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 ...
Registration opens for Marine Science Camp February 4th at 8:00am! Marine Science Camp provides hands-on curriculum for budding marine scientists in K-12th grade. Participants experience marine life up close in a fun, safe, and exciting atmosphere. Our knowledgable instructors lead week-long explorations of the SF Bay and Pacific coast, including ...
Where: Redwood CityCost: $385-$1400
Measuring the Hubble Constant with Gravitational WavesThe first detection of binary neutron star merger by Advanced LIGO-Virgo and the discovery of the optical counterpart allowed for the first independent measurement of Hubble constant with gravitational waves. In this talk, I will summarize latest cosmological measurements with gravitational waves, and discuss the future aspects of them. I ...
A discussion of the growth and augmentation of work experience (time effect), the career socio-economic, cultural and regional impact (place effect), relates achieving career success to that of progression in human capabilities (people effect) is presented. Success can be measured in many different ways, and by a variety of criteria ...
As the AI revolution is poised to impact nearly every industry, as well as government, education, family, and social life, concerns are mounting about how training computers to think like us can amplify some of the worst parts of ourselves. Is our training data teaching machines to adopt human biases ...
Suppression of the exciton Bose condensate in TiSe2Cux by metallic screeningThe transition metal dichalcogenide semimetal 1T-TiSe2 exhibits a Bose condensate of excitons traditionally referred to as an “excitonic insulator†(though the material is not technically insulating) and highlighted as “excitonium†in the popular press. Using momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS) experiments with meV energy resolution, we showed the experimental signature ...
Programmable proteins that detect and cut specific DNA sequences were uncovered by research to understand how bacteria fight viral infections. In collaboration with Emmanuelle Charpentier’s laboratory, we determined how the enzyme Cas9, which is part of CRISPR-Cas adaptive bacterial immunity, can be harnessed as a powerful technology to alter genomic ...
People and Robots SeminarDespite massive interest in self-driving cars, the problem of how to ensure the reliability and safety of intelligent autonomous systems remains unsolved. In this talk, I will discuss approaches to safe autonomy based on Algorithmic Improvisation, a framework for automatically synthesizing systems with random but controllable behavior. Algorithmic improvisation can ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
From Nonlinear Optics to High-Intensity Laser PhysicsThe laser increased the intensity of light that can be generated by orders of magnitude and thus brought about nonlinear optical interactions with matter. Chirped pulse amplification, also known as CPA, changed the intensity level by a few more orders of magnitude and helped usher in a new type of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Devices and Decisions for Smart Buildings This panel, moderated by Strategic Energy Alliance Executive Director Richard Sassoon, will feature organizations that seek to optimize when energy is consumed in order to improve building efficiency. Some of these organizations are developing new products, while others emphasize making smart choices as users of electricity.Panelists: Matt Duesterberg, CEO of ...
Restoring Climate Health Through Innovative SolutionsPeter Fiekowsky founded Healthy Climate Alliance with the intention of restoring the climate to its preindustrial climate health. He hopes to accelerate an emerging array of innovations to reduce the level of carbon in the atmosphere and to preserve and rebuild Arctic ice. While reducing emissions is important, he promotes ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $10 Members, $8 Students
The Sound of Darkness? Assuming the standard cosmological model, different data sets lead to inconsistent values of the Hubble constant. In this talk I will reformulate this discrepancy in terms of the sound horizon - the comoving distance traveled by sound waves from the beginning until recombination of the primordial plasma. The sound horizon ...
I will describe two projects in which we characterize complex systems - supercooled liquids and conjugated polymer aggregates - through single molecule or single particle fluorescence imaging. First, in supercooled liquids - systems that display behaviors consistent with the presence of heterogeneous dynamics - we investigate the time scales over ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Adding Numbers and Shuffling CardsPersi Diachonis, Stanford University, Depts. of Statistics & Mathematics, will give the Advanced Physics/Physics Colloquium.
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Hard Earth Talk: How Biodiversity Loss Hurts Human HealthThe Anthropocene -- the current geological age, shaped largely by human actions on the climate and the rest of Earth -- has been called the “sixth mass extinction.†One reason that’s a problem is that roughly half the new drugs approved in the United States over the past quarter century ...
Drone technology has been increasingly used by public agencies for emergency and disaster response, including the recent devastating wildfires in California. However, the volume of information drones can collect quickly has resulted in a pressing need for rapid data processing and visualization. This lecture will walk through the use of ...
Regardless of the application, calculating a particular statistic and associated p-value is not necessarily the biggest challenge in designing an experiment, especially given the availability of open source software packages such as scipy and statsmodels in Python. Instead, ensuring that the assumptions required for a statistical test are actually satisfied ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Testing Fuzzy Dark Matter and Fifth Forces with Binary Pulsars I will show how properties such as spin, mass, and couplings of ultra-light (fuzzy) dark matter can be tested with binary pulsars by searching for secular variations in the orbital parameters. In particular, if fuzzy dark matter is a carrier of a vector fifth force, for example B-L, the constraints ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Understanding Aquatic Communities Through Remote Sensing Rosenberg Institute Seminar SeriesAquatic macrophyte communities play an important part in the Sacramento-San JoaquinDelta ecology. Part of the lower food web, they are ecosystem engineers that impede recreational and commercial use of the Delta waterways and cost millions of dollars in herbicide control programs every year. Remote sensing offers a ...
Capture and permanent geologic sequestration of biogenic CO2 emissions may provide critical flexibility in ambitious climate change mitigation. However, most bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) technologies are technically immature or commercially unavailable. Here, I evaluate low-cost, commercially ready and/or small scale BECCS technologies. These include CCS at existing ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
New Forms of Reading / New Forms of DesignIn her wide-ranging practice, Swiss designer Julia Born explores new ways of engaging with textual and visual material on the printed page and in the exhibition site. She has works in close dialogue with artists, such as Uta Eisenreich, Shannon Ebner, Moyra Davey, Michael Auder, and Wendelien van Oldenborgh, to ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Talk on California Native FernsCCNH naturalist Angela Pai will give a talk on California native ferns for San Pablo Neighbors Education and Restoration Society (SPAWNERS) covering ecology, basic identification, and common ferns in the area.Join SPAWNERS for this fascinating look at local ferns.
February Bird WalkWhile winter birds are still abundant in the garden, this month we will be looking for the earliest of our spring migrants: Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds flying north from Mexico. Rain or shine! We suggest bringing binoculars if you have them, and layers in case it is a chilly morning.Speaker: ...
Planet Formation Post-KeplerThe message of the Kepler space mission is this: super-Earths abound in the universe. These are planets 1 - 4 Earth radii and 2 - 20 Earth masses, composed of solids and gas in proportions of 100:1 by mass. We describe how super-Earths/sub-Neptunes form within circumstellar disks of gas and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Quantifying and Measuring Phase Noise in RF and Microwave SignalOver the past years, Phase Noise has become critical parameter for the performance of many systems ranging from cellular receivers, highspeed digital systems, and target detection and identification systems. Currently, Phase Noise is a very important design parameter for all top-of-the line signal generators and frequency synthesizers. In this seminar, ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
After Dark: CraftIn a world increasingly synthetic, robotic, and removed from human touch, commune with the soul of things made by hand - yours or someone else’s. Sip craft beer, experience the work of local craftspeople and meet them face to face, and get your own hands working on something new at ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, $14.95 Daytime Members
Cafe InquiryCenter for Inquiry San Francisco's monthly get together to talk about whatever interests us.
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
SF Beer Week NightlifeCelebrate SF Beer Week with a foam-filled evening of brews. Sip your way through a pop-up beer hall with dozens of local breweries slinging crowd favorites and limited releases.Pop-up Beer Hall (1st floor) 6:00 - 10:00pm -----> Take your time tasting the mighty fine selection of seasonal specials from different brewers including:CalicraftDrake’s ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members
Donor Power: The Influence of Climate PhilanthropyLarge, established foundations such as Hewlett - Packard and Bloomberg have been some of the earliest funders addressing climate change. But grantmakers and grantseekers are not always fans of their policy-centric and top-down approaches. Meanwhile, a new wave of midsize foundations are seeding policies and research institutions that are shaping ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Astronomy on Tap Santa Cruz #11 - What’s Up at Lick Observatory?Lick Observatory, above San Jose, has a long history of being at the forefront of science and technology, starting with the most advanced telescope in the world at the time in 1888.  Dr. Elinor Gates will describe some of the current research being done at Lick Observatory, ranging from discovering ...
Despite its universal scope (every little thing) and precision (better than 10 parts per billion), quantum physics retains profound mysteries. What is really going on down there in the heart of matter?! Atom interferometers are instruments that rely on the quantum "wave nature" of matter for measurements of fundamental constants AND ...
