The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was established to adminis- ter a $500 million research fund committed by BP to understand the fate and effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Led by an independent Research Board GoMRI has implemented five major peer-reviewed, theme-based competitions in- cluding an ...
As one of the fastest-growing parts of the Bay Area, Silicon Valley needs a reliable, safe and drought-proof water supply. What can be done in the near term to provide the region with a sustainable water source at a fair price?Speakers: Remy Goldsmith and Vu-Bang Nguyen, Silicon Valley Community Foundation; ...
Where: San JoseCost: $10 General, Free for members
Near-shore Carbon Dynamics in the Context of Anthropogenic Ocean AcidificationConcerns have been raised on how near-shore marine ecosystems will be affected by ocean acidification resulting from increasing atmospheric CO2, but until recently, the influence of natural variability and processes affecting near-shore carbon chemistry have been largely overlooked. Here, I present results from a number of near-shore environments ranging from ...
'Life is Waiting' - Tiburon International Film FestivalLife Is Waiting chronicles the conflict over self-determination in Western Sahara. Most people think that colonialism in Africa has ended. But in the territory of Western Sahara, the end of European rule only gave way to a new occupation, this time by Morocco. Forty years later, the world continues to ...
The physical description of reality provided by contemporary science is one of stunning beauty and powerful utility. And the biological sciences fit nicely into this model, with life understood in terms of aggregates of molecular components, and consciousness hypothesized to somehow emerge in association with neural complexity. Is this the ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Tipping Point for Planet Earth: How Close Are We to the EdgePlanet Earth is headed for a tipping point.Midway through this century, there will be more than nine billion people on the planet. Already we are using most of the arable land that exists and overfishing the oceans. Water, too, is becoming scarce in many places. And the services that humans ...
Are you and your organization taking advantage of the opportunities created by today's flood of new data?Do you know about the latest tools for storing, analyzing, and visualizing data? Have you considered the privacy implications of working with data? How do leaders balance intuition and data in making important decisions?The ...
Where: BerkeleyCost:
Resilient Distribution Systems: State-of-the-Art and the FutureRecent development of the smart grid significantly enhanced the level of automation in the distribution grids. With high level deployment of remote-controlled switches, distribution feeders can be restored efficiently after power outages. In this presentation, computational algorithms for utilization of smart meters, remote control capabilities, and feeder restoration will be ...
Dr. Carlos Sanchez will present an overview of The Amazing Flora of Cuba. With more than 6,500 species of native plants, Cuba is among the world's islands with the highest plant diversity. More than half of the plants are endemic to the island and found in habitats ranging from coastal ...
Imagine that someone captures your brain, and then proceeds to read and tamper with every neuron in your brain -- all while you are thinking about a secret that you want to protect. Is any security possible against such a strong adversary?Fortunately, this scenario remains science fiction when applied to ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
The AI Alignment Problem: Why it's hard, and where to startIf we can build sufficiently advanced machine intelligences, what goals should we point them at? The frontier open problems on this subject are less, "A robot may not injure a human, nor through inaction allow a human to come to harm," and more, "If you could formally specify the preferences ...
Identify yourself: What defines you against, or within, the context of others? From cells to self-image, take a good look at the biological, psychological, and sociocultural circumstances of our individual and collective identities. Explore the human microbiome with its shifting boundaries between "us" and "them." Learn about genetic counseling, and ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $10 Members
Cafe InquiryMeet up with rationalists, skeptics, and freethinkers south of San Francisco
This week, learn about the rich history and flavorful future of mezcal at NightLife's spirit-focused celebration of Cinco de Mayo, co-presented by the MEX I AM festival showcasing the best of Mexico.Sip your way through a selection of mezcal-inspired cocktails at bars around the museum and catch mezcal mixology demos ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
Carbon pollution has recently dropped despite continued growth of the global economy. Supporters of clean energy cheered that news, and say it demonstrates that combatting climate change can be accomplished without massive economic pain. Was the decoupling of economic growth and carbon pollution just because of China's slowing economy and ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
The Mindset Revolution: Teaching Mathematics for a Growth MindsetJoin us for "The Mindset Revolution: Teaching Mathematics for a Growth Mindset" with Jo Boaler, professor of mathematics education at Stanford University and cofounder of youcubed. In her talk, Boaler will discuss how students with a "growth mindset," a belief that intelligence can be learned, learn more effectively and show ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free (RSVP required)
Update on Celiac DiseaseCeliac disease is a genetically linked disease with an environmental trigger that can be set off by foods containing gluten. This elicits an autoimmune response that causes damage to the small intestine. Celiac disease is a surprisingly common, though frequently undiagnosed disease. This talk will provide insight into celiac disease, ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Astronomy Night at UC Berkeley: The Search for Planets like EarthThe UC Berkeley Astronomy Department is hosting FREE, monthly public talks and stargazing at Campbell Hall on the UC Berkeley campus!Come learn about the super hot field of exoplanets and the hunt for planets like our own with our speaker , Lauren Weiss, of UC Berkeley. After, join us for ...
Eureka! is an interactive science comedy show where audience members and comedians try to win prizes by answering the guest scientist's questions. May 5th we're featuring theoretical neuroscientist Dr. Vivienne Ming who will be discussing maximizing human potential and neural prosthetics alongside guest comedians Kevin Whittinghill (SF Sketchfest), Abhay Nadkarni ...
Are you and your organization taking advantage of the opportunities created by today's flood of new data?Do you know about the latest tools for storing, analyzing, and visualizing data? Have you considered the privacy implications of working with data? How do leaders balance intuition and data in making important decisions?The ...
Where: BerkeleyCost:
Setting the Climate Agenda for the Next U.S. PresidentRegardless of who wins the election in November, our next President will need to confront the reality of climate change. This conference will highlight strategies the next President might employ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the United States' pivot to a clean energy economy. The conference also will ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
17th Annual Microbiology Student SymposiumHow do microscopic life-forms affect our bodies, our economies, our planet, and our understanding of biological processes? The annual Microbiology Student Symposium (MSS), organized by the Microbial Biology Graduate Student Group at UC Berkeley, has touched on all of these issues in past years. This year, in addition to addressing ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Birds and Botany HikeHike the forests, meadows and hills around Pine Flat and up Redhill with ACR Volunteer Patrick Woodworth & ACR Resource Ecologist Dave Self. We'll be watching (and listening) for birds on the hike out. After lunch, we'll botanize as we consider the seasonal interplay between bird foods, habitat history and current activity ...
Where: GeyservilleCost: Free
National Public Garden Day - Free AdmissionIn honor of National Public Garden Day, enjoy one complimentary admission! Follow this link to get your coupon: http://publicgardens.org/offer/16870 Valid for one admission on May 6th.
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Soil Health Series: Understanding Growth Media & the Chemistry of SoilJoin the very knowledgeable Stephen Andrews (UC Berkeley Professor, specializing in soils) for a hands-on class to discover how the chemical properties of soil clean our air, clean our water, and make nutrients available to plants. You'll understand chemistry like never before!You've undoubtedly heard of the Clean Air Act and ...
Future Fridays: Novel Science: The Making of A Working Theory of Love Science and art are often framed as opposites, if not enemies, but in this talk Bay Area author Scott Hutchins will discuss how Artificial Intelligence inspired, complicated, and deepened his breakout debut novel, A Working Theory of Love. Hutchins will read from his work, discuss chatbots, and delve into his ...
Where: OaklandCost: $5
Searching for a second genesis of life in our Solar SystemThe search for a second genesis of life in our solar system is a prime goal of astrobiology. Where might we find it? Following the water, the plume of Enceladus, meters below the surface of Mars, the methane seas of Titan! They all may have life and if they do, ...
Shorebirds in Spring for Beginners, a Workshop with Alvaro JaramilloSpring shorebird migration is one of the most marvelous of all animal migrations. Some of these birds migrate from the southern hemisphere to the high Arctic in a very short and rapid migration. We are fortunate to live by San Francisco Bay, one of the world's most important migration stop-over ...
Where: MilpitasCost: Classroom: $75, Field Trip: $50
Guided Nature WalkExperience the beauty and rich natural history of this 535-acre preserve. Our half-day guided nature walks are on Saturdays throughout fall and spring. 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 ...
Where: Glen EllenCost: Donations appreciated
The Bay Model Wants You!!! Become part of Sausalito's very own attraction known around the world! We have a variety of volunteer positions that are suited for people just like you! Greet visitors, lead tours, work with school groups, and more! Come and be a part of one of the largest working hydraulic models in ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Volunteering
Marinship Walking TourWalk back in time on this guided tour of Sausalito's historic Marinship. The Bay Model and surrounding area was a major WWII shipyard, which had a significant role in winning the war and influencing social changes in Marin County. Come and learn about the history, the extraordinary Marinship workers, and ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Mama Birds in the Marsh FestivalThe eggs have hatched! Let's celebrate the new mamas. Come with your family to experience the refuge for FREE guided bird walks, a live bird show, crafts for mom and games. Spread your wings for bird conservation as you get up close and personal with refuge wildlife and their habitats. ...
Where: AlvisoCost: Free
Trekking the ModelJoin a Ranger guided tour of the Bay Model, a 1.5-acre hydraulic model of San Francisco Bay and Delta. Discover the stories of the two major operations that took place at this location between 1942–2000.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Sunday, 05/08/16
Documenting Wildlife on the Mayacamas Come and spend the morning with ACR Volunteer, Docent and Wildlife Camera Specialist Ginny Fifield to learn about some of the wildlife that inhabits the Modini Mayacamas Preserves. We'll learn about identifying field signs of mountain lions, bobcat, coyotes and more. We will also visit two wildlife trail cameras, where ...
Join us for a stroll on Mother's Day through the rolling green hills of Fernandez Ranch. Amateur botanists Angela Pai and Lo Scheiner will lead this casual hike through oak woodlands with abundant wildflowers and open vistas.A part of the John Muir Land Trust, Fernandez Ranch has only been open ...
This month we celebrate the work taking place to help save endangered and threatened marine mammals found along the California coast and Pacific Ocean, including the massive blue whale, Steller sea lions, fur seals, and the rarest seal in the United States, the Hawaiian monk seal. Docent-led tours will take you around ...
Transit of Mercury ViewingThe planet Mercury will slowly move across (transit) the face of the Sun, appearing as a small dark dot, offering us a somewhat rare opportunity to view this historic event!The College of San Mateo (CSM) and the San Mateo County Astronomical Society (SMCAS) will provide safe viewing of the Transit in ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Transit of Mercury viewingPlease join us in this rare in a liftetime opportunity to view the morning transit of Mercury. The Planet Mercury will move directly between the Earth and the Sun. We will have available approved special filters and solar scopes to observe and view the dark disk of the planet Mercury ...
Where: Walnut CreekCost: Free
Transit of Mercury viewingMercury will transit the Sun for the first time since 2006. This is a MUST see event as the next time Mercury transits the Sun will November 11th, 2019. This transit will be in progress at Sunrise and will be ending around 11 am. It will be best to show ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Transit of Mercury viewingMercury will transit the Sun for the first time since 2006. The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. There are approximately 13 transits of Mercury each century! ...
Where: OaklandCost: $5
Transit of Mercury viewingFoothill College Observatory will be open from 8AM until 11:45AM for theTRANSIT OF MERCURY. While the transit is in progress at sunrise (6:04AM), the small disk of Mercury will be difficult to see until it rises a bit higher and gets into better seeing conditions. This is the first transit ...
Please join 3 disability rights and inclusion professionals in a discussion on the importance of integrating accessibility in your digital work. This discussion will highlight recent developments at the forefront of the tech and publishing industries, continuing challenges in access, and regulatory gaps in 3 areas: web content, e-publishing, and ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Food Addiction 2.0This program is an update from our previous Food Addiction program; all panelists will offer updated information. Addiction is about brains, not just about behaviors. We all have the brain reward circuitry that makes food rewarding; it's a survival mechanism. In a healthy brain, these rewards have feedback mechanisms for ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, Free for Members, $7 Students
Signal-based Bayesian Seismic MonitoringPerception can often be framed as the inverse of a better-understood forward process. For example, computer vision can be viewed as the inverse of computer graphics: a rendering engine computes a map from scene descriptions to image pixels, and vision systems attempt to invert this map. Bayesian inference provides a ...
The post-2015 sustainable development agenda adopted by UN Member States in September 2015 include 17 aspirational goals to be achieved by 2030. Achieving these goals will require reducing existing inequalities and deprivations while simultaneously addressing the growing environmental footprints of rising prosperity. This presentation will specifically discusses potential synergies and ...
7:00-7:25: Stan Shaff(Audium) on "Exploring and expanding the language of space in music composition and performance"Abstract forthcoming...Read more7:25-7:50: Adam Gazzaley(UCSF/ Neuroscience Imaging Center) on "TBA"Abstract forthcoming...Read more7:50-8:10: BREAK. Before or after the break, anyone in the audience currently working within the intersections of art and science will have ...
Superconductivity is perhaps the most spectacular macroscopic quantum phenomenon. A "persistent current" in a ring of superconducting wire will continue to flow forever – a laboratory realization of perpetual motion. A voltage across a junction between two superconductors produces an oscillating current with a frequency that is determined exactly by the voltage and the ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Pluto MattersOur understanding of the history of the solar system has undergone a revolution in recent years, owing to new theoretical insights into the origin of Pluto and the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and its rich dynamical structure. The emerging picture is one of dramatic orbital migration of the planets ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $12 General, $8 Members, $10 Seniors
Tuesday, 05/10/16
But What About the Stellar Occultation Data of Pluto's Atmosphere?Before the flyby of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, one of the major sources of data about Pluto's atmosphere was ground-based observational data of light intensity as Pluto moved in front of a background star. From these data the temperature of Pluto's atmosphere as a function of altitude was derived using ...
Viruses are ubiquitous - and weird - little critters. Biologists can't even agree if they are truly "living" entities. But if viruses aren't alive, then how did they evolve and where did they come from? Stanford microbiologist Lauren Popov will lead us on an exploration of the mainstream hypotheses about ...
Malignant: How Cancer Becomes UsProfessor Lochlann Jain of the Anthropology Department conducts research primarily concerned with how stories are told about injuries. Her 2013 book, Malignant: How Cancer Becomes Us, explores why cancer remains so confounding, despite the billions of dollars spent in the search for a cure. It has won numerous awards, including ...
Artificial intelligence is quickly moving from science fiction to science fact. But how should industries harness AI to extract business insight from data? Drawing on a number of real-world examples from mobile apps, healthcare, and education, Michael Ludden explains how machine learning can be democratized, augmenting human understanding and knowledge ...
