Stress-testing LCDM and Searching for New Physics using CMB observationsThe Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM) paradigm has been successful in sufficiently describing all cosmological observations. However, new data are beginning to challenge the validity of the model. For example, the value of the Hubble constant (H0) inferred from the Planck satellite and that measured using the classical distance ladder ...
The primary sources of electricity generation in the United States are shifting towards distributed renewables and natural gas-fired power plants. The latter are used in intra-day power system operations to provide base load as well as flexibility to balance the intermittency and fluctuation of renewable generation. Gas pipeline systems must ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Quantum materials: insights from near field nano-opticsIn 1944 Hans Bethe reported on “the diffraction of electromagnetic radiation by a hole small compared with the wave-length†[Physical Review 66, 163 (1944)]. This seminal paper was among the early precursors to a new and vibrant area of research: near field nano-optics. I will discuss recent nano-optical experiments on ...
California is one of more than 30 states that have adopted new science standards based on the suggestions of an NRC study that I led. I will explain the major shifts that these new standards introduce to science classrooms and the reasons for them. The process of implementation is a ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
People and Robots SeminarScience fiction has long promised a world of robotic possibilities: from humanoid robots in the home, to wearable robotic devices that restore and augment human capabilities, to swarms of autonomous robotic systems forming the backbone of the cities of the future, to robots enabling exploration of the cosmos. With the ...
Correlated Electrons: The Dark Energy of Quantum MaterialsThe nearly 80-year-old correlated electron problems remain largely unsolved; with one stunning success being BCS electron-phonon mediated "conventional" superconductivity. There are dozens of families of superconductors that are "unconventional" including the high-T cuprates, iron-based, and heavy fermions. Although these materials are disparate in many properties, some of their fundamental properties ...
John Deutch is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Deutch has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1970, and has served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Dean of Science, and Provost. Mr. Deutch has published over 160 technical publications in physical chemistry, ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Thinking Wrong about Climate Change: Ocean HealthWe can’t solve today’s challenges with yesterday’s thinking. During guided networking, The Determined will introduce Think Wrong prompts to spark ideas and conversations. Come to our 3rd TWACC event where you’ll meet others in the Ocean Health industry to learn new ways to address climate change. We'll cover areas to ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10
Wonderfest: The Most Famous EquationAround the world, people recognize that E=mc^2 oozes cosmic wisdom. But what does this "most famous equation"Â really say? What are energy and mass? And what makes the speed of light, c, so important? [Hint: mass, moving at speed c, doesn't turn into energy!] Using little more than common experience and ...
Where: NovatoCost: Free
Next-generation cybersecurity via data fusion, AI, and big dataBe it the global financial institution or the critical infrastructure that runs essential services in our lives, at the center is trust. Trust is a differentiator for the modern customer, and in a hyperconnected world, customers demand that their most sensitive personal information (i.e., identity, address, salary, mortgage, credit card ...
Where: SunnyvaleCost: Free
Nerd Nite East BayLearn how HIV treatment prevents evolution, how modern stop motion puppets are made and filmed, and how to have your best sex in your septuagenarian years at Nerd Nite East Bay!How Granny Still Gets It On: Aging and Sexual HealthGetting stressed about being alone on Valentine’s Day this year? Well stop worrying, ...
Where: OaklandCost: $8/online $10/door
Tuesday, 01/29/19
Mechanisms and Dynamics of Pericyclic Reactions - Homage to Andy StreitwieserThis lecture will pay homage to Berkeley Professor Andrew Streitwieser by describing how modern computational methods, that he pioneered, now enable the understanding of organic reaction mechanisms in a time-resolved fashion. The study of timing of bond formation in pericyclic reactions will be described using quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics. ...
Towards a 5-sigma constraint on the sum of the neutrino masses I will discuss the effects that neutrino masses induce on the clustering of matter and galaxies, on the halo mass function and on the void size function. I will then introduce the Quijote simulations, a set of 23000 N-body simulations containing, at a single redshift, more than 3.3 trillions of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Synergies and Fundamental Physics from the Large Scale Structure Galaxy surveys and the study of the Large Scale Structure (LSS) have played an important role in establishing the standard cosmological model, LCDM, and will push the envelope of observational cosmology the next decades, thanks to experiments such as DESI and Euclid. In this talk, I will show how we ...
Intrinsically disordered peptides are a special class of proteins that do not fold to a unique three-dimensional shape. These proteins play important roles in the cell, from signaling to serving as structural scaffolds. Under pathological conditions, these proteins are capable of self-assembling into structures that are toxic to the cell, ...
Nerd Nite Silicon Valley #01 - January 2019Nerd Nite Silicon Valley is back!Non-nerds are very welcome to have a blast too! Doors 6:50pm.1. Steven Savage: "Geeky Productivity"2. Ray Engeszer: "Conflict in Sexual Selection and Natural Selection"3. Manuel Meyer: "Supermassive Black Holes as Particle Accelerators"Pro Tip: Curious about the topics but not sure? Come anyways, you won't be ...
Where: San JoseCost: Donation.
Making Waves in a SuperconductorSuperconductors are materials in which electric current flows freely, without resistance. They are used to create the powerful magnetic fields needed to operate MRI machines and levitate high-speed trains, and have even served as building blocks for quantum computers. While most metals can become superconducting at temperatures close to absolute ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
The Second Kind of Impossible: The Quest for a New Form of MatterWhen leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all conceivable forms of matter. "The Second Kind of Impossible" is the story of Steinhardt's 35-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. Steinhardt's discoveries chart a new direction in science. They not only change our ideas ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: $18 | $15 Member, J-Pass Holder | $10 Student w ID
Wednesday, 01/30/19
From VLT to ELTIn this presentation I will discuss three topics: 1) recent results obtained with KMOS on the physics and dynamics of high galaxies, 2) the current status of the MOONS instrument and 3) the new Extremely Large Telescope.First I will discuss the latest results we have obtained from a Large Programme ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Harnessing all-optical laser-scanning imaging for deep and large-scale image-based analysisStudying cell populations, their transition states and functions at the single cell level is critical for understanding in normal tissue development and pathogenesis of disease. State-of-the-art single-cell analysis approaches have overwhelmingly been biomolecularly-driven (e.g. analyzing cell-surface protein and gene expressions). Despite their exquisite specificity, they remain highly variable with regard ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin In 1905, eight sailor-scientists from the California Academy of Sciences set out on an 89-foot schooner from San Francisco for a scientific collecting expedition in the Galapagos Islands. By the time they finished in late 1906, they had completed one of the most important expeditions in the history of both ...
Where: TiburonCost: Free
Climate damages in a globalized world: the dynamic agent-based model AcclimateIn an interconnected global economy, the effects of extreme weather events are not necessarily locally confined but can have repercussions in other parts of the world, e.g. by rippling through supply chains. A better understanding of the overall economic implications of weather extremes is important to comprehensively estimate the costs ...
Traditionally, scheduling and control are viewed as two related but disparate engineering activities. For scheduling, the main decisions are typically discrete yes/no choices; the models capture only important discrete events and transitions but include many units; and, the objective is generally economic in some sense (minimize, e.g., cost or earliness). ...
Where: OrindaCost: $5 General/Members, $1 Students & Teachers
Do we inherit experiences? Lessons in epigenetic inheritance (gene expression)The nature of inheritance has inspired debate since ancient times. How are traits inherited from one generation to the next? Can acquired traits or experiences be passed on? The field of genetics points to the genes encoded in our DNA. But we now know that there are mechanisms outside of ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
taste of science: Bacteria and BalloonsLearning from Global Gut MicrobiomesOur guts are home to trillions of bacteria, and we're only beginning to understand how they interact with our bodies and each other. I'm studying how our gut microbiome has changed over time by looking at gut bacteria from different populations around the world. Specifically, I'll ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: $5
Astronomy on Tap San Jose: Active Galaxies and Mantis ShrimpScience, craft beer, trivia, and more! Come out to the next Astronomy on Tap event in #downtownSJ at Uproar Brewing Company on Wednesday, January 30th for a fun time!Active galaxies are difficult to study but the mantis shrimp may have a secret tool to observe them!Speaker: Enrique Lopez Rodriguez, SOFIA ...
Join historian Paul Edwards and artist Rosten Woo in a discussion of the politics of sensing, the construction of large datasets, climate modeling, epistemology, how shared data realities are constructed and maintained, and how we understand the impacts of climate change today. Four short films by Rosten Woo, commissioned by ...
Speaker: Hong-Yuan Lee, Chief Consultant, City of Kao Xiong
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Cosmic collisions - progress and prospects for gravitational-wave astronomyThe observation of mergers of black holes and neutron stars has established gravitational-wave astronomy as a powerful tool to understand the Universe. After a brief introduction to gravitational waves and how the detectors work, I will discuss the insights that have come from the events identified thus far by the ...
"Frontiers of Science" Speaker: Dr. Carrie Northover, Research Director, 23andMe  23andMe is at the forefront of genetic testing and analysis. Dr. Northover is responsible for the execution of 23andMe's research projects with industry, academia and non-profits. She will discuss what we can learn from our genes and how that information can be used to advance ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
NightLife Spotlight: ColorExplore the Academy through rose-colored glasses: Tonight we’re celebrating the wonderful world of color. Get your late-night science fix with rainbow-hued cocktails in hand while wandering among rainforest greens, aquarium blues, and coral pinks.Learn about EnChroma glasses, which enable people with red-green colorblindness to see a broader range of clear, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
Just ten years ago, an entire state running on 100 percent renewable electricity was considered fanciful. But this dreamy vision became reality when, with the backing of big utilities, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 100 into law, committing California to 100 percent use of zero-carbon electricity by 2045. Then Brown took it ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Wonderfest: Ask a Science Envoy: Stem Cells & the SpectrumWonderfest Science Envoys are early-career researchers with special communication skills and aspirations. Following short talks on provocative modern science topics, these two Science Envoys will answer questions with insight and enthusiasm:Stanford biologist Leslie Koyama on "The Secret Lives of Stem Cells" - How stem cells impact our everyday existence, and will ...
Sir Joseph Banks (1743 - 1820) was an English naturalist and botanist who accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific. During the expedition, 30,000 plants were collected and The Banks Florilegium was created but not published until 1989. Banks is credited for introducing the genera Acacia, Banksia and ...
Extensive dunes on Titan have been observed by Cassini and are inferred to be made of mainly organics produced photochemically from the atmosphere. However, it has been a mystery how the organic sand particles are createdâ€"either by transforming the small aerosol particles in Titan’s atmosphere into larger sand sized particles ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
Pathways to STEMHow does one take a kid from Compton on a life journey and academic career path to Professor in Neurobiology at UC San Diego by way of UC Berkeley (B.A.), Harvard University (Ph.D.), and postdoctoral studies at California Institute of Technology? The answer is simple: Access, Mentorship and Advocacy! ...
Magnetism in Amorphous AlloysMost condensed matter textbooks start by introducing crystal symmetries and the periodic lattice as foundational to the field. Yet, it has long been known that the amorphous structure supports ferromagnetism, superconductivity, and a host of other condensed matter properties. Superconductivity theory was famously expanded from the original Bloch ...
Reactive sulfur species, such as H2S and sulfane-sulfur compounds, play key roles in different (patho)physiological processes. In addition, these small molecules are also key targets for new donor motifs that function both as important research tools and pharmacological agents. Aligned with this importance, our lab has recently developed a palette ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
$5 First Friday: The Art & Science of Hip-HopMusic is simultaneously an art and a science, and the two disciplines are closely related. Science and music are formed on the foundations of curiosity, creativity, and mathematics and results of both serve to enlighten and inspire us. Join us as we explore the dynamics of hip-hop music and discover ...
A computational and molecular biologist, Dr. Richardson specializes in the design of genomes. Dr. Richardson earned her B.S. in Biology at the University of Maryland College Park; with the support of a prestigious DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship she earned a Ph.D. in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology from the Johns Hopkins University ...
Bald Hill Broom BustPlease join One Tam, MMWD, and Marin County Parks for our annual Bald Hill Broom Bust! Volunteers will focus on containing the spread of French and Scotch broom monocultures and also eradicate pioneer patches.We can meet at Deer Park and hike, bike or carpool to the site. Group leaders will ...
Where: FairfaxCost: Free
Community Groundhog DayPay-what-you-wish on Community Days, when ExplOratorium entry is on a first-come, first-served basis. Entry is subject to capacity; admission is not guaranteed.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Pay what you wish
Full Circle FalconryJoin Environmental Volunteers for a Saturday live birds of prey show presented by Full Circle Falconry. Have you ever wanted to see a bird of prey up close? Come meet some amazing raptors face to face and learn their stories! Let’s find out the differences between hawks and falcons, both mighty ...
Calling All Eco-Explorers! Youth ages 5-15 will be up to their elbows in FREE, hands-on activities. Learning through fun interactive, nature science experiences and regional field trips, your kids will find out all about the Bay Area ecosystem and become the next generation of Citizen Scientists! We have extended Welcome ...
Where: OaklandCost: Free
Sequence your food! Next-Generation Illumina sequencing for 16S/ITS metagenomicsNext Generation Sequencing & Meta-genomics : Bring in your fermented foods to be analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of the 16s and/ or ITS marker genes. This a two day class taking place Saturday and Sunday(11:00AM-6:00PM) at the Omni Commons.Metagenomics is the study of genetic materials recovered from a population. These ...
Where: OaklandCost: $60
A Fungus Among UsFrom truffles and yeast to ringworm and toadstools, fungus is all around us. Explore the farm looking for examples of these life forms and learn more about their importance in our world.
Where: FreemontCost: Free
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.
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Low Tide WalkMSI takes to the tidepools for a treasure hunt of nature's beautiful intertidal secrets. We'll spend our time taking advantage of the low tide to reach the outer edges of Pillar Point, and take in spectacular views as we slowly retreat to shore. Will we find crabs, sea stars, eels ...
Where: Half Moon BayCost: From $20
Low Tide WalkLow tides don't always happen at the most opportune times so were heading out again to check out Pillar Points sub-tidal zones and take in the spectacular views as we slowly retreat to shore.Register at weblink.
Where: Half Moon BayCost: $20
Sunday, 02/03/19
Tilden Fungal FairCelebrate the fruits of winter! View hundreds of local mushroom specimens, mingle with the mycological community, and enjoy presentations by guest speakers at this day-long special event.
Archaeology, the study of human history & prehistory through analysis of physical remains, is embracing modern technology. Advances in digital imaging and mobile capabilities are transforming the ways archaeology is practiced, experienced, and understood. This talk will explore remarkable breakthroughs in archaeology by visiting exemplar field projects from around the ...
