How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with ...
We live in a privileged time, when at last humans have been able to directly see other stars and planets as they are being born. Needless to say, this has enabled us to answer age-old questions about how the Sun and Earth were made. It turns out the process is ...
Ten missions have been successfully landed on Mars since 1976, including six rovers that have traversed across a total of nearly 50 km of terrain on the Red Planet.  Professor Jim Bell from Arizona State University has been the lead or deputy scientist in charge of the science cameras on the NASA ...
Where: Cost: Free
Science on Tap: Hunting for new minor planetsWhy study asteroids? The scientific interest in asteroids is due largely to their status as the remnant debris from the inner solar system formation process. The probability of an asteroid striking the Earth and causing serious damage is very remote but the devastating consequences of such an impact suggests we ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free
SETI Talks: UAPs: Are they worth scientific attention? - LivestreamIn June of this year, an unclassified version of the U.S. Department of Defense released its preliminary report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The report cataloged and investigated records of unexplained encounters seen in the sky by U.S. Navy ships and fighter jets. The report’s firmest conclusion is that the ...
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 11/18/21
Earth at the Crossroads: Can the Study of Other Worlds Help Us Save This One? - LivestreamTantalizing new discoveries suggest that we are probably not alone in the universe. And yet, as Enrico Fermi first put in 1950: where is everybody? Are habitable worlds rare, unlikely, and therefore cosmically precious? Or is life easily overwhelmed by changing planetary conditions? Do technological societies in particular face an ...
Where: Cost: Free
The Human and Economic Costs of Climate Inaction - LivestreamAchieving a climate-safe future for California will require massive investments, both public and private, in all sectors of the economy. But people across the state are already paying a heavy price for our tepid approach to the climate crisis today. This webinar will take a deep dive into the cost ...
Where: Cost: Free
Weekday Morning Walk at Pillar Point BluffJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for an afternoon Hike at Pillar Point Bluff just north of Half Moon Bay! You will be guided by a POST representative who will share details about the area’s interesting natural history, from the coastal scrub habitat to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve that hosts tide ...
Where: Cost: Free
AI Is Transforming Health, Space, War, and More - LivestreamWhether you consider AI a tool, a partner, or a rival, one thing is certain: AI will alter your experiences and permanently change your relationship with reality. The good news? We can still decide how.What you’ll learnEric Schmidt, former Google CEO and Chairman, and Daniel Huttenlocher, inaugural dean of the ...
Where: Cost: Free
Science at Cal - Microbiomes: From fields of leaves to under the seas - LivestreamAt this month’s Midday Science Cafe, we are going on a journey through the wonderful world of the microbiome. We’ll zoom in on the communities of tiny organisms that live everywhere, from the leaves of plants to the guts of tropical reef fish, and do everything, from connecting neighborhoods of ...
Over billions of years, plants and cyanobacteria changed the Earth’s atmosphere by inhaling carbon dioxide, storing the carbon in solid biomass and exhaling oxygen. Their release of oxygen into the air made animal life possible. But how, exactly, do plants produce oxygen? Scientists have been puzzling over this for decades. ...
Have you ever wondered about the coloration of intergrades in flickers? Dr. Stepfanie Aguillon will be talking about her ongoing work using genomic sequencing to understand coloration differences between (eastern) yellow-shafted and (western) red-shafted flickers using these iconic intergrades.Speaker: Stepfanie Aguillon, Stanford
Conventional wisdom suggests that knowledge and imagination - science and fantasy - are deeply different from one another. However, new insights into childhood development challenge this distinction. In fact, exactly the same abilities that allow children to learn about the world also allow them to imagine alternative worlds. Research in ...
Connect, play, and get inspired in the glow of luminous sculptures big and small, as eight artists turn up the radiance at Pier 15. Explore our spacious galleries to discover captivating light art by Michael Brown, CHiKA, Nick Dong, Alicia Eggert, Ekene Ijeoma, Luke Jerram, Burt Libe, and Ames Palms. ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
Calling all creatures of the night: explore the nocturnal side of the Academy at NightLife and see what's revealed. With live DJs, outdoor bars, ambiance lighting, and nearly 40,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude the albino alligator), the night is sure to be wild.Step inside the iconic Shake ...
North America’s bird populations have declined by approximately 3 billion birds since 1970 and two-thirds of North America’s bird species now face an even greater risk of extinction due to climate change. Mike Lynes will discuss the threats California birds face from climate change and how Audubon California is working ...
Micromitigation: Fighting Air Pollution with Activated Carbon - LivestreamWe would like to invite new members to join Counter Culture Labs' Micromitigation Meetup alternate Thursdays. We will be discussing ways to deploy existing adsorption technology using commodity granulated activated carbon for the mitigation of air pollution. We welcome those interested in both the environmental justice and technical engineering aspects of ...
Witness a nearly total lunar eclipse! On this special night, the Moon will be darkened by the Earth’s shadow will occur for much of North America. Join our astronomers for a live stream on Facebook or YouTube through Chabot’s most powerful telescope, Nellie! Event ends Friday at 2:30 AM
Lawrence Berkeley Lab Virtual TourIn response to COVID-related social conditions, Berkeley Lab is offering virtual tours of its facilities to the public. These are pre-scheduled, live, interactive, one-hour long presentations by Lab staff and scientists. Participants will learn about the Lab's fascinating history, ground-breaking discoveries, and contributions to COVID-19-related research.Join a Zoom Webinar to ...
Speaker: Gautam Gowrisankan, Columbia UniversitySee weblink for Zoom information, or attend in person
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
From Astrometry to Discovery - LivestreamThe unprecedented high precision of astrometric data released by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission provide us a new map of nearby stars and the Milky Way we have never seen before. In this talk, I will discuss a brief history of astrometry, the importance of astrometry, and new discoveries ...
Where: Cost: Free
Introduction to modern narrow band filters & Coloring with Narrowband Images using Pixel Math- LivestreamFor this meeting we will have two speakers. Gert will talk about narrowband filters, and Kai will talk about Coloring with Narrowband Images using Pixel Math.Amateur astronomers in light polluted areas like our region in northern California use filters to reduce the effect of light pollution and give better visual ...
Where: Cost: Free
Saturday, 11/20/21
Water Management in The Era of Climate Change: California and Michigan Experience - LivestreamIt is recommended that participants prepare for this event by reading The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here - by Hope Jahren. The panel event will convene panelists from Michigan and California. Both states are experiencing the effects of climate change, ...
Where: Cost: Free
Holiday Rock, Gem, and Lapidary Show and SaleThe Santa Cruz Mineral and Gem Society invites you to the annual holiday sale organized by members of the club. Come and see wonderful gifts of nature and art from around the world - gems, jewelry, rocks, minerals, and lapidary arts. Browse the bargains and pick up some great gifts ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: FREE
Saturday Cinema: Trip the Light FantasticIn celebration of the opening of Glow: Discover the Art of Light, we put a spotlight on short, kinetic films that dance! These exuberant films express joyful movement in luminous and colorful ways. Featuring:Light Play: Black/White/Gray by artist Laszlo Maholy-Nagy (1930, 6 min.) The ephemeral elements of light play off of ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free with admission
The Group 70 Amateur Telescope Project - LivestreamThirty years ago, a group of EAS telescope makers had the crazy idea of obtaining the 70 inch backup mirror blank originally cast for a very well known telescope here in California. It wasn’t just talk; they actually bought it and founded a California non profit called “Group 70â€, and ...
Where: Cost: Free
Mars 2020/Perseverance Rover: Searching for Life on Mars - LivestreamIn this event, Pablo Sobron, SETI Institute, will talk about his experience as a member of NASA’s Mars 2020/Perseverance Rover Science Team and their mission to seek signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.Register at weblik to receive connection information
Where: Cost: Free
Sunday, 11/21/21
Holiday Rock, Gem, and Lapidary Show and SaleThe Santa Cruz Mineral and Gem Society invites you to the annual holiday sale organized by members of the club. Come and see wonderful gifts of nature and art from around the world - gems, jewelry, rocks, minerals, and lapidary arts. Browse the bargains and pick up some great gifts ...
Bull kelp forests experienced unprecedented losses along 220 miles of coastline in Northern California beginning in 2014 after the onset of a large marine heatwave and the local extinction of sunflower sea stars (sea urchins primary predator). These losses have had devastating consequences to the region’s communities, economies, and fisheries. ...
Where: Cost: $10 General per household, Free for members
Monday, 11/22/21
What the Infrastructure Deal Means for Climate - LivestreamThe biggest piece of climate legislation in U.S. history has just been signed into law. To be sure, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework) got pared down significantly from what was first put on the table, but the bill President Biden signed still ...
Where: Cost: Free
Imaging quantum materials with scanning SQUID microscopy - LivestreamNovel quantum phenomena are often driven by cooperation or competition between different electronic properties with similar energies. Probing coexisting or competing electronic orders requires versatile probes which are sensitive to the multiple aspects of the system, such as magnetism, conductivity and superconductivity. In my talk I will describe two systems ...
Where: Cost: Free
Missions to Near Earth Asteroids - LivestreamThis talk will describe the two recent missions which have taken samples at Near-Earth Asteroids, Hayabusa-2 at Ryugu and OSIRIS-REx at Bennu. Hear about the scientific results from the orbital phases of the missions, the dropping of surface landers, and how the material is returned to Earth. The talk will ...
Where: Cost: Free
Electrically charged skyrmions and superconductivity - LivestreamSkyrmions, first proposed in the context of nuclear physics, elegantly realize Kelvin’s dream of understanding particles as topological defects in an underlying field. When skyrmions arise in 2D materials with band topology, Berry-phase effects can endow them with an electric charge in addition to their magnetic moment, with intriguing implications for ...
Join professor Lew Feldman to learn the botany behind the celebrated plant changes associated with the fall season. We'll explore why (and how) some leaves appear to change color--exhibiting reds, yellows, and oranges--and the environmental influences that affect the brilliance of those colors. In addition, Dr. Feldman will explain the ...
Our galaxy is full of Earth-sized, potentially Earth-like, planets, yet we still barely know what these planets are actually like. I will use several examples to show how the rapid exploration of exoplanets offers unique opportunities for Earth Science, and how exoplanets are in turn helping us better understand Earth. ...
The current resurgence of artificial intelligence is due to advances in deep learning. Systems based on deep learning now exceed human capability in speech recognition, object classification, and playing games like Go. Deep learning has been enabled by powerful, efficient computing hardware. The algorithms used have been around since the ...
