The ability to control the flow of water around the body dictates the performance of marine animals and technologies in the aquatic environment. Dolphins and mantas are able to swim with high efficiency and maneuver by use of oscillating propulsive surfaces. This mechanism makes these animals ideal platforms to emulate ...
Where: Moss LandingCost: Free
Moving beyond Drosophila envy: The genetics of speciation in marine invertebrateMost progress in speciation genetics has come through work on model systems like Drosophila, with particular emphasis on the special role of sex chromosomes. A more comprehensive understanding will require studies of alternative systems with different sex determination mechanisms, such as those found in a wide variety of marine invertebrates, ...
Choanoflagellates and the origin of the animal kingdomThe presentation will be on the choanoflagellates, the closest living microbial relatives to the animal kingdom, describing the biology of these fascinating organisms, what research on choanoflagellates has to tell us about the origins of the animal kingdom and of multicellularity, and about her research on choanoflagellates, including the use ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free ($2 parking)
Finding a New Earth: Exoplanets and the Habitable ZoneOver the past two decades, more than 1,500 new planetary systems have been discovered, many of which include planets quite different from those in our own Solar System. A key step toward finding "Earth 2.0" will be to identify rocky planets that occupy the "Habitable Zone" of their stars. Dr. ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: Free ($3 parking)
Earth Matters: What 'Virtual Earthquakes' Can Tell About the Big OneMany seismologists believe that predicting the strength of shaking in future earthquakes is more important than predicting exactly when they will occur. That is because if we know how strong the ground will shake, buildings can be designed to withstand that shaking. But predicting the strength of shaking is challenging; ...
Mushrooms in the genus Suillus are often hard to identify because of the lack of distinct morphological characters, and when present, these characters fade away with age and environmental conditions such as rain. DNA sequencing of a large set of specimens, as well as type specimens help us understand why ...
