Challenges of Decarbonizing the Grid - LivestreamClimate change resulting from a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has taken on a new urgency over the past decade. Both U.S. and the EU aim to be carbon neutral by 2050 and China has pledged carbon neutrality by 2060. These commitments are driving new and more aggressive ...
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Associate Director McLean lectures on ethics relating to health care, health care justice and equity, and biotechnology. She will discuss the ethics surrounding Covid-19 and resource scarcity, including ventilators and vaccines. The presentation will cover ethical justice related to hospital care and the challenges of ...
So, you’re at a bar and you notice someone, or maybe they notice you. The “why†of who we find attractive is a hard question to answer. Are some of us wired to be monogamous? Promiscuous? What do the mating habits of the animal kingdom tell us about human love ...
Full-Spectrum Science Online: Countdown to MarsMars is an unforgiving target for spacecraft. Less than half of all missions to the Red Planet have been successful - though all of NASA's rover missions there, including Pathfinder/Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, have overwhelmingly succeeded. Next up, NASA deploys Perseverance, a rover specifically tasked with looking for past ...
Where: Cost: Free
SETI Talks: Strange and Intriguing Exoplanets - LivestreamAstronomers estimate 400 billion planets orbiting stars in our galaxy, so the Milky Way is full of exoplanets. In the past two decades, researchers have discovered thousands, most of them with NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and now its successor, the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).Some of them are rocky, ...
When viewed at the largest scales, the distribution of galaxies in the Universe resembles a complex, tangled web: an interconnected network of filaments of galaxies that surround vast, empty voids. Simulations and theory have established that filaments - the largest, most densely populated structures in the Universe - have formed ...
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 02/18/21
Should We Fear AI? - LivestreamNo current technology inspires such wild fears and hopes as artificial intelligence. Will AI steal my job? Drones hunt me down based on my social media profiles? Or, will my personal robot wake me with tea before carrying me to a steaming bath - then pick up the kids' socks ...
Where: Cost: Free
SETI Live: Mars 2020 - The Perseverance Rover Landing!Join us live to follow the landing and hear from engineers and scientists directly involved in the mission. Franck Marchis, a senior planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute, and Beth Johnson, a social media expert at the SETI Institute, will host this special SETI Live.Scheduled Guests: Adrian Brown, NASA HQ, Deputy ...
On February 18, 2021, the newest Mars rover, Perseverance, will attempt to land on the Red Planet. This is NASA's latest mission to Mars, and we'll bring you live coverage of Landing Day from the Exploratorium. Join us as we investigate the journey to Mars, the nail-biting excitement of landing, ...
Where: Cost: Free
NASA Mars Perseverance Rover Landing Watch Party - LivestreamJoin our community for a special Mars rover landing watch party and Q&A. The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will make history when it lands on the red planet at 12:30 p.m. PST! We are coming together virtually to make observations, ask questions and celebrate this moment in history. Chabot astronomers ...
Where: Cost: Free
SLAC Special SeminarSpeaker: Tomasz Biesiadzinski, SLACSee weblink for Zoom information
Digital surgery and the metrics of surgical performance are now mainstream goals in healthcare. There are several industry groups making huge waves in this space and the future is both bright and exciting. Despite the great potential for positive impact, patient care, and surgical outcomes, there are still many questions ...
In this talk, acclaimed plant ecologist John Zentner will discuss how wetland health impacts the health of birds and wildlife. John will guide participants through understanding different types of local wetlands, from marshes, vernal pools, riparian wetlands, and more. He will then outline methods of wetland conservation and how these ...
How does our understanding of the origins of the universe continue to expand and evolve? What tools and theories continue to push our understanding into further realms? Hear from Black scientists and leaders whose work is at the forefront of cosmology and essential to forming and informing humans’ deepening grasp ...
Close your eyes and listen to music, nature, and the universe during an evening dedicated to surprising sounds - from the mind-bending theremin to the new songs birds are singing during the pandemic.Ages 21+See weblink to watch on YouTube or Facebook Live.
Where: Cost: Free
Friday, 02/19/21
The Solar Cycle - Livestream“The Solar Cycle†covers a brief history of the solar cycle; a look back at the high points of the cycle just ending (Cycle 24); an update on current solar activity and a look forward to what Cycle 25 might be like.Members will join via Zoom and visitors are welcome ...
Where: Cost: Free
'Rebuilding Paradise' - LivestreamWildfires have become a depressingly regular occurrence in California, Oregon and other western states. Due in part to climate change, as well as homebuilding that continues to encroach into the wildland - urban interface, the transition zone between human development and unoccupied lands, these disasters have progressed from annual rarity ...
Building an 18' f/4.5 Newtonian on a GEM - LivestreamDave made an 18" f/4.5 telescope using an "old school" design. It’s big, very big. It weighs about 520 pounds on an equatorial mount. It is capable of being a great visual scope as well as an amazing photographic instrument. Despite its size, it is portable and Dave can set ...
Where: Cost: Free
Saturday, 02/20/21
Biodiversity Virtual ProgramThe Earth is full of many different kinds of plants and animals. In this virtual, interactive program, we will teach your kids about what makes animals similar and different, where animals and plants live and why they live there, and even how to identify animals with only a couple of ...
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be ...
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 computer scientist Adam Gleave on "Collaborative Artifical Intelligence" - Many people interact with AI systems on a daily ...
Marine heatwaves, prolonged oceanic warm water events, are increasing in frequency and magnitude as global temperatures rise. One of the most dramatic marine heatwaves in recorded history was the Northeast Pacific Blob, a large marine heatwave that adversely affected ecosystems across the Northeast Pacific, from producers to top predators. What ...
Where: Cost: $10 General, Free for Members
Monday, 02/22/21
SLAC Special Seminar: Sensitivity in Numbers : Scaling Up Superconducting Sensing at the Cosmic Frontier - LivestreamMany Cosmic Frontier efforts must instrument large numbers of superconducting sensors to meet their science goals. Though superconducting sensors offer unparalleled sensitivity in many applications, historically it has been very difficult to instrument them in the large numbers (hundreds or more) required to exploit their full potential. Superconducting sensor readout ...
Where: Cost: Free
Loops, Ladders and Links: The Recursivity of Social and Machine Learning - LivestreamMachine learning algorithms reshape how people communicate, exchange and associate; how institutions sort them and slot them into social positions; and how they experience life, down to the most ordinary and intimate aspects. Drawing on this published paper and examples from the field of social media, we will review the ...
Where: Cost: Free
Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration - LivestreamSafely transporting humans to and from Mars will require advances in spacecraft propulsion. Advanced nuclear propulsion systems, including Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP), have the potential to substantially reduce trip time and space radiation exposure for astronauts compared to fully non-nuclear approaches. However, more research is ...
Where: Cost: Free
Building the next ubiquitous computing platform drawing on condensed matter physics - LivestreamComputing is at a momentous point today. AI, big data and decentralized work are driving a surging demand for computing power. At the same time, an ending of Moore’s Law and Dennard’s scaling are making it increasingly difficult (and expensive) to improve processor performance. The energy consumed by computing is ...
This talk will provide an overview of Stanford's Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab (RegLab), which partners with government agencies to carry out high impact demonstration projects for better government. The RegLab is an interdisciplinary team of legal experts, data scientists, social scientists, and engineers, with an extensive track record of ...
Hundreds of millions of years ago, massive ice caps blanketed Earth’s continents from coast to coast. More recently, lush mega-forests of swamp cypress and dawn redwood have occupied what is now the Arctic circle. These dramatic shifts in Earth’s climate have long fascinated geoscientists. What caused these dramatic transitions between ...
Speaker: Greg Mulholland is the CEO and cofounder of Citrine Informatics, which builds software to help materials scientists, chemists, and product designers discover, manufacture, and design with advanced materials in 90% less time than with traditional approaches.
Nematic Fluctuations in Iron-based Mott Insulators - LivestreamMy research focuses on how electrons organize according to their charge, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in order to exhibit novel phases of matter. A particular area of interest is iron-based superconducting materials and low-dimensional systems that exhibit emergent, quantum phenomena. This talk will discuss a combined experimental-theoretical ...
Where: Cost: Free
Deep Networks Are Kernel Machines - LivestreamDeep learning's successes are often attributed to its ability to automatically discover new representations of the data, rather than relying on handcrafted features like other learning methods. In this talk, however, Pedro Domingos will show that deep networks learned by the standard gradient descent algorithm are in fact mathematically approximately ...
Where: Cost: Free
Tuesday, 02/23/21
Listening to Elephant SealsExplore the fascinating world and interesting adaptations of northern elephant seals during the Seymour Center’s virtual Elephant Seal Celebration Week. Special at-home activities, lectures, and interviews with scientists will reveal natural history, migration strategies, and allow participants to immerse themselves in elephant seal science at UC Santa Cruz. Virtual Elephant Seal ...
Where: Cost: $10 General per household, Free for members
In this talk, we will harness the pipeline concept towards manageable high throughput experimentation in ML/DL research. We will make a distinction between top-down pipelines used in production and a bottom-up design that we propose for researchers. We make the claim that using such a design principle mitigates some of ...
While working as a file clerk at a Los Angeles law firm in 1992, Erin Brockovich uncovered documents that ultimately led to more than 600 residents of Hinkley, California, filing a lawsuit against utility giant PG&E. Since then, Erin has worked on a host of a environmental issues across the ...
Get to know SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, which recently helped scientists find water on the Moon. SOFIA is a specially-modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that carries a very powerful 106-inch reflecting telescope.Soaring above 40,000 feet allows astronomers to study the Universe in ways that are not possible from ...
Where: Cost: Free
Vanishing Vaquitas: Lessons From a Humble Porpoise - LivestreamJoin us for a thought-provoking presentation by Dr. Barbara Taylor about what we can learn from the plight of the vaquita porpoise. Only a handful of Mexico's desert porpoise remains, and their habitat is a war zone controlled by illegal wildlife poachers. While there is still some hope, most lessons ...
How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with ...
Where: Cost: Free
Breaking waves, bubbles, light scattering and energy dissipation - LivestreamBreaking waves enhance the transport of gas, momentum and heat between the atmosphere and ocean, facilitating climate-relevant physical and chemical processes. Despite their substantial physical relevance to climate, contemporary ocean models cannot numerically solve the small-scale boundary layer structure due to computational expenses and will require parameterizations based on relevant ...
At the same time that disaster insurance is becoming ever more essential to ensure the financial resiliency of households and communities in the face of escalating extremes, those very events are stressing these markets. This presentation will discuss the design of public-private partnerships to stabilize disaster insurance markets, the extent ...
Around the world, people recognize that E=mc^2 oozes cosmic insight. But what does this "most famous equation" really say? What are energy and mass? And what makes the speed of light, c, so important? [Hint: mass, moving at speed c, doesn't turn into energy!] Using little more than common experience and middle-school math, Einstein's ...
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 02/25/21
Elephant Seals Week labside ChatExplore the fascinating world and interesting adaptations of northern elephant seals during the Seymour Center’s virtual Elephant Seal Celebration Week. Special at-home activities, lectures, and interviews with scientists will reveal natural history, migration strategies, and allow participants to immerse themselves in elephant seal science at UC Santa Cruz. Virtual Elephant Seal ...
Where: Cost: Free
Large area Weak Lensing and the LSST Camera - LivestreamWeak gravitational lensing of the light from distant galaxies is a powerful tool for mapping the total matter distribution of the Universe, although measurement of the effect faces many subtle and challenging issues. Â Detecting the coherent shape distortion of weak lensing requires high-quality imaging and precise measurements. Ongoing and forthcoming ...
Where: Cost: Free
Tackling Global Challenges - Plastic - LivestreamA quarterly lecture series where you will hear from industry experts about pressing sustainability challenges so you can apply your expertise and ingenuity to develop solutions that will make an impact. The 2020-21 Tackling Global Challenges speaker series will bring in experts who will speak to the sustainability challenges and ...
Where: Cost: Free
Plant Stories Trapped in Tar: Paleobotany at the La Brea Tar Pits - LivestreamThe La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of Los Angeles, California are world famous for their preservation of Ice-Age mammals, especially the iconic, extinct megafauna such as saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, mammoths and mastodons. What is less known, is that the unique asphaltic preservation of past life at La ...
Where: Cost: Free
SFBBO Birdy Hour Talk: Almaden Lake - Evolution of the Environment and How Birds Adapt - LivestreamThrough SFBBO's Colonial Waterbird Program, our biologists and community science volunteers have monitored populations of colony nesting waterbirds during the breeding season at more than 70 sites throughout the Bay Area. Join us to hear Larry Manning, who has been a colonial waterbird monitoring volunteer for nearly 20 years, as ...
Where: Cost: Free
February LASER Event - LivestreamThe original idea was to celebrate 70th anniversary of George Orwell's death. The author of "1984" died one year before the introduction of the first commercial computer. His novel is therefore devoid of algorithms. The 70 years since his death have instead been the age of algorithms, that increasingly dominate ...
After Dark Online: (Re)CollectionsDig into archives and collections that celebrate, document, and preserve the history and lived experiences of Black Americans. From home movies to oral histories, through artists’ reclamations and reframing of historic materials, join us in hearing from the archivists, artists, and librarians who are committed to bolstering the voices, culture, ...
California grizzly bears once roamed the entire length of the state, from the Sierras to the coastal regions. Learn about this now-extinct iconic species, discover what it might look like to reintroduce grizzlies to the state, and meet Monarch, one of the last of his species and now part of ...
Where: Cost: Free
Friday, 02/26/21
Live from Año Nuevo Natural ReserveExplore the fascinating world and interesting adaptations of northern elephant seals during the Seymour Center’s virtual Elephant Seal Celebration Week. Special at-home activities, lectures, and interviews with scientists will reveal natural history, migration strategies, and allow participants to immerse themselves in elephant seal science at UC Santa Cruz. Virtual Elephant Seal ...
Where: Cost: $10 General per household, Free for members
Paleomagnetic studies of Apollo samples indicate that the Moon generated a core dynamo lasting for at least 2 billion years. However, the geometry of the lunar magnetic field is still largely unknown because the original orientation of nearly all Apollo samples are unconstrained. Determining the direction of the lunar magnetic ...
Where: Cost: Free
How NASA’s Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars - LivestreamThe best part of traveling is when you arrive at your destination. You gather your belongings, freshen up and then start your trip. The Mars rover goes through a similar process. When a spacecraft approaches the planet Mars, there is an important process that requires extremely reliable technology! Learn more ...
This 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 ...
Año Nuevo Reserve Director, Patrick W. Robinson will lead us on a virtual elephant seal tour at Año Nuevo. His tour will include an introduction to the site, a walk through the colony, some show-and-tell of the electronic tags used on the seals, and a summary of some of the ...
Increasing our knowledge of how the universe works has always been enabled by technological development. From the invention of the telescope by Galileo, over 400 years ago, to the development of 8 to 10 meter class telescopes and the launch of the Hubble telescope at the end of the last ...
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be ...
Where: Cost: Free
Monday, 03/01/21
The bright future of cosmology with SPT-3G - LivestreamObservations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) probe a diverse set of fundamental physics in both the early and late universe. CMB measurements are a cornerstone of our now exceptionally precise Lambda-CDM model of cosmology, however, many questions remain. Did an inflationary epoch occur a fraction of a second after ...
Probing emergent order in quantum materials by cryogenic electron microscopy - LivestreamIn quantum materials strong interactions between the electrons and the atomic lattice can give rise to novel electronic states with properties not achievable in conventional materials. These states often compete with other correlated states of spin, charge and the atomic lattice. One example is charge ordering, in which electrons as ...
 Core-collapse supernovae host some of the most extreme physical environments in our universe. They play a fundamental role in shaping the world around us, from seeding new star formation to spreading heavy elements around the Galaxy. The extreme physical conditions make them very valuable laboratories for particle physics, nuclear physics ...
While electricity will assume a dominant role in conveyance of clean energy to end users, sectors such as heavy-duty trucking and transport, marine, aviation, and heavy industry are more difficult to decarbonize, and will benefit from the higher energy density and storage afforded by hydrogen as a vector.  Hydrogen can ...
Where: Cost: Free
How neural circuits are wired up during development to perform computations - LivestreamHow are neural circuits wired up during development to perform specific computations? We address this question in the retina, which comprises multiple circuits that encode different features of the visual scene. These features are encoded in the neural activity of the activity of roughly 40 different types of retinal ganglion ...
Where: Cost: Free
A Conversation on Wildfire Ecologies - LivestreamWith California wildfires becoming a seasonal inevitability, we turn our Indigenous Technologies series to the question of fire ecologies. Join us for a conversation on indigenous fire management and land practices with two indigenous ecologists. We’ll hear from Margo Robbins, co-founder and president of the Cultural Fire Management Council and ...
Where: Cost: Free
Tuesday, 03/02/21
When Words Aren’t Enough: The Visual Climate Story - LivestreamWhile IPCC risk assessments and emission projections can help us understand climate change, they don’t exactly inspire the imagination or provoke a personal response to the crisis. The solution? A growing league of storytellers who use photographs, films and the human experience to breathe life into the cerebral science of ...
Discovering new species of trees in South American Rainforests: The importance of describing biodiversity for the future of rainforest conservation with Paul Fine.REgister at weblink to receive Zoom infomration
Sexual assaults are an unfortunate reality in modern society, which includes situations in which the assailant is known or unknown. While DNA is the go-to forensic evidence in sexual assault cases, the reality is that the use of condoms in sexual assault is increasing in an effort to minimize the ...
 Stanford evironmental scientist Rebecca Miller on "Prescribed Burns in California" - Over the past several years, California has experienced record-breaking wildfire seasons. Recent wildfires have prompted important policy conversations about prescribed burns, fires that are purposefully set to remove ground vegetation and reduce fire risks. What are the challenges that ...
Where: Cost: Free
Wednesday, 03/03/21
Decarbonizing the Grid - The Role of Grid Interconnection - LivestreamRobust long-distance transmission lines (both HVAC and HVDC) will enable delivering clean energy to customers and expanding the ways that clean energy is used. Interregional planning and coordination are usually difficult in the U.S. due to different planning approaches, models, FERC 1000 processes, and market rules among the various RTO/ISOs. ...
Thanks to developments in genetic medicine, for the first time we have the ability to predict our genetic future, to diagnose and prevent disease before it begins, and to decode what it really means to be human. Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the possibilities for genetic medicine ...
Where: Cost: Free
Seasonality from Shellfish: a Case Study in Archaeological Quantification - LivestreamShellfish tending and harvesting has been central to Indigenous management of marine resources in California throughout the Holocene, and today's Indigenous stewards and archaeologists alike understand that the seasonal rhythms associated with these activities are key to their ecological effectiveness. In order to detect these rhythms, scholars have often looked ...
 Hear from renowned ocean explorer David Gallo, co-leader of the TITANIC and missing flight Air France 447 expeditions.Our oceans have long been a source of scientific investigation and play a fundamental part in supporting life on Earth. They represent the planet’s largest habitat and are home to more than half ...
How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with ...
Where: Cost: Free
From communities to ecosystems: linking ecological responses to multiple global change drivers - LivestreamGlobal change is altering resource availability, which in turn is predicted to change the composition and functioning of communities. Here, I synthesize plant and ecosystem responses to resource manipulations from over 100+ global change experiments in the CoRRE (Community Responses to Resource Experiments) database. First, we show that community composition ...
Julia Olson will discuss constitutional climate lawsuits, focusing on Juliana v. United States, and the important intersection of science and constitutional law. This landmark case was filed in 2015 by twenty-one youth against the U.S. government for its affirmative actions that cause and contribute to the climate crisis and violate ...
Where: Cost: Free
Astronomy on Tap West Los Angeles and Davis - Two talksDiscovering Other World:Speakers: Lizvette Villafana and Dakotah TylerOur Tiny Old Neighbors: The Milky Way's Ultra-faint Dwarf GalaxiesSpeaker: Katy Rodriguez WimberlySee weblink for YouTube link
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 03/04/21
Searches for New Physics at the Edge of Absolute Zero - LivestreamWhy is there something in the universe instead of nothing?What is the nature of the dark matter that constitutes ∼85% of the matter content of the universe?Each of these two questions brings together physics on the largest of observable scales with the behavior of particles on the smallest of scales. ...
Where: Cost: Free
Climate Change Innovation - LivestreamJoin Claire Broido Johnson, managing director of the University System of Maryland Momentum Fund, for a conversation with Daniel Kammen, MA, PhD, a leading renewable energy expert, professor of energy, government advisor, and startup founder.Hear about what we need to be successful in combating climate change, what gaps exist in ...
Last summer on Skeptical Inquirer Presents, pioneering virologist Paul Offit explored the critical question of the moment: Is “warp speed†too fast to develop a COVID-19 vaccine? Now that the vaccines are here, Dr. Offit is back to cut through the fog of misinformation and conspiracy theories to explain where ...
Where: Cost: Free
The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them - LivestreamJoin the San Mateo Public Library for a virtual talk with renowned Stanford professor Dr. Euan Ashley, author of just-published book The Genome Odyssey. Ashley brings the breakthroughs of precision medicine to vivid life through the real diagnostic journeys of his patients and the tireless efforts of his fellow doctors and ...
Where: Cost: Free
Black Holes: Facts, Myths, and Wishful Thinking - LivestreamIn this lecture, Prof. Canalizo will give a brief summary of our current knowledge of black holes. She will introduce some astronomical observations that have allowed us to learn about these fascinating yet mysterious objects, including the exciting recent discoveries regarding the supermassive black hole in our own Milky Way ...
Where: Cost: Free
After Dark Online: Art + ScienceExplore the intersections of art and science through the practice of individual artists who weave science, technology, and methods of discovery in their practices. The artistic process, much like the scientific process, is a form of inquiry vital to learning - an open-ended process of investigation, speculation, imagination, and experimentation. ...
NightSchool celebrates International Women’s Day by handing over the mic and giving the spotlight to accomplished scientists. Alie Ward, host of Ologies podcast, leads an insightful discussion about what it’s like and what it means to be a woman in science in 2021.Ages 21+See weblink for YouTube and Facebook Live ...
Coffee is an important agricultural commodity contributing significantly to the economies of many developing countries. Of the 124 species of Coffea, the two main commercial species used in the production of the beverage are C. arabica (Arabica coffee) and C. canephora (robusta coffee). Arabica coffee accounts for about 60% of ...
With the global population surpassing 7.8 billion people in 2021, the impacts of human activities on the environment are noticeable almost everywhere on our planet. The consequences of these impacts are still elusive, particularly when trying to quantify them at larger scales. It is essential to trace environmental changes from ...
Peninsula Open Space Trust will host Richard Tejeda, Founder of Saved By Nature, for an overview of the native fish we have in our local watersheds on the SF Peninsula and in the South Bay, including local salmon and trout species. An avid angler, fish conservationist and environmental educator, Richard ...
The City of San Jose is implementing equity in all its transportation planning efforts. Come learn how the City has put equity into practice in its Citywide bike plan, emerging mobility plan, Citywide transportation strategic plan and its Decision Support System. We will discuss the processes we are using to ...
Where: Cost: Free
Applications of Data Science and AI to Equity, Race, and Inclusion in Mobility and Transportation - LivestreamThis spring, Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies is planning to host a Zoom seminar series on "Applications of Data Science and AI to Equity, Race, and Inclusion in Mobility and Transportation." This topic would bring a unique and innovative perspective to existing discussions around diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our aim ...
Where: Cost: Free
Data Is Not the Destination: A Conversation with Naturalist Christian Schwarz - LivestreamExplore the roles of community science in studying and connecting to nature, through the marvelous world of mushrooms and their enthusiasts. We’ll also learn about local fungi and how you too can become a community scientist. An opportunity for Q&A discussion will follow the talk. This program is part of ...
Where: Cost: Free
Saturday, 03/06/21
TEDXBERKELEY 2021: IMAGINE IF... - LivestreamIf all the clouds in the sky melted into cotton candy, would they taste blue or pink?As kids, questions like this came as naturally as breathing. With our imagination flowing freely, nothing was impossible. Imagination is a quality so deeply ingrained in human nature that we almost take it for ...
Where: Cost: Free
Wildflower Identification - LivestreamIn this informative, virtual talk, learn how what we enjoy about flowers - scent, shape, lines, color patterns, etc. - can be used to identify flowers, and how these features help the flowers attract vital pollinators.Speaker: Judy Kramer, nature photographerRegister at weblink to receive connection information
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be ...
Where: Cost: Free
Sunday, 03/07/21
TEDXBERKELEY 2021: IMAGINE IF... - LivestreamIf all the clouds in the sky melted into cotton candy, would they taste blue or pink?As kids, questions like this came as naturally as breathing. With our imagination flowing freely, nothing was impossible. Imagination is a quality so deeply ingrained in human nature that we almost take it for ...
Where: Cost: Free
Monday, 03/08/21
In search for the elusive dark matter with the LZ experiment - LivestreamOne of the major questions remaining in modern cosmology as well as particle physics is the nature of dark matter which constitutes the majority of the matter content of the universe. Many observations point to its existence but its exact form has remained elusive. A new particle is a likely ...
We now know that supermassive black holes, with masses of millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun, are found at the centres of most galaxies (including our own galaxy, the Milky Way). But where do they come from and how do they get so big? This talk ...
Where: Cost: Free
Carbon Capture and Storage - Engineered Carbon Sequestration - LivestreamCarbon Capture and Storage is the process of capturing carbon dioxide, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere. There are many different places CO2 can be captured - from power plants to industrial centers to directly capturing this gas from the ...
As data becomes the fuel driving technological and economic growth, a fundamental challenge is how to quantify the value of data in algorithmic predictions and decisions. For example, CA Gov. Newsom recently proposed "data dividend" whereby consumers are compensated by companies for the data that they generate. In this talk ...
First discovered serendipitously in 1967, the phenomena known as gamma-ray bursts - short-lived, extremely bright flashes of high-energy radiation - mystified astronomers for decades. Despite many breakthroughs, key open questions - such as the mechanism responsible for the prompt gamma-ray emission, as well as a detailed characterization of their progenitor ...
Bill Gross is a pioneering renewable energy entrepreneur who has created seven billion-dollar-plus exits. Starting with creating a company called Solar Devices in high school, Bill has created more than 150 companies with more than 50 IPOs and acquisitions over the last 30 years.Bill is the creator of one of the ...
Dark matter could be a “thermal-ish" relic of freeze-in, where the dark matter is produced by extremely feeble interactions with Standard Model particles dominantly at low temperatures. In this talk, I will discuss how dark matter can be made through freeze-in, accounting for a dominant channel where the dark matter ...
Where: Cost: Free
A fireside chat with two pioneers in science, Sandra M. Faber and Kathryn D. Sullivan - LivestreamWe are thrilled to invite you to an inspiring conversation with two of our most prominent trailblazers in science, and who we are proud to say will be distinctly honored in our transformed Science & Engineering Library.The conversation will explore their incredible careers and the influence UC Santa Cruz has ...
Where: Cost: Free
Tuesday, 03/09/21
The Health Benefits of Vitamin D and Solar UVB - LivestreamThis program will feature four vitamin D researchers who will discuss the evidence they generated and/or collected showing that vitamin D has important health benefits.Carole Baggerly, CEO of GrassrootsHealth.net, will outline the findings of health outcomes of more than 10,000 participants in their studies who take vitamin D supplements, measure ...
On March 16, 2020, the leaders of the Bay Area announced a regional stay-at-home order that transformed life for millions in the Bay Area. At the time, it was one of the largest and most visible public actions taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Other regions ...
Our sense of good DevOps practices is very strong at JFrog. As good techies, we drink our own champagne. So, how did we automate the data science and model training to have a validated secured version? And how did we automate the deployment to production? We will also explore how ...
Where: Cost: Free!
Forests - Natural Carbon Sequestration - LivestreamScientists think that planting billions of trees is one of the biggest and cheapest ways to solve our climate crisis. Research published in the journal Science in 2019 declares that a world wide planting program could remove up to - of human caused greenhouse gas emissions - a figure many ...
Dr. Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC). Dr. Mann was a Lead Author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific ...
At least since physicist Irwin Schrödinger published "What Is Life?" (1944), the popular imagination has struggled alongside scientific exploration to recognize what is alive, and what isn't. The question hangs over some of society's most charged conflicts - whether a fertilized egg is a living person, and when we ought ...
How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with ...
Where: Cost: Free
Who helps whom? The role of marine forests on the mitigation and adaptation to climate change - LivestreamThe reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is essential to slow down the velocity of climate change. Likewise, the complementary implementation of other mitigation and adaptation strategies is equally important to increase environmental, social, and economic resilience. In the ocean, one strategy is to focus conservation and management actions on foundation ...
Where: Cost: Free
Bay Nature Talks: Chaparral Fire Ecology & Fire-Following Plants Around Us - LivestreamIn this timely Bay Nature Talk, senior botanist and rare plant specialist Heath Bartosh will delve into chaparral fire ecology, including fire return intervals, life history strategies of chaparral plants, and climate concerns. Learn about how chaparral recovers from fire, meet some common fire following plants, and find out where ...
Enter the Tropical House at the UC Botanical Garden and you will be enveloped in a warm and lush environment! Featuring a great diversity of plants from the rainforests of the Americas, Africa, and Asia, this global collection houses both familiar tropical favorites and those that are rare and threatened with ...
Where: Cost: Free
Cocktails & Conservation: Oakland Zoo’s Wildlife Rescue & Recovery Efforts - LivestreamJoin Dr. Alex Herman, Oakland Zoo’s very own Vice President of Veterinary Medicine, who leads Oakland Zoo’s Wildlife Rescue & Recovery efforts. Learn how California’s native animals currently face numerous challenges, like car strikes, lead poisoning, and climate-related wildfires. Dr. Herman and her team’s dedication to animals has enabled Oakland ...
Lick Observatory, the first continuously inhabited mountain-top observatory in the world, has been doing ground-breaking research since its opening in 1888.  30 years after Lick Observatory established itself as a leader in astronomical research, the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic hit the United States.  Research, while hampered by the conditions at the ...
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 03/11/21
Labside Chats: A Conversation with a Scientist : Luis Huckstadt - LivestreamTune in for the next Labside Chat with Luis Huckstadt, assistant researcher with the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. Learn about the role large predators, such as marine mammals, play in the marine ecosystem.Join the conversation! Submit your questions in advance for Luis, then watch the conversation ...
The Famous Corpse Flower or What's that foul smell in the Tropical House?Known to have the world's largest "flower" (unbranched inflorescence to be precise), the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is a star attraction in our Tropical House collection, especially when in bloom with a structure that can reach over 3 ...
Where: Cost: Free
Green Concrete - Building with Carbon- LivestreamConcrete is both a big problem and a big opportunity in our climate crisis. It currently accounts for 8% of CO2 emissions which is comparable to the entire agriculture sector. Yet, new low carbon concrete mixes are already in use and scientists are exploring the possibilities of actually sequestering carbon ...
Hear the dramatic inside story of the first four historic flights that launched SpaceX - and Elon Musk - from a shaky startup into the world's leading-edge rocket company.In 2006, SpaceX - a brand-new venture with fewer than 200 employees - rolled its first, single-engine rocket onto a launch pad ...
Get a special sneak-peek into our beautiful, newly "reskinned" Tropical House with our Supervisor of Horticulture Anthony Garza live from the Tropical House itself! During this short program, Anthony will walk us through some of the fabulous plants in this collection, including rare cycads, orchids, towering rainforest canopy trees and tiny bromeliads. ...
Where: Cost: Free
SFBBO Birdy Hour Talk: A Walk Through a Bay Area Birder’s Garden - LivestreamJoin Barbara Coll as she walks through her garden live! As she walks around her yard, she will point out the feeders, plants, and water elements that attract the 63 species she has recorded in 30+ years of living in Menlo Park on the San Francisquito Creek. She will also discuss feeder/birdbath ...
Where: Cost: Free
The Bees' Disease and Building a Stronger Postman - LivestreamGrab an after-work beverage of your choice for a fun night of science, trivia, and socializing with two budding UC Berkeley researchers. The Bees' Disease: How Do Bees Get Sick? Speaker: Nina Sokolov, Department of Integrative Biology Did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bees ...
Where: Cost: Free
March LASER Event - LivestreamIan Duncan (UC Berkeley) on "The Novel after the Scientific Revolution"Anastasia Raina and the Posthuman Mobility team (Rhode Island School of Design) on "Microbial Cosmologies"Christian Kohler (Lawrence Berkeley Labs) on "Environmental Building Technologies"Register at weblink to receive connection information
Where: Cost: Free
After Dark Online: FractalsFrom forests to farms and skies to shores, we’re surrounded by fractals. These infinitely complex patterns, which emerge from repeating a simple process over and over, are aesthetically astonishing and a valuable tool for creating meaning from chaos. Tonight, practice your pattern recognition as we dig into fractals - where ...
Get to know the wolf, one of North America’s most iconic terrestrial mammals and important predators - as well as one of its most controversial species. We’ll dig into wolf history and ecology, scientific classification, and the complicated relationship between wolves and humans.Ages 21+
Paranormal, pseudoscientific, and fringe beliefs are chronically understudied major aspects of the human condition and significant drivers of world events since antiquity. He explores why baseless beliefs are consistently dismissed until it is too late, and why we are so often unprepared for events we were warned about, from climate ...
Saturn’s moon Titan hosts the only active hydrological cycle outside of Earth’s and, thus, an associated sedimentary cycle where surface materials are modified and redistributed with the ebb and flow of liquid hydrocarbons. In this talk, we’ll discuss some recent efforts to understand the history of Titan’s lakes and seas, ...
Where: Cost: Free
Soils - Recapturing Carbon with Agriculture - LivestreamClimate change conversation does not immediately spawn thoughts of soil for most. But soils play a crucial role in absorbing the carbon that our modern civilization emits. Join Electrify Now, to discuss natural climate solutions (NCS), and how we can promote their adoption.Global emissions need to reach net-zero by mid-century. ...
Children, teens, and families are invited to join us for a FREE North Bay Science Discovery Day.Discovery Day is a FREE event that will spark curiosity and excitement about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Previous Discovery Days have been in-person events at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. We hope to ...
Tune in virtually as we explore the skies with a Messier Marathon, an event where astronomers observe as many Messier Catalog objects as they can. During this favorable time of the year, the Moon is absent and the sky orientation allows us to observe all of them through Chabot’s most ...
Join our resident caterpillar lady Sal Levinson and butterfly guy Sarab Seth for an illustrated slideshow about various milkweeds and milkweed butterflies found locally and globally. Our fun Zoom event is suitable for all ages.Register at weblink to receive connection information.
Where: Cost: Free
Pi (π) Day - OnlinePi (π) Day “Round†Table + Listening Party Free online event - join via Facebook or YouTubeNo matter how you slice it, you won’t want to miss Pi (π) Day - we’ll be celebrating differently this year, but you can still join the party for this irrational and transcendent figure. ...
The demonstration of nuclear fusion in the laboratory and eventual utilization as an unlimited energy source has been a grand challenge for physicists and engineers for 70 years. All life on earth depends on this process that powers our sun. The realization as an industrial energy source would have a ...
The drive to deliver affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner energy is fueled by our ability to fully harness the potential of digital technologies. And the challenges go far beyond the tech. This seminar explores the technological and cultural site of digital transformation in the energy sector, from challenging conventional thinking to ...
The New Nuclear Arms Race, Its Dangers, and How to Turn it Around - LivestreamThe United States and Russia are engaged in the first phases of a new nuclear arms race. With the recent shredding of arms-control agreements, this race may proceed unfettered and could lead to unprecedented dangers to humanity. As scientists we are obliged to understand the dynamics of this race and ...
Hailing frequencies open! Woman in Motion (2019) tells the inspiring story of Nichelle Nichols, recipient of NASA's Public Service Award and portrayer of Lt. Uhura, Communications Officer for the glorious starship Enterprise (2019 + 2.5 centuries). Movie Nation's Roger Moore says that this compelling documentary "underscores Nichols' undeniable contribution to broadening NASA's ...
Where: Cost: $10
Tuesday, 03/16/21
Next Stop: Hyperloop in Switzerland - LivestreamLearn how Switzerland is envisioning and advancing the future of mobility. Join us for our live panel with a very special message from the President of the Swiss Confederation Guy Parmelin and a conversation between Swiss Hyperloop stakeholders.Our four-part series, Next Stop: Approaching the Future of Mobility, intends to bring ...
Where: Cost: Free
Bouverie in Bloom - LivestreamDiscover Bouverie Preserve’s spring blooms and sharpen your plant ID skills. Learn how fire and grazing is helping to promote the native plants that grow at Bouverie Preserve.Speaker: Jennifer Potts, Bouverie Preserve
Where: Cost: $15
Decarbonization in the Real World - LivestreamLeaders around the world have set goals to dramatically cut carbon emissions to achieve net zero. The stakes are exceedingly high - the next decade will be crucial to stem catastrophic climate impacts associated with a 1.5 to 2 degree Centigrade rise in global climate. But how do we get ...
Where: Cost: Free
TTbar Deformations, S-matrix, and Density of States - LivestreamTheories in two space-time dimensions provide playground for exploring geometry of the "Theory Space" - the collection of all quantum field theories. Recently introduced "TTbar deformations" of 2D quantum field theories bring insight into the structure of that space. These are special deformations, "irrelevant" in the renormalization group sense and ...
Where: Cost: Free
Basic Science Lights the Way: Shedding Light on Black Holes - LivestreamThe 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics rewarded decades of research - some done at Berkeley - into the theory and detection of black holes. Learn what we know and still don’t know about these mysterious supermassive objects, including the one in the middle of our galaxy.This talk features Chung-Pie Ma, ...
Where: Cost: Free
Two Talks: Popping the Science Bubble - LivestreamChemical Recycling of PlasticsSpeaker: Steven Hanna, UC BerkeleyFrom Chocolate to Steel: The Materials Science Behind Everyday LifeSpeaker: Clarissa Bhargave, UC Berkeley
Where: Cost: Free
Citizen Science Astronomy for Classrooms - LivestreamLearn about how students are using the Unistellar eVscope smart telescopes to engage in citizen science and exoplanet research! With the eVscope a novice astronomer can partake in exciting astronomy observation even from the heart of a city thanks to intelligent Light Pollution Reduction.Our team (University of Southern Queensland, Unistellar, ...
We will look at form and function of spores, how they get into the environment and what more we can discover about them.Speaker: Else Vellinga, UC BerkeleySee weblink for Zoom information
