COP28 Debrief: Attendees reflect on Dubai outcomes - LivestreamFor the first time at a United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP), countries have agreed on the need to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.â€Chris Field, Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, will discuss this and other COP28 outcomes with Jonathan Pershing, former Special Envoy ...
Effective ocean conservation and management relies on an in-depth understanding of the health of marine ecosystems. Dr. Kendall-Bar's interdisciplinary approach combines engineering, visualization, and computation to study ocean resilience in terms of the extreme physiology and behavior of marine animals, establishing eco-physiological baselines to track over time in the face ...
Large language models, on their own, have important limitations. I will discuss the trend of "augmenting" language models in various ways to overcome those limitations. Specifically, I will focus on two kinds of augmentation: retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and associated approaches; and vision-augmented language models enhanced to see (LENS).Speaker: Douwe ...
Dr. Robert Sapolsky is John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and professor of biology, neurology and neurological sciences, and of neurosurgery at Stanford University. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.†He is also a research associate at the Institute of Primate Research operated by the ...
Where: Cost: Free
Maximizing the Value of Water Infrastructure InvestmentsSignificant public spending is required to repair aging water infrastructure and prepare water systems for future changes in supply, demand, and storage driven by climate change. But recent landmark spending bills in the United States represent only a fraction of the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated $2.5 trillion infrastructure ...
Population growth increases urbanization, impacting surface albedos and altering surface energy balances, including the reduction of urban evaporative cooling, thus forming surface urban heat islands (SUHIs). Neighborhoods with higher vegetative densities, therefore, tend to have lower temperatures than those with sparse vegetation. In the United States, racially and ethnically segregated ...
As the most common construction material and second only to water in terms of use by mankind, concrete cannot simply be replaced with another material at a large scale. In terms of global usage, 14B cubic meters of concrete were produced in 2020 using 4.2B tonnes of cement. Concrete provides ...
Supermassive Black Holes from AU to Megaparsec: Fundamentally New Physics in Accretion DisksSupermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies present unsolved theoretical challenges for our understanding of high-energy astrophysics, gravity and gravitational waves, star and galaxy formation, and space plasma physics. For decades, our models have struggled to understand how such “monster†black holes could form and exist at all. But ...
In order to achieve ambitious decarbonization targets, the electric sector is undergoing a massive expansion or renewable energy, storage, and transmission infrastructure. Modeling methods to identify the least-cost resource mix are well-established. However, spatial modeling and planning methods are still emerging. There is a need to identify high-resolution portfolios of ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
LLM + Graph Database for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)LLMs are often like the know-it-all at a bar - they can quickly and confidently produce realistic sounding answers to just about any question - even if the answers are complete fabrications. But an LLM can be grounded in reality by combining it with a Knowledge Graph in order to ...
The Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) is a relic of the pre-CMB era which encodes a trove of information about the early Universe and the neutrino sector dating back to when the Universe was less than a second old. In this talk, I will argue that the Earth can significantly alter ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Who Will Build the Ark?Benjamin Kunkel is a co-editor of the New Left Review essay collection Who Will Build the Ark? Debates on Climate Strategy (2023, Verso). Ark lays out various takes on what is needed to restructure societies and economies in the face of climate change. Kunkel will discuss the contours of these ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Getting Ready for California’s New Electrical Grid: A Conversation with KALWCalifornia’s electrical grid is getting cleaner every day. Yet most people in the Bay Area still burn fossil fuels to heat their homes and get hot water for their showers - a major contributor to smog and other harmful pollution. But not for long - clean air officials say we ...
Dr. Jen Gunter, called "the world's most famous and outspoken gynecologist†by The Guardian, returns to The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco to apply her myth-busting, no-nonsense approach to discussing menstruation.Why do people menstruate? The endometrium’s (the uterine lining’s) fascinating connection to the immune system. The impact of stress, vaccines, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $25 General, $15 Members in person, $10/Free web
Embodied Economies: How our Economic Stories Shape the WorldEconomic policy can seem abstract and distant, but it manifests the physical world - affecting us all. Our economic stories shape our systems, and they in turn shape us. What myths continue to constrain us, and how might new stories emerge to scaffold the future? This talk will explore concepts ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: TBA
Wonderfest: The Psychology of ConfidenceHow confident should we be? Overconfidence leads people to delude themselves with wishful thinking, take too many risks, pursue impossible goals, and waste their time on doomed ventures. Underconfidence dissuades people from taking risks that would pay off, and scares them away from trying things they would enjoy. Pschological studies ...
Where: NovatoCost: Free
Wednesday, 01/24/24
Plasmonic Nanoparticle-Based BiodiagnosticsPlasmonics deals with understanding and manipulating the interaction between light and matter at a scale that is significantly smaller than the wavelength of light (e.g., metal nanoparticles), and chemical nanoplasmonics is mainly about the study and use of nanoscale chemistry for advancing plasmonics and the use of plasmonics to address ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Removing Legal Barriers to Transmission + Unlocking Targeted ElectrificationRemoving Legal Barriers to Transmission in California and Beyond for a Clean Electricity GridSpeakers: Michael Mastrandrea and Michael WaraRemoval of barriers to electric transmission deployment is essential to fully realizing the benefits of recent federal climate legislation and meeting California’s clean electricity goals. Transmission also plays a critical role in ...
Kim Stanley Robinson(link is external) is the award-winning author of 22 novels and numerous short stories exploring themes of ecological sustainability, economic and social justice, global politics, and big science. In recent years, Robinson has written extensively on the climate crisis in 2312, New York City 2140, and 2020’s powerful ...
Drought, Atmospheric Rivers and Floods, Oh My! - LivestreamJoin us for an exciting online event. We'll delve into the fascinating world of weather. From droughts to atmospheric rivers and floods, this event has it all!Learn why California is experiencing more rainfall after years of extreme drought. Discover how we are adapting to our changing climate.Speakers: Christine Shields, National ...
Where: Cost: Free
Fantastic Fungi with Deep LookWhat organisms are neither animals nor plants and belong in a kingdom all their own? Mushrooms! Discover the fascinating world of fungi in this special event in collaboration with KQED's Deep Look wildlife series. You'll meet naturalists and scientists, a psychedelics innovator and renowned Bay Area mushroom chefs.We'll also screen ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: In Person: $20 / Livestream: Free.
Insanely Great: The Apple MAC at 40In January 1984, Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple Macintosh, an "insanely great" computer "for the rest of us" that changed the world - and Apple itself. Exemplifying a (counter) culture of changemakers, the Mac brought the graphical user interface to the masses and launched new connections for computing and creativity. ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost:
Virtual Skeptics in the PubThis is a casual night of socializing with fellow skeptics. If needed, we will have a number of breakout rooms for quieter conversations.Please join us! This is a free event brought to you by Bay Area Skeptics. All are welcome.Zoom. Join HERE. Passcode: 1023
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 01/25/24
Connecting Turbulence to Ecology at Multiple ScalesThe last 10-15 years of physical oceanographic research makes clear that a particular class of turbulent currents - thin, elongated fronts and filaments or swirling vortices 10 m - 1 km in horizontal scale - can dominate material fluxes on timescales of hours-to-days.  However, the aggregate impacts of these oceanic ‘weather’ ...
Now, there is intense, if uneven, pressure for prosecutors to indict police officers in the wake of high-profile killings of Black, Latinx and Indigenous people. However, there is as yet no centralized public database that tracks how prosecutors respond to alleged racially-biased misconduct of their law enforcement colleagues at scale. ...
Earth’s Moon is widely accepted to have been created 4.5 billion years ago through a giant impact between Earth and a hypothetical planet known as Theia. Yet, direct evidence for Theia's existence has remained elusive--until now. Here, we demonstrate that the mantle remnants of Theia explain fundamentally important features of ...
Bipedal locomotion, while captivating in its resemblance to human movement, presents a significant challenge within the field of robotics. The inherent multi-dimensionality and dynamic complexity of bipedal robots have posed substantial obstacles to traditional control methods, often limiting their real-world applications. This talk will delve into the complexity of bipedal ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Science on Tap: Cetaceans & Tales of WhalesWe’re going to have a whale of a time with our first Science on Tap of 2024! Just in time for whale migration season, join us for an in-depth look at whales and cetaceans with drinks from Peter B’s Brewpub and our panel of experts to discover the secret world ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: $20 General adv. , $15 Members, Free for Students
Ancient human footprints at White Sands National Park and their implications for the peopling of the Americas.How old are the footprints? How do we know?What is the role of USGS scientist in this discovery?What's the link between these footprints & climate change?Speakers: Kathleen Springer and Jeff Pigati, USGS Geoscience & ...
Where: Cost: Free
Finding Aliens on Earth - LivestreamFinding life outside of Earth is one of the most interesting topics of Planetary Science. Is life possible on other planets? If so, on which ones? What would it be like, and what would they use as an energy source?Speaker: Miguel à Fernández, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, SpainWatch on YouTube ...
Where: Cost: Free
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.Step inside the iconic ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Varies
Searching for Trolls under the Electron Bridge Plants draw energy for all their chemical reactions from sunlight. Why can't we? In theory, this can be done by building a molecular bridge: Attach a molecule that absorbs light and gives the energy to electrons to a molecule that accepts the electrons and uses them to catalyze the desired ...
Coloring the Universe with Rubin Observatory - OnlineVera C. Rubin Observatory has developed a series of FREE online astronomy investigations using authentic data that provide rich and interactive experiences for students, from advanced middle school through college, covering topics commonly taught in introductory astronomy classes or units.This webinar, hosted by the ASP, will unpack how to access ...
Have a whale of a time with the PG Museum as we celebrate the birthday of beloved community icon Sandy the gray whale! Get ready for some major merrymaking and learn about whales and other animals that migrate.
Where: Pacific GroveCost: Free
Salamander Search at SanbornSanborn is famous for its amphibians; you just need to do some extra searching to find them! Join us for a fun day of looking under rocks, logs, and other unique hiding spots that Sanborn’s Salamanders call home!Ages 4 - 12, with registered adultRegister at weblink
Where: SaratogaCost: $25 per person
Stewardship Saturday: Icing Out IceplantsHelp protect our beaches with The Marine Mammal Center and Sonoma County Parks! Through this event you will learn about the impact of the iceplant along our coastal ecosystems and support in removing this plant from a section of Bodega Bay. We hope that by the end of this event ...
Where: Bodega BayCost: Free
Lunar Landing Sites, Past and FutureAs we look back on the discoveries of the Apollo program, now more than fifty years ago, and stand on the verge of a new generation of lunar exploration through the Artemis Program, it is appropriate to reflect upon the sites chosen for lunar exploration. In this talk, we will ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Is Anybody Out There? What’s New in the Search for Extraterrestrial CivilizationsWhat is the possibility of other intelligent life in the universe? Can we detect radio, infrared, or optical signals from other civilizations? Current and future SETI projects may provide an answer. Dan Werthimer will describe the rationale for past and future searches and will show how new technologies are revolutionizing ...
