Birds of Berkeley Bird WalkJoin Birds of Berkeley author, Oliver James, for a bird walk in the Garden. Copies of his book will be available for sale and signing. Birds of Berkeley is a full-color field guide to 25 birds easily found in Berkeley proves that even the city’s avian residents are ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $20 General, $18 members, free UC students & Staff
YouSolar: Solar Simplified, Power AmplifiedYouSolar has designed a stand-alone solar+battery system that works in areas with unreliable grids or no grid at all. The system is high-power and can replace diesel generators widely used in these situations. The system is plug-and-play and so fast to assemble that it can go from box to power in one ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $8 Members, Free for students
Is the Universe lop-sided?Since the standard cosmological model is such a good fit to the cosmic microwave background anisotropy data, a great deal of attention has focused on hints of "physics beyond the standard model". One particular large-scale "anomaly" that has been noted is that there appears to be more power on one ...
The kitchen can be a haven - for you and, if you’re not careful, for microbes that can be hazardous to your health. However, finding best practices for kitchen safety isn’t always easy. Is it better to wash or microwave your sponges? Are wooden cutting boards safer than plastic, or ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $17.95 adv, $19.95 door, free with A.D. membership
Friday, 05/11/18
Electronic Interfaces for Bacteria-Based BiosensingIn this talk, I will present our work to co-opt the natural detection capabilities of bacteria for hybrid biosensing platforms. We will cover the following techniques: (i) embedding current-producing bacteria inside a conductive polymer matrix to enhance current generation in a microbial electrochemical system; (ii) observing large numbers of chemotactic ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
California TypewriterCalifornia Typewriter is a documentary portrait of artists, writers, and collectors who remain steadfastly loyal to the typewriter as a tool and muse, featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, David McCullough, Sam Shepard, and others. It also movingly documents the struggles of California Typewriter, one of the last standing repair shops ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost:
Hardcore Natural History: From Chautauqua to SteinbeckThis is a story of immigration of people to America seeking a better life and a place to call home. It is a story about John Steinbeck’s maternal ancestors, the Hamilton family; his grandfather Samuel, great aunt Mary and great uncle Robert Hamilton, the three of whom emigrated from Ireland ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: $10 General, $5 Member, $15 all at door
Green Friday: Tales of BeesCalifornia is home to many species of native bees as well as introduced species such as the European honey bee. They are amazing creatures and important pollinators in natural, agricultural and urban landscapes. Dr. Hafernik will introduce the natural history of bee species in the Bay Area and discuss threats ...
Experience 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: $20 General, $15 Members
Girls Day @ The Tech: Science SafariBring the whole family to Girls Day @ The Tech: Science Safari, an event devoted to providing girls with opportunity, inspiration and fun with STEM learning. We’ll offer special hands-on animal-themed activities designed to empower girls along with their siblings and parents. You’ll engineer a device to help move Pandas ...
Where: San JoseCost: free with the purchase of general admission ticket
Trekking the ModelJoin a Ranger or docent on a guided tour of the Bay Model, a 1.5-acre hydraulic model of the San Francisco Bay and Delta. Discover the stories of the two major operations that took place at this location between 1942 - 2000.Â
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Celebrating Stephen Hawking: Astronomer Andrew Fraknoi Discusses His Life and WorkScientists and science enthusiasts are mourning the passing of Stephen Hawking, one of the great minds and spirits of our time. In this introductory, non-technical talk, Bay Area public astronomer Andrew Fraknoi will briefly summarize Hawking’s life, and talk about the importance of his scientific work. No background in science ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Sunday, 05/13/18
Marine Science Sunday: Back from the Brink - Saving SpeciesThis 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 threatened Guadalupe fur seals, Southern sea otter, the rarest seal in the United States, the Hawaiian monk seal. Docent-led tours will take you around the ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Monday, 05/14/18
Cool Clean TechDecoupling economic growth from carbon emissions will require new technologies to get the job done. Some of that innovation will come from established corporations, but much of it will come from creative entrepreneurs building new products and fresh ways to power our economy. Some of those inventions are cool. Others ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Salt formations are ideal regions for geologic storage. Their extremely low permeability, ease of mining, and propensity for creep means that they can be relatively quickly developed, used for storage of all types of media (solid, liquid, and gas) and are generally self-sealing to imposed damage in relatively short geologic ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
What Is Quantum Cognition?In this talk I will provide a review of Quantum Cognition which is an approach to construct cognitive models based on the mathematics of quantum probability theory rather than classical probability theory based on Boolean algebra.Despite the success of traditional cognitive models based on the laws of classical probability theory, ...
Reliable qubits are difficult to engineer. What can we do with just a few of them? Here are some ideas:1. Dimension test. An n-qubit system should have 2^n dimensions, but systems with just polynomial(n) dimensions can look like they have n qubits. Is nature really exponential? We give a test ...
This is a strange moment in the history of our planet - its intelligent life has rapidly altered its climate in a way that threatens their welfare, and the state of the earth system that supports them. We will discuss the risk of heat to the health of the habitable ...
Electrochemistry is used widely today, spanning from production of hydrogen and metals such as aluminum and Li-ion batteries. We will discuss current and future opportunities in using electrochemistry to power cars and buildings, and to make chemicals and fuels with energy from the Sun. Research towards establishing design principles in ...
On July 14, 2015, something amazing happened. More than 3 billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at more than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members and Seniors
For thousands of years people have wondered, “Are there planets like Earth?†“Are such planets common?†“Do any have signs of life?†Today astronomers are poised to answer these ancient questions, having recently found thousands of planets that orbit nearby Sun-like stars, called “exoplanetsâ€. Professor Sara Seager will share the ...
