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
