Giving Thanks and Vaccine Explainer in SciSchmooze
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SciSchmooze Weekly Events Newsletter
Hello Sci-Schmoozers,
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Holidays are unusual this year, to say the least. It sucks to be away from family and avoid those big get-togethers we yearn for all year but there is also a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for the efforts of frontline health care workers who have been tirelessly treating patients this year. The resilience that people have shown in these trying times is laudable; no matter how bad the situation, there are those few people around us who keep going and motivate you to keep going. Last, but not the least, I am grateful for the hard work that scientists put into research to develop vaccines in record time—exactly the positive news we needed to end the year.
The results of Phase 3 vaccine trials from Pfizer and Moderna (two separate vaccines) were published just a week apart from one another this month. Both reported more than 90% efficacy in patients, after looking at COVID-19 in placebo and vaccinated groups after the second dose.
Both are mRNA vaccines; a quick reminder on how they work. mRNA codes for specific protein in cells. The virus has about 25 proteins, and the researchers picked mRNA that codes for one of those proteins and inject it is as vaccine. Two points to remember for those concerned about safety of the vaccine: one viral protein is not enough to be infectious as it is not the full virus. Also, the mRNA is temporary; your cells will destroy it in a few weeks. But before that, it will alert your immune cells about the intruder and the resulting immune response is the basis of what will prepare you for future real infections.
Lastly, while all this is great news, please remember that vaccine being generally available is months away and so please practice social distancing and safety measures until then. Moving on to my event picks for next week:
‘I Am Gretta' - Screening and online discussion - Monday, 11/30/20; 05:00 PM
NightSchool: Wild Cats on the West Coast - Livestream - Thursday, 12/03/20; 07:00 PM
Unraveling the history of the San Andreas fault system in central California - Livestream - Friday, 12/04/20; 12:00 PM
Stay safe and curious,
Meenakshi Prabhune (a.k.a Minu)
Science Journalist and Writer
Editor's Note: Eventbrite, one of the sites we monitor, has changed from a geographic focus to general topics. That means that searches for Science events turn up things from all over the world. As a result, we've added a few interesting (to us, anyway) talks to the calendar from far flung places, such as Scotland and Australia. Some feature local speakers too!
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 11/30/2020
For decades, ferromagnetic materials have dominated the field of information technology. Recently, however, there has been a boost of new research in antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials. While these materials to-date have primarily been used to manipulate the magnetization reversal in adjacent ferromagnets through exchange bias, researchers today strive to harness the potential applications of antiferromagnetic materials for low power spintronics devices. In particular, new studies have proven AFM insulators to be excellent conductors of DC spin currents with intriguing temperature dependent transmission properties [1-4], however it is unclear to what extent coherent AC spin currents can be transmitted through an AFM material.
Speaker: Christoph Klewe, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
See weblink for Zoom information
Maxwell’s Demon, Schrodinger’s Cat, and Broca’s Brain: Gate keepers to the Future of Computing - Livestream - 11/30/2020 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium,
The computer revolution, known by the moniker Moore’s Law, is rolling past its fifty-year march. As one of the most significant advancements of human civilization, this revolution has been enabled by a confluence of breakthroughs in science and engineering. Now this progress is at cross-roads facing slowing down of traditional scaling, advent of Artificial Intelligence as a general-purpose solution, and onset of Quantum Computing as an alternate computing paradigm. For us to navigate forward intelligently, we may need to go back and question what computing is (or should be) and how we could use this understanding differently.
In this presentation, I will propose that the path forward is gated by th e known principles of science, together with the constraints imposed by engineering and technology. The quest for and the handling of information might become the unifying theme for a new vision on what computing will evolve into as a discipline. I will also conclude with a few perspectives on getting past the gate keepers to traverse this journey that could evolve computing to endless possibilities from a few beginnings.
Speaker: Sadasivan Shankar, Harvard
See weblink for Zoom information.
CIRTIS People and Robots Seminar - Livestream - 11/30/2020 04:00 PM
UC Berkeley,
Speaker: Vikash Mansinghka, MIT
See weblink for webcast information
Studying Hot QCD with Jets - Li vestream - 11/30/2020 04:15 PM
UC Berkeley,
The phase diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) has been studied with ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have been delivering heavy ion collisions (Pb+Pb) along with reference data of pp and p+Pb collisions since 2010. With its unprecedented reach in energy, LHC explores new regions of the phase diagram of Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) that can resolve fundamental questions regarding quark confinement, such as ``What determines the key features of QCD?" and "How does the hot QCD respond to jet energy loss?”. We have performed multiple, complementary jet measurements at LHC using the CMS detector to answer these questions. This talk will present an overview of our experimental results at LHC together with future perspectives at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider to reveal detailed properties of the hot QCD matter.
Speaker: Sevil Salur, Rutgers University
Phasing Out Fossil Fuels in Bay Area Buildings - Livestream - 11/30/2020 05:00 PM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR),
California has declared a goal of being carbon-neutral by 2045. To reach that goal, buildings will need to transition to using electricity rather than natural gas. But the state has lagged on enacting the necessary regulatory changes. In that leadership vacuum, the Bay Area has picked up the slack, with more than 30 local governments passing ordinances to promote all-electric new construction. Hear from those leading electrification ordinances in San Francisco, Oakland, and San José, as well as advocates working on state policy, as they discuss the regulation being undertaken in the region’s three largest cities, how the Bay Area is moving building electrification policy forward and how those efforts might galvanize the state to act.
Ken Davies / Climate Smart San Jose; Barry Hooper / San Francisco Department of the Environment; Shayna Hirshfield-Gold / Environmental Services Division City of Oakland; Panama Bartholomy / Building Decarbonization Coalition; Laura Feinstein / SPUR
Register at weblink to receive connection information
'I Am Gretta' - Screening and online discussion - 11/30/2020 05:00 PM
Citizens Climate Lobby,
Follow the inspiring journey of environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who also has Asperger’s Syndrome, as she impresses everyone from UN delegates, to Hollywood A-listers in the intimate documentary "I Am Greta". The story of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is told through compelling, never-before-seen footage in this intimate documentary from Swedish director Nathan Grossman. Starting with her one-person school strike for climate action outside the Swedish Parliament, Grossman follows Greta - a shy student with Asperger’s - in her rise to prominence and her galvanizing global impact as she sparks school strikes around the world.
The film culminates with her extraordinary wind-powered voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City
Attendees will receive a link to stream the film from the event host 48 hours before the event start time. The link will be delivered to you at the email address you use to RSVP here. The 96-minute film can be streamed at will any time between Friday, Nov 27 at 3 PM (PST) until Monday, Nov 30 at 3:15 PM (PST). We will reconvene after the final screening on Monday, November 30 on zoom for a youth discussion of the film for viewers age approximately 22 and under at 5 PM (PST) followed by a general discussion at 6 PM (PST) for viewers of all ages.
Tuesday, 12/01/2020
7-1/2 Lessons About the Brain - Livestream - 12/01/2020 10:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event,
Join us for a virtual conversation with Lisa Feldman Barrett to explore fundamental questions, like why we even have a brain and what that means for all of us.
When we think about the larger issues in our own society, and for humanity as a species, we don't often focus on the role science plays in our understanding of these issues. But even when not explicitly involved in the discussion, the assumptions of scientific thought influence how we think about almost everything.
Feldman Barrett takes us on a scientific journey, in 7-1/2 steps, full of intrigue and adventure, inviting you to think about important topics such as: Are we rational creatures? If rationality is not the absence of emotion, what is it? Why does loneliness make people physically sick? Why do we create societies that grant individual rights and freedoms in spite of the human nervous system having evolved to be biologically dependent on other humans? What does this mean for notions of hate speech or free speech? For democracy? And most essentially, what kind of person do you want to be?
Speaker: Lisa Feldman Barrett, Northeastern University; George Hammond, Author, Moderator
Register at weblink to receive connection information
The persistent sediment delivery problem in rivers - Livestream - 12/01/2020 03:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz,
Moving sediment from continents to coasts is a fundamental job of rivers. However, humans have dramatically altered how rivers move sediment leading to declining suspended sediment delivery in many rivers around the world. Rarely are we able to look both upstream and downstream of basin outlets to measure where and why sediment delivery is changing. We developed a spatially-explicit suspended sediment database over all large rivers (> 60 m wide) in the continental USA using >234,000 satellite images from 1984-2018. I will present multi-decadal trends in suspended sediment concentrations, river flow, and soil erosion; link basin-scale trends to trends in coastal rivers; and discuss what limits sediment delivery.
Speaker: John Gardner, Univ. North Carolina
See weblink for connection/location information
Histories of Communicating Science Beyond the Recent West - Livestream - 12/01/2020 05:00 PM
AUS Centre for Public Awareness of Science,
We are often told science communication originated alongside professionalised science in Western Europe a few hundred years ago. Yet cultures all over the world and throughout time developed unique conventions for communicating their knowledge within their own societies and with others.
This webinar will discuss how we might rethink science communication histories to be more cross-culturally diverse and inclusive, without losing sight of cultures’ unique approaches to knowledge communication.
Our four exceptional speakers will draw on examples from across the world, including pūrākau that communicate mātauranga Māori, medieval European and Arabic pharmaceutical works, ancient Persian water science, and astronomical knowledge in the cuneiform world of Babylonia and Assyria.
Ngā rāwekeweke o Ngātoroirangi - The exploits of Ngātoroirangi: Multiple ways of Knowing
Speaker: Daniel Hiku roa
Arabic Pseudonyms and the “Princes of Medicine:” Conventions of Authorship in Pharmaceutical Texts of Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Speaker: Paula De Vos, San Diego State University
Communicating by doing: Communicating sustainability in Persia
Speaker: Ehasn Nabavi, Australian National University
Not a Less Perfect Version: Astronomical Knowledge in Cuneiform Antiquity
Speaker: Francesca Rochberg, UC Berkeley
Moderator: Lindy Orthia, Australian National University
Measuring the Beginning of Time from the Bottom of the World - Livestream - 12/01/2020 06:00 PM
KIPAC Public Lectures,
The afterglow of the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), is one of our best tools to study the beginning of the Universe and how it works. Find out how we look at this “baby picture” to infer how our Universe works, what it has taught us, and what else we hope to learn. Discover how astrophysicists are building extremely sensitive tools to precisely measure the CMB, and join us on a virtual tour to find out about how scientists live and work at one of the most remote observatories on Earth: the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Speaker: Cyndia Yu, Stanford
See weblink for Zoom and YouTube information
Wednesday, 12/02/2020
Free Wednesday at the UC Botanical Garden - CANCELED - 12/02/2020 09:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley
Decoding Innovation - The Innovation Delusion and the Maintenance Mindset - Livestream - 12/02/2020 11:00 AM
Computer History Museum,
Without doubt, technological innovations are tremendously important. We also hear about innovation everywhere: books, magazines, white papers, blogs, classrooms, offices, factories, government hearings, and the list goes on. But for all this discussion, do we really have a good understanding of what “innovation” means, and its proper place in society? Is the new always good? What about taking care of and maintaining the things that already work? To decode innovation, Jean Kumagai, senior editor of IEEE Spectrum, will explore these issues in conversation with Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell, historians of technology, and the authors of the new book "The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New has Disrupted the Work that Matters Most".
Register at weblink to obtain connection link.
Accelerated Python on GPUs - 12/02/2020 12:00 PM
Magnimind Academy,
Python, pandas, scikit-learn are essential tools for any Data Scientist today. They are user friendly and rely on the popular Python syntax that is easy to read and implement for Data Science work. However, any Data Scientist who has used them knows that the limits they have are real when it comes to being able to load large datasets or the amount of time it takes to train a model. This is because of the limitations that come with CPU computing. RAPIDS is a suite of Python packages that allows Data Scientists to take advantage of GPUs in their normal workflow. By implementing simple, syntactical changes, Data Scientists can work with significantly larger Dataframes in-memory and run model training and inference in a fraction of the time they could with CPU based Python. By taking advantage of RAPIDS, a Data Scientist can process larger datasets and in less time than they could otherwise. This saves time and money. And one can take advantage of RAPIDS wherever they like: on their computer, in the cloud (AWS, Google Cloud or Azure) or on-prem servers. The possibilities are endless!
Agenda:
11:50 am - 12:00 pm Arrival and socializing
12:00 pm - 12:10 pm Opening
12:10 pm - 1:50 pm Subhan Ali, " Accelerated Python on GPUs"
1:50 pm - 2:00 pm Q&A
Speaker: Subhan Ali, NVIDIA
Webinar ID: 818 4951 4640
Integrating Planning with Nature - Livestream - 12/02/2020 12:30 PM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR),
Over the next century, the San Francisco Bay Area is poised to face three major challenges: adapting to a changing climate, adding infill development to accommodate a growing population and maintaining natural and working lands in the face of development pressure. Despite appearing to be disparate, these problems are deeply interrelated and planning across traditionally siloed sectors will be necessary to generate effective, cross-cutting solutions. Join us for a conversation about how solutions like the implementation of nature-based strategies in rural and densifying urban landscapes can maximize our communities' preparedness for future climate conditions while providing a wide variety of benefits to people and ecosystems.
Co-presented by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority.
Panel:
Micaela Bazo / San Francisco Estuary Institute; Erica Spotswood / San Francisco Estuary Institute; Letitia Grenier / San Francisco Estuary Institute; Michelle Huttenhoff / SPUR; Laura Feinstein / SPUR; Jake Smith / Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority; Marc Landgraf / Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority; Matt Freeman / Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Thursday, 12/03/2020
Climate & Clean Air Zoomposium #2 - 12/03/2020 10:00 AM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR),
On October 1, we convened 11 elected officials, environmental luminaries and environmental justice leaders to discuss the potential creation of a sta tewide ballot measure ahead of November 2022 that could generate significant new funding to accelerate the deployment of transportation, infrastructure and other technologies to finish cleaning our air and significantly abate climate change. The consensus from that program was clear: it is imperative to raise the funding necessary to meet California's vital climate and air quality goals while building a just and equitable economy. On December 3, join a new slate of leaders to continue the conversation, this time targeting the intersection of transportation and our climate. The transportation sector is California's largest source of greenhouse gases (GHG), accounting for 40 percent of statewide emissions. The state has already committed to reducing GHG emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, as well as to carbon neutrality - removing as much carbon dioxide from the air as we emit into it - by 2045, but are there further steps can be taken? Come learn how clean transportation can help the state meet these ambitious goals, and the steps that are necessary to get us there.
An initiative of the Climate & Clean Air Initiative. Co-presented by Move LA.
Kevin Maggay / SoCalGas; Todd Campbell / Clean Energy; Raj Dillon / Breath California; Susana Reyes / Sierra Club; John Boesel / CALSTART; Matt Miyasato / South Coast Air Quality Management District; Steve Cliff / California Air Resources Board; Rajinder Sahota / California Air Resources Board; Dawn Wilson / Southern California Edison; Nick Josefowitz / SPUR; Denny Zane / Move LA
Register at weblink to receive connection information.
Equitable Practices in Distance Learning - Livestream - 12/03/2020 10:00 AM
Silicon Valley Education Foundation,
Join us for a stimulating discussion with a diverse panel of educators and non-profit leaders about the impact distance learning has on the educational landscape and challenges moving forward.
Register at weblink to receive connection information.
Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium - Livestream - 12/03/2020 12:00 PM
San Jose State University,
Speaker: Nora Crivello, Westpak Inc.
See weblink and click on the lecture tile for Zoom connection.
Winter Conifers Virtual Tour - 12/03/2020 03:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden,
From the ‘noble fir’ to the ‘humble pine’, join us for a virtual tour highlighting the Garden’s remarkable collection of conifer trees with UCBG horticulturist Gideon Dollarhide. We’ll explore via Zoom the unexpected origins, distinguishing features, and unique uses of this special group of plants. Get to know these winter plant friends.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Underwater Happy Hour - Livestream - 12/03/2020 03:00 PM
Atlas Obscura,
Join us Atlas Obscura and expert hosts Stephanie Joseph and Ethan Angelica as we explore the underwater world of the New York Aquarium's one-of-a-kind exhibits. During this one hour online experience, you'll get to take a look at some of the aquarium's incredible exhibits, including the new exhibit dedicated to aquatic invertebrates!
If you have any questions about the exhibits, you'll be able to talk directly to Stephanie and Ethan, and pick their brains for all the invertebrate trivia you can handle! So grab your favorite beverage, and join us for underwater happy hour!
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Challenges & Opportunities in Plastic Recycling & Disposal - Livestream - 12/03/2020 04:00 PM
Stanford University,
Based on his decades of experience in the industry, Mike Biddle, Evok Innovations, will share his perspectives on plastic end-of-use options, the plastic pollution crisis, and where he sees opportunities for researchers and entrepreneurs to make an impact.
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information.
December LASER Event - Livestream - 12/03/2020 06:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous,
Ian Hodder (Stanford/ Anthropology) on "What we learn from studying Çatalhöyük, one of the world's earliest societies"
Miriam Dym (Visual Artist & Systems Thinker) on her visual art based on infinitely variable and interactive pattern systems
Vijaya Nagarajan (Univ. of San Francisco/ Theology and Religious Studies) on "Embedded Mathematics in Southern India's Ritual Art of the Kolam"
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Global Habitat Restoration documentaries and Panel Discussion - Livestream - 12/03/2020 06:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center,
Three short documentaries about the success of Indigenous people around the world who are restoring their marine habitat. Enjoy three short films, then join filmmaker Gemma Cubero del Barrio and EOS Center's Habitat Restoration expert Dr. Kathy Boyer on December 3 at 6:30 PM PST for a panel discussion of the films and best practices for critical restoration work that includes everyone.
Our Atoll Speaks is a communal film poem about the vast environmental knowledge of Pukapuka/Nassau, an atoll in the Northern Group of the Cook Islands. This communal poem, developed from interviews with Pukapukans from 2015-2017, interweaves with stunning images of land, sky, and sea. Climate change and rising sea levels is the biggest threat to our island futures. Conservation practices developed over thousands of years have something to teach. This short documentary provides a visual metaphor for indigenous climate knowledge from the perspective of the atoll and her people.
Tahiry Honko - Mangroves are the forests of the sea. Adapted for salty conditions where the land meets the ocean, they provide essential ecosystem services t o local people in the Bay of Assassins in Madagascar who are being dramatically affected by mangrove deforestation. Mangroves provide nurseries for fish, protection against large storms, and some mangrove forests can store up to 6 times more carbon per unit area than the Amazonian rainforest. Blue Ventures is working with locals to restore mangrove forests, increase carbon storage potential and provide sustainable livelihoods.
Kokoly is a short documentary film, produced by Blue Ventures, and supported by the Skoll Foundation and the Sundance Institute. It gives a snapshot into the life of Madame Kokoly, a Vezo fisherwoman from southwest Madagascar, as she carries out her daily tasks in and around the coastal waters near her home village. Through Madame Kokoly’s words, and those of other women in her community, we gain an insight into the heavy toll that overfishing and habitat destruction have taken on the Vezo people and experience the reality of their daily struggle for survival.
Click HERE for trailers, more information and tickets!
Astronomy on Tap Santa Cruz: - Livestream - 12/03/2020 06:30 PM
Astronomy on Tap,
We can't typically see black holes, but this month we will be discussing the exciting events that light them up.
At the center of most galaxies lies a supermassive black hole (SMBH), larger than our entire solar system and millions of times more massive than our Sun. Despite the considerable influence they have on their host galaxies, most SMBHs are very difficult to detect because they are hidden inside dense, bright clusters of stars. Occasionally, gas or even stars are pulled in by the black hole's gravity, fueling t he black hole's growth. These 'accretion' events also produce bright flares of light that illuminate the black hole. Brenna Mockler (UCSC) and Sierra Dodd (UCSC) will discuss two of the most exciting types of accretion events: tidal disruption events and changing-look quasars.
NightSchool: Wild Cats on the West Coast - Livestream - 12/03/2020 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences,
Learn about mountain lions and bobcats, our fellow west coast residents, and the habitat they roam - from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s historic use area in the Olympic Peninsula down to the Santa Cruz mountains.
Ages 21 +
See weblink for connections to Youtube and Facebook to watch.
After Dark Online: Celestial - Rising Tides - Livestream - 12/03/2020 07:00 PM
ExplOratorium,
In December and January, San Francisco Bay will see king tides, extreme tides caused by three colliding factors: the sun and moon aligning - a full moon - while both are at their closest points to Earth. However, the sea level in the Bay is constantly rising, and today’s king tides could be tomorrow’s regular high tides. Learn more about king tides and how sea level rise will impact the Bay Area, as well as how local groups are planning for shifting shorelines and envisioning a more resilient future.
The movements and mechanics of the planets, moons, and stars create awesome effects for us observers on earth. Predictable yet coincidental, these cycles among the stars lead to gravitational bulges, lunar alignments, and a turnaround of apparent motion. Join us this month as we explore these effects as opportunities for wonder and harbingers of future change.
Ages 18+
Wonderfest: The Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis - Livestream - 12/03/2020 08:00 PM
Wonderfest,
How can we explain humanity's extraordinary evolutionary success? In this talk, psychologist Jan Engelmann will explain and explore a series of experimental studies comparing humans to one of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. He will argue and present evidence that - maybe surprisingly - humans are not individually but are collectively smarter than other animals. Counterintuitively, our cooperative nature also gives rise to novel and powerful forms of competition among individuals and whole groups.
Speaker: Dr. Jan Engelmann, UC Berkeley
See weblink for connection information
Friday, 12/04/2020
Asteroseismology & Exoplanets with the NASA TESS Mission & Sky in December - Livestream - 12/04/2020 11:30 AM
Astronomical Society of Edinburgh,
The NASA transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched in 2018. It is providing exquisite photometry to enable searches for new exoplanets and studies of stars and other objects. In this talk I will discuss how we are using these data to conduct asteroseismic studies of stars, by detecting intrinsic stellar pulsations, and providing detailed characterisations of host stars and hence their newly discovered planets.
Unraveling the history of the San Andreas fault system in central California - Livestream - 12/04/2020 12:00 PM
institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics,
Speaker: Sarah Titus, Carleton College
New Year’s Resolutions for the Land - Livestream - 12/04/2020 12:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust,
These are the questions that more and more of our neighbors are asking themselves. As we head into the New Year, we at Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) want to help you answer these questions for yourselves and get some great ideas from others in the community! We are bringing together a few passionate people who will share their favorite natural places to connect with on the Peninsula and in the South Bay, as well as how they’re spreading the word and supporting environmental causes nearby.
We’ll be sharing our “New Year’s Resolutions for the Land” in this interactive webinar and inviting participants to share as well. A panel of POST volunteers will share tips that can help you to feel prepared and safe in the outdoors and give you ideas for how you can do your part to sustain the health of public spaces and local lands. We hope to inspire your next outdoor adventure and a renewed commitment to taking care of our shared home in 2021.
Register at weblink to receive connection information.
Deep Ocean to Outer Space: Plastic Pollution Solutions - Livestream - 12/04/2020 03:00 PM
Plastic Polution Coalition,
Are you concerned about the amount of plastic inside us, in our oceans, and in outer space? Join us for our webinar, where panelists will discuss the impacts of and potential solutions to plastic pollution in the ocean, as well as in outer space. This special event is in partnership with the Conrad Foundation and the Conrad Challenge, which empowers students to change the world.
Speakers: Dianna Cohen, Co-Founder & CEO at Plastic Pollution Coalition, Moderator; Dr. Sylvia Earle, President & Chairman of Mission Blue and National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence; Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Mapping the Heavens: Celestial Cartography from Ancient to Modern Times - Livestream - 12/04/2020 03:00 PM Stanford University
In this online talk, Nick Kanas (UC San Francisco, Emeritus) will explore the evolution of celestial cartography. People have observed the night sky since antiquity in an effort to predict celestial events and understand their place in the universe. Many cultures organized the stars into heavenly patterns that reflected issues important to them. In ancient Greece, the stars were placed in constellations that were viewed as allegorical representations of classical Greek heroes, heroines, and monsters. These images formed the backbone of the cosmological and constellation maps that appeared in stunningly beautiful star atlases of the 17th and 18th Centuries. But telescopic and scientific needs called for more accuracy in star placement, and gradually the heavenly bodies were positioned in increasingly accurate coordinate systems superimposed on the sky. Constellation images became redundant, and they have largely disappeared in today’s modern star atlases.
Register at weblink for Zoom Information
Saturday, 12/05/2020
Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 12/05/2020 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center,
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!
Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be available for an open forum for all of your most pressing astronomy questions.
We will go live the Chabot Space & Science Center Facebook page 10-15 minutes before the event. You can find the live video stream on our Facebook page and in the Facebook event discussion. To receive a notification when we go live, “like” Chabot Space & Science Center on Facebook and RSVP that you’re going to this event.
Monday, 12/07/2020
Energy Futures: Smart Grids - Livestream - 12/07/2020 09:00 AM
swissnex,
CIRTIS People and Robots Seminar - Livestream - 12/07/2020 04:00 PM
Stanford University,
Tuesday, 12/08/2020
COVID-19 Misinformation: Understanding and Seeking Truth during a Pandemic - Livestream - 12/08/2020 10:30 AM
Berkeley Institute for Data Science,
Whole Earth Seminars - 12/08/2020 03:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz,
UC Botanical Garden - A Botanical Treasure - Livestream - 12/08/2020 04:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden,
The Future of Breathing - Livestream - 12/08/2020 05:00 PM
Long Now Foundation,
Telomeres: from curiosity driven research to human disease - Livestream - 12/08/2020 05:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz,
Wednesday, 12/09/2020
The Impact of COVID-19 on Refugees - Livestream - 12/09/2020 10:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event,
Data science in mental health: Opportunities and advancements - 12/09/2020 11:00 AM
Magnimind Academy,
Electric Vehicles (EV) 101 - Livestream - 12/09/2020 05:30 PM
Ecology Center,
Thursday, 12/10/2020
After Dark Online: Celestial - Solar Eclipse - Livestream - 12/10/2020 07:00 PM
ExplOratorium,
NightSchool: Science Craft Fair - Livestream - 12/10/2020 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences,
Deepfakes, GANs and Visual Misinformation - Livestream - 12/10/2020 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics,
Friday, 12/11/2020
Snowy Plovers: The Cutest Birds on the Beach! - Livestream - 12/11/2020 12:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust,
Saturday, 12/12/2020
Virtual King Tides - 12/12/2020 11:00 AM
Environmental Volunteers,
Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 12/12/2020 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center,
Sunday, 12/13/2020
California King Tides: Dec 13-15 - 12/13/2020 01:00 PM
California Coastal Commission,
Monday, 12/14/2020
California King Tides: Dec 13-15 - 12/14/2020 01:00 PM
California Coastal Commission,