The catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti (2010, M7.0), Chile (2010, M8.8), Japan (2011, M9.0), and Indonesia (2004, M9.3) highlight Earth’s dynamic nature and the profound risks posed by high-magnitude seismic events. These earthquakes often trigger submarine landslides and tsunamis, resulting in significant loss of life and extensive infrastructure damage along both ...
Where: Cost: Free
Engineered Threats to Global HealthIn 2024, a group of esteemed scientists publicly warned that a bacteria created entirely with mirror-image biomolecules ("mirror bacteria") - though still years away - could potentially wipe out all life on earth. Gene editing techniques open possibilities of other risks that might be intentionally generated by bad actors, such ...
Human creation of high-quality content requires making decisions - from coarse, high-level decisions about content and style, to precise low-level decisions about the color of an individual pixel. Such creators often move between various levels of abstraction in this decision making typically starting with a rough initial draft and then ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Astronomical CuriositiesDr Robert Douglas will show us just how entertaining the universe can be, with excerpts from his book, The (not so) Little Book of Astronomical Curiosities.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Bird Flu Awareness & Prevention Initiative - LivestreamWe're looking past the egg shortage to learn more about bird flu! Tune in for a program with Jack Aronian, a New York high school student who has made it his mission to teach the public about this fast-moving disease threatening wild and domestic birds around the world. With Jack ...
In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft made a groundbreaking discovery - it found a massive plume of ice and gas erupting from the south pole of Enceladus, a small but geologically active moon of Saturn. The plume is now believed to originate from a subsurface ocean of liquid water beneath the ...
Woodpeckers: the heart of North American ForestsExplore the lives of woodpeckers in every season: courtship and nest selection in spring; life in the nest during summer; fledging and gaining independence in autumn; and the challenges of surviving the winter. Take a close look at the most important woodpecker habitats in North America and what we can do ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
SETI Live: The Moon that Could Support LifeJoin host Beth Johnson for a fascinating episode of SETI Live, featuring planetary scientists Dr Georgina Miles and Dr Carly Howett from the University of Oxford. We’ll be unpacking their groundbreaking study showing that Enceladus - one of Saturn’s icy moons - may harbor a stable subsurface ocean capable of supporting life.What we’ll cover:How the Cassini mission’s data ...
It is inevitable that AIs will soon be making many life-altering decisions on us. Because of this, we need to ensure their behavior is guided by human values - a challenge widely known as the AI Alignment problem. I'll discuss our work on fairness and explanation alignment, presenting both theoretical ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
After Dark: Glow UpJoin us for the opening of Glow tonight! Bask in the radiance of artworks big and small, and recharge your winter wonder with delightful programs only at After Dark. Meet a glowing T-Rex skeleton that’s six-foot tall. Encounter a rainbow-colored cuttlefish vehicle made famous by Burning Man, and get to ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95 General, free for members
Solar Waves in Interstellar Space: Findings from Voyager - LivestreamJoin the NASA Night Sky Network, along with Jamie Rankin (Princeton University), where we’ll discuss the plasma, magnetic field, and particle environment from the Sun to the interstellar medium, surveyed by Voyager 1 & 2.See weblink for streaming information
Where: Cost: Free
To Infinity and BeyondPixar's IPO roadshow in November 1995 was a high-wire act. Two weeks before the premiere of Toy Story - the first feature-length computer-animated film - Steve Jobs barnstormed the country with hand-picked investment bankers, trying to sell Wall Street on his $50 million passion project.Besides a volatile CEO and skeptical ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Tales from the Small-Scale Mushroom FarmKM Mushrooms, founded by Amanda Janney in Santa Rosa, California focuses on producing premium quality gourmet mushrooms. Amanda began growing food, including fruits, veggies, and mushrooms, while living in Portland, Oregon, in the early 2000s. A long-time volunteer and educator working with food sovereignty non-profits such as Growing Gardens, Cooking ...
Where: SebastopolCost: Free
Catalytic Adventures in an X-ray Playground Catalysts are the unsung heroes of our modern age. Working tirelessly behind the scenes, they find many applications that touch our lives, from producing the fertilizers that sustain the global population, to breaking down toxic chemicals to reduce pollution. To design the next generation of catalysts, researchers must understand at ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Ten Years, Billions of Galaxies, One Sky: The Rubin Observatory StoryWhen the Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), it will take the most detailed, dynamic map of the southern sky ever made - visiting the entire visible sky every few nights for ten years. This unprecedented dataset will let us track billions of ...
Where: Los AltosCost: Free
Friday, 11/21/25
Binding Large Language Models to Virtual Personas for Human SimulationLarge language models (LLMs) show superhuman performance on math, coding, and other reasoning tasks, but they still struggle to behave like real people. Human attitudes and decisions depend on rich personal backgrounds, and without such grounding, LLMs often fall back on generic or stereotypical responses. This talk presents a unified ...
Speaker: Azahara Oliva, Cornell UniversityRoom: AuditoriumAttend in person or watch on Zoom
Where: StanfordCost: Free
In Town Star PartyCome join San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) for an evening of stargazing.Event details:Events are held at the parking lot of our headquarters, Houge Park San Jose. The event duration is 2 hours. SJAA volunteers will share night sky views from their telescopes.Please refrain from bringing your own telescopes (Binoculars are ...
Salamander Search at Sanborn ParkJoin YSI naturalists for a guided fall hike in search of salamanders and newts! This two-hour adventure takes you along the shaded trails of Sanborn Park as we explore the damp forest floor and learn about these amazing amphibians that thrive in our local ecosystem.November is prime California newt migration ...
Where: SaratogaCost: Free
Family Astronomy: Mysteries of the SunChabot Space & Science Center’s Family Astronomy Series invites families with children ages 6-12 to explore the wonders of the universe together! This program features an engaging presentation in Studio 3 followed by hands-on activities and opportunities to make discoveries together. Each event includes complimentary hot cocoa and snacks.Step into ...
Where: OaklandCost: $25 Adults, $15 Youth, Members $5 off
What Happens when Galaxies CollideOur Milky Way galaxy is set on a crash collision course with our neighbor Andromeda, but don’t worry: we have a few billion years to prepare. What will happen to the gas, dust, and stars that make up these galaxies? What will our night sky look like? In this talk, ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Sunday, 11/23/25
Marine Science Sunday - An Ocean FeastVisit our hospital and visitor center in Sausalito, California, to learn more about what The Marine Mammal Center is doing to help save marine mammals found along the California coast and beyond, and learn more about how you can help.These interactive presentations hosted by our award-winning educators feature multimedia, pictures, ...
Speaker: Jolene Saldivar, San Diego State University
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
The Master Balancer: Restoration with WaterEthan will discuss the role that water plays in global climate and local ecosystem health and propose actionable, human scale solutions for our greatest planetary dilemma. Watershed Restoration can play a key role in mitigating and even reversing climate change. This is an underappreciated solution for managing the climate crisis.Speaker: ...
