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 ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Friday, 03/01/19
Two KIPAC Tea TalksObserving the First StarsSpeaker: Tilman Hartwig, University of TokyoBlack hole-galaxy scaling relations: clues to the physics behind quiescenceSpeaker: Bryan Terrazas, Univ. of Michigan
Analogs are destinations on Earth that allow researchers to approximate operational and/or physical conditions on other planetary bodies and within deep space. Over the past decade, select NASA teams have been conducting geobiological field science studies under simulated deep space and Mars mission conditions. Each of these missions integrate scientific ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
$5 First Friday: Women in STEAMMarch is Women’s History Month and women have a long history of contributing to science and discovery! Join Chabot in celebrating past, present, and future women in STEAM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics).
Where: OaklandCost: $5
Near Earth Asteroid Hazards, Research and Space MissionsNear-Earth asteroids (NEAs), are a population of objects on orbit around the Sun that cross or come near that of Earth. They represent remnants of material from the early solar system that never accredited into planets. NEAs are of special interest to us because of the special risks some of ...
6th NGSS STEM Conference Investigating Everyday Phenomena: Exploring 3-Dimensional Learning through NGSSScience is all around us, and the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS) can help your students understand it. Join us as we engage in activities for your science classroom (grades 3-12) incorporating the three dimensions of NGSS. Spend a day at the Exploratorium investigating the science of everyday ...
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
What's the Buzz?Join YSI and local GirlzWurk Honey for an introduction to bees and honey. Â All ages welcome! Â This program does not include live bees, but does have hands-on components with bee products - including a taste of fresh honey! Â Held rain or shine. Â Limited space - registration is required.
