Sculpting Photocatalysts on the Nano ScaleThe solar-driven photocatalytic splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen is a potential source of clean and renewable fuels. However, four decades of global research have proven this multi-step reaction to be highly challenging. The design of effective artificial photocatalytic systems will depend on our ability to correlate the photocatalyst ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Saturday, 08/31/19
Science Saturday: Funky FungiHave you ever wondered where mushrooms come from, what that “moss†is hanging from the branches in an oak tree, or what lies beneath the rotting logs on a Redwood forest floor? Find out when we explore the hidden kingdom of fungus! Try completing a mushroom cap craft, learn about ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: Free
Family HikesBring the whole family along as we take a gentle 2-3-mile round trip walk among the majestic redwoods. We’ll stop and tell stories about Oakland history, identify native plants and trees, and discuss wildlife and indicators of climate change. Due to heavy roots, routes are not accessible by strollers and/or ...
Membrane potential is a unique biophysical property maintained by every cell on earth. The importance of membrane potential is widely recognized in the context of specialized organs like the brain and the heart. Yet, our understanding of the ways in which membrane potential, and its coordinated, rapid changes across large ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Sonoma State Biology ColloquiumSonoma State University Biology ColloquiumSpeaker: Dr. Cecilia Chavana-Bryant, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
Testing gravity with cosmology: efficient simulations, novel statistics and analytical approaches'In the era of precision cosmology, a wide range of cosmological surveys, such as the LSST, DESI, Euclid and WFIRST will precisely probe the large-scale structure of the universe, shedding light on the nature of the dark sectors. Given how sensitively the growth of structure depends on the nature of ...
Novel materials with by-design properties that can be grown down to the two-dimensional limit are considered important candidates for addressing computation and energy challenges of the twenty-first century. For instance, band gaps by design and enhanced transport properties give prospects for highly efficient solar energy conversion and low-loss optoelectronics and ...
Shah Selbe is an engineer and conservation technologist who works with communities, NGOs, and developing countries to identify and deploy technologies that can help with their greatest conservation challenges. His projects have integrated crowdsourcing, smartphone apps, drones, satellite data, and sensors to address such conservation issues as illegal poaching and ...
Where: Moss LandingCost: Free
Discovery Station: Corn and TeosinteDiscover fun facts about corn (Zea mays) and its ancestor Balsas teosinte. Learn how the people of Mesoamerica began the domestication of corn and the differences and similarities between teosinte and modern day corn. You will gain a new appreciation for corn, how it grows, and why without human intervention, ...
Activists and environmental defenders in the Global South promote transformations against dispossession in a variety of fields, from food to energy production. Ecological economic scholars argued in favor of an obvious alliance between environmental justice movements in the South and criticism of economic growth. Yet, collaborative research unveiled activists’ concerns ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Physics vs. Time TravelEveryone loves a good time travel story, but given what we know -- and don’t know -- about physics, is time travel in any way plausible? Using popular movies as a framework, Professor Ken Wharton will outline several distinct categories of consistent time travel stories, and discuss possible connections with ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Purity and Pollution: Cannabis as Matter Out of PlaceEncounters between humans and psychoactive substances are loaded, often fraught, affairs. They are not just liminal moments of experience but are bound up with social dynamics of danger, pollution, purification, and transformation. Cannabis is no exception. Based on nine years of anthropological research, Dr. Polson will share observations on cannabis, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Using AI in Marketing Analytics and Predictive ModelingWhen it comes to moving people and making deliveries, few companies are more widely spread and more widely recognized than Uber. Uber is part of the logistics fabric of more than 700 cities around the world, and whether it's a ride, a sandwich, or a package, they use technology to ...
Where: SunnyvaleCost: Free
Thursday, 09/05/19
Testing GR and the Massive Black Hole Paradigm with Infrared InterferometryAdaptive optics (AO) imaging and spectroscopy of the central star cluster in the Galactic Center over the past three decades have established that there is a concentration of 4 million solar masses associated with the compact radio source SgrA*, presumably a massive black hole. In 2017 we put into operation ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
MegaMapper: a spectroscopic instrument for the study of Inflation and Dark Energy MegaMapper is a proposed ground-based experiment to measure Inflation parameters and Dark Energy from galaxy redshifts at 2 < z <5. A 6.5-m Magellan telescope coupled with DESI spectrographs achieves a multiplexing of 20,000. MegaMapper would be located at Las Campanas Observatory to fully access LSST imaging for target selection.Speaker: ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Radar Technology, History and Future TrendsRadar Technology has been around for over 100 years and has made a huge impact in our lives. This presentation will review the history of Radar Technology from the origins of Electromagnetics to present day applications in our everyday lives. It will also cover future developments and trends as this ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
The Next Frontier of Low-Mass Galaxy FormationSatellites of the Milky Way (MW) have long provided stringent tests of cosmic reionization, cold dark matter, and the physics of galaxy formation on the smallest scales. However, there is growing evidence that the MW satellites may not be broadly representative. Compared to the MW, satellite systems throughout the local ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
'Chasing the Thunder'"Chasing the Thunder" is a high-seas documentary about the Sea Shepherd’s epic 110-day, 10,000-mile chase of the “Thunder,†considered the world’s most notorious poaching vessel. Across two seas and three oceans, the marine activists hunted the fugitive fishing ship through massive ice floes, storms-tossed seas, a near collision and violent ...
Transforming, re-imagining, re-assembling, re-thinking, changing, combining: they’re all part of the art of the remix. Access your inner DJ, play around with mixing up all kinds of art, experience music that’s been rearranged, and discover remixed advances in science at After Dark: Remix.=============Rice in Remix: CRISPR Edition With Nicholas Karavolias7:30 ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: 17.95 advance, 19.95 door, AD members free
Cafe InquiryCenter for Inquiry San Francisco's monthly get together to talk about whatever interests us.
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Fermented NightlifeWe’re breaking down the science of fermentation, showing you the chemical magic behind kombucha to chocolate and everything in-between.Fermentation transforms many of the foods you love, and we're inviting some of the Bay Area’s best purveyors of fermented foods to show you how.Learn about koji, the mold that gives many ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Varies
Searching for Life Beyond Earth The concept of the Habitable Zone (HZ) was once the only way to estimate the chances of a planet to support life. The past decades of exploration in the Solar System and the study of terrestrial extreme environments have shown that the subsurface and interior of several planets and ...
Where: NewarkCost: Free
Heavy Weather: Balancing Joy and DespairNearly half of all Americans are dealing with a new mental stressor: climate anxiety. Whether from reading the news, coping with the immediate trauma of a natural disaster or fearing for a warming planet, according to the American Psychological Association, climate anxiety is undermining our health and well-being. What’s the solution ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $12 Members, $7 Students
Astro Night: Galaxies Across Cosmic TimeFor a century, astronomers have studied galaxies--- immense systems made up of gas, dust, dark matter, and stars--- to help us understand our place in the vast night sky. In this talk, I'll start by taking you on a journey through human time, from how early astronomers learned that the ...
The Farallon Islands, part of the City and County of San Francisco, is a National Wildlife Refuge located 27 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. Cold ocean currents and other environmental factors there lead to high ocean productivity and a thriving marine wildlife ecology. Biologists working for PRBO/Point Blue ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
'The Love Bugs' - a documentary filmOver the course of 60 years, Lois and Charlie O’Brien, two of the foremost entomologists and pioneers in their field, traveled to more than 67 countries and quietly amassed the world’s largest private collection of insects. He was the Indiana Jones of entomology and she was his Marion Ravenwood. Their ...
