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 ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: TBA
Wednesday, 09/13/23
Policy Implications for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Beyond the Hype - LivestreamArtificial intelligence (AI) represents a set of technologies that includes automated systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making (source: GAO 2023). AI has promising applications in healthcare, but such broad potential use in health and healthcare decision-making raises important ...
Ocean acidification (OA), hypoxia (H), and warming are projected to have profound impacts on marine ecosystems and resources of the California coast. These large-scale climatic stressors interact with local circulation and anthropogenic stressors, such as nutrient loading, to exacerbate conditions. However, understanding of the relative attribution of global-to-local stressors requires ...
In this talk, Jaron Lanier will discuss a piece he published in The New Yorker (“There Is No AIâ€) about applying data dignity ideas to artificial intelligence (AI). Large-model AI can be reconceived as a social collaboration between the people who provided data to the model in the form of ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
The John and Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series at Bodega Marine LaboratoryJoin us for the John & Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series, featuring speakers from within the marine sciences community and beyond.Please register to join us on Zoom.Speaker: Tamara Barriquand - Assistant Professor, Cal Poly Humboldt
Where: Cost: Free
Use and Abuse of Science in the World of Sport: Two Talks- LivestreamIs Sport a Breeding Ground for Pseudoscience?In high-performance sport, success and failure are separated by increasingly smaller margins. The will to win has made athletes and coaches ever more experimental, vowing to leave no stone unturned. But blunted critical faculties and lax consumer regulations coalesce, allowing pseudoscience to thrive. Thousands ...
196 Days Off the Planet with Astronaut Dan BurschDan Bursch will discuss the adventure of living in space during his stay on the International Space Station from December 2001 until June 2002. Through pictures and stories, he will discuss the challenges of working on an international program, and show just a few of the beautiful views of our ...
Where: Santa ClaraCost: Varies
Advances in Nuclear Fusion: Conversation with a Plasma PhysicistIf you don't understand how nuclear fusion works, that's totally okay!This event is for you.From what we know nuclear fusion has the potential to completely and radically change the way in which we get energy, how our world is powered, and could potentially usher in a revolution in the fight ...
Join us for a special public event to celebrate KIPAC’s 20th anniversary! During this event, we will have a panel Q&A to discuss the exciting science we will be able to advance in the next decade with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. With the ability to survey the entire sky ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Thursday, 09/14/23
Generative AI: Race, Art, and PowerFrom ChatGPT, DALL-E, Bard, and Midjourney, the use of AI as a creative tool has increased dramatically both from technological breakthroughs and a flood of new users. Users and researchers have offered both praise and criticism - about the veracity of AI-generated art, race and gender bias engrained in these ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
The Science of Democracy - LivestreamJust as science is needed to ensure that policies are effective, a healthy democracy is needed to ensure that they are fair.The Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a virtual discussion to learn about our work for a healthier democracy, keeping public science strong, and removing barriers to evidence-based ...
100 Years to Thrive: Designing Longer and Wealthier LivesFeel like you are always running out of time? What would you do differently with an extra 25 years of longevity to build a fulfilled life?Please join us for a conversation on making the most of our increased longevity and designing lives with greater well-being, meaning and purpose. Dr. Laura ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $10 Members in person, $5/free online
The Exploratorium is your playground after dark! Wander the galleries, sip a cocktail, and choose your own adventure with 600+ interactive exhibits. Peek into our workshop for exhibits in development and the tools and machines that help bring them to life. And don’t miss The Great Animal Orchestra, our summer exhibition ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
Frank Drake Award Ceremonies: Open to EveryoneHelp celebrate leaders in the search for life in the Universe - the recipient of the nonprofit SETI Institute’s Drake Award and the next generation of SETI scientists earning the SETI Forward Award. The Drake Award, honoring the Father of SETI, Frank Drake, is the world's premier prize highlighting the science ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: varies
Point Bonita Lighthouse Sunset TourOn the Point Bonita Lighthouse Sunset Tour, you will enjoy stunning sunset views and learn the compelling story of this landmark. The tour will include elements of natural and cultural history as well as thought-provoking guided discussion that ties the lighthouse’s history to our present. The tour does not include ...
If we don’t understand the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, we won’t understand the risks that could lead to future viral emergence events and pandemics. I will discuss the multitude of scientific lines of evidence relevant to this topic, including epidemiological and evolutionary data. Analyses of these data ...
Where: Cost: Free
Friday, 09/15/23
Morning Hike at Rancho Cañada del OroJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for an excursion where you’ll explore the Mayfair Ranch - Longwall Canyon trails of Rancho Cañada del Oro! You will be guided by POST Ambassadors who will share with you the history of the preserve, the region, and the importance of conservation in the area.The ...
Speaker: Franz Weber, Univ of PennsylvaniaAttend in person or online here.
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Saturday, 09/16/23
The Physics Show - SOLD OUTThe Physics Show is a fun science show for kids and their families. This year we will have two weekends of shows in September and two weekends of shows in January.  What is The Physics Show?Saturday September 16, 2023 at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Sunday September 17, 2023 at 1:00 pm [SOLD OUT]Saturday September 23, ...
Where: Los Altos HillsCost: $6
The Physics and Chemistry of the Atomic Nucleus - LivestreamThe atomic nucleus truly sits at the intersection of chemistry and physics - over the decades both scientific fields have laid claim to these uniquely mysterious quantum systems. I will talk in this presentation about the current state-of-the-art in nuclear science, including the new Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, which ...
