As recognized in science and increasingly in politics and business water will play the role of the “main fuel†for future conflicts. The former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, referred to water as “the conflict material of the 21st century†already in 2003. Verstraete et al. (2009) summarize ...
In this talk I will discuss the use of monkeyflowers to probe the genetic and molecular bases of floral trait variation among species, to characterize the developmental mechanisms of pattern formation, and to test the adaptive significance of floral trait variation in the evolution of pollination syndromes.Speaker: Yaowu Yuan, Associate ...
We are excited to hear from The Scobee Education Center’s Rick Varner: “SATX Solar Eclipses: Don’t be Blinded by the Light†and Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. William Kosmann: “Voyager’s Family Portrait of the Solar Systemâ€!Watch on Youtube or Facebook with links at the weblink
Where: Cost: Free
Thursday, 09/07/23
Coastal Walk at Pillar Point BluffJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful walk at Pillar Point Bluff just north of Half Moon Bay! You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about the area’s interesting natural history, from the coastal scrub habitat to the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve which hosts tide pools ...
The Library of the Great Silence: A conversation with Jonathon Keats - LivestreamWe follow up with SETI Artist in Residence Jonathon Keats about his project The Library of the Great Silence, an installation art project that addresses one of the implications of the Fermi Paradox. If the cosmos is only sparsely populated by intelligent beings that implies that at some point in ...
The goal of this presentation is to educate students on several topics around production of consumer electronics as it relates to engineering. We’ll discuss tradeoffs between product and test stations design. From early stages of the product design process known as design for manufacturing (DFM) to best practices around test ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
Science on Tap: Marine Heat WavesScience on Tap is our new series that mixes the best parts of learning about science with some of the best brews on the central coast! Each event will feature a happy half-hour highlighting beverages from our partners at local breweries followed by a panel discussion from experts about the ...
Where: Pacific GroveCost: $15 General, $10 members, Free for Students
Immerse yourself in an unpredictable improvisational performance that considers sound and visuals in relation to each other. In their ongoing collaboration Drawing Sound, sound artist Fred Frith generates soundscapes while visual artist Heike Liss draws her Klangbilder "sonic images" directly on windows. Presenting their work in two sets, Fred and Heike will move through ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
NightLife: California LoveCalifornia knows how to party. Join us to celebrate the vibrant biodiversity that makes the Golden State so special.
Join Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, for a wide-ranging conversation with California magazine’s editor-in-chief, Pat Joseph, as they explore such topics as the startling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the Great North American Eclipse of 2024, and the ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: $40 General, $35 Cal Alumni & BAMPFA members
Living with Bears in Marin - LivestreamJoin us for a virtual foray into the world of black bears in Marin and beyond! Tune into this webinar to:Learn about bears in Marin’s public lands and the ongoing conservation initiatives aimed at documenting the black bear population in the North BayDiscover practical tips and techniques for coexistence with ...
Where: Cost: Free
Fear and Loathing in the Heavens: The 1910 Return of Halley’s CometIn 1705, Edmond Halley liberated humanity from the belief that comets were portents of doom. Yet, two centuries later, in 1910, as Halley’s Comet returned to perihelion, newspapers and magazines, religious leaders, misguided theorists, and shameless grifters managed to rekindle that fear. When astronomers announced that the earth would pass ...
Where: Los AltosCost: Free
Friday, 09/08/23
Bair Island Walking TourLearn about this beautiful POST protected space, and join us for a 1-mile gentle/flat walking tour of Bair Island!Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a walking tour at Bair Island! You’ll be guided by POST ambassadors who will share the history of this beautiful protected space, information about the species ...
Semiconductor technology advancements have enabled the capability and cost of computing devices to improve exponentially over time, with transformative impact - witness the rise of cloud computing and the Internet of Things, which together with advances in machine learning have ushered in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today’s leading-edge ...
This event provides a different introduction to astronomy than our Intro to the Night Sky talks. During this hour, you'll gain an appreciation for the size and scale of the cosmos and our place within it. You'll see many examples of the beautiful objects visible in the night sky, learn ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Saturday, 09/09/23
Family Nature Walks - Foothills Nature Preserve - RescheduledEnvironmental Volunteers’ Family Nature Walks program is designed to help students and their families get to know our local open space areas. Small family groups will be guided by a knowledgeable environmental educator during an exploration of a local open space. These small groups will be introduced to fun nature-based ...
Where: Los AltosCost: Free
Combating Psychic Fraud - LivestreamThe Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world, founded in 1902.Based in part on his own experiences with psychics attempting to contact the dead, Houdini helped form the S.A.M’s Paranormal Investigation Committee (P.I.C.) to expose those “supernatural†frauds. P.I.C. has carried on that ...
Bay Area Skeptics: HANGIN’ OUT with Leonard Tramiel at Chabot Space & Science CenterLeonard Tramiel, Ph.D. physics, has been a volunteer docent at Chabot Space and Science Center since 2000. Lots to see, including a Soyuz capsule that illustrates better than anything else why basketball players are not recruited to be astronauts. If you haven’t been to Chabot in a while, you won’t ...
Where: OaklandCost: $24 General, $19 Seniors and Children
Coastal Walk at Cowell-Purisima TrailJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful Sunday walk along the Cowell-Purisima trail that POST helped create by protecting adjacent farmland. While it may be foggy, we hope to catch gorgeous views of the ocean, nearby farmland, and glimpses of harbor seals, pelicans, hawks, rabbits, and whales during the ...
Scanning Probe Nano-Optics: from biochemical nano-fingerprinting to light-matter interactions in quantum materiaScanning probe optical microscopy offers access to material properties beyond the fundamental diffraction limit in conventional optics. In this talk, I will start by introducing nano-spectroscopic material identification - nano-fingerprinting. Nanoscale composition and heterogeneity of a range of materials, including natural specimens and biomedical devices, can be delicately identified without ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
SCVAS Learn: Warblers 2023 - Part 2 - East and West - LivestreamThe fall migration of Warblers is an exciting event for birders. It can also daunting because many of these tiny tree-top insectivores lack the distinctive breeding plumage that makes them so memorable. How do we sort through the many similar features and identify the individuals we find? Why are there ...
Over two decades ago, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed that beneath a frozen ice shell, Jupiter’s moon Europa likely harbors a deep, salty ocean of liquid water that may present a habitable environment for life. As a result, Europa has become a foremost target for Solar System exploration.In this talk, Dr. ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $12 Members & Seniors
Tuesday, 09/12/23
This is Not Your Usual Heat Extreme - Livestream2023 has seen heat records smashed around the world in places like Phoenix, AZ, where temperatures of 110 degrees or more continued for over 30 straight days. Rising temperatures and increased heat have been accurately projected in climate change modeling, but to describe 2023 temperatures as the new normal is inaccurate; we are ...
Join us to learn about the history of bird art and how the practice is still relevant today from artist and science illustrator Jane Kim. Recently, Jane was invited to be the Avian Artist-in-Residence at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University as part of their current exhibit "Illuminating ...
Where: Cost: Free
The False Promise of OptimizationCoco Krumme traces the fascinating history of optimization from its roots in America's founding principles, to its dominance as the driving principle of our modern world. Optimized models underlie everything and are deeply embedded in the technologies and assumptions that have come to comprise not only our material reality, but ...
