Free First SundayFirst Sundays of the month are free at the Oakland Museum of California. Pick up a treat for yourself or a loved one in the OMCA Store, or enjoy a lunch or snack in Blue Oak café. Take your pick and join an OMCA Docent for the Architecture Tour at ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Monday, 11/03/14
SPECTROSCOPIC IMAGING WITH A $100 MILLION LIGHT BULBDr. Michael Martin of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will discuss advancing infrared spectroscopy into the 3rd dimension and to the nanoscale using a synchrotron light source.
Implementing measures which allows us to start reducing global emissions is an important objective of international climate policy. Against the limited progress being observed so far, there are rising expectations about a post 2020 climate agreement - to be agreed upon in the Paris UNFCCC meeting in 2015. This talk ...
Initially, Earth was seen as the center of the universe surrounded by orbiting planets and stars. Then, the Sun became the center of the cosmos. Finally, there was no center but instead a vast array of galaxies with individual stars, some with their own retinue of planets. In recent years, ...
Heather Burnett Gold: Empowering Communities with Gigabits to the HomeCertain communities around the United States have recently coalesced around an idea: America needs a critical mass of communities with exceptional bandwidth so we can foster human capital that knows how to design, build, operate and, above all, innovate using the best networks in the world. The movement is nascent, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 Non-Members, $8 Members, $7 Students
Nerd Nite North Bay #2: Cats, Costumes, and HorrorsSurrender Yourself to Your Cat: The Art and Science of Feline-Human Relationships by Daniel Quagliozzi What is your cat saying to you? Understanding and interpreting feline body language is complex, but if you pay close attention to the subtle body cues that cats give you can change your relationship with them. ...
Where: NovatoCost: $5
Wednesday, 11/05/14
Free First WednesdayFree museum admission all day, to anyone from anywhere, at Bay Area Discovery Museum
First I will describe my efforts to accelerate the pace and quality of electricity decarbonization research by improving an open-source grid planning model (SWITCH) and making it usable to other researchers. The lack of shared datasets and modeling tools has hindered energy planning, forcing researchers to compile datasets and write models ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Information Technology Enablers for Deep Space ExplorationTechnology innovation has always been the engine that has enabled new space mission capabilities. For interplanetary space exploration, nowhere has this been more evident in recent years than in the field of information technology that itself spans a huge breath of underlying sub-disciplines, such as flight computing, reliable software engineering, ...
History of Robots from ancient Egypt to current timesAn irreverent non-technical review of the history of surprisingly animate machines, from ancient Egypt to current times. Areas include teleoperators for hazardous environments, assembly systems, medical applications, entertainment, and science fiction. The talk covers such varied topics as Memnon son of Dawn, Droz's automata, Vaucanson's duck, cathedral clocks, Von Kempelen's ...
Rick reports data suggesting individual male Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) can be distinguished by characteristics of their Four Note Location Calls (FLC). He recorded owls while accompanying field biologists as they monitoried owls on historic breeding territories, including sites where previously banded owls were re-sighted during the study ...
Since Fall 2002, the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering has hosted the Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium (SVLS). The Symposium hosts industry and technology leaders to talk about business and technology trends. It also features prominent leaders who discuss broader societal and political issues that shape our life and society.Speaker: William ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Visualizing Climate ImpactsIn spite of the seemingly constant bombardment of sobering climate news, Americans continue to rank global warming 19th out of the top 20 priorities for the nation. Come discover how a pioneering new technology - a location-based, first-person, 360-degree virtual reality device called the OWL - is being used in the Bay Area ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10 General, Free for members
Improving the Precision of Dark Energy Measurements: An Imperative for LSST. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be a powerful tool for addressing the crisis in fundamental physics that has been precipitated by the discovery of dark energy. Type Ia supernovae provided the initial evidence for accelerating cosmic expansion, and are among the dark energy probes planned for LSST. But supernova ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
THE EVOLUTION OF THE REFLECTOR TELESCOPEThe reflecting astronomical telescope making use of mirrors was invented by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668 as a solution to the problem of chromatic aberration in refracting telescopes that use lenses. Initial versions of reflectors suffered from unreliable mirror making technologies based on metal mirrors and lagged behind the technology ...
After Dark: DecayNot a theater, cabaret, or gallery, After Dark contains aspects of all three. Each evening showcases a different topic-from music to sex to electricity- but all include a cash bar and film screenings, plus an opportunity to play with our hundreds of hands-on exhibits. Join us and mingle with inventive ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $10 Members
Bio-techno NightLifeLike technology, biodiversity is all around us and constantly evolving. This week, NightLife focuses a tech-savvy lens on the ways that technological advances allow us to study, engage with, and share biodiversity as we see it.Get the scoop on the current (10th anniversary!) issue of Scientific American MINDexploring "The Future of ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, $10 Members
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 in Menlo Park at Café Borrone http://www.cafeborrone.com/ between Kepler's Books and the British Banker's Club! Look for someone wearing a CFI (Center for Inquiry) T-Shirt. Café Borrone
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Yosemite's Big Trees, Past and FutureFrom inception in 1863, Yosemite National Park has included the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia in addition to Yosemite Valley. The Big Trees are fundamental to the past and future of the park. Join prize-winning historian Jared Farmer as he gives an illustrated lecture on California's most visited sequoia grove-home ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $6.27 General, Free for members
Micro Grids: Prototypes for the Smart GridOf the total energy consumed in the U.S. only 0.3% comes from solar and 1.65% comes from wind. Electric utilities are cautious about adding these intermittent renewable energy sources to the current grid. Clean Coalition's mission is to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and a modern grid through technical, ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Advance Ticket $10 or $15 at the Door
Conversations on Science: The Wisdom of Science and the Power of WordsAward-winning science journalist Carl Zimmer reports from the frontiers of biology, where scientists are expanding our understanding of life. He is a columnist for The New York Times and is an expert on topics ranging from biology and evolution to parasites and viruses. His award-winning blog, "The Loom," is hosted ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $27 General, $25 Members
Friday, 11/07/14
Data Science Lecture Series: Big Data Management with the Myria Cloud ServiceMany tools exist today for managing increasingly large collections of data. An important challenge, however, is that Big Data management tools must be both fast and easy-to-use. In this talk, we present the Myria system and service that we have developers in the database group at the University of Washington ...
This talk will present the results of archaeological field work at Captain Jack's Stronghold in Lava Beds National Monument in Southern Oregon. A wildfire in 2008 burned covering vegetation from the "stronghold" and afforded archaeologists access and opportunity to better survey and study the area. The extensive honeycomb of jagged ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
The Implications of Market Structure for Appliance Energy Efficiency RegulationI derive and test predictions from the classic Mussa and Rosen (1978) second-degree price discrimination model using data from the United States clothes washer market. I find evidence consistent with price discrimination in the market response to energy efficiency policy changes. Concurrent with the effective dates of both the new ...
