At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep. For approximately one minute, shockwaves buckled streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, crushed hundreds of residents to death and trapped many alive. For the next three days, fires ignited and ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $10 Members
Phonon thermal conductivity in ferroelectric materials: the case for “polarization caloritronicsâ€What is the nature of the thermal fluctuations of polarization in ferroelectric materials, the equivalent of magnons in ferromagnetic materials? In displacement ferroelectrics they are phonons involving the atoms that carry Born effective charges; these describe the electrical polarization induced by the displacement of individual atomic sublattices. These phonons are ...
Synthetic biology is one of the most promising fields of research for the 21st century. It offers powerful ways to build the global economy, manufacture sustainable materials, and address climate change. However, current access to biotechnology breakthroughs is unequal, largely due to bottlenecks in infrastructure and education. Here, I describe ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Scalable Quantum Nanophotonics: From Nanofabrication to Quantum Circuit MappingDr. Radulaski explores light and matter interaction at the nanoscale for applications in quantum and classical informationprocessing hardware. Photonic systems are the leading candidates for creating reliable sources of quantum information and other important tools for quantum computing. Recent advances in photonic technology have important applications in building quantum networks, ...
Dr. Karine Gibbs studies the social behaviors of tiny organisms. Her team asks how bacteria recognize one another, engage in collective behaviors such as territory formation, and cause disease. They use molecular biology, biochemistry, and live-cell imaging to examine shapeshifting, fast-moving residents of humans and animals. Dr. Gibbs (A.B., Harvard ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Scouting for light new physicsThe two most common ways particle physicists are searching for the existence of new forces or new degrees of freedom are either by producing heavy new particles directly, using collisions at the highest achievable energies, or by measuring precisely processes that are very rare. In the colloquium I will review ...
The US State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) develops and executes US international energy policy through diplomatic and programmatic engagement that promotes a low-emissions future, energy security for the United States and our allies and partners, and economic prosperity through sustainable, affordable, and reliable energy access. In a conversation ...
It's a challenge to make the best decisions in a world that is unpredictable and full of contradictions. Help is now available in the form of advice from quantum physicist Jim Al-Khalili, who shares 8 lessons from the heart of science that he says can help people get the most ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10 General, Free for Members
Tuesday, 10/17/23
Understanding Food Loss and WasteFood that is lost or wasted on its journey from farm to fork creates the potent greenhouse gas methane and results in lost environmental resources, energy, and economic productivity. Reducing food loss and waste (in the U.S., the goal is to cut food waste by 50% by 2030) represents a ...
Extreme wildfire has become a global crisis - affecting lives, property, air quality, economies and ecosystems. What role can technology and startups play in helping address it? Bill Clerico is the founder and managing partner at Convective Capital, a wildfire-focused venture capital firm and will share his perspectives on the ...
Quantum error correction was invented as a graceful answer to how quantum computing would be feasible despite continuous noises from environment. It was soon realized that gauge theories had been a quantum error correcting code in disguise. This perspective has influenced designs of quantum fault-tolerant protocols. On the other hand, ...
Speaker: Eugenia Bone is an internationally known food and nature writer. Her work has appeared in many anthologies, magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, The National Lampoon, Saveur, Gourmet, BBC Science, and The Wall Street Journal, where she is a frequent book reviewer.Attend in person or online.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Astronomy on Tap Tucson #92: Revealing the Hidden - LivestreamUnveiling the Missing Universe with Arizona’s Own Space TelescopeSpeaker: Carlos VargasThe Search for Stealth Ocean WorldsSpeaker: Adeene DentonOn tap this month, we have Steward Observatory professor Carlos Vargas and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory postdoc Adeene Denton! Carlos will tell us all about the University of Arizona’s very own view of ...
Where: Cost: Free
Wednesday, 10/18/23
Addressing Embodied Carbon Issues in Building Materials and Systems - LivestreamBuildings are responsible for 40% of the US greenhouse gas emissions. Building owners and regulators are in a rapid transformation in how buildings are designed and built. Join Peter Rumsey, Founder of Point Energy Innovations, as he discusses how to lower and eliminate the carbon emissions associated with building materials ...
Amanda Hodo began her career as an animal care specialist nearly 9 years ago at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, and is currently serving in a hybrid role as Aquarium Biologist III/Diversity and Inclusion Advisor to the President & CEO.As an Aquarium Biologist III at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, ...
Researchers, community members and advocates have called upon decision-makers to address the structural causes leading to the double jeopardy of co-occurring exposures to environmental and social “stressogens†that shape the origins and persistence of health disparities. This talk will delve into the scientific evidence, as well as research translation and ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
AI Orchestration: Symphony for a New WorldBack in 2015, BootstrapLabs was among the first VCs to track how AI would impact people, corporations and society, and to develop an investment thesis focused on Applied AI in verticals such as the Future of Work, Mobility, Health, Digital & Financial Infrastructure, and Climate & Energy.We have witnessed firsthand ...
Join us to hear about the journey of Snowy Owls from the Arctic to the shores of Cape Cod each winter. Stephanie will discuss their life cycle and behavior as well as local research findings that detail why they choose to spend their winters in New England. She'll touch upon ...
In an age when misinformation, alternative facts, and conspiracy theories have become mainstream, UFOs have risen to become one of the most-talked about pop culture phenomena. With all of this noise, how can we expect anyone to know how much of this is true? What is in our skies? What ...
Where: Cost: Free
Birding Under the Influence - LivestreamA North American Big Year―a continent-spanning adventure in which a birder attempts to see as many species as possible in twelve months―is a massive undertaking under any circumstances. But doing it on a bike while maintaining sobriety? That’s next level. We are privileged to have Dorian as our speaker this ...
Traveltime-based tomographic methods have been extensively explored and employed by researchers since the 80s. Such algorithms have been successfully applied to various geophysical applications, ranging from seismic exploration to global to regional seismological scales. However, given the advancements in computational architectures over the last 20 years, full-waveform methodologies are now ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Nanotechnology: Tiny Science with a Big Impact - LivestreamDid you know that October 9th was National Nano Day? To celebrate the exploration of this miniscule world that holds immense potential for our future, this month’s Midday Science Cafe delves into the fascinating realm of nanoscience, where matter is studied at the mind-boggling nanoscale, a dimension one thousand times ...
Our past 150 years of experience with communication technology holds key lessons for how electricity technology could transform in the coming decades. With communications there were many decades of relative stasis in telephone technology before the transformation of the fundamental mechanism of our communication with the introduction (and wild success) ...
Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everythingâ€"from missiles to microwaves, smartphones to the stock marketâ€"runs on chips. Until recently, America designed and built the most advanced chips and used its control over computing power to maintain its lead as the world's ...
Conventional reinforcement learning (RL) techniques face the formidable challenge of high sample complexity and intensive computation load, which hinders RL's applicability in real-world tasks.  To tackle this challenge, Warm-Start RL is emerging as a promising new paradigm, with the basic idea being to accelerate online learning  by starting with an initial policy ...
By Hon Ip, USGS Diagnostic Virologist As an introduction to how we investigate the causes of diseases in wildlife, we will use zombies to illustrate how disease is portrayed in the movies and how we would we investigate zombieism as an infectious disease. Learn about the different specialists who work at he ...
Where: Cost: Free
Astronomy on Tap Santa Cruz: Modern Alchemy and the (Stellar) Birds & BeesWe may all be made of starstuff, but what are the stars made of? Learn the answer, and discover how to turn gold into lead with cosmic alchemy at this month’s Astronomy on Tap!Speakers: Thummim Mekuria & Matthew Shetrone, UC Santa Cruz
Throughout our open spaces and urban areas, the Bay Area is home to many diverse reptiles and amphibians. From slippery serpents to charming croakers, prepare to learn about creatures that crawl, slither and hop their way through the Bay. 🦎Santa Cruz Black Salamander (Aneides niger). Photo by Brandon Kong.We’ve invited ...
Kick off spooky season with a nerdy twist at our Halloween special! Featured will be a talk on the real Gray’s Anatomy, tarot readings by Nerd Nite alum Ben Grandis, a pumpkin decorating contest (with prizes!), music by dj andjelly, and our friends in nerdom, the SF Public Library crew. ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10 Advance, $15 at door
Los Angeles Times journalist and Pulitzer finalist Rosanna Xia and Dr. Charles Lester, director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at UC Santa Barbara, explore the inexorable challenge of sea level rise in this probing talk. Xia, author of California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline (Heyday, 2023), has traveled ...
These tours are led by our wonderful crew of ocean-loving docents, and visitors will learn about ongoing marine and coastal science research at Bodega Marine Laboratory and its history on the Sonoma Coast. Plus, you'll get to meet a variety of colorful and diverse ocean creatures.The front gates will be ...
Where: Bodega BayCost: Donations suggested
Global Insights to Anticipate and Address Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Challenges - RescheduledFrom ubiquitous software-controlled vehicles, innovations in gaming, virtual reality, and hyper-scale cloud adoption, to supply chain frictions, a proliferation of inexpensive tools available to cybercriminals, the emergence of synthetic image generators, and fractures in global internet governance, the landscape of digital security is constantly changing.Cybersecurity Futures 2030 is a foresight-focused ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Saturday, 10/21/23
Wellness WalkJoin us for an informative and reflective stroll through wetlandsWellness Walk Join Peninsula Open Space Trust, Climate Resilient Communities, and Grassroots Ecology at Cooley Landing for a fun walk along the Bay Trail! The walk will be approximately 2 miles along the flat, paved trail to the Ravenswood lookout. We ...
Join us as psychologist Brian A. Sharpless discusses unusual psychological conditions described in his new book, Monsters on the Couch: The Real Psychological Disorders Behind Your Favorite Horror Movies. We’ll delve into Clinical Lycanthropy, a psychiatric syndrome within which the patient has the delusional belief of turning into a wolf, ...
Where: Cost: Free
Family Nature Walks - Foothills Nature PreserveEnvironmental 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
Bat Fest 2023It's our biggest and most exciting event of the year - Bat Fest! Join Saved By Nature for an evening festival celebrating local animals of the night, with live bats, owls, and other creatures. It's a fun time under the stars! With a special guest speaker, food trucks, live music, ...
Where: Morgan HillCost: $25 General, $10 Age 6 - 15, under 4 Free
City Public Star PartyCome join the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers for an evening of stargazing at Land’s End! We meet at the USS San Francisco Memorial at El Camino del Mar parking lotTelescopes will be set up to show you the craters and mountains of the Moon, planets, bright and colorful double stars, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Jazz Under the StarsJazz Under the Stars is a FREE monthly public stargazing event! Occurring on the Saturday nearest the 1st quarter moon (check our Events Page), join us on the 4th floor observatory for a night of smooth jazz, bright stars, and a lot of fun! We play our jazz from CSM's own ...
Visit our birding station at the Charleston Slough observation deck, where our volunteers will help you identify ducks, shorebirds, and more. No need to sign up - come by anytime we’re there! This event is wheelchair accessible.
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
Hike at Windy HillJoin POST on a guided hike on one of the first open spaces we protected as an organization! A POST Representative will share a few words about POST’s decades of conservation success before hiking groups leave to explore a strenuous but rewarding 7 mile hike with 1,500 feet of elevation ...
Where: Portola ValleyCost: Free
Resilient Forest SeriesJoin Forestree Collective, Regenerative Forest Solutions and Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program for this series highlighting forest health practices, ecological stewardship, regional milling infrastructure, prescribed burning, and more.Each series date will engage participants in stewardship strategies employed at Green Valley Farm + Mill for improving the forest and watershed, ...
Where: SebastopolCost: $25
Above and Beyond: How Women Astronomers and Astronauts Brought Space Down to EarthJoin author Dale DeBakcsy on a tour through two thousand years of women's contributions to the study and exploration of space, from the first Babylonian astronomers to the women directing planetary surveys and working in space.Dale is the author of A History of Women in Astronomy and Space Exploration and ...
