Elephant Seal WeekendThis Valentine’s Day weekend, explore the fascinating world and interesting adaptations of northern elephant seals during a special weekend celebration. Unique pop-up exhibits will reveal natural history, migration strategies, and allow visitors to become citizen scientists (helping out UC Santa Cruz researchers). As a citizen scientist, learn about elephant seals, ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free with Admission
Hike the Mallard SloughLook for birds, mammals, and animal tracks as we explore along the water’s edge on this 3.7-mile nature walk. Bring binoculars and your favorite field guide to help enjoy the views. Have at least one liter of water, snacks, and appropriate clothing. Rain will cancel this hike due to possibly ...
Where: AlvisoCost: Free
Spiny SucculentsJoin author Jeff Moore on a visual journey through his newest book Spiny Succulents, as he shares examples of cultivated cacti, euphorbias, pachypodiums, alluaudias, and some other related mostly spiny xerophytic plants (such as terrestrial bromeliads). Most of the images are of examples of these plants in California landscape/botanical garden ...
The United States is developing ShakeAlert, an earthquake early warning system that will provide California, Oregon, and Washington with advanced warning of potentially damaging shaking. The hopes for early warning systems are high, but the reality of what can be expected from earthquake early warning is nuanced. Earthquakes don’t happen in ...
Where: AlbanyCost: Free ($15 for lunch, $7 Student and unemployed)
Story Time at YSI: All the Water in the WorldFaucet, well, rain cloud, sea... from each of these comes water. But where does water go? Come hear a lovely, poetic story about where water goes and why it is so precious. Then meet one of YSI's animal ambassadors that rely upon water for their survival.
Where: Los GatosCost: Free
Sunday, 02/16/20
Elephant Seal WeekendThis Valentine’s Day weekend, explore the fascinating world and interesting adaptations of northern elephant seals during a special weekend celebration. Unique pop-up exhibits will reveal natural history, migration strategies, and allow visitors to become citizen scientists (helping out UC Santa Cruz researchers). As a citizen scientist, learn about elephant seals, ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free with Admission
What Were the Atoms in Your Body Doing 8 Billion Years Ago: The Story of Cosmic EvolutionAlthough few people ever think about it, the atoms that make up your body are “on loan†to you from the Earth’s “atom collection.†Thanks to modern astronomy, we now know the history of these atoms even before they were part of the Earth. In this talk, Dr. Andrew Fraknoi ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 adult, $5 under 18
I Spy from the Sky: Drones Give a New Perspective for Marine Mammal ScienceWhen researchers step onto Año Nuevo Island, they are welcomed by a deafening symphony: sea lions barking, elephant seals roaring, gulls cawing, and cormorants grunting. An individual researcher is most likely outnumbered by animals 10,000:1. To understand what is happening on the island, scientists need to count each animal - ...
Go Big, Go Left: Pushing the Limits of Liquid Xenon Detectors for Dark Matter DetectionWhile there is firm astrophysical evidence for dark matter, fundamental properties of the substance, such as its constituent size and mass, remain key open questions in modern physics. Observation of dark matter interactions with Standard Model particles would enable the first constraints on those properties, but, to date, no such ...
The Chatterjee lab develops new chemical tools to investigate the mechanistic roles of protein post-translational modifications in human gene regulation. The chemical modifications we study vary in complexity from the methylation and acetylation of lysine side-chains to their conjugation with small proteins, such as ubiquitin and the small ubiquitin-like modifier ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Two KIPAC Tea TalksHubble constant tension: update from the strong lensing time-delay cosmography frontSpeaker: Simon Birrer, KIPACSearching for axion strings with CMB and lensingSpeaker: Junwu Huang, Permieter Institute
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Chasing Ancient Demons: The Quest to detect 21cm fluctuations from X-ray sources before reionization Two important chapters in our Universe’s history remain, for the most part, unexplored by direct observations. During the “dark agesâ€, cooling gas clouds left over from the big bang collapsed into dark-matter halos to form the first bound objects and where conditions were right, the first stars ignited, heralding in ...
Photochemical produced hazes are prevalent in the atmospheres of planetary bodies in the solar system and could also be ubiquitous in exoplanetary atmospheres. Haze has been shown to affect the thermal structure and dynamics of planetary and exoplanetary atmospheres. It could also be a source of the surface material on ...
Organic molecules interact strongly with confined electromagnetic fields in plasmonic arrays or optical microcavities owing to their bright transition dipole moments. This interaction gives rise to molecular polaritons, hybrid light-matter quasiparticles. Molecular polaritonics opens doors for new room-temperature opportunities for the nontrivial control of physico-chemical properties of molecular assemblies [1]. ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Fracton - Elasticity DualityProf. Leo Radzihovsky of University of Colorado at Boulder will give the Applied Physics/Physics colloquium
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Bay Area Climate Action: 2020 and BeyondWith cities around the world committed to carbon neutrality to address the climate crisis, Bay Area cities from Albany to San Francisco are deepening their actions to accelerate the transformation to equitable, climate-friendly city systems. A local government panel shares their experience and new initiatives to engage their communities, save ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Commercial Mushroom Farming - Nature and NurtureKyle Garrone holds a degree in Biology from University of California, Davis with a focus on plant pathology and mycology. He has been the Production Manager of Far West Fungi since graduating from UC Davis in 2010, with his primary focus on increasing yields, reducing labor, and experimenting with new ...
Many of the natural resource challenges we face today around food, water, equity, energy, invasive species, fire, climate change, biodiversity - are complex problems that impact diverse public groups across multiple scales - and they require a spatial approach to make an impact. Addressing these challenges requires innovative and resourceful ...
Ophthalmic drugs are almost always delivered via eye drops in spite of many deficiencies including low bioavailability and poor compliance, particularly in patients requiring multiple eye drops daily. Only about 1-5% of the drug in eye drops diffuses into the cornea and the remaining 95-99% enters systemic circulation through multiple ...
As we approach another golden age for the field of computer architecture, David will review the landscape since the 1960s, current challenges and identify future opportunities. Much like David did in the 1980s, he will discuss his research in delivering gains in cost, energy, security and performance. The backbone of ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Understanding How Women Travel“Understanding How Women Travel†is a groundbreaking study completed by LA Metro in 2019. The study included a creative approach to better understand women’s mobility in LA county; framed by core social justice principles and methods, including both traditional and non-traditional data collection methods to effectively capture “hard-to-reach†populations and ...
Author Christian Schwartz will be presenting from his book which was written for beginning and experienced mushroom hunters alike to find and identify mushrooms. Common and conspicuous species, delicious edibles, toxic and deadly species, and distinctive rarities are all covered in this user-friendly reference, which covers the diversity found in ...
Where: Mill ValleyCost:
Nerd Nite SF #117: Baroque, Bones, and Badasses!At this month’s show, we go for baroque, bone up on a bone collector, and blow the lid off an incredible open source archive during a very special evening curated by our friends, stalwart stockpilers and disseminators of San Francisco history - the Western Neighborhoods Project! As always, we’ll bring ...
Around the world, people recognize that E=mc^2 oozes cosmic insight. But what does this "most famous equation" 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 ...
This presentation explores the historic voyage of the New Horizons spacecraft. After 10 years and more than 3 billion miles, New Horizons has served as an ambassador to the planetary frontier and has shed light on new kinds of worlds and the outskirts of the solar system.In this talk Dr. Moore will discuss ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Thursday, 02/20/20
Good for You, Good for the PlanetWhat we eat impacts both our health and the health of the planet.When we think about climate change we think about our transportation systems and our power plants. However, our food choices and our agricultural systems produce 49 - 87% of human caused greenhouse gases (per studies).Most of the chronic ...
Where: SaratogaCost: Free
The Extremes of Accretion: Ultraluminous X-ray Sources and Super-Eddington PulsarsUltraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are off-nuclear X-ray sources with luminosities that exceed the Eddington limit for stellar renmant black holes. This implies either the presence of larger, 'intermediate mass' black holes, or systems that have managed to violate their Eddington limits. Prior to NuSTAR, black hole accretors were widely assumed, ...
Cloud + Deep Reinforcement Learning + Microsim: the Future of Mixed Autonomy TrafficThe question of how will self-driving cars will change urban mobility patterns is an open topic today. This talk describes scientific contributions in the field of reinforcement learning presented in the context of enabling mixed-autonomy mobility, the gradual and complex integration of automated vehicles into the existing traffic system. The ...
Aperture Lucida: a Natural History of Vision With Tristan Duke7:30 p.m. | Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar ForumJoin artist and inventor Tristan Duke as he shares his process of creative inquiry over the past two years as Exploratorium Artist-in-Residence, culminating in his new artwork and optical device Aperture Lucida. He'll provide a ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95, 14.95 members, $0.00 Donors & AD members
Innovation in the Data Privacy EraJoin swissnex San Francisco and The Hive for a discussion of privacy and innovation.California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has gone into effect January 1st 2020. The law is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the tech world, especially in categories like AI (Artificial Intelligence). Under CCPA, a company must ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Noise Pop NightlifeSpend an evening exploring the science of sound as NightLife kicks off the Noise Pop Music and Arts Festival with a headlining DJ set by Washed Out.Washed Out is the recording name of chillwave pioneer Ernest Greene, best known for launching the synth-heavy, bedroom-pop sound of the early 2010s, and ...
Are anticoagulant rat poisons the new DDT? Lisa Owens Viani will describe the epidemic of wildlife mortality caused by these poisons. She’ll explain their impacts on birds of prey such as hawks and owls, among many other animals. She’ll summarize proposed legislation to reduce the use of dangerous rodenticides, and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
It is time to question the standard lore about mushroom cookeryBeliefs about how to handle and cook mushrooms, where they fit into a meal, and even what mushrooms are good to eat seem driven more by superstition and tradition than by an understanding of their flavors, aromas, and chemistry. This presentation will take a more modern look at their cooking, ...
Where: Santa RosaCost: Free
Fungi and ArtFungi can have a direct effect on art works by destroying them, and many fungal images are better described as kitsch than art. Fungi, however, also figure in many truly artistic works and have done so for much of recorded history. Taylor will touch on the above noted topics before ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Friday, 02/21/20
68th Annual Pacific Orchid ExpositionThe San Francisco Orchid Society presents this year's Pacific Orchid Exposition: "2020 - Orchids in Focus."Friday February 21 - Sunday February 23, 2020, is the main event - a show and sale with thousands of orchids on display, award judging by the American Orchid Society, educational hands-on demonstrations and information ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15
Two KIPAC Tea TalksCMB lensing for the next generation of experimentsSpeaker: Dominic Beck, KIPACTBDSpeaker: Dominic Walton, Cambridge, UK
19F Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an emerging technique for in vivo imaging, showing great promise due to the favorable NMR properties of the fluorine nucleus (high sensitivity, large ppm range) and the lack of detectable fluorine signal in biological systems. Imaging agents can be designed that exhibit either a ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Playing by New RulesInnovative technologies are transforming the world of sports. Whether we’re athletes, managers, coaches, or fans, innovative sports technologies are changing the way we play the game, along with the game itself. Join us at CHM with sports tech experts from the 49ers, venture capital, and Stanford to explore ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost:
Securing Earth from Space Threats & Climate-Change EffectsAs an author and speaker, Dr. Larry Lapin presents the case for upgrading the security of our Planet from space-threats. His simple 40-minute talk is sometimes frightening, but nevertheless inspiring. Sadly, we have no true defense against big meteors. NASA gives very limited attention to extra-terrestrial hazards, with physical effort ...
