Exploring the Mysterious Origins of Super-Earths and Mini-NeptunesNearly a decade has passed since the discovery that planets with sizes intermediate between that of the Earth and Neptune (“super-Earths†or “mini-Neptunesâ€, depending on their densities) dominate the observed population of close-in exoplanets. These planets have no solar system analogue, yet 30% of Sun-like stars appear to have at ...
Warming ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and coral disease are negatively impacting corals worldwide at an ever-increasing rate. The Florida Reef System is the largest coral reef ecosystem in the continental U.S. Kayla will discuss the importance of coral reefs, the threats these reefs face, coral monitoring programs at Dry Tortugas ...
Where: Point Reyes StationCost: Free
New approaches for uncovering the role of energy metabolism in health and diseaseOver the last century, many studies have demonstrated that calorie restriction (i.e. decreased food intake) and exercise cause lifespan extension in model organisms and decrease human mortality from age-associated diseases. Many physiological changes in response to calorie restriction and exercise have been identified, however, it is still unknown which specific ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Protoplanets and Protoplanetary DisksBased on the existence of our solar system, and thousands of known exoplanets, we know that planets form. While theories have been developed to explain the demographics of these known planets, we have few direct constraints on the physical processes involved in planet formation. I will describe two approaches to ...
More Than Rocket Science: STEM Education and Foundational BarriersIt is no secret that STEM education is a key component of both academic and professional success. While many schools have implemented new programming to address the need for a shift in focus, schools in lower socio-economic areas often struggle with funding to address the foundational skills needed to grow ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
After Dark: Throwback ThursdayWe’re celebrating the Exploratorium’s 50th birthday, and you’re invited! At After Dark, we’re throwing it back to 1969, musing on the cultural environment from which the museum rose, and considering how that time period resonantes with the past and maybe impacts the future. From the first person on the moon ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, $14.95 Daytime Members
Bean and Berry NightLifeUnlock the mysteries of terroir with a night of sipping, smelling, and exploring the science of coffee and wine. Join us for short talks, demos, and displays by local roasters, winemakers, chemists, and environmental scientists - by the end of the night, you’ll be well on your way to becoming ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
Cafe InquiryCenter for Inquiry San Francisco's monthly get together to talk about whatever interests us.
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Astronomy on Tap Santa Cruz #13 - Using Stars to Study the Cosmos on Scales Large and SmallWhile stars are fascinating in their own right, stars can also be powerful probes of other astrophysical objects. Emily Cunningham will discuss how we study stars as pieces of galaxies. She will explain how we measure and use the motions of stars in the Milky Way to map the structure ...
Connecting Superconductivity and Quantum Criticality with the High-Field Hall Effect in a Strange MetalUnconventional superconductivity, and high - Tc superconductivity in particular, remains one of the most distinctively intractable problems in physics. The existence of a common phenomenology which links these materials into a class known as “strange metals", provides hope that there is unifying theory that describes them. In this ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Future Fridays: Translating the neurobiology of pain to chronic pain management: What does the crystal ball say?Allan Basbaum’s research addresses the molecular mechanisms that underlie the generation of persistent pain after tissue or nerve injury. Most recently, his laboratory has focused on novel approaches to overcoming the neurological consequences of peripheral nerve damage, by transplanting embryonic cortical inhibitory precursor cells into the spinal cord. He has ...
Where: OaklandCost: $5
Silicon Valley Skeptics in the PubWe'll meet up, drink, and socialize. All while not believing in ridiculous things! We are a group of skeptics, freethinkers, and nonbelievers in Silicon Valley. We enjoy intellectually stimulating conversations and provocative debate.Join us on the 1st Friday of each monthÂ
Digital Plein Air PaintingDIGITAL "PLEIN AIR" PAINTING$30 ticket price* includes a digital portfolio of prints and resource packet from the workshop that can be used to continue your digital painting journey after the workshop.Step into the “virtual†shoes of Tony Foster and paint the wilderness found inside The Foster, with artist Charles Coates. ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: $30
MMWD Trail Crew: Little Carson FallsTrail work will include brushing and tread maintenance along Little Carson Trail. The project will require volunteers to hike over 4 miles round trip, keeping you warm and limber! Possible frog viewing opportunities! Meet at Azalea Hill gravel parking lot on Bolinas-Fairfax Road. Mandatory safety talk starts promptly at 9am! ...
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
Berkeley Bay FesitvalEnjoy hands-on educational activities and learn about organizations helping to protect the Bay and its wildlife. A variety of live music for all ages will play throughout the day and there will be an assortment of food vendors. Take a sailboat ride or paddle a Dragon Boat. Build with recycled ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Humboldt Math Festival The Humboldt Math Festival is celebrating its twelfth annual "Community Celebration of Mathematics".  The festival includes hands-on fun with puzzles, games, contests, demonstrations, make-and-take activities and an Art Show. Meet our Featured Artist and Author. The festival explores science, technology, engineering, art, technology, along with college and career info. ...
Where: EurekaCost: Free
Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change - Artist ReceptionAward-winning photographers Rob Badger and Nita Winter have spent 20 years capturing California’s vanishing wildflowers, bringing awareness to their beauty as well as to the dangers facing our natural habitats from climate change. The exhibition emphasizes Marin’s landscapes but also includes diverse geographic regions of California. It is sponsored by ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
$5 First Friday: The Science of BaseballHave you ever wondered what the inside of a baseball looks like or how to measure the momentum of a fastball pitch? Did you know that weather, temperature, and altitude all have effects on the flight distance of a baseball? Join nine-time World Series champs the Oakland A’s at Chabot ...
Where: OaklandCost: $5
20th Anniversary Fire & Light Soiree + Art AuctionThe Fire & Light SoireÌe and Art Auction, our signature fundraiser, sustains The Crucible’s one-of-a-kind industrial arts education programs. This year, in honor of our 20th Anniversary, we are pulling out all the stops, with signature cocktails, a delicious catered dinner, an exceptional live art auction, a Crucible-led performance pour, ...
Where: OaklandCost: 300.00
Explore Live! - Dark Skies WorldwideThe De Anza College Planetarium will present “Explore Live!†- a live astronomy series featuring presentations by our professional planetarium staff.This is the first of two presentations on this date.
Where: CupertinoCost: $9
Explore Live! - Secrets of the Digital SkyThe De Anza College Planetarium will present “Explore Live!†- a live astronomy series featuring presentations by our professional planetarium staff.This is the second of two presentations on this date.
Where: CupertinoCost: $9
Sunday, 04/07/19
Celebrating Stephen Hawking: How Black Holes are Not Quite BlackScientists 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, astronomer Andrew Fraknoi will briefly summarize Hawking’s life, and talk about the importance of his scientific work. He’ll focus particularly on Hawking’s work merging ...
Where: Pleasant HillCost: $25 Adults, $10 ages 10 - 15
Monday, 04/08/19
Prosthodontics 2019The “4th International Conference on Prosthodontics & Restorative Dentistry†will look to improve and build on the stepping stones of its predecessor and create a platform discussion of present and future challenges in dental health, dental education, continuing education and expertise meeting. The relative novel nature of the conference and ...
Where: San JoseCost: 499
Dark matter and galaxy formation in the Local GroupThe standard cosmological paradigm, wherein luminous galaxies trace the underlying cosmic web of dark matter, reproduces a wide variety of large-scale observations spectacularly well. However, basic questions remain within the model, including the nature of dark matter and of the small-scale physics that are important to galaxy formation. Our cosmic ...
Computational Models of Readerly AffectOur experience of suspense is central to our enjoyment of narrative media. Whether reading books or watching films, the particular mixture of anticipation and concern that characterizes suspense works to maintain the our interest even while it propels us through the narrative. But why do some readers feel suspense in ...
Conservation laws are often expressed in the form of differential models with uncertain parameters and inputs. The method of distributions, which comprises PDF and CDF methods, quantifies parametric uncertainty by deriving deterministic equations for either probability density function (PDF) or cumulative distribution function (CDF) of model solutions. It can be derived ...
Catalysts consisting of isolated oxophilic metal atoms bonded to supports are well established in industry. Noble metals isolated on supports are now drawing intense interest - stimulated by atomic-resolution microscopy images revealing the metal atoms and spectroscopic determinations of the catalytic site structures. These catalysts have been made on oxides, ...
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 PATH FROM PHYSICS TO DATA SCIENCEDr. Stephen Martin recently completed his Ph.D. in Physics from UC Santa Cruz and now works as a data scientist at Grand Rounds, Inc. He will discuss his research in computational biophysics, the transition from academia to industry, and his new role in the emerging field of data-driven healthcare.
Spinning Top-ologyGeometry, topology and broken symmetry play a powerful role in determining the physics of materials. In this colloquium I will talk of activated materials and fluids built out of mechanically spinning components and show how the subtle interplay of structure, time-reversal and parity leads to "odd" solid and fluid mechanics. ...
Metallic nanoparticles have found applications for thousands of years, starting with their use in stained glasses. We now know that the intense colors are due surface plasmons, the coherent oscillations of the conduction band electrons leading to intense absorption and scattering. Since then, surface plasmons have been exploited in many ...
Most of the scholarly focus to date has been on large horizontal axis rather than vertical axis wind turbines. It may be possible to improve the efficiency of vertical axis wind technology by deploying turbines in clusters. There might also be advantages to deploying vertical axis turbines at a smaller ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
The Reading Brain, Critical Thought, and Empathy in a Digital CultureResearch from cognitive neuroscience will be used to describe how the human brain acquired literacy and how this invention changes the trajectory of human thought and feeling. The impact of digital culture on the reading brain will be discussed with implications for critical analysis and empathy in a democratic society.Speaker: ...
Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist and futurist, and the co-founder of string field theory, a branch of the theoretical framework of string theory. His work follows the directive of Einstein, attempting to develop a Theory of Everything that unites the four fundamental forces of the universe. His books ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: TBA
Tuesday, 04/09/19
Soil Health Series: Physical Properties of SoilWhat is soil? Well, it's certainly not dirt! Join the knowledgeable and enthusiastic Stephen Andrews (UC Berkeley Professor Specializing in Soils) in discovering the beauty and complexity of this essential natural resource by examining the physical properties that characterize what soil is. This class will also delve into the question of ...
Soft nucleophilic phosphinocatalysis has been known since the 1960s as a result of the pioneering work of Horner, Price, Rauhut, Currier, and Morita. In the 1990s, Trost and Lu made important discoveries, reporting isomerization, umpolung addition, and [3+2] cycloaddition. Nonetheless, it was not until the 2000s that the area of ...
As a part of our "Year of Ethnobotany" celebrations, the Garden will be hosting monthly lunch time lectures featuring the research of UC Berkeley graduate students, post-docs, and faculty. In April, join Carrie Tribble, NSF Graduate Research Fellow and PhD Candidate in Integrative Biology for a the evolution ...
New Developments In Gravitational Wave Data Analysis For Compact Binary MergersGround-based gravitational wave observatories have begun to uncover a large number of compact binary coalescences in the universe through gravitational wave signals. I will discuss novel and effective techniques we have developed recently to analyze the publicly available LIGO/Virgo bulk strain data from scratch. Built on simple ideas and easy ...
Solar radiation is the largest source of energy on both the contemporary and early Earth. An example is discussed involving the robust photochemical mechanism by which α-keto acids, react in aqueous environments to form organic radicals. These organic radicals then drive chemistry leading to larger, more complex lipids. The photochemistry ...
Odd Salon: DiscoveryJoin us for six stories of rigorous inquiry and accidental revelations, seeking the unfamiliar and encountering the unknown, and uncovering the uncharted
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 - $25
Free Bay Currents talk: Insects and the ApocalypseInsects are everywhere, and they are abundant -- in fact, they make up about half of the animal biomass on the planet. They also play vital roles in our ecosystems. Recent news of severe declines in honey bees and monarch butterflies, and the impending insect apocalypse seems dire. What is the ...
Where: AlbanyCost:
Wednesday, 04/10/19
Ultracold ChemistryThere is an ongoing revolution in techniques to produce gases of molecules with extremely low entropy (low temperature and high density). These methods can, increasingly, produce molecules in their absolute quantum ground states for all their many degrees of freedom, both internal (rotation, vibration, hyperfine, etc.) and external (center of ...
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 ...
Plan B: Taking the Carbon out of Fossil Fuels with Catalytic Reactive SeparationThere is no evidence that significant reductions in the carbon dioxide emissions associated with power generation will be cost effectively achieved using current commercial alternatives to abundant and inexpensive fossil fuels. The lowest cost process for producing hydrogen and/or dispatchable electricity without CO2 emissions in the U.S. utilizes pyrolysis of ...
Where is the best place to find living life beyond Earth? It may be that the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn harbor some of the most habitable real estate in our Solar System. Life loves liquid water and these moons have lots of it! Such oceans worlds have ...
