The Martian's Daughter: A Memoir. Author Marina von Neumann Whitman in conversation with John HollarOne of the five Hungarian scientific geniuses dubbed "the Martians" by their colleagues, John von Neumann is often hailed as the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century and even as the greatest scientist after Einstein. He was a key figure in the Manhattan Project; the inventor of game theory; the ...
Humans have fundamentally changed how energy flows through the global ecosystem, with consequences for ourselves and for other species. The consequence for ourselves is that we are locked into having to produce enormous amounts of energy if we want to sustain the current human population, leave alone keeping up with ...
'Breaking Trail: Mountains and Molecules'Arlene Blum, author of Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life and Annapurna: A Woman's Place will share dramatic photos and stories from her historic mountaineering expeditions as well as her work with the Green Science Policy Institute protecting our health and environment from toxic chemicals in consumer products.
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Legendary SETI Astronomer, Jill Tarter: Breaking Cosmic BoundariesMeet Carl Sagan's inspiration for the novel and subsequent film Contact, Jill Tarter.For the last 35 years, Dr. Tarter and the SETI Institute have been using telescopes to systematically search for evidence of other technological civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.RSVP here for this free event and join one of the most important astronomers ...
Let's get back to our ABCs this month. Justin Quimby opens our set with a talk on airships (and blimps and zeppelins and dirigibles and whatever other lighter-than-air aircraft you please). I'm sure that his mention of "metallurgy" in the abstract is not just to placate me. We're pleased to ...
Probing Supermassive Black Hole Growth with Next Generation Telescopes A new generation of telescopes is coming online. Operating at wavelengths from radio, through optical, to gamma ray, they are particularly well-suited to time-domain survey science -- essentially, making large-format movies of the sky. These telescopes will have the capability to tell us about how black holes grow: through stupendous ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Registries for AllCitizens can transform clinical and translational science with networking tools used in other industries. Registries for All is a novel registry tool that allows individuals to set their own sharing and data access preferences through privacy settings. This allows for more robust sharing, respectful of the individuals' varied preferences, enabling ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Imagining the Earth's InteriorBarbara Romanowicz studied mathematics at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and holds a Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Paris 7. As a researcher at France's CNRS between 1982 and 1990, she developed GEOSCOPE, a then state-of-the-art global network of digital seismic stations for the study of earthquakes and the ...
More than any other country, China sets an energy strategy and then pursues it. The central government writes those plans. To try to feed the energy appetite of China's 1.35 billion people, Beijing's energy planners have laid out an all-of-the-above agenda: more coal, more natural gas, more nuclear, more energy ...
Innovating Technologies for the Poorest Two BillionTwo recent technology innovations could improve the lives of tens-possibly hundreds-of millions of people among the poorest two billion people on the planet. Both technologies have emerged in the last few years from focused, goal-driven research by teams of creative, hard-working researchers in the Gadgil laboratory and in the field. ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Bowhead whales in the age of oil: Behavioral responses of bowhead whales to seismic operationsBowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) were heavily exploited by commercial whaling in the mid to late 19th Century. The Western Arctic population has been steadily recovering and now comprises 90 % of the world's population. Since the 1970s this population has been contending with anthropogenic activities related to oil and gas ...
Where: SausalitoCost: $5 Suggested Donation towards Student Research
Observations of surface-atmosphere interactions using the CSU-MAPS, a mobile atmospheric profiling systemSpeakers: Dr. Andrew Oliphant, San Francisco State Univ.The RTC Seminar Series brings leading local, national, and international scientists to a public forum at RTC to speak about the latest advances in science, and provides an opportunity for graduate students to present research in progress. The Series is open to the ...
Climate Challenged SocietySpeaker: Richard Norgaard, Professor, Energy and Resources Group, University of California BerkeleyRoom 110
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Brittle Old Bones: The Bioarchaeology of Bone Loss and the Aging SkeletonBioarchaeology (the study of archaeological human remains together with contextual and documentary evidence) offers a unique avenue to investigate aspects of social change and identity in the past. As a dynamic tissue that is forged by biocultural factors over the entire lifetime, the human skeleton provides a record of individual ...
With 90% of the world's 8 million or so insect species still undiscovered, the age of exploration is far from over. We now have the technological tools to more accurately document that biodiversity through a process called integrative taxonomy. Oceanic islands are not only among the world's prettiest and most ...
What can natural disturbance regimes tell us about effects of global changeA macroecological case study with Pinus muricata.Please join Point Reyes National Seashore staff for Science Lectures, 45 minute presentations on scientific research being performed at Point Reyes and elsewhere in the California. Science Lectures are sponsored by the Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center at Point Reyes National Seashore.Speaker: Erica ...
Sophisticated technology has existed for millennia for metals and ceramics. Throughout time, intelligent craftsmen and scholars created plausible explanations for the observations and developed techniques. This creation of plausible explanations continues to the present day in rapidly developing fields, like Materials Science and Engineering. Many of the ideas are known ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Stories about Storytelling: A Personal Journey in Technology We all use our smartphones to send text messages, check e-mail, surf the Web, get driving directions, and make the occasional phone call. But we tend to forget that our mobile gadgets are also powerful machines for storytelling---in fact, never before have so many people had the tools to capture ...
David J. Hayes, the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, will talk about the Obama Administration's management of public lands, including policies regarding oil and gas production, solar energy development and the recovery of key species like the northern spotted owl and sage grouse.Must register by April 26 to ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Cafe InquiryMeet up with rationalists, skeptics, and freethinkers south of San FranciscoCafe Inquiry is a social event hosted by the Center for Inquiry|San Francisco. We'll meet at Café Borrone http://www.cafeborrone.com/ between Kepler's Books and the British Banker's Club! Look for the black balloon.For more information or if you have questions please ...
Step right up for a night of circus fun inspired by the Academy's marvelous menagerie of creatures. Play good old fashioned carnival games amongst roaming jugglers and gymnasts from Velocity Circus, and animal-themed Burning Man sculptures including Dusty Rhino. The experts at Circus of Smiles will teach you to juggle, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, $10 Members
First After Dark Event at New Exploratorium: HomeOn hiatus since 2012, the Exploratorium's After Dark returns Pier 15 with a museum-wide housewarming party.Home will be an exploration of homes at all scales, from the Earth itself to the human microbiome, and will feature behind-the-scenes tours of our new campus and exhibits, live music, films and cocktails.As you explore the ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 ($10 Members)
Renewable Energy with Dr. Bryan Hannegan, EPRICome join us for an insightful evening with Dr. Bryan Hannegan. Dr. Hannegan, Vice President, Environment and Renewables for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), leads the teams responsible for EPRI's research into technologies and practices that enable cleaner and more efficient renewable power generation, and reduce the environmental footprint ...
Where: San JoseCost: Advance Tickets $6.50 or $10 at the Door
After Hours: Star TechJoin us for Star Tech, a celebration of everything Trekkie! Compare Starfleet technology with today's innovations, build your own starbound space ship, or see how many pieces you can use to create your own "Borg" cube! When you need rejuvenation, beam on over to our no-host bar for a refreshing Tech-Forward-tini , ...
Born in the American Midwest, Christof Koch grew up in Holland, Germany, Canada, and Morocco. He studied Physics and Philosophy at the University of Tübingen in Germany and was awarded his Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1982. After 4 years at MIT, he joined the California Institute of Technology as a ...
Where: BerkeleyCost:
Emerging from the Underworld: Portraits of Wild Mushrooms Grand OpeningA formal opening for our new show, "Emerging from the Underworld: Portraits of Wild Mushrooms," which will run from May 2nd until July 1st.These works by Lucy Martin, a mixture of original paintings and archival-quality prints, celebrate the amazing diversity of the fungus kingdom. Lucy's art focuses on mushrooms and ...
Field Botany FridaysCome hike with ACR staff. While we hike, we may identify plants, survey for rare plants, photograph wildflowers, discuss ethnobotany or other trailside botany. Takes place the first Friday of every month.Please dress for the weather and bring at least one quart of drinking water. You may also wish to ...
Fish Feeding FrenzyHelp Ranger Bill feed the hungry inhabitants of our fresh and saltwater tanks. Watch the different feeding styles of rock cod, sea stars, and steelhead trout.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
When Does Regulation Distort Costs? Lessons from Fuel Procurement in U.S. Electricity GenerationUnder what conditions does cost-of-service regulation lead firms to distort costs? This paper analyzes changes in fuel procurement practices by coal- and natural gas-fired electricity generating plants in the United States following state-level legislation that ended cost-of-service regulation among investor-owned electric utilities in the late 1990s. I construct a detailed ...
On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments operating at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced the discovery of a new particle compatible with the Higgs boson (hunted for almost 50 years), a crucial piece for our understanding of fundamental physics and the structure and evolution of the ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
How to Be a Science WriterWhether you're a seasoned science writer, greenhorn, dabbler, or just a person who likes to hear interesting science stories, you'll want to meet Thomas Hayden, co-editor of the brand new The Science Writers' Handbook: Everything You Need To Know To Pitch, Publish And Prosper In The Digital Age. Tom and ...
CAMS: The Night-time Survey of Meteor Showers If you ever spend a night under the stars watching for meteors and saw something unusual, you may want to meet astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens. He's an expert on meteor showers and author of Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets, a 790 page book containing predictions on what unusual meteor ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Houge Park Start PartyMeet with members of San Jose Astronomical Society for a Star Party, weather permitting.
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Saturday, 05/04/13
2013 California Cognitive Science Conference This conference brings together world famous scholars, educators, inventors, and students from all over the world for a day of featured talks, workshops, and presentations. This year, we are excited to explore "Learning and Memory: The Enlightened Mind," through the lens of Artificial Intelligence, Developmental Psychology, Neurobiology, Cognitive Linguistics, Education, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $25 General Admission, $20 Students
Guided Nature WalkExperience the beauty and rich natural history of Audobon Canyon Ranch's 535-acre Bouverie Preserve. Participants are divided into small groups and paired with a trained Bouverie volunteer to explore the mixed evergreen forest, flower-carpeted oak woodland and rugged chaparral. Guided Nature Walks range from two to five miles. Visitors of all ages are ...
In the early years of aviation, airplane technology advanced in leaps and bounds-yet airport development lagged behind. Into this void came the seaplane, an aircraft able to fly without need of runways to any destination near an ocean or lake.By the 1930s seaplanes held absolute speed records and inaugurated air ...
Where: San CarlosCost: Free with admission
Space DayCelebrate space! Train like an astronaut, blast off to Mars in a simulated mission in our Challenger Learning Center, explore cutting edge telescope technology, and engage in hands-on activities. Dr. Maria Kazachenko, Assistant Researcher at UC Berkeley, will lead an interactive discussion on advances in telescope technology and how it ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free with admission
Stevens Creek History HikeLearn about the first people to live in this area and how things changed over time as European settlers came and impacted the land. Hike about 2 miles to explore various features and discover how this park's namesake played a pivotal role in the settlement of California. Meet at the ...
Where: CupertinoCost: Free
Starry Night HikeEnjoy twilight, stargazing, and the nighttime environment on a 3.6-mile hike. Discover how to find night sky "objects" with binoculars and hear legends associated with spring constellations of the Northern Hemisphere. Meet at the Sandy Wool upper parking lot (near dog park) with sturdy footwear, layered clothing, and water. Bring ...
Where: MilpitasCost: Free
A family Scrapbook of the UniverseMay 4 Public Astronomy Program At Muir Heritage Land Trust Please join Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society for a May 4th astronomy program at Muir Heritage Land Trust, 1075 Christie Road, Martinez, CA 94553. Event is from 7:45 to 9:30 PM. "A family Scrapbook of the Universe"See stars, nebula, galaxies, clusters, the ...
Where: MartinezCost: Free
San Mateo County Astronomical Society Star PartyThe City of San Carlos Department of Parks and Recreation and the San Mateo County Astronomical Society have open Star Parties. These events are held in Crestview Park, San Carlos California. Dates and Sunset times are below. Note that inclement weather (clouds, excessive wind and showers) will cause the event ...
Where: San CarlosCost: Free
Sunday, 05/05/13
Lecture - From I to We: People and the Plants and Animals that Accompany Us on EarthWhat matters more: our human communities or the natural world? This question, or a variant of it, drives environmental debates, and also drives a wedge between progressive movements. Brent Plater, founder and director of the Wild Equity Institute, will describe what his organization is doing to get past this dilemma ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Free Day of ScienceFirst Sundays are FREE! OMCA is free all day the first Sunday of every month. Tour the building with members of the Museum's Council on Architecture at 1 pm and enjoy a Docent-led tour of the Gallery of California Art at 2 pm. Grab lunch or a snack at Blue ...
