Many events are being cancelled due to concerns related to COVID-19. While we strive to make sure information here is accurate, please check the host's website for up to date event details.
Science Saturday: Monarch Madness!Join us for our Free Science Saturday event, where we will explore the fascinating world of monarch butterflies. Learn about their incredible migratory journey, the challenges they face, and the vital role they play in our ecosystem. This engaging day will feature collection displays, informative talks, and activities for the ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: Free
Family Astronomy: Discovering the Whole New Worlds of ExoplanetsCreate a new holiday tradition full of fun and learning - bring the family together with an interactive and engaging astronomy workshop designed for curious minds. Explore the wonders of exoplanets - distant, mysterious worlds beyond our solar system - through hands-on activities perfect for families with children ages 6-12. ...
Where: OaklandCost: $25 Adults, $15 Youth
Starry Nights Star Party - CANCELEDThe San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA), working with the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (OSA), is glad to co-host a public star party at Rancho Canada del Oro (RCDO) Open Space Preserve. This site, just 30 minutes south of downtown San Jose, features dark skies. It's dark enough to ...
It's there for us year round, lighting our days and providing energy for our lives, so maybe it's time to give it a closer look. Join SJAA for amazing and detailed views of the Sun, and be assured that we'll be using special telescopes that will keep your eyeballs perfectly ...
By our nature, humans need challenge. We get bored easily and stop playing a game if it is too easy. We are happiest when we are living a purpose driven life, that is "just challenging enough". This talk will dive into the importance of Mastering Mindset, and discuss the question ...
Lithium battery technology is critical to the decarbonization of air transport via electric aircraft, and is the enabler behind new concepts in air transportation such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi services. The needs of battery technology for electric aviation are greatly different from consumer electronics and ...
For this session, we are honored to be joined by David Dill, the Donald E. Knuth Professor in the School of Engineering, Emeritus. In 2004, Prof. Dill founded the Verified Voting Foundation, whose mission is "to strengthen democracy for all voters by promoting the responsible use of technology in elections.” We ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Getting to YesGood technical and analytical work is the foundation of every successful project, but by itself, it is not enough to ensure that a needed project moves from the drawing table to the ribbon cutting. Ms. Menard will describe key lessons learned during a 40-year career as local government water utility ...
An estimated 133 million - or nearly half - of all Americans suffer from one or more chronic diseases. Chronic diseases consistently account for 5 of the top 10 leading causes of death. Moreover, 90% of annual healthcare expenditures are attributed to chronic diseases. Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) and Type ...
Dr. Tian is a Scientific Director at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. The Tian Laboratory for Optical Neurophysiology engineers biosensors and optical probes for monitoring and controlling brain activity in living, behaving research animals. Dr. Tian and her team have created a novel class of genetically encoded indicators ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Building AI PolicyEffectively governing AI stands as a grand challenge for the 21st century as we reckon with this generation-defining technology. In this talk, I will present my theory for change, articulating why academia is vital for creating superior-quality AI policy. My research embodies this, as I describe through three lines of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Chemical methods to monitor and manipulate the proteomeThe development of potent probe molecules and drug leads for proteins that lack deep pockets remains an important and difficult problem. This seminar will focus on methods being developed in the Kodadek Laboratory to address this problem. Topics to be discussed will include the development of “beyond rule of 5” ...
Statistical methods for assessing the factual accuracy of large language models We develop new conformal inference methods for obtaining validity guarantees on the output of large language models (LLMs). Prior work in language modeling (Mohri & Hashimoto, 2024) identifies a subset of the text that satisfies a high-probability guarantee of correctness. These methods work by filtering a claim from the ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
An Exploration of the Milky Way: Our Cosmic HomeOur Universe is made up of many billions of galaxies, yet astronomers are still trying to figure out how they form, evolve, and assemble themselves. The question of how and when galaxies - including our own - take shape across cosmic time is among the most fundamental in modern astronomy. ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members & Seniors
The chemical synthesis of natural products provides an exciting platform from which to conduct fundamental research in chemistry and biology. Our group is currently pursuing the synthesis of several structurally complex natural products, with a particular focus on the development of new convergent fragment coupling and annulation strategies. The ...
This talk will explore the state-of-the-art methodologies for assessing carbon emissions across the lifecycle of natural gas production in the U.S. The difficulty in providing a reasonable carbon intensity (CI) numbers for the US natural gas lies in unorganized production facility data reportage and long-standing underestimates of super-emitter activities in ...
As concern about climate change intensifies, there is increasing demand for ‘actionable’ information to help mitigate to effects of climate change through sustainable policy. As this demand has increased, so has the complexity and resolution of Earth System Models (ESMs) and Global Climate Models (GCMs), which play a central role ...
For the closing keynote of our autumn 2024 series of weekly seminars, we are very happy to welcome Ryan Harty, Division Lead of Sustainability and Business Development at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Ryan will share insights into Honda’s efforts toward clean energy, carbon neutrality, and resource circularity, focusing on ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Disruptive & low-cost solutions on AI-enabled platformComputer Ghost of Christmas Past says: "Remember the whirr of dial-up tones and floppy disks? Ah, simpler times when every kilobyte was precious!"Computer Ghost of Christmas Present says: "Look at the world now - always online, apps for everything, and streaming cat videos in 4K! Enjoy the moment, for technology ...
This presentation will provide a conceptual framework for thinking about the ways climate change can affect worker health. It will then provide examples of industries at high risk, vulnerable worker populations, and specific health threats. Strategies to protect workers from climate-related health threats will also be discussed.Speaker: Gina Solomon, UC ...
Where: Cost: Free
WaterPalooza! 2024 - LivestreamSustainable Silicon Valley has joined Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet and SSV’s Water Program is now Acterra Water.One thing remains the same, however: WaterPalooza! continues getting bigger and bolder as a festival of ideas across the water cycle. “You don’t win on Climate if we lose on Water,” VERGE’s ...
Imagine transforming the vast network of submarine fiber optic cables into a real-time observatory that unveils the ocean’s hidden dynamics.* Over the past decade, advancements in fiber sensing technology have rapidly progressed, offering an unprecedented opportunity to establish large-scale geophysical observatories on the seafloor more cost-effectively than ever before. In ...
Where: Cost: Free
Whole Earth SeminarThis lecturer will be remote.Speaker: Mark Brandon, Yale University
We are interested in the biology of a small, evolutionarily related group of fungi that cause disease in healthy humans. These environmental fungi are exquisitely responsive to mammalian body temperature, which triggers drastic changes in cell shape and the induction of virulence properties. We dissect temperature-dependent signaling in these organisms ...
Dexterous movement is a hallmark of human motor ability, enabling us to interact skillfully with our environment. The loss of this capability due to movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease or stroke, strips individuals of independence and quality of life. This talk explores the neural underpinnings of dexterity, focusing on ...
We are at a critical moment in our society. While we advance efforts to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, across the globe, millions are experiencing issues of energy affordability, reliability, and equitable access to modern energy technologies. This lecture will explore the intricate intersection of energy, class, race, ...
From Perception to Pleasure: the Neuroscience of Music and Why We Love ItMusic has existed in human societies since prehistory, likely because it allows expression and regulation of emotion, and evokes pleasure. But how do humans go from perceiving sound patterns to pleasurable responses? Learn about what happens in our brains when we listen to music, in this virtual talk with Dr. ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Sea Meets the Stars: How Artificial Intelligence is Accelerating the Scientific PursuitIn less than 10 years, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have built systems that can distinguish cats from dogs, translate English to Japanese, and even record your sentiments on Facebook. With the appearance of chat-bots, AI has reached astonishing - if not uncomfortable - levels. In science, the impacts of ...
Where: Santa ClaraCost: Free
After COP29: The Energy Transition ChallengeThe energy transition is a monumental task, still in its early stages, with only about 10 percent of the necessary low-emissions technologies deployed to meet 2050 targets, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.As the world strives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while meeting growing global energy demand, significant challenges lie ...
Genetic diversity provides the raw material necessary for species to adapt to changing conditions, which unfolds over millions of years as populations accumulate variation. However, especially in the Anthropocene, the rate of genetic loss often far exceeds the rate at which diversity can be generated, posing significant challenges for ...
Wendy Liu’s Abolish Silicon Valley pulled back the façade on the Horatio Alger myths surrounding tech work and start-up culture and left no doubt about the emptiness of life in that world. Erin McElroy, a co-founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, has turned her prodigious analytical skills to the expansion ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Thursday, 12/05/24
WaterPalooza! 2024 - LivestreamSustainable Silicon Valley has joined Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet and SSV’s Water Program is now Acterra Water.One thing remains the same, however: WaterPalooza! continues getting bigger and bolder as a festival of ideas across the water cycle. “You don’t win on Climate if we lose on Water,” VERGE’s ...
Living with Lions - LivestreamMountain lions are top carnivores playing an important role in our North Bay ecosystems, yet they live a fragile existence, moving through a mosaic of public and private lands. The Living with Lions Project, a partnership between Audubon Canyon Ranch and True Wild, is studying our region’s mountain lions to identify ...
Where: Cost: Free
Disrupting a delicate balance: Emerging pathogens in a changing world‘Emerging’ pathogens are defined as infectious agents with increasing incidence that are expanding into new host populations in response to ecological or epidemiological change. Over 20% of emerging pathogens are vector-borne, meaning transmitted by arthropod vectors, and over 60% of emerging pathogens are zoonotic, meaning derived from animal (often wildlife) ...
Scaling Expertise via Language Models: With Applications to EducationAccess to expertise shapes how individuals learn, develop, and succeed across society. For example, in education, experienced teachers teach students and train novice educators through effective interactions. However, access to expertise is limited, undermining learning at scale. While language models promise to democratize access, they often mimic surface-level patterns and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
When Do Firms Oversell or Undersell Their Environmental Sustainability? - LivestreamGaku Morio is a Researcher at Hitachi America, Ltd. He received his M.D. in Engineering from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. He is interested in natural language processing and applied machine learning, with emphasis on facilitating these technologies to the real-world business/industrial data.Jungah (Isabella) Yoon joined the University of ...
Santa Claude is comin’ to town! Shop your heart away at our merry marketplace of gift-worthy treasures.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Varies
A Just Transition for Whom? Book launch and DiscussionTo avert the worst impacts of climate change, a transition away from fossil fuels is necessary. However, what this transition looks like and what would make a transition “just,” remain open questions. What workers are missing from “green” economy discussions? What role do workers play in the fight for a ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
After Dark: Figure It OutFind out how to make better decisions with the help of philosophy, psychology, and physics.
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95, free for members
Expecting the Unexpected with AI at Particle Colliders In particle physics, we search for new elementary particles that signal extensions of the fundamental interactions of nature. Experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce massive datasets, which physicists scour for evidence of hypothetical particles that have been suggested by theorists. But it is impossible to predict exactly ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
The Cosmic Mystery of Fast Radio BurstsThe cosmos directly interacts with Earth through various signals in the form of electromagnetic waves (light), elementary particles, and gravitational waves. A couple of decades ago, radio astronomers found extremely bright flashes in their data that only lasted a few thousandths of a second. These pulses, named Fast Radio Bursts ...
