This month we celebrate Halloween with a creepy collection of stories about the animals that live in the deepest parts of the ocean! Learn how elephant seal's can dive to 5000 feet and stay underwater for 2 hours at a time without imploding (!), find out how a sperm whale ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
Monday, 10/14/19
Cosmic Shear in the Year-3 DES data: 2-point and 3-point correlationsThe cosmology analyzes of the Year-3 (Y3) data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is at full speed ahead. Our preliminary weak lensing sample contains 120 million objects over 4200 square degrees of sky and is the largest shape catalog to date. This statistical power comes at a price: the ...
A new trust framework is emerging - fueled by social, economic and technological forces that will profoundly alter how we trust, not only what we see and read online, but also one another. At the same time, technology is influencing how we behave and relate to one another, with important ...
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting area has been investigated for decades as a means to convert sunlight to fuels. To date, PEC still faces many challenges, ranging from low efficiency, poor stability and noncompetitive cost. I will present two examples of our recent efforts in overcoming some of the challenges facing ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
An Atomic-Scale Look at Point Defects in 2D SemiconductorsPoint defects in semiconductors are of great technological significance in semiconductor industry and have been proposed more recently as a room temperature qubit platform. In two-dimensional semiconductors such as transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers, defects have an even larger impact on material properties, but offer exciting possibilities as atomic quantum ...
The first major experiments at SLAC were the electron proton scattering studies at End Station A in the late 60’s. The deep inelastic scattering yielded a complete surprise - the electrons were scattering off charged points in the proton. Follow up experiments showed the analogous behaviour for the neutron and ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost:
Switches, sensors, and new shapes: from design of new functions to cellular consequences of allosteryI plan to discuss our most recent work in computational protein design (we have designed new, modular small-molecule sensors that function in living cells, and new protein shapes with atom-level control). I will then focus on a more biological problem: How do protein switches control diverse protein functions in the ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
THE SEARCH FOR RARE EARTHQUAKE-LIKE PRECURSORS: MAXENT MOUN-SPIN RESONANCE MgO STUDYAccording to Prof. Dr Freund (NASA Ames) currents of positive holes in the earth's crust are precursors of earthquakes; Menlo Park seismologists are not so sure. MaxEnt Muon-Spin research yields indirect evidence, these itinerant positives holes are indeed present in MgO; earthquake warnings of weeks (not seconds) ahead are well ...
Road transportation, which accounts for 22 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, is undergoing a major transformation with the advent of ridesharing, autonomous driving, and vehicle electrification. Collectively these technologies, in conjunction with renewable sources of electricity, have the potential to dramatically reduce the negative impact of road transportation on the ...
Natural sources, such as plants, fungi and microbes, have historically provided compounds with potent pharmaceutical properties. While it can be challenging to build complex natural products in a lab using existing chemistry methods, Nature has perfected these biosynthetic pathways. The work described leverages the power of Nature’s tools for building ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Two KIPAC Tea TalksI am data science and so can you!: My experience as a physicist in a technology start-upSpeaker: Sean McLaughlin, StanfordThe Polarization Behavior of Blazar JetsSpeaker: Lawrence Peirson, Stanford
Cosmic Shear in the Year-3 DES data: 2-point and 3-point correlationsThe cosmology analyzes of the Year-3 (Y3) data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is at full speed ahead. Our preliminary weak lensing sample contains 120 million objects over 4200 square degrees of sky and is the largest shape catalog to date. This statistical power comes at a price: the ...
Clean Energy Systems (CES) has developed game-changing technology that is revolutionizing the power industry by eliminating the traditional exhaust stack and making zero-emission power a reality.Speaker: Keith Pronske, Clean Energy Systems
An Evening with Dr. Laurie Marker, Director of Cheetah Conservation FundLearn about the cheetah, its plight and the holistic approach that the Cheetah Conservation Fund has been utilizing to protect the world’s fastest land animal. The Cheetah Conservation Fund focuses on community education and wildlife-friendly farming techniques to allow cheetahs and humans to coexist. One of its most successful programs, ...
Where: OaklandCost: $10 - $30
Innovation in Sleep MedicineMany hard-charging professionals pride themselves on their ability to work long hours and get by on 5 or 6 hours of sleep. But the truth is that they’re shortchanging themselves. Sleep isn't a luxury. It’s a necessity for optimal functioning and optimally your brain needs 7 to 8 hours of ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Free Bay Currents Talk: (Green) Power to the PeopleBringing sustainable energy, low carbon emissions, and green jobs to low-income people is the passion of Zach Franklin of Bay Area non-profits Grid Alternatives and Rising Sun Center for Opportunity.Stories of struggle and success illuminate why these efforts matter for workers, volunteers, and all of us affected by global warming. Bay ...
Where: AlbanyCost: 0
New Ice Age Fossils Uncovered in FremontConstruction to expand 680 Freeway have uncovered new fossils of Pleistocene Age (Irvingtonian). Caltrans has paleontology moniters that make sure all fossils are recovered during construction. This lecture will go over the early finds of mammoths, mastodons, sabertooth cats, short faced bear, and other megafauna. Exhibits at the Children's Natural ...
Veteran Bay Area journalist Don Lattin will give a talk and slide show.Don draws from two of his books, The Harvard Psychedelic Club - How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America, and his most recent book, ...
Speaker: Maureen R. Hanson is the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics. She received a B.S. degree at Duke University and a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Her lab aims to understand the mechanism of RNA editing in chloroplasts and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Symposium on Connections between the SF Bay & Greater Farallones Sanctuary Join sanctuary advisors, scientists, ocean managers, community members, and students, for an information-sharing symposium to explore ecological, oceanographic, and anthropogenic connections and influences between the San Francisco Bay and the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary just beyond the Golden Gate.Please note that parking is limited. We recommend carpooling and giving ...
One year ago, the IPCC’s released its SR15 report, which has focused public debate and activism upon demands to stabilize global temperatures at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Ironically, these demands come at a moment at which it is increasingly clear that limiting warming to 2C will be extremely challenging, much ...
Conversations About Landscape: Feel the Heat - Climate Impacts on Communities, Workers, and Vulnerable PopulationsThe most serious and direct consequence of climate change for human health is the projection of longer and more severe heat waves in the future. Heat exposure is the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the nation and disproportionately affects low-income communities and outdoor workers across California and worldwide.Join public ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free, RSVP required
RACE your FACTs: Making AI work for EnterprisesThere is renewed interest among companies these days to implement and deploy AI models in their business processes either to increase automation or to improve human productivity. AI models are making their way as chatbots in customer support scenarios, as doctors' assistants in hospitals, as legal research assistants in the ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Encounter with Ultima Thule: The Most Distant Object Humanity Has Ever ExploredAfter a successful encounter with Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft, for the first time flew by a member of the Kuiper Belt of icy objects beyond Neptune. This particular object, officially called 2014MU69, but informally named “Ultimate Thule†(meaning the farthest place beyond the known world,) turned out to be ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: Free ($3 parking)
Nerd Nite SF #113: Sharks & Seaweed & TBA!“Art & Algaeâ€In her newest book, “The Curious World of Seaweedâ€, author and artist Josie Iselin interweaves the science of seaweed with tales of pioneering women scientists and beautiful images of marine algae. Dive into the wondrous and surprising world of these foundational organisms.Speaker: Josie Iselin is a photographer, author ...
From 2012 to 2018, Bill Weihl was Director of Sustainability at Facebook. He built a team that directs work on sustainability and energy efficiency across the company, driving projects to track and reduce the company's environmental footprint in all aspects of its operations. They also drove cross-industry collaborations, including playing ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: $10
How Dangerous are Microwaves?The physics behind non-ionizing radiation and a tale of two books titled ‘Zapped‘†with Warren Wiscombe Ph.D. of NASA Goddard.
Join Brian Day, of NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, for a presentation on Exploring Planetary Surfaces with NASA’s Solar System Treks. Learn about NASA’s Solar System Treks project that is producing a suite of online interactive visualization and analysis portals. There are now seven web portals in the program ...
Since Fall 2002, the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering has hosted the Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium (SVLS). The Symposium hosts industry and technology leaders to talk about business and technology trends. It also features prominent leaders who discuss broader societal and political issues that shape our life and society.Pat ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
LITQUAKE: The State of Water: Understanding California's Most Precious ResourceAward-winning writer Obi Kaufman offers an illustrated guide to the ways we conserve, use, abuse and restore water--the source of life and habitat in California.Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, turns his attention to the Golden State's most complex and controversial resource: water. In this new book, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
The New Jim Code: Race, Caceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday LifeFrom everyday apps to complex algorithms, technology has the potential to hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racist practices of a previous era. In this talk, Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Associate Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, presents the concept ...
Evolving Shorelines Happy Hour - Adapting to sea level rise in our communityOne Tam partners, Marin County Parks and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, are about to embark on developing designs to adapt Bothin Marsh Open Space Preserve and the Mill Valley / Sausalito Pathway to climate change and sea level rise. Come out and talk with us to find out ...
Adaptive Optics is a technology that detects and corrects changing distortions in optical systems. It has been applied to great effect during the past decade to correct astronomical telescopes for blurring due to turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere. This talk will describe how Adaptive Optics works, and how it is ...
Drop, cover, and hold on . . . to After Dark: Earthquakes, where we’ll commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Loma Prieta quake and look ahead to the latest in earthquake preparation, safety research, and building practices. And don’t miss the return of Everything Matters, which picks up with element ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95, 14.95 explO members, AD members free
Automotive Ethernet and Functional SafetyOver the past several years there has been an upheaval in the automotive networking space as a number of mega-trends drive major changes:The trend towards a user defined car,Autonomous vehicle technology,ElectrificationThe presentation will cover these changes taking place in the in-vehicle-networking space, with an emphasis on automotive Ethernet and the ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Seismic NightLifeWe’re bracing ourselves for vibrations during Seismic NightLife, including on the dance floor. On the 30th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, we’re digging back into seismic matters and ‘80s culture. Look back at the City’s major 20th-century earthquakes through historic images, and look to the future with experts in ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Varies
Conservation of Waterbirds of the North BayFor 30 years, Audubon Canyon Ranch has been studying the ecology of wintering and migrant shorebirds and waterbirds in the Bay Area. Find out what they've learned, as well as the results of their 50 years of work on herons and egrets throughout the Bay. This will include a presentation ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $5 donation for non members.
Introduction to GardeningWith the pending rains, fall and winter are the best time to plan and implement your garden plans.Learn gardening techniques to help care for your landscape, maintain aesthetic, and keep it looking fresh! Desmond Murray (Presidio Seed Ecologist & Longtime Bay Area Gardener) will emphasize natural pruning techniques, fertilizing, pest ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Donations encouraged
Two KIPAC Tea TalksExoplanet SpectroscopySpeaker: Tom Greene, NASA AmesProspecting for quadruply lensed quasars in the past decade and the nextQuadruply lensed quasars ("quads") are used to study several important astronomical problems, including the abundance of LIGO-mass primordial black holes. But quads are rare, with only one out of every 3000 quasars lensed into ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
The influence of melting and viscosity on the thermo-chemical evolution of Earth and other rocky planetsIn this presentation I will firstly show results from numerical simulations of global mantle convection to explore the effects of melting on the thermo-chemical evolution of terrestrial bodies. I applied the models to investigate (i) how does melting-induced crustal production affects the interior state and surface behavior of an Earth-like ...
Join the Astonomical Society of the Pacific in celebrating their 130th anniversary with speakers and activities for all. Planetarium Shows3:40 PM, 6:30 PM, 8:45 PM, 9:30 PM. Lines begin 30 minutes prior outside the planetarium.  Thornton Hall.Portable Planetarium2:00 - 2:30 PM, 3:30 - 4:30 PM, 6:00 - 7:00 PM. Student Services ...
Miniaturized and rationally assembled nanostructures exhibit extraordinarily distinct physical and chemical properties beyond their individual units. This talk will focus on structured metal nanoparticle lattices that show unique diffractive coupling with lattice spacings engineered close to the wavelength of light. Collectively coupled plasmonic nanoparticles induce sharp, intense lattice ...
This talk describes complementary synthetic strategies to enhance the photoluminescence and photoredox properties of organometallic complexes. We have addressed the long-standing challenge of designing efficient and stable blue-phosphorescent molecules, currently the most significant technological hurdle in OLED technology. Our efforts have resulted in new designs for blue-emitting iridium complexes, using ...
NASA’s SOFIA Open DayNASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) will be open for viewing to registered guests on Saturday October 19, 2019. SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 106-inch diameter telescope. Flying into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet puts SOFIA above 99 percent of Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere, allowing astronomers to study the ...
Where: Moffett FieldCost: Free
All Things Fall With David HerlockerVisit Martin Griffin Preserve throughout our limited Fall Season, with Nature Guide-led walks, activities, or materials to open your eyes to our lovely preserve in a different way each week. Visitors are also welcome to hike our trails on their own, scoop up a newt at the ponds, peer at ...
MSI loves sharks! Our special day invites one and all to learn about these amazing creatures while feeding and touching our local friendly leopard sharks and making a special take home craft.10:00 and 10:30 AM.
Where: Redwood CityCost: $20
The Surprises of the SunflowerFive thousand years ago, early farmers took a special interest in sunflowers. Through its continued cultivation since that time, the sunflower has evolved into an essential crop that permeates human life, whether in beautiful bouquets, as salty snacks, or as a primary source of cooking oil in many parts of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Exploring the local universe with the Hubble and James Webb Space TelescopesMost galaxies are so far away that they appear to us only as faint smudges. However, for the nearest galaxies in our cosmic neighborhood, the clarity and sensitivity of the Hubble Space Telescope transforms them galaxies from smudges into spectacular collections of individual stars. These observations allow astronomers to study ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Golden Gate Raptor Observatory Hawk Talk & Raptor ReleaseThe Hawk Talk begins at noon, when a GGRO volunteer speaks about hawk migration and identification, and what we do here at the GGRO. Conditions permitting, a banding volunteer will bring up a newly banded hawk, talk about the banding program, and release the hawk in front of the crowd. ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
John Reber, the Man with Grand IdeasBack in the 1940s, John Reber would look out over the San Francisco Bay and visualize a massive civil works project of dams and locks to harvest fresh drinking water, and barriers that would support railway systems and a highway. His intention was to improve the quality of life for ...
Where: SausalitoCost: Free
What's Next for the Blue Bin?Last year, China stopped taking most foreign recyclables. Previously, 40 percent of the United States’s paper, plastics, and other recyclable materials were sent there. Beijing’s decision threw U.S. recycling into a crisis that reaches from global political decision-making all the way down to what we decide to put into our ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
ManyaThis is a living history presentation of one of our most famous chemists, Marie Curie, and allows us to celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) in grand style. The story starts with childhood memories that include Marie's dawning interest in science and her determination to conquer obstacles ...
Where: OaklandCost: $15 General, $8 student
Community Day at KIPACThe Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford is holding a Community Day open house. See weblink for details.
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Charon, Pluto’s Mysterious MoonPluto’s large moon Charon turned out to be far more interesting than scientists expected. Pluto was the star of the New Horizons show, but the features on Charon’s surface tell a fascinating tale of how icy worlds could form far from the gravitational influences of the giant planets. There is ...
.webp)