through ...
Where: FairfaxCost: Free
The Bay Model Wants You!!! Become part of Sausalito’s very own attraction known around the world! We have a variety of volunteer positions that are suited for people just like you! Greet visitors, lead tours, work with school groups, and more! Come and be a part of one of the largest working hydraulic models in ...
Calling All Eco-Explorers! Youth ages 5-15 will be up to their elbows in FREE, hands-on activities. Learning through fun interactive, nature science experiences and regional field trips, your kids will find out all about the Bay Area ecosystem and become the next generation of Citizen Scientists! We have extended Welcome ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Livermore Reads Together: 'Spare Parts'The film follows four Hispanic high school students form a robotics club. With no experience, 800 bucks, used car parts and a dream, this rag tag team goes up against the country’s reigning robotics champion, MIT.Stars George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Carlos Penavega, Esai Morales, and Marisa Tomei. Rated PG-13Livermore ...
Where: LivermoreCost: Free
A Fungus Among UsFrom truffles and yeast to ringworm and toadstools, fungus is all around us. Explore the farm looking for examples of these life forms and learn more about their importance in our world. This is a drop-in program; no registration is required.
Where: FreemontCost: Park admission applies
Ship Operations in the BayJoin Captain Craig Thomas of Agile Marine as he provides a better understanding of commercial shipping operations and movements in the Bay. The program includes the types of ships, ship construction and layout, commercial considerations, types, and locations of terminals in the Bay Area, manning requirements including careers and International, ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Trees, Paper, Styx- Art ReceptionLinda Colnett’s art has long been inspired by nature, and in particular trees. A recurring theme in her work involves the paradox of the many benefits humans derive from trees - oxygen, shelter, food, clothing, medicines, fuel and other materials - versus the devastating impact of deforestation around the world. ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Wildlife Picture Index ProjectCome contribute to the Marin Wildlife Picture Index Project! Volunteer community scientists assist with research by helping maintain motion-activated cameras and processing photos. At this event, we view the images on the computer, identify the mammals, and enter the results in a database. New and experienced catalogers welcome, as training is ...
Where: Corte MaderaCost: Free
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.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Jazz Under the Stars - CANCELEDCome peer through our telescopes and see craters on the Moon, the visible planets, star clusters, and more while we listen to CSM's very own KCSM Jazz 91 FM. Dress warmly. Free parking in Marie Curie Lot 5. Directions are available on the Maps, Directions & Parking page.This event has been canceled due ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Sunday, 02/10/19
Marine Science Sunday: Marine Mammal Parents and PupsIn preparation for Valentine's Day, this month we celebrate love under the sea with Marine Mammal Parents and Pups in a fun, educational way for both kids and adults. We recommend teaming our free classroom program with a Guided tour at 11am, 1pm or 3pm for a truly immersive marine mammal experience. Read ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
50th Anniversary: The Amazing 747Join Faride Khalaf for a mechanical journey on board one the greatest airplanes in aviation history. You will marvel at the amazing Boeing 747 and its four decades of extraordinary service. With colorful slides, he will give you a closer look at the anatomy of these giants; you will browse ...
Where: San CarlosCost: Free with admission
Sunday Funday: Let's Hear It For the Girls!Join us in celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science, with Scientific Adventures for Girls! Discover some of the contributions and major scientific advances that women have made throughout history. Draw your idea of a "scientist" to add to our art gallery, then get creative with a hands-on ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free with admission, free for members
Storytelling Basics for Climate ResiliencyExplore how storytelling can improve communication around planning projects that are addressing the challenges of global climate change. By analyzing sample videos created to promote awareness and engagement, participants will learn how to tell impactful stories that effectively communicate the issues of density, sustainability and community resiliency as they relate ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $10 Members
Livermore Reads Together: Spare Parts Reader's TheaterVolunteer readers from the Livermore Shakespeare Festival offer this rendition of the book, directed by Donna Blevins.Livermore Reads Together 2019 is a community reading program sponsored by the Friends of the Livermore Library, featuring the New York Times bestseller Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle ...
Where: LivermoreCost: Free
Monday, 02/11/19
The Connection between Large Scale Structure and the Cosmic Microwave BackgroundCosmic microwave background (CMB) photons were initially released at recombination, less than half a million years after the big bang. In the nearly 14 billion years since, they have been scattered and lensed by intervening structure, imprinting a complex pattern of additional intensity and polarization anisotropies onto maps of the ...
New tools for probing classical and quantum nanomaterialsIn this seminar, I will discuss two domains of condensed matter pysics elucidated by new tools: thermal motion in nanomechanical structures and quantum electron transport in 2D materials.By picking up individual carbon nanotubes and coupling them with electrostatic gates and optical cavities, we directly read our non-equilibrium dynamics and observe ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Physics achaeology: unearthing a 45 year old quantum spin liquid - RESCHEDULEDI will introduce the topic of quantum spin liquid as a prime example of emergent behavior in strongly interacting system. Recently a new example, 1T-TaS2 has been discovered. Surprisingly this material has been thoroughly studied for 45 years as a charge density wave material but its spin liquid property has ...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a 27 km circumference hadron collider, built at CERN to explore the energy frontier of particle physics. Approved in 1994 after 10 years of prototyping of the main accelerator components, it was commissioned and began operation for data taking in 2010. The design and construction ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
People and Robots SeminarDespite massive interest in self-driving cars, the problem of how to ensure the reliability and safety of intelligent autonomous systems remains unsolved. In this talk, I will discuss approaches to safe autonomy based on Algorithmic Improvisation, a framework for automatically synthesizing systems with random but controllable behavior. Algorithmic improvisation can ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
THE KEYS TO INNOVATION: PRIMING YOUR BRAIN TO PERCOLATE BRILLIANT IDEASWhat Physicists Do seriesDr. Ransom Stephens will describe the neural processes that percolate insights into consciousness: the physics of lateral thought, the power of perspective, the value of novelty, and how your brain selects and rejects ideas before you’re even aware of them. Dr. Stephen is a scientist and technologist ...
The flows of complex fluids link fundamental research questions to potential applications, both in industry and for understanding natural phenomena. In this talk I discuss two research questions that we have studied recently: (1) Although flows at modest Reynolds numbers at a T-shaped junction is a geometry where one should ...
It's Electric! Mobility This panel, moderated by CARS Executive Director Stephen Zoepf, will feature companies that seek to catalyze electrification of transport, each focused on a different sector of the market. From an all-electric chassis to electric mobility services at scale to fast & portable electric chargers to electric, highly-utilized AVs, this Energy ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
New Approaches to Looking for E.T.For six decades, a tiny group of scientists has probed the cosmos for evidence of aliens. Is this an endless quest, or could we soon learn of other beings in the nearby universe? We’ll discuss the latest efforts to uncover the extraterrestrials, as well as some disturbing ideas that could ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members & Seniors
Cold and Ultracold Molecules for Quantum Information and Particle PhysicsWide-ranging scientific applications have created growing interest in ultracold molecules. Heteronuclear bialkali molecules, assembled from ultracold atoms, enabled the study of long-range dipolar interactions and quantum-state-controlled chemistry, and recently have been brought to quantum degeneracy. There are currently several approaches to producing ultracold molecules: atom association, magnetic, electrical, centrifugal, off-resonant ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Food Politics 2019: Nutrition Science Under SiegeNutrition science is under attack from statisticians and the food industry. Who stands to gain and what might be lost?Speaker: Marion Nestle, NYU, emeritaRegister at weblink
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Odd Salon: SpectacleJoin us at Public Works SF for six short stories of grandiose visions and impractical performances, immense exhibitions, and displays that inspire wonder and curiosity. See weblink for stories and speakers
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 - $25
Free Bay Currents talk: Zen and the Art of Mushroom HuntingCelebrate the beauty and wonder of the Bay Area's fungi with Debbie Viess, co-founder of the Bay Area Mycological Society. Debbie will share her deep fungal fascinations and knowledge gained from more than 25 years hunting, studying, documenting, and teaching about fungi. Photos and stories will illuminate where fungi live, ...
Dr. Vandana Shiva advocates for a more equitable and sustainable food system that uses indigenous knowledge and a wide diversity of crops. She sees a return to nature and organic methods of farming as a solution for both food insecurity and climate change. As a founder of the Navdanya initiative ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: $40 General, $20 Students
Cell mechanics by atomic force, traction force, and ion conductance microscopyI will present the development and application of novel scanning probe instrumentation and methods in the field of cell mechanics. Using force clamp force mapping (FCFM), an atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging mode that combines force-distance curves with an added force clamp phase, we observed that the creep ...
Erin is currently a researcher at the University of California Merced. Her research interests focus on earth observations to address the multiple stressors acting upon the earth’s systems under threat for water and food security and biodiversity including: changing hydro-climate, land use, water projects, species introductions, sediment, nutrient and carbon ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Is Santa Clara County Prepared for Wildfire?Climate change brings the prospect of larger, more dangerous wildfires in the future - perhaps like those that have recently devastated parts of California and the Bay Area. What actions are being taken in Santa Clara County to prepare? With this expert panel we’ll discuss the role of land use ...
Where: San JoseCost: $10 General, Free for Members
Food Waste Composting as a Climate Change Mitigation Strategy from AgricultureLandfills represent the third largest contribution of methane (CH4) emissions to the total US greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. In the state of California alone, food waste represents 18.1% of total solid waste production; however, the potential for CH4 emission is large because it encompasses a large fraction of labile C. ...
Where: TiburonCost: Free
Teacher Workshop: Monarchs and Silkworms Collecting Data on Diverse organisms and their Life CyclesLearn how to bring living life cycles displays into your classroom. Teacher can get the option of getting milkweed plants and silkworm eggs. Monarch eggs and catepillars (if available can also be collected). Lesson Plans include: Collecting data on arthropod and other small organisms in the environment; butterflies and moths; ...
Where: FremontCost: Free
Socio-Technical Innovation for a Low Carbon Energy FutureThe most daunting challenges facing energy planners today are the decarbonization of energy systems to mitigate climate change, and the provision of reliable, affordable and clean electricity to over one billion people without access. These challenges will require not only an extensive redesign of the existing electricity infrastructure, but also ...
What should we expect from the next generation of space telescopes? What key scientific questions will they help answer? Do we have the technology we need to operate them in 20-30 years?To address these issues, NASA selected four large space mission concepts to study and consider as possible future Large Strategic Science ...
Mapping the lives and deaths of 10,000 nearby galaxies with MaNGAThe SDSS-IV MaNGA survey is obtaining resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies, providing new insights on key questions regarding galaxy growth, the regulation of star formation, and its eventual suppression through “quenching.â€Â The largest integral field survey of galaxies ever conducted, MaNGA maps the spatial distribution and chemical composition ...
Zero Waste in Design and ConstructionThe current waste and plastic pollution crisis is considered one of the world's top environmental issues. New programs and policies are being developed locally, however, to combat this crisis and encourage sustainable practices, with new initiatives aimed at decreasing plastic consumption and construction waste. Join sustainability and design experts to ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10 General, Free for Members
The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of WorkAutomation and robotics are changing our lives quickly - everyone knows that. But digital disruption goes much further. In The Globotics Upheaval, Richard Baldwin, one of the world's leading globalisation experts, explains that exponential growth in computing, transmission and storage capacities is also creating a new form of "virtual" globalisation ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
CHIME: The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping ExperimentCHIME is a new interferometric telescope at radio frequencies 400-800 MHz. The mapping speed (or total statistical power) of CHIME is among the largest of any radio telescope in the world, and the technology powering CHIME could be used to build telescopes which are orders of magnitude more powerful. Recently ...
Sex on the Kitchen Table: The Romance of Plants and your FoodBeing your Valentine's Day evening with a fun talk from Dr. Norm Ellstrand of UC Riverside about the heat between the "beets."Norm's talk is based on his recent book, Sex on the Kitchen Table. From Amazon: At the tips of our forks and on our dinner plates, a buffet of botanical ...
Chocolate: it’s everyone’s favorite...bean? Learn at Pairings: Chocolate how the food of the gods goes from bitter fruit to beloved bar. Then taste your way through a flight of delicious demonstrations and talks for all of your senses: get your hands on some beans, hear about the chocolate-making process firsthand, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: 17.95 advance, 19.95 door, AD members free
7:00-7:25: Christopher Tyler(City University of London) on "Leonardo himself: A lifelong self-portrait"Reconstructing the life of the young Leonardo and his role as the iconic 'rock star' of his time...Read more7:25-7:50: E.J. Chichilnisky(Stanford/ Neurosurgery) on "Toward a High-fidelity Artificial Retina"How to improve artificial vision with bi-directional devices that ...
Many elements of the modern American creationist movement would be familiar to Darwin, especially the argument from design, which of course was very well known (and well-regarded) by educated people of his time. Young-Earth creationism, on the other hand, would be puzzling to him; Bishop Ussher’s 4004 BC age of ...
4th Annual Newt Nite & TriviaJoin us for our 4th Annual Newt Nite, a Valentine-themed event to remember!Take a short walk to see mating newts, followed by nature-themed trivia at the Grizzly Bar and Grill. Food and drink will be available for purchase at the grill. Dress warmly and bring a headlamp or flashlight. Amphibian amplexus, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $20 Donation
Lectures & Lasers - 'Kevin Deer & the 12 Mistresses of the Zodiak'Kevin Deer is a junior at Cambridge High Boarding School. After a painful rejection by the one he thought he loved the most in life, the hopeless romantic has given up on finding love. Then, through chance, or perhaps fate, he discovers a way that guarantees him to find true ...
Where: OaklandCost: $15
LifeCycle: The End of Sex?When algorithms can analyze an embryo and recommend which should be fertilized, will sex as we know it become an outdated, analog technology? Could data and wearable sensors transform the way we conceive? Join us for the first Creation event of our 2019 LifeCycle series as we examine thought-provoking questions about ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10 - $15
Fly Me to the MoonBob writes astronomy books, articles, and book reviews and is recognized as an independent scholar on the history of astronomy and observing the night sky. His first book, Star- Hopping: Your Visa to Viewing the Universe, was published in 1994 by Cambridge University Press. This best-selling book was republished as ...
Where: LivermoreCost: Free
Saturday, 02/16/19
Habitat Restoration: Keep Broom out of the ForestMadrone, oak, coyote brush and toyon are supporting a kaleidoscope of fungus in the little forest on top of Shaver Grade. Surrounding this wonderland is the ever-threatening French broom. Join us in our quest to keep this one species from upsetting the diverse native ecosystem. Meet at the gravel parking ...
Where: FairfaxCost: Free
Chocolate Tasting at The FosterHave you ever wanted to know more about chocolate and where it comes from? Take a journey from bean-to-bar as we discuss how chocolate is made, from the cacao fruit to cacao nibs to the finished chocolate. Then we will smell and taste the differences between chocolates from different origins ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: $15.00
Salamander SearchUnravel the secrets of our unique newt population among the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains! Meet and touch some of our native animal ambassadors. Venture into the newt’s ecosystem to locate these and other native animals in their habitat. Recommended for ages 5+.Sessions offered 2/16 and 2/23.
Calling All Eco-Explorers! Youth ages 5-15 will be up to their elbows in FREE, hands-on activities. Learning through fun interactive, nature science experiences and regional field trips, your kids will find out all about the Bay Area ecosystem and become the next generation of Citizen Scientists! We have extended Welcome ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Is Anybody Out There?Are Fast Radio Bursts signals from ET? Or are they signals from magnetars? Is `Oumuamua an alien space ship? Or is it a rock from another solar system? Are we alone in the universe? Current and future SETI projects may provide an answer.Berkeley SETI Research Center chief scientist Dan Werthimer ...
Come join us for a full day of Valentine's workshops with the mad scientists at Counter Culture Labs. Bring your sweetie, or just come have some good nerdy fun all by yourself - we ain't judgin!Individual workshops are around $20 each. Please sign up on Meetup through the links below:* ...
Where: OaklandCost: $20
Salamander SearchUnravel the secrets of our unique newt population among the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains! Meet and touch some of our native animal ambassadors. Venture into the newt’s ecosystem to locate these and other native animals in their habitat. Recommended for ages 5+.Sessions offered 2/16 and 2/23.
How We Learn: Memory and the BrainDr. Charles Vella will give a brief review of what is currently known about the neuroscience of human memory. He will review the evolution and basic neurobiology of memory (anatomy, processes, types). It will cover the role of neuroplasticity, forgetting, and sleep in memory functioning. It will also include a ...
Sea otters are in a race against time. To survive, they hunt for clams, crabs, urchins, snails, mussels, and abalone down to 100 feet deep. Otters must work quickly since they can hold their breath for only 1-3 minutes per dive, and their prey are often found in rocky crevices ...
Ultra-low energy calibration of xenon-based dark matter detectorsXenon-based experiments have demonstrated world leading sensitivity in searches for medium-to-high mass WIMP dark matter interactions. Recent developments suggest that these experiments may also be sensitive to low mass WIMPs, which requires xenon detectors to be calibrated at very low energies. In this talk, I will discuss a series of ...
Soft interfaces with multiple species are common in biology, the environment, and technological applications. Probing these, particularly when the interface is buried between two condensed phases presents many challenges. The only current method available to probe such interfaces with molecular specificity is the vibrational spectroscopy, sum frequency generation (SFG). SFG ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Hard Earth Seminar: Climate change's uneven impacts in BangladeshIn the popular imagination, Bangladesh is a country being hit particularly hard by climate change, from rising sea levels to erratic weather. But in Bangladesh, as in the world, not all people experience climate impacts in the same way. Some proposed climate solutions can actually exacerbate environmental and social vulnerability ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
The Road to Higher Tc SuperconductivityProf. Shin-ichi Uchida of the Dept. of Phyiscs, University of Tokyo, Japan, will give the Applied Physics/Physics colloquium
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Food Politics 2019: An Agenda for the Food MovementRecent government policy changes are eroding programs aimed at feeding the hungry, curbing obesity, and protecting the environment. What can consumers and citizens do?Speaker: Marion Nestle, NYU, emeritaRegister at weblink
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Acute and Persisting Effects of Psilocybin in Healthy and Patient PopulationsAs the psychedelic renaissance blooms, many experimental laboratories and medical schools around the world are joining in to contribute to our knowledge of how psychedelic drugs affect the mind and brain. We will discuss recent findings from controlled laboratory studies with psilocybin, and review preliminary data from a number of studies ...
Electronics technology has enabled an era of computation-communication-infotainment. Going forward, by redesigning such high performance electronics can be used for soft-interfacing with biology. Specifically with the emergence of Internet of Everything, where people-process-device-data will be seamlessly connected, we are eager to know how nature works, how we can mimic them, ...
Biodiversity and Climate Change in AntarcticaRosenberg Institute Seminar SeriesAntarctica is considered a “natural laboratory†because it is relatively undisturbed by anthropogenic forces, and because it has been designated by international treaty as a unique, continent-scale scientific commons. This gives scientists the opportunity to investigate how the biosphere has functioned for millions of years. Antarctica is ...
Where: TiburonCost: Free
Vision 2050: Planning a Resilient Future for BerkeleyLaunched by Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, Vision 2050 is a citizen-led effort to develop a framework for a 30-year sustainable infrastructure plan which focuses on addressing aging existent infrastructure, the impacts of climate change, and a rapidly-growing population. The holistic initiative is concerned with not only improving the physical condition ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Hands on Lab - Test Drive an Autonomous Data Warehouse Powered by AI/ML Please join us for an Oracle workshop on Autonomous Database Warehouse (ADW). An autonomous database is a cloud database that uses machine learning to eliminate the human labor associated with database tuning, security, backups, updates, and other routine management tasks traditionally performed by database administrators (DBAs).Autonomous Data Warehouse is built ...
Where: Santa ClaraCost: Free
taste of science: Fossil Poop and Spider SexEverybody Poops: What Trace Amounts of Human Waste Tell Us About The PastBecause everybody poops, we each leave a small record of our presence through fecal stanol molecules that can persist in sediments for thousands of years. By identifying changes in the concentration of these molecules over time, we can ...
Where: BerkeleyCost:
Livermore Reads Together: 'Spare Parts' author Joshua DavisMeet Joshua Davis, author of the New York Times bestseller Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream at this free event. Copies of Spare Parts will be available for sale and signing. Joshua Davis is the co-founder of Epic Magazine and has been ...
Where: LivermoreCost: Free
Nerd Nite SF #105: Hidden Programmers, Breaking Materials, and the Science of Sex!Illuminating Women’s Hidden Contributions to Science“Hidden Figures†told the story of three black female mathematicians at NASA in the 1960s. Inspired by the movie, a group of scientists and undergraduates pored through their own field’s journals to see if there were more overlooked female scientists. On paper, the 1970s was ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10
What are Mushrooms Doing in My Forest?David Rust will explore the complexity of fungal-plant relationships and how nutrients are obtained and shared mutually. His report will focus on new research into soil ecology, mycorrhizae, and the many factors influencing fungal health.
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Thursday, 02/21/19
Separating wheat from chaff: photometric classification in the age of LSSTThe Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will generate a data deluge: millions of transients and variable sources will need to be classified from their light curves. Photometric classification has long been a problem of interest in the astronomical community, but the Photometric LSST Astronomical Time-series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC) brings a wide ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Pixels to physics: the promise and challenges of survey cosmologyWe are entering a transformative period in observational cosmology. Large cosmological surveys starting in 2019 promise to solve key problems in cosmology - but only if we develop new approaches for handling the volume and complexity of the data. Extracting robust cosmological information from these surveys is a major challenge ...
It’s not a NATURAL disaster: looking from past to future through archaeologyClimate extremes, like droughts, storms, and hurricanes, have always challenged people’s lives and many would argue that disasters are affecting human security in ever-greater ways. Today, disaster managers urge that we reduce human-created vulnerabilities in order to reduce impacts from climate challenges. But governments and NGOs are hard pressed to ...
Our technological capacity to make changes to genomic data has expanded exponentially since the 2012 discovery of CRISPR-Cas9 as an RNA-programmable genome editing tool. Over the past seven years, this genome editing platform has been used to revolutionize research, develop new agricultural crops, and even promises to cure genetic diseases. ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Free Coding Club for Kids The Downtown Oakland Dojo is a place where young people age 7-17 can code and explore technology in a fun and social environment. They can create apps, build a website, try out different coding languages, and get hands on with digital making using the Raspberry Pi.We recommend that children bring a ...
The emerging field of bioelectronic medicine seeks methods for deciphering and modulating physiological activity in the body for both sensing and therapy. Current approaches to interfacing directly with organs and nerves rely heavily on wires, creating problems for chronic use, while emerging wireless approaches do not scale down into ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Film Night Double Feature! 'Mystery of the Gnaraloo Sea Turtles' and 'Melting Stars'Film 1: Melting Stars, 2017 Canada MELTING STARS unravels the mystery behind one of the most catastrophic species die offs in recorded history. In 2013 scuba divers off the West coast of British Columbia discovered that the star fish were dying in the millions and suffering horrific deaths. They were ...
Come into the light: learn about things that flare and flash, from lightning-fast nematocysts in the ocean to flicker films on the big screen. Then get an introduction to flash pickling (quick preservation: it’s not an oxymoron!) and learn about the dramatic, flame-retarding element bromine at Everything Matters: Bromine. SCHEDULEPresentationsEverything Matters: Bromine With Ron Hipschman8:00 p.m. | ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: 19.95 door, AD members free
Lunar New Year NightLifeKick off the Year of the Pig with lion dancers, masked performers, martial arts and pigs!
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
February LASER Event - San JoseOur speakers for February 21st, 2019 include -Dr. David DeamerBiologist and Research Professor of Biomolecular EngineeringUniversity of California, Santa Cruzhttps://www.soe.ucsc.edu/people/deamerStardust, Cells and the Origin of Life Description: The paradigm is that life began in salty sea water, in the ocean, perhaps in hydrothermal vents. But there is an alternative supported ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Hardcore Natural History Series - “The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty That Transformed a Stateâ€Join the Museum as we sit down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Miriam Pawel to discuss her book, The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty That Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation. The book begins with Brown’s great-grandfather, Prussian immigrant August Schuckman, who crossed the Plains in 1852 and settled ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: $10 General, $5 Member, $15 all at door
Since 1997 Golden Gate Audubon has partnered with the Port of San Francisco to enhance shoreline wildlife habitat at Pier 94, located along the south eastern bay shoreline, on property owned and operated by the Port of San Francisco. After completing successful wetland and beach enhancement projects, in 2013 Golden ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
LifeCycle | Creation: DIY BiologyAround the world, maker spaces are placing the latest biological and genetic technologies into the hands of amateur scientists. From engineering new types of cheese or homemade insulin to tinkering with bioluminescent algae, citizen science initiatives are bringing laboratory science to the world, unleashing new forms of creativity and experimentation.Explore ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10 - $15
Sonoma County Mycological Assoc. monthly meetingFor the February speaker SOMA will present a panel of mushroomers who will talk about how to best look for mushrooms, what their favorites are to hunt for and to eat, and their adventures nearby and far away too, but most importantly--will take questions from anyone in attendance who wants ...
NASA's recent Kepler Mission gave us good reason to believe that the Milky Way Galaxy is home to billions of habitable worlds. Of course, "habitable" does not mean inhabited, far less intelligent. In this Wonderfest presentation, science writer Michael Wall will discuss the big questions that permeate humankind's search for ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Medieval and Modern Ideas of Diet and HealthDespite certain differences, ideas of balance and equilibrium in diet were as important in the Middle Ages as they are today. Medieval people believed in humoral theories based on keeping the body’s fluids (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm) in balance, whereas we now typically focus on unseen constituents ...
Where: Stanford UniversityCost: Free
Friday, 02/22/19
67th Annual Pacific Orchid Exposition - now back in Golden Gate ParkThe 2019 Pacific Orchid Exposition will be San Francisco Orchid Society's 67th Annual orchid show and sale in Golden Gate Park from February 21-24, 2019. The show will have award winning flowers and plants on display that have been officially judged by representatives of the American Orchid Society.This year's theme ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 at the door, advance discount tickets online
Speaker: Philippe Lognonn, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
Interfacial Engineering of Lithium Metal Anodes: From Liquid to Solid ElectrolytesThe poor performance and safety concerns of lithium (Li) metal anodes represent a critical challenge to enable high energy density rechargeable batteries. This is attributed to several well-known issues associated with Li metal electrodeposition and dissolution, including electrolyte decomposition, dendrite evolution, and “dead†Li accumulation. In addition, short-circuiting can occur ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Grounds for Science: Getting the most out of light: vision and geoengineeringThe cells that give us sightRoughly 55% of the brain’s surface and an estimated 12 billion neurons are devoted to vision - more than the other senses combined. But what exactly are all these cells doing? By detailing startling patient case studies and seminal experiments, Mathew will sketch a broad ...
Where: EmeryvilleCost: Free
Saturday, 02/23/19
67th Annual Pacific Orchid Exposition - now back in Golden Gate ParkThe 2019 Pacific Orchid Exposition will be San Francisco Orchid Society's 67th Annual orchid show and sale in Golden Gate Park from February 21-24, 2019. The show will have award winning flowers and plants on display that have been officially judged by representatives of the American Orchid Society.This year's theme ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 at the door, advance discount tickets online
Habitat Restoration: Phoenix Lake BroomWe bet your new year’s resolutions include exercise, getting out in nature, and giving back to your community. We are here to help you with that! Join your fellow nature lovers in a morning of habitat restoration.We will meet at Phoenix Lake dam. The gate at Natalie Coffin Greene Park ...
Where: RossCost: Free
MMWD Trail Crew: Bill Williams CanyonMount Tamalpais Watershed trail work will include drainage and vegetation maintenance around Phoenix Lake. Mandatory safety talk starts promptly at 9am! RSVP required.We will meet at Phoenix Lake dam. The gate at Natalie Coffin Greene Park will be open from 8:45 to 9:00 to allow volunteers to drive up and ...
Where: RossCost: Free
Salamander SearchUnravel the secrets of our unique newt population among the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains! Meet and touch some of our native animal ambassadors. Venture into the newt’s ecosystem to locate these and other native animals in their habitat. Recommended for ages 5+.Sessions offered 2/16 and 2/23.
Where: SaratogaCost: $15
Science Saturday: Animal AthletesThis highest jumping, fastest flying, strongest biting Science Saturday of the year focuses on the Olympians in the animal kingdom. From falcons to mountain lions, and beetles to beavers, every athlete has a story to tell. Join us for crafts, activities, and science as we sprint, jump, and dive into ...
Calling All Eco-Explorers! Youth ages 5-15 will be up to their elbows in FREE, hands-on activities. Learning through fun interactive, nature science experiences and regional field trips, your kids will find out all about the Bay Area ecosystem and become the next generation of Citizen Scientists! We have extended Welcome ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
A Fungus Among UsFrom truffles and yeast to ringworm and toadstools, fungus is all around us. Explore the farm looking for examples of these life forms and learn more about their importance in our world. This is a drop-in program; no registration is required.
Where: FreemontCost: Park admission applies
Salamander SearchUnravel the secrets of our unique newt population among the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains! Meet and touch some of our native animal ambassadors. Venture into the newt’s ecosystem to locate these and other native animals in their habitat. Recommended for ages 5+.Sessions offered 2/16 and 2/23.
Where: SaratogaCost: $15
The Bay Model: A Bay Area OracleIn commemoration of Engineer Week, this program is dedicated to the USACE San Francisco District's construction of the Bay Model. This former one-of-kind scientific, hydrodynamic, engineering testing facility has accurately produced water related predictions for almost a half century. Although retired now, its story is part of the districts amazing ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Science on Saturdays: Biomolecular Action Movies: Flash Imaging with X-ray lasersProteins are nature’s machines, performing tasks from transforming sunlight into useable energy to binding oxygen for transport through the body. These functions depend on the structural arrangement of atoms within the protein, which was, until recently, only possible to measure statically, in easily crystallized samples via conventional X-ray diffraction. Many ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free with admission
Oceans Aglow: Family Night Hike & CampfireJoin NatureBridge Golden Gate as we discover one of the most amazing natural phenomenon, bioluminescence. We will hike out to Rodeo Beach and explore the sands for twinkling plankton. Where did they come from? Why are they blinking? Are they here all the time? We will try and answer all ...
For several decades after the last of the Apollo missions, scientists have thought that the question of the origin of the Moon was largely settled. The Moon was created about 4½ billion years ago, when a Mars-size body and the proto-Earth - both with atmospheres and, likely, surface oceans - ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Maker Lab: Open Lab @ClaremontA place to drop in and try out:Sewing on a Babylock sewing machineButton-makingDrawing on the ProWise whiteboardExperimenting with a Foldscope microscopeNeedle-feltingSculpting with modeling clayNo previous experience necessary! This program is for kids with parents, teens, and adults.
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Sunday, 02/24/19
67th Annual Pacific Orchid Exposition - now back in Golden Gate ParkThe 2019 Pacific Orchid Exposition will be San Francisco Orchid Society's 67th Annual orchid show and sale in Golden Gate Park from February 21-24, 2019. The show will have award winning flowers and plants on display that have been officially judged by representatives of the American Orchid Society.This year's theme ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 at the door, advance discount tickets online
Marine Science Sunday: Marine Mammal Parents and PupsIn preparation for Valentine's Day, this month we celebrate love under the sea with Marine Mammal Parents and Pups in a fun, educational way for both kids and adults. We recommend teaming our free classroom program with a Guided tour at 11am, 1pm or 3pm for a truly immersive marine mammal experience. Read ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Full-Spectrum Science: The Last DoublingIs growth always good? The biggest threat to our existence on planet Earth isn’t asteroids - it’s us. Why can’t our population continue to grow? Learn about the exponential function and the conclusions we can draw from it.Presentations at 1:00 and 3:00Speaker: Ron Hipschman
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free with admission
Monday, 02/25/19
The Future of fMRI in Cognitive NeuroscienceCognitive neuroscience has witnessed two decades of rapid growth, thanks in large part to the continued development of fMRI methods. In my talk, I will question what this work has told us about brain function, and will propose that cognitive neuroscience needs to change in at least three ways. First, ...
Quantum physics and quantum engineering in atomically thin crystalsIn quantum materials, the interplay of symmetry, topology, quantum geometry and interactions can produce new phases of matter with fundamentally new electronic and optoelectronic properties. Two dimensional van der Waals materials, with highly tunable symmetry, band structure, carrier density and interactions, allow for reaching previously inaccessible experimental parameter regimes. Such ...
Early in his career as a theoretical physicist, Einstein fashioned an identifiable working philosophy of physical theory that, in broad essentials, never changed. It is a "philosophy of principles" and in crucial respects, it is responsible for his greatest triumph, the relativistic theory of gravitation, as well as his greatest ...
RADIATIVE DRIVERS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: KNOWN KNOWNS AND KNOWN UNKNOWNSWhat do we know for sure regarding the greenhouse gases and their effects on our climate, and what remains to be settled? Are there still grounds for reserving scientific judgment on the causes of global warming? Dr. William Collins' talk highlights the latest observational and theoretical advances in our understanding ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
The Fascinating Quantum World of Atomically Thin 1D & 2D Materials: Symmetry, Interaction and Topological EffectsSymmetry, interaction and topological effects, as well as environmental screening, dominate many of the quantum properties of reduced-dimensional systems and nanostructures. These effects often lead to manifestation of counter-intuitive concepts and phenomena that may not be so prominent or have not been seen in bulk materials. In this talk, I ...
Eight years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. Steady progress has been made towards the reconstruction of Fukushima, repopulation of surrounding areas, and the decommissioning of the plant, of which Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) must shoulder 16 trillion ...
NASA's recent Kepler Mission discovered that most stars in our Milky Way Galaxy host planets. Among those planets, Earth-size worlds are remarkably common. But the conditions for planets around their host stars vary with both distance from the star and mass of the star. Astronomer Gibor Basri will explore the ...
Where: NovatoCost: Free
Why Deep Learning Works: Implicit Self-Regularization in Deep Neural NetworksRandom Matrix Theory (RMT) is applied to analyze the weight matrices of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), including both production quality, pre-trained models and smaller models trained from scratch. Empirical and theoretical results clearly indicate that the DNN training process itself implicitly implements a form of self-regularization, implicitly sculpting a more ...
Where: SunnyvaleCost: Free
Nerd Night East Bay: Exercise Recovery, the Albany Bulb, SETIGood to Go: The Strange Science of Exercise Recovery (Christie Aschwanden, author)History of the Albany Bulb: Why a Former Dump is the Best Park Ever (Susan Moffat, UC Berkeley)Is Anybody Out There (Dan Werthimer, SETI)
Where: OaklandCost: $8 Advance, $10 at door
Possible MindsJohn Brockman is a literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. He founded the Edge Foundation, an organization aimed to bring together people working at the edge of a broad range of scientific and technical fields.He introduced the "third culture" consisting of "those scientists and other thinkers in the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: TBA
Tuesday, 02/26/19
Two KIPAC Tea TalksAfter InflationSpeaker: Mustafa Amin, Rice UniversityA Window to the First StarsLouise Welsh, Durham University
Wildlife Picture Index ProjectCome contribute to the Marin Wildlife Picture Index Project! Volunteer community scientists assist with research by helping maintain motion-activated cameras and processing photos. At this event, we view the images on the computer, identify the mammals, and enter the results in a database. New and experienced catalogers welcome, as training is ...
Nearly 30% of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions come from transportation. Of that, about half comes not from private vehicles but from fleets. Dry as it sounds, shifting fleets from diesel to electricity could slash emissions. But how to do it in the real world - and make money in the process? ...
If Global Warming Exists, Why Is It So Cold?The world is warming, so why is the Midwest suffering record cold temperatures? How is global warming impacting oceans? What’s the connection between wildfires and climate change?Climate science is complex, vast and often difficult to understand. We’ll explain the fundamental basics you’ll need to answer friends and family who ask ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Keiko's Legacy: What We Learned From the True Story of Free WillyThe project to return the Free Willy whale, Keiko, to his birth waters near Iceland emanated from thousands of letters sent by children demanding that the star of Free Willy be set free. Charles will share his experience of four years managing that project in Vestmannaeyjar Iceland and discuss how the knowledge gained from ...
Where: SausalitoCost: $10 General, $5 Students
Wednesday, 02/27/19
Graphene-based Biosensors: Real-time biological SearchGraphene-based biosensors have the potential to revolutionize digital biochemical measurements for applications in the field of drug discovery, biomedicine, integrated diagnostics and environmental monitoring. This talk will describe the design and development of novel graphene-based biosensors and their use in facile identification of clinically relevant biomarkers in cancer and aging. ...
Rita Lucarelli studied at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,†Italy, where she received her MA degree in Classical Languages and Egyptology. She holds her Ph.D. from Leiden University, the Netherlands (2005). Her Ph.D. thesis was published in 2006 as The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Cosmological Probes of Light RelicsNeutrinos and new light particles, which arise in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics, are an important probe of the (thermal) history of the universe. However, they are hard to detect in terrestrial experiments due to their weak couplings to ordinary matter. On the other hand, the ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Teacher Workshop: Weather, Climate Change and Plate TectonicsDensity, temperature, and salinity of water throughout the oceans can cause major changes in weather, and over time cause climate change. Plate tectonics can also influence of the flow of atmosphere and hydrosphere, which can cause climate change. The rotation of the Earth also influence flow pattern (Coriolis effect). Complicated ...
Where: FremontCost: Free
The “Double Whammy†of Climate Change for California’s Sierra NevadaIn this talk I will present an overview of recent research from the UCLA Center for Climate Science on climate change in the Sierra Nevada. The methodological basis of our work is a downscaling technique we call hybrid downscaling, which combines dynamical and statistical downscaling methodologies. We find that snow ...
Where: OrindaCost: $5, $1 Student member and K - 12 teachers
Anthropogenic landscapes of fear: How human activity affects interactions between predators and preyFear is a fundamental aspect of predator-prey interactions, motivating prey to alter their behavior in an effort reduce the risk of death from predators. Ecologists are increasingly realizing that such predator-induced fear can have far reaching-effects across ecosystems by affecting where and how prey spend their time, and that preserving ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
Skeptics in the Pub: MillbraeScience and Reason with Skeptics in the Pub West Bay, Fiddlers Green, Millbrae sponsored by Bay Area Skeptics.If ye value critical thinking, and if ye scorn the film-flam man, and if ye drink, drink with us, your friends. If ye shun the brewer’s art, at least help us lay waste to bangers & mash!Skeptics ...
Where: MillbraeCost: Free
taste of science: Smart Sperm and Smart HelmetsSmart sperm: search strategies on the microscaleSperm cells follow highly dilute chemical signal with a single objective: to find the egg. As cells can only get a rough estimate of the actual concentration of chemoattractant molecules, nature had to come up search strategies that perform robust in the presence of ...
New exploration indicates that caves may be more common on rocky and icy worlds in our Solar System than we have thought in the past. Caves below the Earth show us a very different planet than the familiar one we experience on the surface. Each dark cave system has its ...
Supermassive Black Holes in Nearby GalaxiesFor over three decades, the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 in the Virgo Cluster has hosted the most massive known black hole in the local universe. New observational data in the past several years have substantially expanded dynamical measurements of black hole masses at the centers of nearby galaxies. I ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Searching Near and Far: Exoplanet Transits and Astrophysical Transients from the TESS MissionLaunched in April 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is well on its way to discovering thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest starts in the sky. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets in the solar neighobhood ranging in size from Earth-sized to gas giants, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Jumpstarting Innovation for Underfunded DiseasesThe main barrier to developing new medicines is most often a scientific one: we either lack sufficient understanding of disease biology, or we lack the technology to perturb that biology. But in rare cases, the primary barrier is economic. In these situations, financial incentives may be required to jumpstart innovation. ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
After Dark: Seeing DoubleWhen is one not enough? Look again at the surprising ways doubling quantities affects our perceptions and our world. From stereoscopic illusions and vision research to cellular division and the startling implications of exponential growth, this evening's program will leave you seeing double.Full-Spectrum Science: The Last Doubling With Ron Hipschman ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General
NightLife Spotlight: DarwinSet sail for a journey to the Galápagos Islands, NightLife-style. We’re shining a spotlight on this unique archipelago and its importance to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution during an evening of exploration with Academy scientists. Learn about the Academy’s century-old history of exploration and research in the Galápagos. Check out ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
Livermore Reads Together: Books and BrewsJoin library staff to discuss Spare Parts and raise a glass to another eventful Livermore Reads Together.Livermore Reads Together 2019 is a community reading program sponsored by the Friends of the Livermore Library, featuring the New York Times bestseller Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle ...
Where: LivermoreCost: Free
The Village Forum: God and EvolutionDoes affirming evolutionary science conflict with belief in God? Does evolution put limitations on God? Two experts with different points of view will converse on this topic where science and faith intersect. Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass is a confessing Christian who also affirms evolutionary science. Dr. Ann Gauger is a ...
Where: SaratogaCost: Free
Wonderfest: Ask a Science Envoy: Thinking about Math and A.I.Wonderfest Science Envoys are early-career researchers with special communication skills and aspirations. Following short talks on provocative modern science topics, these two Science Envoys will answer questions with insight and enthusiasm:UC Berkeley computational cognitive scientist Rachel Jansen on What Is Math? How is it that math summons feelings of anxiety ...
