Coastal Walk at Pillar Point BluffJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful walk at Pillar Point Bluff just north of Half Moon Bay! You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about the area’s interesting natural history, from the coastal scrub habitat to the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve which hosts tide pools ...
The Library of the Great Silence: A conversation with Jonathon Keats - LivestreamWe follow up with SETI Artist in Residence Jonathon Keats about his project The Library of the Great Silence, an installation art project that addresses one of the implications of the Fermi Paradox. If the cosmos is only sparsely populated by intelligent beings that implies that at some point in ...
The goal of this presentation is to educate students on several topics around production of consumer electronics as it relates to engineering. We’ll discuss tradeoffs between product and test stations design. From early stages of the product design process known as design for manufacturing (DFM) to best practices around test ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
Science on Tap: Marine Heat WavesScience on Tap is our new series that mixes the best parts of learning about science with some of the best brews on the central coast! Each event will feature a happy half-hour highlighting beverages from our partners at local breweries followed by a panel discussion from experts about the ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: $15 General, $10 members, Free for Students
Immerse yourself in an unpredictable improvisational performance that considers sound and visuals in relation to each other. In their ongoing collaboration Drawing Sound, sound artist Fred Frith generates soundscapes while visual artist Heike Liss draws her Klangbilder "sonic images" directly on windows. Presenting their work in two sets, Fred and Heike will move through ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
NightLife: California LoveCalifornia knows how to party. Join us to celebrate the vibrant biodiversity that makes the Golden State so special.
Join Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, for a wide-ranging conversation with California magazine’s editor-in-chief, Pat Joseph, as they explore such topics as the startling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the Great North American Eclipse of 2024, and the ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $40 General, $35 Cal Alumni & BAMPFA members
Living with Bears in Marin - LivestreamJoin us for a virtual foray into the world of black bears in Marin and beyond! Tune into this webinar to:Learn about bears in Marin’s public lands and the ongoing conservation initiatives aimed at documenting the black bear population in the North BayDiscover practical tips and techniques for coexistence with ...
Where: Cost: Free
Fear and Loathing in the Heavens: The 1910 Return of Halley’s CometIn 1705, Edmond Halley liberated humanity from the belief that comets were portents of doom. Yet, two centuries later, in 1910, as Halley’s Comet returned to perihelion, newspapers and magazines, religious leaders, misguided theorists, and shameless grifters managed to rekindle that fear. When astronomers announced that the earth would pass ...
Where: Los AltosCost: Free
Friday, 09/08/23
Bair Island Walking TourLearn about this beautiful POST protected space, and join us for a 1-mile gentle/flat walking tour of Bair Island!Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a walking tour at Bair Island! You’ll be guided by POST ambassadors who will share the history of this beautiful protected space, information about the species ...
Semiconductor technology advancements have enabled the capability and cost of computing devices to improve exponentially over time, with transformative impact - witness the rise of cloud computing and the Internet of Things, which together with advances in machine learning have ushered in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today’s leading-edge ...
This event provides a different introduction to astronomy than our Intro to the Night Sky talks. During this hour, you'll gain an appreciation for the size and scale of the cosmos and our place within it. You'll see many examples of the beautiful objects visible in the night sky, learn ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Saturday, 09/09/23
Family Nature Walks - Foothills Nature Preserve - RescheduledEnvironmental Volunteers’ Family Nature Walks program is designed to help students and their families get to know our local open space areas. Small family groups will be guided by a knowledgeable environmental educator during an exploration of a local open space. These small groups will be introduced to fun nature-based ...
Where: Los AltosCost: Free
Combating Psychic Fraud - LivestreamThe Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world, founded in 1902.Based in part on his own experiences with psychics attempting to contact the dead, Houdini helped form the S.A.M’s Paranormal Investigation Committee (P.I.C.) to expose those “supernatural†frauds. P.I.C. has carried on that ...
Bay Area Skeptics: HANGIN’ OUT with Leonard Tramiel at Chabot Space & Science CenterLeonard Tramiel, Ph.D. physics, has been a volunteer docent at Chabot Space and Science Center since 2000. Lots to see, including a Soyuz capsule that illustrates better than anything else why basketball players are not recruited to be astronauts. If you haven’t been to Chabot in a while, you won’t ...
Where: OaklandCost: $24 General, $19 Seniors and Children
Coastal Walk at Cowell-Purisima TrailJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful Sunday walk along the Cowell-Purisima trail that POST helped create by protecting adjacent farmland. While it may be foggy, we hope to catch gorgeous views of the ocean, nearby farmland, and glimpses of harbor seals, pelicans, hawks, rabbits, and whales during the ...
Scanning Probe Nano-Optics: from biochemical nano-fingerprinting to light-matter interactions in quantum materiaScanning probe optical microscopy offers access to material properties beyond the fundamental diffraction limit in conventional optics. In this talk, I will start by introducing nano-spectroscopic material identification - nano-fingerprinting. Nanoscale composition and heterogeneity of a range of materials, including natural specimens and biomedical devices, can be delicately identified without ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
SCVAS Learn: Warblers 2023 - Part 2 - East and West - LivestreamThe fall migration of Warblers is an exciting event for birders. It can also daunting because many of these tiny tree-top insectivores lack the distinctive breeding plumage that makes them so memorable. How do we sort through the many similar features and identify the individuals we find? Why are there ...
Over two decades ago, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed that beneath a frozen ice shell, Jupiter’s moon Europa likely harbors a deep, salty ocean of liquid water that may present a habitable environment for life. As a result, Europa has become a foremost target for Solar System exploration.In this talk, Dr. ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members & Seniors
Tuesday, 09/12/23
This is Not Your Usual Heat Extreme - Livestream2023 has seen heat records smashed around the world in places like Phoenix, AZ, where temperatures of 110 degrees or more continued for over 30 straight days. Rising temperatures and increased heat have been accurately projected in climate change modeling, but to describe 2023 temperatures as the new normal is inaccurate; we are ...
Join us to learn about the history of bird art and how the practice is still relevant today from artist and science illustrator Jane Kim. Recently, Jane was invited to be the Avian Artist-in-Residence at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University as part of their current exhibit "Illuminating ...
Where: Cost: Free
The False Promise of OptimizationCoco Krumme traces the fascinating history of optimization from its roots in America's founding principles, to its dominance as the driving principle of our modern world. Optimized models underlie everything and are deeply embedded in the technologies and assumptions that have come to comprise not only our material reality, but ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: TBA
Wednesday, 09/13/23
Policy Implications for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Beyond the Hype - LivestreamArtificial intelligence (AI) represents a set of technologies that includes automated systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making (source: GAO 2023). AI has promising applications in healthcare, but such broad potential use in health and healthcare decision-making raises important ...
Ocean acidification (OA), hypoxia (H), and warming are projected to have profound impacts on marine ecosystems and resources of the California coast. These large-scale climatic stressors interact with local circulation and anthropogenic stressors, such as nutrient loading, to exacerbate conditions. However, understanding of the relative attribution of global-to-local stressors requires ...
In this talk, Jaron Lanier will discuss a piece he published in The New Yorker (“There Is No AIâ€) about applying data dignity ideas to artificial intelligence (AI). Large-model AI can be reconceived as a social collaboration between the people who provided data to the model in the form of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
The John and Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series at Bodega Marine LaboratoryJoin us for the John & Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series, featuring speakers from within the marine sciences community and beyond.Please register to join us on Zoom.Speaker: Tamara Barriquand - Assistant Professor, Cal Poly Humboldt
Where: Cost: Free
Use and Abuse of Science in the World of Sport: Two Talks- LivestreamIs Sport a Breeding Ground for Pseudoscience?In high-performance sport, success and failure are separated by increasingly smaller margins. The will to win has made athletes and coaches ever more experimental, vowing to leave no stone unturned. But blunted critical faculties and lax consumer regulations coalesce, allowing pseudoscience to thrive. Thousands ...
196 Days Off the Planet with Astronaut Dan BurschDan Bursch will discuss the adventure of living in space during his stay on the International Space Station from December 2001 until June 2002. Through pictures and stories, he will discuss the challenges of working on an international program, and show just a few of the beautiful views of our ...
Where: Santa ClaraCost: Varies
Advances in Nuclear Fusion: Conversation with a Plasma PhysicistIf you don't understand how nuclear fusion works, that's totally okay!This event is for you.From what we know nuclear fusion has the potential to completely and radically change the way in which we get energy, how our world is powered, and could potentially usher in a revolution in the fight ...
Join us for a special public event to celebrate KIPAC’s 20th anniversary! During this event, we will have a panel Q&A to discuss the exciting science we will be able to advance in the next decade with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. With the ability to survey the entire sky ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Thursday, 09/14/23
Generative AI: Race, Art, and PowerFrom ChatGPT, DALL-E, Bard, and Midjourney, the use of AI as a creative tool has increased dramatically both from technological breakthroughs and a flood of new users. Users and researchers have offered both praise and criticism - about the veracity of AI-generated art, race and gender bias engrained in these ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
The Science of Democracy - LivestreamJust as science is needed to ensure that policies are effective, a healthy democracy is needed to ensure that they are fair.The Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a virtual discussion to learn about our work for a healthier democracy, keeping public science strong, and removing barriers to evidence-based ...
100 Years to Thrive: Designing Longer and Wealthier LivesFeel like you are always running out of time? What would you do differently with an extra 25 years of longevity to build a fulfilled life?Please join us for a conversation on making the most of our increased longevity and designing lives with greater well-being, meaning and purpose. Dr. Laura ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $10 Members in person, $5/free online
The Exploratorium is your playground after dark! Wander the galleries, sip a cocktail, and choose your own adventure with 600+ interactive exhibits. Peek into our workshop for exhibits in development and the tools and machines that help bring them to life. And don’t miss The Great Animal Orchestra, our summer exhibition ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
Frank Drake Award Ceremonies: Open to EveryoneHelp celebrate leaders in the search for life in the Universe - the recipient of the nonprofit SETI Institute’s Drake Award and the next generation of SETI scientists earning the SETI Forward Award. The Drake Award, honoring the Father of SETI, Frank Drake, is the world's premier prize highlighting the science ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: varies
Point Bonita Lighthouse Sunset TourOn the Point Bonita Lighthouse Sunset Tour, you will enjoy stunning sunset views and learn the compelling story of this landmark. The tour will include elements of natural and cultural history as well as thought-provoking guided discussion that ties the lighthouse’s history to our present. The tour does not include ...
If we don’t understand the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, we won’t understand the risks that could lead to future viral emergence events and pandemics. I will discuss the multitude of scientific lines of evidence relevant to this topic, including epidemiological and evolutionary data. Analyses of these data ...
Where: Cost: Free
Friday, 09/15/23
Morning Hike at Rancho Cañada del OroJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for an excursion where you’ll explore the Mayfair Ranch - Longwall Canyon trails of Rancho Cañada del Oro! You will be guided by POST Ambassadors who will share with you the history of the preserve, the region, and the importance of conservation in the area.The ...
Speaker: Franz Weber, Univ of PennsylvaniaAttend in person or online here.
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Saturday, 09/16/23
The Physics Show - SOLD OUTThe Physics Show is a fun science show for kids and their families. This year we will have two weekends of shows in September and two weekends of shows in January.  What is The Physics Show?Saturday September 16, 2023 at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Sunday September 17, 2023 at 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Saturday September 23, ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: $6
The Physics and Chemistry of the Atomic Nucleus - LivestreamThe atomic nucleus truly sits at the intersection of chemistry and physics - over the decades both scientific fields have laid claim to these uniquely mysterious quantum systems. I will talk in this presentation about the current state-of-the-art in nuclear science, including the new Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, which ...
Where: Cost: Free
Sunday, 09/17/23
Morning Hike at Skyline Ridge Open Space PreserveJoin POST for this guided hike at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve! A POST Representative will share a few words about POST’s decades of conservation success before hiking groups leave to explore a moderate to strenuous 4.5 mile hike with 800 feet of elevation gain.POST has made many contributions towards ...
Where: Los AltosCost: Free
The Physics Show - SOLD OUTThe Physics Show is a fun science show for kids and their families. This year we will have two weekends of shows in September and two weekends of shows in January.  What is The Physics Show?Saturday September 16, 2023 at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Sunday September 17, 2023 at 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Saturday September 23, ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: $6
Presidio: Changes Through TimeJoin the National Park Service and celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the GGNRA!This half-mile, level walk shows the historical changes to the Presidio, from the Spanish fort all the way to the new Tunnel Tops. Who benefitted from these changes, and who did not?Learn about the people who lived here, and ...
SCVAS Learn: Warblers 2023 - Part 1 - Rare and Regular - LivestreamThe fall migration of Warblers is an exciting event for birders. It can also daunting because many of these tiny tree-top insectivores lack the distinctive breeding plumage that makes them so memorable. How do we sort through the many similar features and identify the individuals we find? Why are there ...
Program (the order of the speakers might change): Michal Kosinski(Stanford Univ) on "Theory of Mind Might Have Spontaneously Emerged in Large Language Models"The uniquely human ability to impute unobservable mental states to others may have spontaneously emerged in large language models...Read more Amy Karle(Media Artist) on "Digital Dreams ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Tuesday, 09/19/23
Energy and Power Challenges for the ArmyThe Army leverages significant power and energy research executed by industry. However, unique DoD and Army needs for power, mission length, and environmental concerns require government expertise. Army requirements are driven by the need for mission success, which includes soldier safety, while the commercial sector is driven by the marketplace. ...
Special delivery! How your cells' microscopic delivery service worksSpeaker: Joseph Slivka, Physics, UC BerkeleyTo Energize or not to Energize - Mitochondrial Control of Organismal Metabolism, Proliferation, and DifferentiationSpeaker: Rumi Sherriff, Molecular and Cell Biology, UC BerkeleyAttend in person or online.
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Exploring Shadows at the South Lunar Pole - LivestreamJoin the NASA Night Sky Network on Tuesday, September 19 at 6:00 PM Pacific Time (9:00 PM Eastern) along with Dr. Erwan Mazarico from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center will bring us up to date about NASA’s plans to explore the lunar south pole region.The lunar south polar region is ...
Where: Cost: Free
Jobs, Truth, and AI: Where do we go from here?Join Lexi Reese, Democratic Candidate for US Senate from California and the only technology leader in the race, and Kent Beck, original signer of the Agile Manifesto and author of the Extreme Programming book series, for a 45-minute fireside chat on Jobs, Truth, and AI.Be part of a workshop where ...
California has an extremely diverse 'mycoflora', with over 4,000 species of macro fungi documented. Modern taxonomical tools have shown that this is just the tip of the iceberg. This talk will highlight some of the recent discoveries, and how you can help move mycology forward.Attend in person or online (see ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Astronomy on Tap Tucson #91: Eclipses and Hubble - LivestreamOn tap this month, we have Steward Observatory researchers Nick Schragal and Azalee Bostroem! Nick will talk about eclipses near and far and Azalee will teach us all about all the wonderful things the Hubble Space Telescope can do! We’ll also be hearing all about the latest Astronomy in the ...
In 1977, physicist Freeman Dyson proposed the burial of biomass as a scalable, economical solution to the carbon dioxide problem. Today we know that harvested vegetation should be buried in an engineered dry biolandfill. Plant biomass can be preserved for thousands of years by burial in a dry environment with ...
 With some simple geometry and some friends on Zoom, we can measure the polar circumference of the Earth. This task was first done by Eratosthenes (276 BCE. - 195/194 BCE). We will watch shadows along the meridian that runs north-south through San Mateo CA, Portland OR, Seattle, WA, and Prince ...
Where: Cost: $20 Suggested Donation
The John and Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series at Bodega Marine LaboratoryJoin us for the John & Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series, featuring speakers from within the marine sciences community and beyond.Please register to join us on Zoom.Speaker: Brian Hoover, Principal Scientist, Farallon Institute
Where: Cost: Free
Everything COVID from a Traditional Chinese Medicine PerspectiveAlthough we're coming out of the COVID pandemic, many of our lives have been forever changed by the event. Join us at the San Mateo Public Library for a talk by Dr. Brandon Lip about his work as a doctor who practices both conventional medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and ...
If you are considering building an LLM-powered product, such as customer support, internal document search, or a conversational assistant, how do you implement them? In this talk, I will review the basic components and the product pipeline. I will review the options of building in-house (using Llama 2) or using ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Unveiling the Secrets of Volcanoes in the Springerville Volcanic FieldThe Springerville Volcanic Field (SVF), located in east-central Arizona, erupted between 2.1 million and 300,000 years ago, and erupted over 500 distinct lavas. The volcanic products of the field have been mapped and sampled in great detail, which serves as the basis to unraveling the volcanic history to the field. ...
Where: San RafaelCost: Free
Nerd Nite SF #136: Maggot Therapy, Waves, & Your Brain on Exercise! The World is Made of Waves by Yousef HindyWaves are all around us in ways that we may not even realize. They are how we humans perceive and interact with the world, yet many think of waves as restricted to the ocean or football stadiums. In this talk you will ...
As the nation moves away from pandemic-era protections, who will be impacted and where are the highest concentrations of vulnerable people? From the household to the state, Dr. Tim Thomas - Director of Berkeley’s Eviction Research Network, Research Director for the Urban Displacement Project, and BIDS Data Scientist - will ...
The rapid evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) necessitates robust and efficient communication protocols. This lecture zooms in on the LoRa (Long Range) protocol, heralded for its superior range and low power consumption in IoT applications. While traditional Wi-Fi and cellular technologies have their merits, LoRa stands out in ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
After Dark: SMARTBOMBFor one night only, Oakland-based creative arts community SMARTBOMB takes over After Dark to share their singular approach to an art party. Since their beginnings in 2013, SMARTBOMB has become a Bay Area cultural hub for arts, music, and culture. They create multimedia events rooted in hip-hop that bring the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
NightLifeCalling all creatures of the night: explore the nocturnal side of the Academy at NightLife and see what's revealed. With live DJs, outdoor bars, ambiance lighting, and nearly 60,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude, our alligator with albinism), the night is sure to be wild.Venture into our latest ...
Two dramatic eclipses of the Sun are coming to North America during the 2023-24 school year:· An annular (“ring of fireâ€) eclipse Oct. 14, 2023· A total eclipse Apr. 8, 2024People in two narrow paths will have the full eclipse experience each time. Everyone else (an estimated 500 million people, ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Astronomy on Tap Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz and the Edges of the UniverseCome learn about how astronomers from Santa Cruz have used the James Webb Space Telescope (launched in late 2021 by NASA) to study exoplanets in our local neighborhood and to discover the most distant galaxies ever observed!Hear how the unprecedented observing power of the Webb Telescope has provided stunning breakthroughs ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
Point Bonita Lighthouse Sunset TourOn the Point Bonita Lighthouse Sunset Tour, you will enjoy stunning sunset views and learn the compelling story of this landmark. The tour will include elements of natural and cultural history as well as thought-provoking guided discussion that ties the lighthouse’s history to our present. The tour does not include ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Unraveling the Mystery of Avian Keratin Disorder in Alaska - LivestreamAvian keratin disorder (AKD) is an outbreak of debilitating beak deformities affecting wild birds. First observed among Black-capped Chickadees in Alaska in the late 1990s it now appears to affect a variety of species across a broad geographic area. Danielle Gerik will present results of tracking AKD across the globe ...
Where: Cost: Free
Clocking Electrons: an Attosecond Stopwatch Electrons in a molecule zip around the atom in times measured in billionths of a billionth of a second, or attoseconds. To learn the basic mechanisms of chemical reactions - how catalysts work, how batteries operate - we need to follow electrons over these very short times, and for that, ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Friday, 09/22/23
Two talks: StorageX International Symposium - LivestreamThermal Battery Failures and Designing for Safety: Analyses and Case StudiesSpeaker: Troy Hayes, Practice Director, Director of Asia Offices and Principal Engineer, ExponentUpscaling and Automation: Pushing the Boundaries of Multiscale Modeling of Thermal Runaway through Symbolic-Numeric ComputingSpeaker: Ilenia Battiato, Associate Professor, Energy Science & Engineering, Stanford UniversityRegister at weblink to ...
Where: Cost: Free
Coastal Walk at Cowell-Purisima TrailJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful Sunday walk along the Cowell-Purisima trail that POST helped create by protecting adjacent farmland. While it may be foggy, we hope to catch gorgeous views of the ocean, nearby farmland, and glimpses of harbor seals, pelicans, hawks, rabbits, and whales during the ...
Where: Half Moon BayCost: Free
Saturday, 09/23/23
Coastal Clean-up Day 2023Join us as we celebrate California Coastal Clean-up Day! With beach clean-ups scheduled at Ocean Beach and various sites in Marin, there's something for everyone. Bring yourself, your friends, and your family! Registration required. Coastal Clean-up Day is a statewide effort hosted by the California Coastal Commission. For additional sites on the ...
Where: Cost: Free
National Public Lands Day 2023Join us as we celebrate National Public Lands Day! With habitat restoration, landscaping, and maintenance programs, there is something for everyone. Bring yourself, your friends, and your family! Registration required.See weblink for locations or different projects.
We’ll be at Shoreline Park (Mountain View) from 9 to 11:30 am. Visit our birding station at the Charleston Slough observation deck, where our volunteers will help you identify ducks, shorebirds, and more. No need to sign up - come by anytime we’re there! This event is wheelchair accessible.See weblink ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
The Physics Show - SOLD OUTThe Physics Show is a fun science show for kids and their families. This year we will have two weekends of shows in September and two weekends of shows in January.  What is The Physics Show?Saturday September 16, 2023 at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Sunday September 17, 2023 at 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Saturday September 23, ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: $6
Kitchen Chemistry at VasonaYou don’t need to be in a lab to see chemistry in action! Join us as we show you fun experiments that you can do with things found in your kitchen! Make a lava lamp out of oil, explode diet coke with Mentos, and make elephant toothpaste! Prepare for a ...
Where: Los GatosCost: $25
Family Nature Walks - Foothills Nature PreserveEnvironmental Volunteers’ Family Nature Walks program is designed to help students and their families get to know our local open space areas. Small family groups will be guided by a knowledgeable environmental educator during an exploration of a local open space. These small groups will be introduced to fun nature-based ...
Where: Los AltosCost: Free
Fall Equinox Family Lunch +Â Learn with Dr. Bryan MendezBring your lunch and picnic outside next to our Sun Stones II exhibit, a sculpture offering unique viewing opportunities of a variety of astronomical events and phenomena. Planetarium Director Dr. Bryan Mendez will give a family-friendly talk about the seasons and the equinox, including movement and storytelling. Then, observe the ...
Join the Young Birders Club for a casual bird photo walk at Shoreline Lake for the Bay Area Bird Photo Big Day, a fundraiser for the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO)! Since 2020, Bay Area birders have banded together to photograph as many birds as possible for the Bird Photo ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Jazz Under the StarsJazz Under the Stars is a FREE monthly public stargazing event! Occurring on the Saturday nearest the 1st quarter moon (check our Events Page), join us on the 4th floor observatory for a night of smooth jazz, bright stars, and a lot of fun! We play our jazz from CSM's own ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Free National Parks DayAdmission to most US National Parks is free today, National Public Lands Day
Where: Cost: Free
Sunday, 09/24/23
Resilient Forest SeriesJoin Forestree Collective, Regenerative Forest Solutions and Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program for this series highlighting forest health practices, ecological stewardship, regional milling infrastructure, prescribed burning, and more.Each series date will engage participants in stewardship strategies employed at Green Valley Farm + Mill for improving the forest and watershed, ...
Where: SebastopolCost: $25
Latinx Engineering Day 2023Join us for a family-friendly collaboration between the Exploratorium and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).Our 24th annual DÃa de la IngenierÃa/Latinx Engineering Day combines a panel discussion, presentations on the science and engineering heritage of Latinx people, and playful hands-on activities. This annual program is conducted bilingually in Spanish ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free with admission
The Cultural Significance of Sea Otters to the OhloneJoin Sea Otter Savvy’s Heather Barrett and Cafe Ohlone co-founders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino in our Outdoor Nature Lab for a special Sea Otter Awareness Week event! Vincent, Louis, and Heather will discuss the significance of sea otters to Ohlone people and tradition.
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free with museum admission ($20 for guests 3+)
City Public Star PartyCome join the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers for free public stargazing of the Moon, planets, globular clusters and more!SFAA members with telescopes are encouraged to attend and share their views of the stars with the general public.Dress warmly. Due to the pandemic, social-distancing and masks are encouraged, but not required.Rain, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Monday, 09/25/23
How to Avoid Obliteration: Disability as a Model for First Contact - LivestreamBecause humanity is a young (and presumably vulnerable) technological species, many of the models we use for first contact are decidedly grim. Our most prevalent examples of conflict between civilizations with different military/economic/technological force are the horribly destructive historical encounters between the 'old' and 'new' worlds. Drawing from these examples, ...
As part of The Marine Mammal Center’s Sea Otter Awareness Week 🦦 celebrations, our experts will be LIVE on Facebook and YouTube sharing their knowledge and experience with the smallest marine mammal. Text JOIN to 65179 to receive a reminder text with an event link. With over 25 years of ...
Substrate-driven assembly of a translocon for multipass membrane proteinsBob Keenan is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at UChicago, where he has been a member of the faculty since February of 2005. He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from UC San Francisco. His research interfaces biology and chemistry to understand molecular mechanisms that underlie fundamental ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
The Black Hole Information ParadoxStephen Hawking's black hole information paradox is a conflict between gravity and quantum mechanics, and it has been both a crisis and a guiding light for theoretical physicists for over 40 years. I will describe recent work showing that wormholes in quantum gravity lead to a new formula for entropy  --  this formula ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
eWEAR SymposiumSpeakers:Dr. Chun-cheng Piao“Sensors - Opportunities and challenges in buildingâ€Alastair Grant“DigiLens holographic waveguides - what, how and why?â€Â Jason Hartloveto be finalizedÂ
Learn about the transformative benefits of gardening and composting in urban settings, and how these activities link to climate action.Ania Korsunska is an advocate for urban gardening and sustainability, blending her background in data science research and health communications with her passion for climate solutions. With over six years of ...
What underlies our sense of fairness? Chimpanzees react negatively to allocations of resources in which they receive less than others. Human children (from around 8 years onward) react similarly, and they react negatively to allocations in which they receive more than others. New evidence suggests that aversion to unequal distribution ...
Despite playing an important role in the food web and carbon cycle of the Southern Ocean, zooplankton biodiversity and dynamics in subsurface waters remain largely understudied. Our understanding of temporal variability in the zooplankton community is hampered by logistical constraints that come with working in this remote oceanic region of ...
Young children’s learning may be an important model for artificial intelligence (AI). Comparing children and artificial agents in the same tasks and environments can help us understand the abilities of existing systems and create new ones. In particular, many current large data-supervised systems, such as large language models (LLMs), provide ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Beyond Roll Call: Inferring Politics from Text The ideal point model is a staple of quantitative political science. It is a probabilistic model of roll call data - how a group of lawmakers vote on a collection of bills - that can be used to quantify the lawmakers’ political positions, which are called “ideal points.†In this ...
The Apollo missions showed scientists that the craters on the Moon were from impacts rather than volcanoes, overturning previously held hypotheses. Now, new research using data collected by China's Chinese Chang’E 1 and 2 orbiters has discovered a hot spot under the surface. Using an instrument that made observations at ...
Where: Cost: Free
After Dark: College NightAs back to school season is in full effect, tonight we invite anyone with a college ID to join us for free for a night of cinema and science. Don’t miss a special conversation between soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause and director Vincent Tricon, whose film Bernie Krause: A Life with ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
 Geologic settings required for a viable geothermal resource depend on a variety of specific conditions to be present and active, hence goldilocks.Geothermal energy has a big role to play in the move to renewable energy, possibly supplying as much as 8% of U.S. electrical needs by 2050.New technology that expands ...
In honor of Steinhart Aquarium’s 100th anniversary, let's party like it’s 1923 and celebrate a century of aquatic wonder and innovation.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Varies
Science is a Piece of Cake: A Geology Bake-OffDo you know your Bay Area geology? Learn about all the bizarre, gorgeous and really freaking old formations via ... cake! KQED's Check, Please! Bay Area Producer Cecilia Phillips, in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences and local bakeries, will host a cake bake-off where rocks serve as visual ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: In Person: $20 / Livestream: Free.
Friday, 09/29/23
Cyber Defending Taiwan: Lessons from UkraineDeepening Taiwan’s defense and resilience in the cyber domain is key to advancing diplomatic solutions to the rising geopolitical tensions with China in the region.This one-day conference engaging private, public, and academic leaders will focus on increasing the resilience of Taiwan to threats and vulnerabilities in the cyber domain and ...
Oceans Seminar Series - Two TalksExploring the Resilience of Tunicates: Oceans survivors of 550 Million Years of EvolutionWhile climate change is a major threat to marine life, it is impossible to know exactly how quickly species will adapt to warmer and more acidic seawater, or which species will survive into the future. In this seminar, we will ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
StorageX Tech Talk - Two TalksImpact of fixed-resistance thin films on improved lithium-metal battery performanceSpeaker: Kenzie Marie Sanroman Gutierrez, Ph.D. Student, Stanford UniversityEnabling In-the-Field Operation of Second-Life Battery Energy Storage: Analysis and AlgorithmsSpeaker: Aadil Khan, Ph.D. Student and Xiaofan Cui, Postdoc, Stanford UniversityAttend in person or online
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Nanomaterials in 3D Functional Mesosystems: From Neural Interfaces to Environmental MonitorsComplex, three dimensional (3D) micro/nanostructures in biology provide sophisticated, essential functions in even the most basic forms of life. Compelling opportunities exist for analogous 3D structures in man-made devices, but existing design options are highly constrained by comparatively primitive capabilities in fabrication and growth.Recent advances in mechanical engineering and materials ...
Join the Young Birders Club to bird the babbling Stevens Creek and mature riparian habitat of McClellan Ranch. We will visit the feeders to observe birds such as the Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Oak Titmouse and Downy Woodpecker, and stroll along the Stevens Creek Trail for the Anna’s Hummingbird, California Scrub-Jay, California ...
Where: CupertinoCost: Free
Stewardship Saturday: Studying Marine Mammals in Elkhorn SloughTraverse Moss Landing’s Elkhorn Slough with The Marine Mammal Center, Kayak Connection, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Otter Rehabilitation Team! Through this event you will learn more about The Marine Mammal Center and Monterey Bay Aquarium’s work along the California coast, the different types of marine mammals present in ...
Did you know that California has a holiday just to celebrate biodiversity? Let’s celebrate by having a month long BioBlitz through iNaturalist to help scientists document our local pollinators. Come learn about local pollinator species and how you and your family can contribute to scientific research and conservation!
Los Cenzontles Mexican American Music Performance at the Lawrence Hall of ScienceJoin us to celebrate Mexican music and culture featuring Los Cenzontles, a Bay Area-based arts academy and band that amplifies Mexican American culture through education, performance, and production. Los Cenzontles will perform music, teach visitors about various musical instruments, and discuss how music relates to immigrant traditions, cultural identity, and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free with museum admission ($20 for guests 3+)
 CSM's Family Science & Astronomy Festival + Makerspace (formerly Family Science Day) brings the wonders of science to our community! Future scientists-in-the-making are welcomed to campus to participate in fun makerspace activities, watch Chef Ed make comets, visit fascinating biology, chemistry, geology, and math stations for hands-on demos hosted by ...
Where: San MateoCost: check website
How to Photograph an EclipseThis talk will focus on how to take pictures of the eclipse while still allowing you to enjoy the experience. It is based on a series of talks I gave in 2016-17 prior to the last US eclipse and has been updated for the latest information. Taking photos of eclipses ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
The Peril and Profit of Near-Earth Objects; Is Asteroid Mining Possible and Practical?Near-Earth objects present both an existential threat to human civilization and an extraordinary opportunity to propel our exploration and expansion across the solar system. While the risk of a sudden, civilization-altering collision with an asteroid or comet has markedly diminished in recent decades due to diligent astronomical surveys, a significant ...
Charla is the inaugural Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Officer at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, and the elected President of SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science). At CSHL, she is an academic administrator who guides DEI-motivated institutional change initiatives; on the ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Imaging the Brain at High Spatiotemporal ResolutionThe brain enables physicists and astronomers to explore the universe. Dr. Na Ji will describe how concepts in physics and astronomy help us understand the brain by imaging neurons at sub-micron spatial and millisecond temporal resolution.Speaker: Dr. Na Ji, UC Berkeley
In 1977, the physicist Freeman Dyson1 proposed the burial of biomass, as a scalable, economical solution to the CO2 problem. Today we know2 that the harvested vegetation should be buried in an engineered dry Environmental Chamber. Plant biomass can be preserved for thousands of years by burial in a dry ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Alzheimer's Disease: recent advances and practical tips for prevention - LivestreamA third of dementia cases worldwide are estimated to be at least partly attributable to seven modifiable factors. At this virtual event, hear Dr. Irina Skylar-Scott discuss practical strategies you can put into place in your daily life to improve and maintain cognitive function. Also hear about current treatments, and opportunities to ...
The Universe is magnetic. From stars to galaxies to intergalactic space, magnetic fields thread the cosmos. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, hosts a magnetic field that helps to sculpt the interstellar medium: the “stuff between the stars†out of which new stars are born, and into which some old ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members & Seniors
Tuesday, 10/03/23
IEEE Day Panel Discussion on Ethical AI: Shaping the Future Responsibly - LivestreamWith a focus on “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for a better tomorrow†to align with the theme of the IEEE day.Panelists:Dr. Ruchi Dass, Managing Director, HealthCursor, UKhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/drruchidass/Dr. Katharina Koerner, Tech Diplomacy Network, USAhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/katharina-koerner-privacyengineering/Chinmay Nerurkar, Principal Engineer, Microsofthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nchinmay/Dr. Vishnu S. Pendyala, SJSU, San Jose, CA, USAhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/pendyala/Moderator: Meenakshi Jindal, Netflix, Los Gatos, USAhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshijindal/Register ...
Where: Cost: Free
Live Taping - The Future of Everything w/Russ Altman with Special Guest, Karl DeisserothJoin us for an electrifying live taping of "The Future of Everything" podcast with host Dr. Russ Altman, Kenneth Fong Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine, Biomedical Data Science, and Computer Science (by courtesy), and special guest Dr. Karl Deisseroth, D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Singapore's Multi-Stakeholder Approach to AI GovernanceOur flagship autumn Seminar Series on International Technology Management in 2023 will examine ways in which new digital technologies, business models, and data governance frameworks are addressing problems and opportunities at the interface between the digital economy and the external world, with special attention to new patterns of competition and ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Clearview AI, Facial Recognition Technology, and Threats to Our PrivacyAre you one in a million? One in a billion? What if an app could pick you out of a crowd based on your face alone?New York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill was skeptical when she got a tip about a mysterious app called Clearview AI that claimed it could, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $25 General, $15 Members in person, $10/Free web
we are piloting a three-part Human-Centered AI Vodcast. A sort of hybrid podcast, live audience and seminar series. Through this series, we hope to better understand what all of you want from AI. So, welcome to Stanford Human-Centered AI Vodcast, where we don't sweep anything under the rug; where we ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Innovating Solutions at the Ocean-Climate Nexus - LivestreamThis talk will provide an introduction to Ocean Visions, a relatively new organization working through a collaborative partnership to advance a new agenda for solutions at the ocean-climate nexus.With a range of partners including MBARI, Ocean Visions works on a “Four R†agenda to abate the ocean-climate crisis:Reduce: Developing ocean-based ...
Researchers used to define objectives for artificial intelligence (AI) agents by hand, but with progress in optimization and reinforcement learning, it became obvious that it’s too difficult to think of everything ahead of time and write it down. Instead, these days the objective is viewed as a hidden part of ...
Climate change has been deemed the greatest threat to global public health. And yet, there is a yawning research gap surrounding the impact that this anthropogenic phenomenon may have on health-relevant infrastructure and decision-making. In this talk, I present my dissertation work structured around a theoretical framework and four lead ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Radical Founders AI: Geoffrey Hinton in Conversation with Fei-Fei LiIn this Radical AI Founders Masterclass, Geoffrey Hinton and Fei-Fei Li will share their experiences building tech-first startups and scaleups, offering up their guidance, advice, and personal viewpoints. This discussion is delivered in partnership with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, and the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.Stanford ...
Cody Coleman is a co-founder of Coactive AI, an analytics platform for visual content, and serves as the CEO. Coactive leverages AI to make it easy for enterprises to search, filter, and analyze large amounts of image and video data by bringing structure to unstructured data. Coleman is also a founding ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Special Screening of 'Collision'A worldwide increase in shipping traffic is threatening our oceans, its inhabitants and the planet. Collision is a powerful feature documentary which highlights the severely under-reported issue of fatal ship strikes on whales, a threat which is endangering their very existence. The film suggests solutions to encourage and convince governments and global ...
Where: San RafaelCost: $13.25 General, $9.75 Seniors/Youth, $7.75 Members
Zoom Lenses for Bird PhotographyThis presentation will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of zoom lenses for bird photography. Zoom lenses offer many benefits such as flexibility, excellent image stabilization, and portability. Mastering the zoom lens allows one to capture compelling, professional quality bird photographs without breaking the bank.Speaker: Shravan SundaramSee weblink for Zoom information. ...
Hear Seth Shostak, Earth’s official Alien Hunter, talking about space exploration with host Haritina Mogoșanu.Seth Shostak directs the search for extraterrestrials at the SETI Institute in California - trying to find evidence of intelligent life in space. He is also committed to getting the public, especially young people, excited about ...
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 10/05/23
Building for Heat Resilience in Urban Areas - LivestreamA majority of the population around the world, including nearly 80% of the U.S. population, reside in urban areas. As average temperatures rise and extreme heat events become more common due to climate change, the built environment and lack of vegetation in cities combine to make that heat even more ...
Where: Cost: Free
Volcanism on Exoplanets: New Insights from JWST and Beyond - LivestreamUp until now, the quest to find evidence of active volcanism on other worlds has been limited to our own solar system. We've definitively seen volcanoes erupting on Jupiter's moon, Io; we've possibly found evidence of geologically recent volcanism on Venus; and Mars has the largest volcano, although dormant, in ...
Is it a good idea to use machine learning (ML) predictions in education? Would machine learning models treat all students fairly? I will start this talk with our recent analysis on middle school and high school datasets that reveal potential fairness risks of applying vanilla ML on students. To improve ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
Leading the Circular RevolutionJoin us and the city of Zurich for an evening exploring how cities can lead the way towards a more sustainable way of living by embracing the circular economy.While occupying only 3% of the planet's territory, cities use 75 % of global resources. The circular economy has emerged as a ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
After Dark: UsersGrapple with the complicated relationship between people and technology tonight at After Dark. In the feature-length documentary Users, filmmaker Natalia Almada explores major questions confronting humanity as we develop increasingly intimate relationships with technology. Then immerse yourself in the power and harmony of the natural world with the west coast ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
CFC Birdy Hour: Burrowing Owls of the Bay Area - LivestreamLearn the latest about the life and times of our local Burrowing Owls from a researcher who has studied them for over 30 years. There's more to know about their migratory behavior and about the attachment Burrowing Owls show to their mates and to where they nest. While Burrowing Owls ...
Where: Cost: Free
NightLife: The Art of NatureAt this NightLife, Mother Nature takes center stage as our ultimate muse. See what happens when art and nature collide as we celebrate 10 years of our BigPicture: Natural World Photography exhibit.Featured events:Dive into the enchanting world of underwater kelp forest ecosystems with a talk and photography showcase from 2023 ...
First Friday: Light & DarkSince the creation of our planet, light has been crucial to the survival of all living things on Earth. Equally important is the absence of that light where shadows play an important role in understanding the world around us. At October’s First Friday event, try your hand at creating an ...
Where: OaklandCost: $15 General, $10 Kids/Seniors, $5 Members
Getting Started with Astronomical Spectroscopy - RescheduledAstronomical spectroscopy is the study of the electromagnetic spectrum of stars and other celestial objects through a spectroscope. Spectroscopy is one of the best tools we have for deciphering the chemical and physical properties of the universe, and is the backbone of modern astrophysical research. In fact, about 75% of ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Studying Exoplanets with The James Webb Space TelescopeThe James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful and complex astronomical space observatory ever built. It launched in December 2021 into orbit in the Sun - Earth system. The large 6.5-m diameter JWST primary mirror and its infrared instruments allow it to see some of the very first luminous ...
