Dr. Smith is currently a Conservation Research Fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium:Â I am a community ecologist studying how species interactions shape the structure, functioning, and stability of nearshore marine ecosystems. I focus on temperate rocky reefs and am particularly interested in combining theory with observational and experimental approaches to ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
Drivers of plankton communities and foodweb structure in a changing oceanZooplankton are essential components of marine pelagic ecosystems: as trophic intermediaries they play a key role in energy transfer up the food web, they mediate biogeochemical cycling and organic export, and their month-to-year life cycles and close species links to the physical environment make them important sentinels of climate change. ...
A large and growing share of the American public turns to social media for news. On these platforms, reports about crime increasingly come directly from law enforcement agencies, raising questions about content curation. We gathered all posts from almost 14,000 Facebook pages maintained by US law enforcement agencies, focusing on ...
Lake Tahoe is one of the longest studied lakes in North America. Yet, the processes that control its motions, health and clarity are still not fully understood. These processes are a complex interaction of physical, biological and biogeochemical processes, all of which are subject to large-scale changes associated with climate ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Shot noise in a strange metalStrange metal behavior has been observed in materials ranging from high-temperature superconductors to heavy fermion metals. In conventional metals, current is carried by quasiparticles; although it has been suggested that quasiparticles are absent in strange metals, direct experimental evidence is challenging to acquire. We measure shot noise to probe the ...
Muon colliders offer a unique path to multi-TeV, high-luminosity lepton collisions. Muon collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 10 TeV or above would offer significant discovery potential where the constituent collision energies exceed those of the LHC program by an order of magnitude.  Significant progress on the fundamental R&D and ...
Unprecedented development of renewable energy projects and infrastructure is expected across the U.S. to meet decarbonization goals by mid-century. How do Tribal Nations fit into this energy landscape? Tribal lands hold an estimated 6.5% of the utility-scale solar potential in the contiguous United States. Siting principles that support a just ...
Speaker: Jonas Cremer, Stanford UniversityAuditorium
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Flying robots: exploring hybrid locomotion and physical interactionAutonomous flying robots have become widespread in recent years, yet their capability to interact with the environment remains limited. Moving in multiple fluids is one of the great challenges of mobile robotics, and carries great potential for application in biological and environmental studies. In particular, hybrid locomotion provides the means ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
The Many Frontiers of High Magnetic Field ResearchMagnetic fields represent a remarkably flexible research tool that has opened up new frontiers of research in physics, engineering, chemistry, geochemistry, environmental sciences, biology, and biomedicine. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (the National MagLab) in the United States exists to provide uniquely powerful magnetic fields to thousands of researchers ...
The United States is strategically disadvantaged in building its critical mineral supply, in particular in the upstream and downstream portion. In this presentation, I will report findings on a year-long conversation with government officials, academics, and international industry experts on the status of the US critical mineral supply chain, in ...
The development of classical electromagnetism and quantum electrodynamics are highpoints of nineteenth and twentieth century physics, respectively. Recent, remarkable discoveries, involving neutron stars and black holes, are taking electrodynamics into unfamiliar and “extremeâ€Â territory, requiring new theoretical approaches. Examples include 100 GT (10^15 Gauss) magnetic fields surrounding neutron stars (and ...
I will discuss how vertebrate skin colours and skin appendages (scales, feathers, hairs, ...) are patterned through Turing and mechanical instabilities. First, I will show that Reaction-diffusion (RD) models are particularly effective for understanding skin colour patterning at the macroscopic scale, without the need to parametrise the profusion of variables ...
Brainstem trauma or neurodegenerative diseases can often result in the inability to move or speak, despite intact cognition. The inability to communicate often results in severely decreased quality of life for individuals living with these conditions. Our recent work has shown that brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), can employ neural signals to ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Innovative Patient-Centered Care for CancerThe current system of cancer care is not built to optimize for patients, according to our speakers. Clinical trials optimize for sponsor outcomes. Hospitals and clinics optimize for payer reimbursement. Translational research optimizes for publication impact. Electronic health records are optimized for billing efficiency.Join us in-person as Mark Laabs (cancer ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $20 General, $10 Members in person, $5/free online
Wonderfest: The Psychology of Confidence - RESCHEDULEDHow confident should we be? Overconfidence leads people to delude themselves with wishful thinking, take too many risks, pursue impossible goals, and waste their time on doomed ventures. Underconfidence dissuades people from taking risks that would pay off, and scares them away from trying things they would enjoy. Pschological studies ...
Where: NovatoCost: Free
Wednesday, 01/31/24
RoundTable: Taking Generative AI Enterprise Models to ProductionGenerative AI (GenAI) is an emergent area that has many AI users excited. One key feature of GenAI applications includes using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to pull up text data from internal enterprise sources. Another key feature is to reason about the retrieval results, the question, and the context of ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
How to Make an Eye: Cephalopod Eye Development and the Evolution of ComplexityUnderstanding the mechanisms that enable the evolution of complexity remains a difficult problem in biology. In On the Origin of Species, Darwin discussed the eye as an important context to better understand his theory of natural selection and the generation of complex phenotypes. My lab is interested in the evolution ...
Can aquaculture be adapted to support conservation and ecosystem restoration? The only native oyster on our coast, the Olympia oyster, is depleted throughout its range. Many estuaries in central California are facing local extinction. Without a healthy oyster population, these estuaries lose vast amounts of biodiversity and cannot protect shorelines ...
 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 ...
Home to more than 13 million people, the urban area of Los Angeles sits on top of a large-scale deep sedimentary basin that during large earthquakes can considerably amplify the recorded seismic amplitudes. One significant example of this effect is the magnitude 6.7 Northridge in 1994. The repercussions of the ...
Latin America is one of the world’s most urbanized regions, with over 80% of its total population projected to be living in urban areas by 2050. Amazonia, often associated with images of remote, mostly rural spaces, has not escaped this trend. In recent decades, Amazonian cities have grown, prompting Indigenous ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Galactic Archaeology with the Coldest Stars and Brown DwarfsLarge-scale photometric, spectroscopic, and astrometric surveys have revolutionized our understanding of the Milky Way and its satellite systems. Nearly all of this work has made use of red giants and FGK dwarfs as tracers of Galactic structure and evolution, but greater insight can emerge from the Milky Way's lowest mass ...
The first commercial 5G deployments were in March of 2019 - now almost 5 years ago--and the path to 6G is well under way. It is without a doubt that 6G will be evolution and revolution beyond 5G, but its territory is still rife with speculation. However, some of the ...
Where: Rohnert ParkCost: Free
After Dark: Phenomenal FunThe Exploratorium is your playground after dark! Sip a cocktail and explore extraordinary science phenomena with 600+ interactive exhibits. Watch water freeze, eavesdrop on people at the parabolic dishes, and paint in colors using soapy water. No kids allowed - but you can still act like one.
Where: San FranciscoCost: $19.95 General, Free for members
NightLife: Black ThursdayCelebrate Black joy with a vibrant night of history, culture, and innovation.
Energy Innovation: What It Is and How to Accelerate It - LivestreamInnovation is central to economic prosperity (although not necessarily equity and justice), and is particularly key to efforts to address the climate crisis. Berkeley professor Daniel Kammen will examine perspectives and methods to track, understand, accelerate, and make more just and inclusive the process of energy innovation.While UC Berkeley and Stanford ...
Jennifer Doudna developed CRISPR-Cas9, a groundbreaking technology that some call “genetic scissors.†With it, scientists can snip and edit DNA - the code of life - unlocking remarkable possibilities in biology, including treatments for thousands of intractable diseases. This work has changed the course of genomics research, allowing scientists to ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
First Friday Nights at CuriOdyssey Come together as a family, visit early, and stay late!Swing into the weekend with live music, a food truck, animals and fun! On the first Friday of every month, from 5 PM until 8 PM, parents and kids celebrate together at CuriOdyssey.Dance to some of your favorite pop and rock ...
Where: San MateoCost: 0-$19.95
First Friday: Celestial CinemaJoin Chabot in a galaxy far, far away to get a behind-the-scenes look at how space films are made and put the science in science fiction with experts in the field of filmmaking. Create your own flipbook sci-fi adventure, attend hands-on workshops and guest lectures, and take a trip to ...
Where: OaklandCost: $15 General, $10 Kids/Seniors, $5 Members
N = 1: Alone in the Milky WayPlanetary scientist Dr. Pascal Lee will review our present knowledge about each term of the Drake Equation used to estimate the number (N) of advanced civilizations present in our Milky Way galaxy, which is at the heart of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He will examine star and planet ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Saturday, 02/03/24
Roots of Jazz in the Music of Steely DanGet ready to swing and sway as you learn about jazz and its roots through the music of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. Local band The Dans of Steel will delight guests with a performance that will break down the music of Steely Dan into its Jazz and Afro-American components. ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free with admission
Nike Missile Site Veteran Open HouseVeterans of the Nike program come to the site to share their stories with visitors and give guided tours of SF88 between the hours of 12pm - 3pm The SF-88 Nike Missile Site is the most fully restored Nike missile site in the country. During the tense years of the Cold War, from ...
In "Neurobiology of Morality," Dr. Strand begins by briefly introducing the historical assumption that morality and religion are closely linked. Next, Sarah describes that contemporary moral psychologists show that humans - whether male or female, atheist or religious, American or Aboriginal - make remarkably similar moral judgments. So if religion ...
Where: Cost: Donation requested
Starry Nights Star PartyThe San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA), working with the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (OSA), is glad to co-host a public star party at Rancho Canada del Oro (RCDO) Open Space Preserve. This site, just 30 minutes south of downtown San Jose, features dark skies. It's dark enough to ...
It’s there for us year round, lighting our days and providing energy for our lives, so maybe it’s time to give it a closer look. Join SJAA for amazing and detailed views of the Sun, and be assured that we’ll be using special telescopes that will keep your eyeballs perfectly ...