A Volcanic SciSchmooze

October 27, 2024

Oct 28, 2024

Hello again Science fans!

This is the last week of daylight savings time for us here in California. Early next Sunday morning we revert to standard time and, while it will get light earlier in the morning, the evenings will seem to come earlier. This is, of course, an artificial construct, but one that seems to generate a lot of controversy both here, and abroad.

Speaking of abroad, most of the rest of the world that observes daylight time switched to standard time last night, so for one week we’re an hour “closer” to most European countries.

As the seasons change, you might wonder why a temperature of, say, 60 degrees feels different in the spring than in the fall. There’s some actual science behind this phenomenon.

Climate

Just about this time a year ago, the United Nations report on the climate painted a dismal picture of their member nations achievements on combating climate change. So here we are, a year later, and one would hope some progress has been made. This year’s report says that isn’t the case, unfortunately.

One way to measure what is happening with the climate is to monitor glaciers. Mount Baker, the third highest peak in Oregon, and one of the Cascade volcanoes, has been monitored by NASA using satellites for years, and the loss of glaciers is unprecedented.

Two major volcanoes around the world have erupted. In Mexico, Popocatepetl is spewing ash at least 30,000 feet into the air and darkening skies over the Gulf of Mexico. Airline flights have been disrupted. Popocatepetl is about 40 km southeast of Mexico City. Ash from the eruption has been spotted over Florida.

Meanwhile, Marapi in Indonesia, erupted. Marapi does not give off seismic warnings, unlike many other volcanoes. Nearby villages and towns were covered in thick coats of ash, but the ash cloud only reached 6,560 feet, unlike Popocatepetl.

Many volcanoes have glaciers on them. As the glaciers melt, downward pressure on the volcano caused by the ice is reduced, resulting in more frequent eruptions. Of course, volcanic ash can have significant effect on climate.

Nature

When I was young, I wanted a cuckoo clock. I wanted one of the big, fancy ones that has more than just a cuckoo bird popping out to announce the time. I wanted one with additional movements of carved characters. I never got a fancy one, but did have a simple one. The first night, I woke up every half hour, at one minute before the cuckoo was about to appear. It seems that something moved in the clock, making a noise, 1 minute before cuckoo time, and that woke me up. After the first night, the clock didn’t wake me, and the rhythmic tick tock provided some background noise that I think actually aided my sleep.

Cuckoos have a place in our culture, and few birds effect is as widespread as the cuckoo.

Space

Physicists have observed a triple black hole construct for the first time. While many observed black holes have a secondary object that spirals around it, this one has a star that is very close to the hole and being eaten by it. Another star seems to be orbiting the black hole once every 70,000 years or so.

The variety of systems in space that are so different from our solar system is mind-blowing!

Obituary

There are many things in modern day life that we take for granted, but that were really only solved or discovered a short time ago. One such discovery came from Bruce Ames, a biochemist who discovered a simple test for detecting potential carcinogens. As a result, the so-called Ames test detects many chemicals in common use that we realized cause cancer. Developed in 1970, the test is still used today. Bruce passed away on October 5 in Berkeley leaving behind a legacy of discovery that changed how chemicals are used in our world, making it safer for all of us.

Picks

Have a great week in Science, and a Happy Halloween. Don’t forget to vote for Science!

Bob

Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.

Monday, 10/28/2024

Government for the Greater Good: Working in Environmental Regulation - 10/28/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park

Speaker: Sahrye Cohen, Environmental Protection Agency

Democratizing California’s water future: data, models, and tools for inclusive decision making - 10/28/2024 12:30 PM
Shriram Center Stanford

Increasing drought, extreme floods, and environmental degradation are taxing California’s water system. Water shortages are borne inequitably and decisions over how water is allocated are constrained by poor water accounting, entrenched power imbalances, and limited public engagement. Building a resilient water future requires new water planning tools that advance sustainable, inclusive, and equitable water stewardship. To meet this need, we launched COEQWAL (COllaboratory for EQuity in Water Allocations), in which academic research teams are partnering with agencies and diverse publics to co-create scenarios representing combinations of water policy, infrastructural, and operational changes under future climates. Goals of the project are to increase understanding, diversify participation, and enhance engagement in water allocation decision-making. Water futures are being evaluated using a systems planning model, CalSim3, and will be hosted on a public data platform, where users can access, screen, and investigate scenario outcomes and tradeoffs through data visualizations and storytelling methods. This talk will highlight research findings and approaches that seek to engage diverse publics, enhance water literacy, and promote participatory water resilience planning.

Speaker: Ted Grantham, UC Berkeley

Fingerprinting of Mining Environment - 10/28/2024 12:30 PM
Green Earth Sciences Building Stanford

Fingerprinting of mining environment involves identifying and characterising the unique environmental impacts associated with mining activities. To this end, this seminar highlights the use of smart sensing to "fingerprint" mining environment (land, vegetation and air), citing three examples:

Automated characterisation of spoil piles: Using drone and mobile images, this method marks a transformative advancement in sustainable mine waste management practices.Integrated UAV-Hyperspectral and LiDAR data acquisition systems: These systems establish a quantifiable basis to assess the condition of vegetation in sensitive mining environments.Coal mine methane emission estimates: This highlights rapidly evolving multifaceted landscape of coal mine methane emission estimates.

These examples demonstrate how smart sensing technologies and multidisciplinary approaches are being utilised in mining environment.

Thermally stabilized superconductivity and photonic “friction” in Josephson junction arrays - 10/28/2024 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley

Superconducting resonators are technological building blocks for quantum computing, cosmology, and particle physics. Yet, despite their prevalence, in some limits they can exhibit rich and poorly understood behavior. Resonators formed from an array of Josephson junctions are a prime example. I will present two studies exploring their physics. The first study shows that apparent superconductivity persists for vastly weaker chains than expected within a zero-temperature theory. This behavior is consistent with thermal effects, which effectively melt the insulator and restore superconducting behavior. The second study explores a source of dissipation arising from photon-photon interactions - photonic “friction”. I will discuss our current efforts to characterize both decay rates and kinetics associated with this effect.

Speaker: Andrew Higginbotham, University of Chicago

Quantifying the physical genome - 10/28/2024 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley

My lab aims to understand how a 2 meter long object, the human genome, encodes for molecules which, through physical interaction with the genome itself, evince the immense cellular diversity we observe in the human body. I will discuss efforts to catalog regulatory elements and transcription factor grammars that are advice during human fetal development, and describe single molecule approaches for quantitatively understanding the relationship between transcription factor binding sites, transcription factor occupancy, and gene expression in human cells.

Speaker: William Greenleaf, Stanford University

Can coronaviruses keep surprising us? - 10/28/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford

David Veesler investigates infectious diseases with a focus on understanding, controlling, and combating cross-species transmission, or spillover, of pathogens to humans. Veesler and his team use structural and immunological approaches to study antibody responses to viruses in bats - known reservoirs for zoonotic transmission. Specifically, they pinpoint viruses with no or few barriers to replication in humans, with hopes of assessing the likelihood of spillover events. They are also investigating the bat humoral immune response as a potential untapped source of viral inhibitors. Additionally, the team studies SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination in humans; for example, they identified ACE2 as the SARS-CoV-2 receptor and unveiled the architecture of the viral spike protein.

Speaker: David Veesler, University of Washington

Room: Auditorium

Cosmic Alchemy: How Neutron Star Smash-Ups Forge Heavy Atoms - 10/28/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park

The source of about half of the heaviest elements in the Universe has been a mystery for a long time. The key may lie in the collision of neutron stars - violent, energetic, and unusual events that we are now beginning to observe. Dr. Enrico Ramirez Ruiz of UC Santa Cruz will present a talk focusing on recent advances in our understanding of the origin of the heaviest and rarest elements in the Universe.

A Conversation: Governance Options for Generative AI - 10/28/2024 04:00 PM
Encina Hall Stanford

The Cyber Policy Center invites you to a dynamic panel discussion in celebration of the release of its latest report, Regulating under Uncertainty. Governance Options for Generative AI. This event will bring together leading voices to explore and debate various regulatory approaches to generative AI governance. Distinguished panelists include Professor Florence G’Sell, California Senator Scott Wiener, Mr. Gerard De Graaf (EU Office), Professor Nathaniel Persily (Stanford Law School), Ms. Janel Thamkul (Deputy General Counsel). The discussion will be moderated by Mr. Jacob Ward. Join us for an in-depth conversation on shaping the future of AI regulation.

Room: Philippines Room C330

Bay Area Bats - 10/28/2024 05:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley

Come learn about our CA native bats with Director of NorCal Bats Corky Quirk. In her presentation, you will learn about the nature of bats and the importance of bats in our environment. We’ll also discuss the harmful myths that surround these animals. Live bats will be presented for viewing and discussion. Seeing these small, almost cuddly creatures might forever change how you feel about these amazing mammals.

Magic Angle Graphene: the Twist and Shout of Quantum Materials - 10/28/2024 05:30 PM
International House Berkeley

The isolation 20 years ago of the first truly 2-dimensional, one atom-thick material, graphene, has revolutionized physics and materials science, and led to numerous applications. For example, it allowed the observation of deeply quantum relativistic phenomena directly at room temperature. Moreover, scientists quickly realized that new heterostructures sandwiching various 2D materials could be created, and that these exhibited pretty unique phenomena. In the past few years, physicists have been able to create captivating atomic structures by stacking and controllably twisting layers of graphene and other 2D materials. These are called moiré patterns, named after a 17th-century silk production technique. These atomic moiré structures took the material’s design to a qualitatively new level. The moiré materials appear to exhibit a plethora of novel phenomena, such as unconventional superconductivity and magnetism, ferroelectricity, and much more. In this talk, I will review the discovery and physics of graphene and explain the principles and beauty of moiré materials. I will also provide a broad outlook of some exciting new directions and practical applications of this emerging field.

Speaker: Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tuesday, 10/29/2024

Exploring Novel Strategies for Harnessing ‘Molecular Frustration’ in Main-Group-Catalyzed Organic Synthesis - 10/29/2024 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley

Speaker: Yoichi Hoshimoto, Osaka University

MEMS for Next Generation Radio Frequency and Biomedical Applications - 10/29/2024 12:00 PM
Cory Hall Berkeley

With the ever-increasing number of wireless devices, the frequency spectrum is getting more crowded and the need for multiband filters that operate at emerging wireless bands is ever more critical. Recent advances in thickness downscaling of piezoelectric transducers has opened up new horizons for resonator operation at the millimeter wave frequencies; and enabled the use of nonlinearities in nanomechanical devices. I will present my group’s work on developing novel Aluminum Scandium Nitride acoustic resonators, as well as nanomechanical frequency combs.

In the second part of the talk, I will present my group’s work on the fabrication, actuation and control of micro robotics systems. The recent advances in the nanofabrication and 3D printing at the nanoscale offer robotic solutions at exceedingly small scales that are instrumental for biomedical applications.

Speaker: Azadeh Ansari, Georgia Institute of Technology

Recurring Geophysical Manifestations at Campi Flegrei Caldera, Italy: A Perfect Storm of Geology? - 10/29/2024 12:00 PM
Braun (Geology) Corner (Bldg 320), Rm 220 Stanford

The Campi Flegrei Caldera (CFc) in Italy exhibits periodic unrest episodes characterized by slow ground deformation known as bradyseism, first described by Charles Lyell in the 19th century. These events involve substantial uplift, measuring meters each time, accompanied by delayed seismicity despite the significant accumulated strain energy, followed by a period of subsidence. Geophysical studies have typically focused on individual episodes, attributing deformation and seismicity to melt refill, often overlooking CFc's fundamental nature as a geothermal field. Since 2011, a new phase of unrest has emerged after approximately 26 years of subsidence since the last unrest in 1982-1984. By comparing these two unrest episodes, we identified recurring patterns of geophysical manifestations, including the depth and location of a low Vp/Vs anomaly, as well as seismicity that initiates at shallow depths and progressively deepens over time. By integrating site-specific hydrothermal experiments, twenty-four years of pluviometry data, and subsurface hydrodynamics, we highlight two synergistic processes within the caldera: a confined, recharging water-steam reservoir and the sealing properties of hydrothermal water forming a fibrous-rich caprock. These structures can work in concert to drive gradual deformation due to overpressure, reducing effective stress and ultimately triggering naturally induced seismicity. The rapid (isenthalpic) fluid upflow during fracturing promotes the downward migration of seismic events from the shallower caprock to the deeper reservoir.

Speaker: Tiziana Vanorio, Stanford University

A Case in Favor of Space Exploration - Livestream - 10/29/2024 02:00 PM
UC Berkeley

Aerospace engineering is currently experiencing extraordinary growth driven primarily by space (as opposed to atmospheric) flight. In this seminar, a case will be made about the present and future opportunities associated with space exploration.

Speaker: Panos Papadopoulos, UC Berkeley

Exploring quantum frontier with programmable atom arrays - 10/29/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford

A broad effort is currently underway to develop quantum computers that can outperform classical counterparts for certain computational or simulation tasks. Suppressing errors is one of the central challenges for useful quantum computing, requiring quantum error correction for large-scale processing. However, the overhead in the realization of error-corrected "logical" qubits, where information is encoded across many physical qubits for redundancy, poses significant challenges to large-scale logical quantum computing. In this talk, we will discuss the recent advances involving programmable, coherent manipulation of quantum systems based on neutral atom arrays excited into Rydberg states, allowing the control over several hundred qubits in two dimensions. In particular, we use this platform to explore quantum algorithms with encoded logical qubits and quantum error correction techniques. Using this logical processor with various types of error-correcting codes, we demonstrate that we can improve logical two-qubit gates by increasing code size, outperform physical qubit fidelities, create logical GHZ states, and perform computationally complex scrambling circuits using 48 logical qubits and hundreds of logical gates. Finally, recent advances towards realization of deep circuit computation and quantum simulations will be discussed. These results herald the advent of early error-corrected quantum computation, an exciting frontier in science and engineering, enabling new applications and inspiring a shift in addressing both the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

Speaker: Mikhail Lukin, Harvard University

Driving multielectron redox catalysis with photoexcited nanocrystals - 10/29/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley

The synthetic tunability of electronic structure and surface chemistry of semiconductor nanocrystals make them attractive light absorbers for light-driven chemistry. A variety of architectures have been constructed where nanocrystals are coupled with multielectron redox catalysts to drive reactions like H2 generation, CO2 reduction, N2 reduction, and water oxidation with light. In these systems, light absorption in nanocrystals is followed by charge transfer to catalysts, which then use them for redox transformations, and/or to sacrificial carrier scavengers. Interfacial charge transfer between the nanocrystal and the catalyst and its competitiveness with other relaxation pathways in nanocrystals are of paramount importance to the overall photochemical reactivity. In this talk, I will focus on our efforts to elucidate both the kinetics of charge transfer and the kinetics and mechanisms of the competing photophysical pathways in nanocrystal-based systems for light-driven multielectron chemistry. This work entails transient absorption spectroscopy measurements, extensive kinetic modeling to extract rate constants of relevant processes in these heterogeneous systems, and, for some systems, contributions from theory.

Speaker: Gordana Dukovic, University of Colorado, Boulder

Unstoppable: The Unlikely Story of a Silicon Valley Godfather - 10/29/2024 04:00 PM
Hohbach Hall, Room 122 Stanford

Chris Clay, the son of the late Roy L. Clay Sr., will share the story of his father's journey that led him to Silicon Valley, where he garnered the nickname "The Godfather of Silicon Valley." Unstoppable, by Roy L. Clay Sr. and M. H. Jackson, explores the life of Roy L. Clay Sr. from his time as a teenager using his uncanny math skills to run a back-room craps game in segregated, rural Missouri to his rise as a Silicon Valley technology pioneer. Personally recruited to Hewlett-Packard by Dave Packard in 1965, Clay Sr. was a founding member of the computer division where he led the team that created the HP 2116A.

As Clay Sr. rose to become one of the highest-ranking Black employees at HP, he used his position to help the company improve its efforts to combat discrimination and inequality. After leaving HP, he established his own consulting company and worked closely with Tom Perkins (Kleiner Perkins) to shape Silicon Valley as we know it today. Clay Sr. also served as the first Black City Councilman in Palo Alto, became Vice Mayor of the City, and was inducted into the Silicon Valley Hall of Fame. Unstoppable has been featured by Stephen Curry’s Underrated Book Club, USA Today, NBC Bay Area, and Fox Bay Area.

RSVP is required for this event.

Attend in person or online (see weblink)

Meeting the Moment: Embracing Change at the National Geographic Society - 10/29/2024 06:00 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Berkeley

For 136 years, the National Geographic Society has championed exploration, science, conservation, education and storytelling to deepen understanding and protection of our world. The Society’s conservation efforts date back to the early 20th century with environmentalists like Horace M. Albright.

Today, in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, National Geographic Society CEO Jill Tiefenthaler collaborated with strategic partners, Society staff, Trustees and supporters to create and implement a dynamic vision and ambitious plan that addresses these urgent global challenges.

Dr. Tiefenthaler will discuss how the Society draws on its legacy to shape its future, driving impactful initiatives - from international conservation projects to historic scientific expeditions - to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.

Wonderfest: Color Me Curious: The Mathematics of Coloring - 10/29/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato

Mathematicians have spent decades wrestling with questions about coloring. Here's one famous example: how many colors do mapmakers need to ensure that no two adjacent regions have the same color? Mathematicians struggled with that for over 100 years! In this colorful presentation, we'll share these coloring problems, the exciting breakthroughs, and the problems which still need to be solved today.

Speaker: Cornelia Van Cott, University of San Francisco

Dr. Nico Ransome on her study of a threatened “distinct population segment” of humpback whales spanning Central and North America - Livestream - 10/29/2024 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society

Dr. Nicola Ransome is the recipient of ACS-SF Bay chapter’s 2023 Christine Fitzsimmons cetacean research grant. Her primary research focus is on the study of anthropogenic impacts on large whales of the Eastern Tropical Pacific. She has used the grant proceeds toward her ongoing research of a threatened "distinct population segment" (DPS) of humpback whales, whose migratory corridor is Central America through the west coast of North America. The research is focused on seasonal (early season) timing and identification of the whales through tail flukes and the Happywhale identification platform. Please join us as Nico shares her findings and the impact of the results from this empirical research.

Wednesday, 10/30/2024

Whole Earth Seminar - 10/30/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz

Speaker: JA Grier

Molecular mechanism of jasmonate signaling: A delicate balance between growth and defense - 10/30/2024 12:10 PM
Barker Hall, Rm 101 Berkeley

Sessile organisms face unique challenges in acquiring and allocating resources to various cellular processes. In plants, competition for limited resources such as light and nutrients drives transcriptional programs that maximize growth. Conversely, herbivores and pathogens activate the expression of defense-related genes at the expense of plant growth. Research in the Howe lab seeks to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which the lipid-derived hormone jasmonate controls transcriptional programs that modulate growth-defense balance. This line of investigation may inform biotechnological strategies to engineer plants that maintain stress resilience in the absence of growth and yield penalties.

Speaker: Gregg Howe, Michigan State University

From classroom to oyster farm: Tideland tales of a recovering academic - Livestream - 10/30/2024 03:00 PM
Bodega Marine Laboratory

Speaker: Gary Fleener - Sustainability and Farm Education Manager, Hog Island Oyster Co.

USDA RUS Updates - 10/30/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford

Andrew Berke joins USDA RD with nearly three decades of experience as a political leader and elected official. He was the Mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee from 2013 to 2021 where he served more than 180,000 residents and improved the efficiency and day-to-day operations of local government. Under Andrew’s leadership, Chattanooga operated its own wastewater system and received national recognition for improving access to high-speed internet for underserved communities. Andrew was also a member of the Tennessee State Senate from 2007 to 2012. In that role, he worked with electric cooperatives and was a member of the Transportation and Education Senate Committees. Before joining RD, Andrew was a Special Representative for Broadband at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School and a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University.

Attend in person or online (see weblink)

Astronomy on Tap, Baton Rouge: The Hubble Constant - Livestream - 10/30/2024 05:00 PM
Astronomy on Tap

The Hubble Constant

Speaker: Brendan Parenti

Universe Exploration from the Lunar Surface

Speaker: Ahmad Sohani

Click here to attend

Bats Alive! Get to Know Your Native Nocturnal Friends - 10/30/2024 05:30 PM
Youth Science Institute Los Gatos

Join us at our YSI Vasona Park Nature Center for an amazing educational event hosted by bat specialist Dave Johnston. Learn all about bats and their local ecosystems during an introductory educational presentation followed by an evening stroll through Vasona down to the lake to observe our nocturnal friends fly high in the night sky.

Science on Tap: CoRE: Supporting and Empowering Women in Academia - 10/30/2024 07:00 PM
Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz

CoRE (for Community of Replenishment and Empowerment) is devoted to supporting and empowering women in academia through intensive weekend retreats. I will talk about the 30-year history of CoRE (originally called Nag’s Heart), our goals, our many retreats (>100) focused on a wide range of themes, our retreat formula/process, our diverse participants (>600) at all levels of academia, and our outcomes based on responses to our questionnaire. In addition to informing the community about our efforts, I hope my talk will generate ideas for future CoRE retreats and participants and perhaps inspire spin-off efforts by other groups needing support, empowerment, and community.

Marine Wildlife off our Coast: Studyiing Sea Birds, Marine Mammals, and More - 10/30/2024 07:30 PM
Marin Science Seminar San Rafael

Our oceans are facing many threats, including warming temperatures, ocean acidification, and overfishing (to name a few). At Point Blue Conservation Science, we have over 50 years of experience studying marine wildlife and what they can tell us about the health of our ocean. We work with federal agencies (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to monitor seabirds and marine mammals on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge (located ~30 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge) and to conduct at-sea surveys in the National Marine Sanctuaries off our coast. Come hear how we are finding ways to protect seabirds from hot weather, using diet data from seabirds and sea lions to help make our fisheries more sustainable, what we are learning about ocean acidification, and what we are doing to save whales from ship strikes.

Speaker: Meredith Elliot, Point Blue Conservation Science

Thursday, 10/31/2024

Renewal of Science Conference - 10/31/2024 09:00 AM
Computer History Museum Mountain View

The goal of the conference is to highlight examples of scientific research that go beyond the currentstate-of-the-art and that call for a rethinking of the foundations of the respective fields.

This involves the selection of researchers who have significant contributions that are the cutting edgeof their fields and their subsequent invitation to present their work to the public. By drawing onthe expertise of researchers from a number of fields, such as physics, technology, biology,medicine, and mathematics, and also from countries such as Australia, Switzerland, Italy,Romania, and Macedonia, a wide representation is obtained overall.

It is hoped that by interacting with these scientists through such an event, attendees can notice that the scientific method itself, when upgraded, gives unexpected results. They will also have the opportunity to explore this on their own with the help of the presenters post-event, leading to further research collaboration. This would provide a significant impetus to a practical renewal of science.

Early Bird pricing: $300 General (until 8/31), $125 Student (until 9/30)

Regular pricing: $375 General, $175 Student

Optimization-in-the-Loop ML for Energy and Climate - 10/31/2024 01:30 PM
Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford

Priya Donti is an Assistant Professor and the Silverman (1968) Family Career Development Professor at MIT EECS and LIDS. She is also a co-founder and Chair of Climate Change AI, a global nonprofit initiative to catalyze impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning.

Donti's research focuses on machine learning for forecasting, optimization, and control in high-renewables power grids. Methodologically, this entails exploring ways to incorporate relevant physics, hard constraints, and decision-making procedures into deep learning workflows. She is a recipient of the MIT Technology Review’s 2021 "35 Innovators Under 35" award and the 2022 ACM SIGEnergy Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Attend in person or online (see weblink)

Robo-AO (instrumentation) - 10/31/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley

Speaker: Christoph Baranec, University of Hawaii

After Dark: Creepatorium - 10/31/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco

Cocktails, costumes, and a creepy good time - After Dark has everything you need for a hair-raising Halloween. Put some scare in your science by exploring our galleries full of brain-tingling exhibits, decorated just for the season. Show up in your most phenomenal garb, steel your nerves, and explore the Creepatorium if you dare!

Fright NightLife - 10/31/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco

Everyone’s entitled to one good scare - serve up your spookiest looks for Halloween at NightLife. Featuring frightful drag performances by Oaklash.

Ages 21+

Friday, 11/01/2024

Renewal of Science Conference - 11/01/2024 09:00 AM
Computer History Museum Mountain View

The goal of the conference is to highlight examples of scientific research that go beyond the currentstate-of-the-art and that call for a rethinking of the foundations of the respective fields.

Early Bird pricing: $300 General (until 8/31), $125 Student (until 9/30)

Regular pricing: $375 General, $175 Student

Geophysics and Planetary Physics Seminar - 11/01/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz

Speaker: TBA

Transportation Planning in a Time of Transition - Livestream - 11/01/2024 03:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley

The world is in an unprecedented time of transition. New and emerging geopolitical, economic and climate forces are converging at the state-local level to affect every aspect of decision-making. Gordon’s talk will focus on how all these forces are driving California’s leadership on the move away from fossil fuel extraction and toward the electrification of the transportation sector - but will argue that the same forces must equally and urgently usher in a new era of transportation and land use planning. In particular, Gordon will argue that climate risk reduction and resilience must be raised to the same level of urgency in California land use policy as greenhouse gas emission reduction has been for the past several decades.

Speaker: Kate Gordon, California Forward

Chemical and Computational Design of Functional Metalloproteins - 11/01/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley

Nature uses barely more than a handful of transition metal ions. Yet, when incorporated into protein scaffolds, this limited set of metal ions carry out innumerable cellular functions and execute essential biochemical transformations such as photochemical H2O oxidation, O2 or CO2 reduction, and N2 fixation, highlighting the outsized importance of metalloproteins in biology. Elucidating the intricate interplay between metal ions and protein structures has been the focus of extensive structural and mechanistic scrutiny over the last several decades. As a result, we have gained a reasonably detailed understanding of how metal ions shape protein structures and how protein structures in turn influence metal reactivity. By contrast, translating this knowledge into an ability to construct functional metalloproteins from scratch remains a great challenge.

Motivated by a desire to (a) build new bioinorganic functions beyond what nature has invented and (b) retrace the routes for the emergence of bioinorganic complexity during evolution, we have developed a design approach in which folded proteins are used as synthons for building supramolecular complexes through metal-mediated self-assembly. The interfaces in the resulting protein superstructures are subsequently tailored with covalent, non-covalent or additional metal-coordination interactions for stabilization and incorporation of new functionalities. This strategy has not only enabled the construction of functional metalloproteins and protein-based materials with unusual properties, but also led to the discovery of fundamental design principles that govern the metal-protein interplay. This presentation will focus on some examples from our laboratory as well as on our recent efforts to design functional metalloproteins using machine-learning based computational tools.

Speaker: Akif Tezcan, UC San Diego

First Friday Nights at CuriOdyssey - 11/01/2024 05:00 PM
CuriOdyssey San Mateo

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 hits, while enjoying animal presentations and science activities.

Come together as a family, visit early, and stay late!

First Friday: SPOOKY ASTRONOMY - 11/01/2024 06:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland

First Friday: SPOOKY ASTRONOMY is creeping up on you with a night of cosmic chills and family thrills! Join us for a frightfully fun evening featuring live music by local band Side Pony and the Homestead High Choir. Get into the Halloween spirit with out-of-this-world space face painting, then head over to our eerie laser dome for a spook-tacular Halloween-themed laser show! Plus, our friends from The MADE are bringing retro gaming fun to the game room. For a spooky treat, don’t miss the live show with horror host Lord Bloodrah - he’s sure to send chills down your spine. Perfect for all ages, this is one event your family won’t want to miss!

Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE): Enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories - 11/01/2024 08:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo

The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. The highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first generation stars, and early galaxies, are all very faint, which presents a challenge for current and next generation telescopes. Larger telescopes are the primary (if not only) way to address this issue. With mission costs depending strongly on aperture diameter, scaling current space telescope technologies to aperture sizes exceeding 10 meters does not appear economically viable. Without a breakthrough in scalable technologies for larger telescopes, future advances in astrophysics will slow down or even stall.

The FLUTE (Fluidic Telescope) project proposes to overcome the current scaling limitations for space optics via a novel approach based on fluidic shaping in microgravity. This technique has already been successfully demonstrated in a laboratory neutral buoyancy environment, in parabolic microgravity flights, and aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Theoretically scale-invariant, this technique has produced optical components with superb, sub-nanometer surface quality. In this presentation, Dr Edward Balaban will present the results to date and outline the work in progress, including FLUTE mission concepts currently under development that may enable the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories!

Speaker: Edward Balaban, NASA Ames

Saturday, 11/02/2024

Renewal of Science Conference - 11/02/2024 09:00 AM
Computer History Museum Mountain View

The goal of the conference is to highlight examples of scientific research that go beyond the currentstate-of-the-art and that call for a rethinking of the foundations of the respective fields.

Early Bird pricing: $300 General (until 8/31), $125 Student (until 9/30)

Regular pricing: $375 General, $175 Student

Creepy Crawly Critters: Live Spiders and Snakes! - 11/02/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley

Commemorate the spooky season with a celebration of misunderstood creatures! Come dressed in your Halloween costume and learn about our skittering and slithering friends from eight legs to no legs. Get up close and personal with our resident snakes in the Animal Discovery Zone and observe live spiders from UC Berkeley researchers. Go on a spider hunt in the Outdoor Nature Lab and experience more spider activities! Costumed guests get a free temporary tattoo of Pheena the Fin Whale from our Discovery Store.

Event is included with admission to the science center (Adults & children ages 3+: $20). Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.

Reducing Risk and Uncertainty Associated with Nuclear Waste Processing and Disposal: A Hanford Tank Waste Case Study - Livestream - 11/02/2024 10:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society

The Hanford site in Washington State, which produced plutonium for the US weapons program, is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation and is its largest environmental clean-up activity. During weapons production, 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive/chemical waste (sludge, salt cake, and supernatant), with 170 million Curies of radioactivity and 240,000 tons of complex chemicals, was generated. This liquid waste is the primary environmental contamination risk, currently intended to be processed into a glass form for stabilization and to allow its radioactivity to safely dissipate over hundreds to thousands of years. Uncertainty associated with nuclear waste processing and disposal can be mitigated by: (i) characterizing waste chemistry; and (ii) understanding waste form behavior in the environment. A key issue of Hanford tank waste processing and disposal is that, although radionuclides such as technetium are the risk drivers, it is the ‘benign’ dominant elements such as aluminum that dictate the processing limits and uncertainties, given that tank waste is removed on a volume basis. Basic research by the Ion Dynamics in Radioactive Environments and Materials (IDREAM) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) has focused on unravelling complex ion coordination, solvation, pairing with other ions, and cluster formation in these radioactive and highly concentrated chemical environments. The goal of IDREAM is to understand the fundamental mechanisms of aluminum speciation change that underpin solubility, nucleation and precipitation in Hanford tank waste to accelerate safe, cost-effective, and efficient waste processing. Once the waste has been processed, it must be demonstrated that risk driving radioactive elements will be contained in the wasteform for thousands of years until they become safe. Archeological artifacts, analogous to wasteform materials, i.e., glass, that have been left by our ancestors and exposed to the environment for thousands of years can be used to validate and refine predicted wasteform durability.

Speaker: Carolyn Pearch, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Waterbird trends on Tomales Bay - 11/02/2024 11:00 AM
Cypress Grove Preserve Marshall

As Audubon Canyon Ranch gears up for another season of winter bird monitoring, we’d like to share an update about our waterbird bird research to date. Please join us for a presentation by Conservation Science Director Nils Warnock, as he shares 30+ years of waterbird monitoring results from Tomales Bay.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: RSVP using this link. This link will close on Monday, October 28.

This will be a hybrid in-person/Zoom event. In-person attendance will be capped at 30 people due to the limited capacity of the meeting room. Audubon Canyon Ranch research volunteers will receive priority for in-person attendance.

Bair Island Walking Tour - 11/02/2024 02:30 PM
Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail Redwood City

Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a walking tour at the Bair Island Unit of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge! You’ll be guided by POST ambassadors who will share the history of this beautiful protected space, information about the species that live there, and what you can do to contribute.

This easy 1 mile walk with little to no elevation gain will highlight the wetlands and the marine life that live within, such as: Endangered Ridgeway’s rails and salt marsh harvest mice. Also cottontail rabbits, peregrine falcons, pelicans, egrets, terns, and stilts. We recommend bringing binoculars to catch sight of some of the beautiful birds at Bair Island.

Project 2025: The Religious Right's Attempt to Dump Democracy - Livestream - 11/02/2024 03:00 PM
Bay Area Humanists

Join us for a conversation with Fish Stark, the American Humanist Association's new Executive Director. This is a great opportunity to meet and speak directly with Fish and talk everything Project 2025: what it is, what sets it apart as a graver threat, and how you can get involved to stop it!

Editor's Note: Isabella Russian, the original speaker for this event, has been replaced with Fish Stark.

Wonderfest: Nightmare on Main Street: Ghosts of Napa Valley - 11/02/2024 04:00 PM
Cameo Cinema St. Helena

Is it merely fun to play with the idea of ghosts, or do ghosts truly exist? Naturally, evidence of non-corporeal spirits is hard to come by. Where should we look? Perhaps the ghostly haunt of choice is an abandoned winery in beautiful Napa Valley! Isn't that where many spirits would be dying to go?

Soon after All Hallow's Eve 2024, Wonderfest joins Cameo Cinema for Nightmare on Main Street: Ghosts of Napa Valley. And, immediately following the 90-minute screening of Ghosts of Napa Valley, Dr. Eugenie Scott will help us address the ghost question ??" and why it is that scary stories are found all over the world among diverse cultures.

Dr. Genie Scott is a physical anthropologist with potent credentials in scientific skepticism. She is the President of the Bay Area Skeptics, and a founding Boardmember of Wonderfest. Dr. Scott has earned high praise as a science communicator, including the Public Welfare Medal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Starry Nights Star Party - 11/02/2024 07:00 PM
Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill

The 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 see the band of our Milky Way galaxy in the summer.

Do not bring your own telescope (binoculars are welcome, but please no tripods). SJAA club members will set up their telescopes to help star party guests get the most knowledge and enjoyment out of the dark night sky.

Monday, 11/04/2024

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: How Northeastern Temperate Trees Are Responding to a Changing Climate - 11/04/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park

Speaker: Angelica Patterson

Symbolic Systems Forum - 11/04/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford

Speaker: Robert Hawkins, Linguistics Department, Stanford University

See weblink for entry instructions

Room 126

What Is the Next Milestone for High-Energy Particle Colliders? - 11/04/2024 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park

The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has discovered the Higgs boson and confirmed the predictions for many of its properties given by the "Standard Model" of particle physics. However, this does not mean that particle physics is solved. Mysteries that the Standard Model does not address are still with us and, indeed, stand out more sharply than ever. To understand these mysteries, we need experiments at still higher energies. In this colloquium, I will argue that we should be planning for a particle collider reaching energies of about 10 times those of the LHC in the collisions of elementary particles. Today, there is no technology that can produce such energies robustly and at a reasonable cost. However, many solutions are under study, including colliders for protons, muons, electrons, and photons. I will review the status of these approaches to the design of the next great energy-frontier accelerator.

Speaker: Michael Peskin, SLAC

Graphene Quantum Dots - 11/04/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park

Dr. Jairo Velasco of UC Santa Cruz will present a talk regarding how the harnessing and manipulation of electronic states in quantum materials has the potential to revolutionize computation, sensing, storage, and communications, thus impacting multiple facets of our everyday lives.

Active Matter -The Physics of Self-Organization - 11/04/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley

Birds flock, bees swarm and fish school. These are just some of the remarkable examples of collective behavior found in nature. Physicists have been able to capture some of this behavior by modeling organisms as "flying spins" that align with their neighbors according to simple but noisy rules. Successes like these have spawned a field devoted to the physics of active matter - matter made not of atom and molecules but of entities that consume energy to generate their own motion and forces. Through interactions, collectives of such active particles organize in emergent structures on scales much larger than that of the individuals. The paradigm of such behavior are living systems, but same behavior has also been mimicked in the lab through the engineering a variety of “active particles’’ that self-assemble to form smart materials.

In this lecture I will introduce the field of active matter and highlight ongoing efforts by physicists, biologists, engineers and mathematicians to model the complex behavior of these systems, with the goal of identifying universal principles. I will specifically focus on two examples of active behavior. The first highlights how active particles bypass the laws of equilibrium thermodynamics and spontaneously aggregate in the absence of any attractive interactions. The second describes the interplay of flow and topological defects in controlling dynamics and structure of active phases with liquid crystalline order, with relevance on scales from subcellular to entire organisms.

Speaker: Cristina Marchetti, UC Santa Barbara

Sunspots, Solar Storms, and Aurorae: Exploring Solar Maximum - 11/04/2024 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford

With dazzling auroras lighting up the night sky across the US in recent months, the Sun's increasing activity has become more apparent than ever. These awe-inspiring and far-reaching light shows are tied to the increased solar activity as we move deeper into Solar Cycle 25. In this lecture, we will explore the dynamic behavior of our Sun and its 11-year solar cycle. Specifically, we will focus on the effects of solar maximum, a period of heightened solar activity that manifests through increased sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. Beyond generating spectacular auroras, increased solar activity has the potential to disrupt and interfere with our technological infrastructure, including satellites, GPS, and power grids. I will also briefly discuss connections between the Sun's solar cycle and those observed in other stars. Lastly, I will summarize results from cutting-edge solar missions that reveal unprecedented insights into the behavior of our Sun.

Speaker: Oana Vesa, Stanford University

Seeing Beyond Sight: Astronomical Images and the Aesthetics of the Sublime - 11/04/2024 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco

Over the last several decades, astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to look deep into the Universe, a practice that continues with the James Webb Space Telescope. The images from these instruments, as well as those from ground-based telescopes and space probes, have introduced us to a celestial plentitude: pictures of galaxies that glitter with millions of points of light and nebulae that reach upward as giant gaseous columns; panoramas of Martian landscapes and close-ups of its geological features; aerial views of Jupiter’s swirling clouds and Saturn’s many rings in brilliant hues; visual reconstructions of black holes outlined in glowing orange.

Such cosmic pictures are based on scientific data, but they must address a vexing question: How to represent what our lies beyond our sight? This talk will consider how the aesthetics of astronomical images aid in the task. In particular, it will trace a recurring engagement with the rhetorical and visual tropes of the sublime, whether a resemblance to 19th-century landscape paintings of the American West or a reprise of the psychedelic styles of 1960s counterculture. Through the aesthetics of the sublime, astronomical images convey the awesomeness of reaching beyond our sensory limits, even as the familiarity of these tropes tame or contain the potentially terrifying aspects of transcendence.

Speaker: Elizabeth Kessler, Stanford University

Tuesday, 11/05/2024

Florilegium Exhibition 2024 Opening - 11/05/2024 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley

Transforming Astrophysics with AI - Livestream - 11/05/2024 02:00 PM
UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley Physical Chemistry Seminar - Rescheduled - 11/05/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley

UC Berkeley Physical Chemistry Lecture - 11/05/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley

Wednesday, 11/06/2024

Multi-Scale Spatial Analyses of Seamount Benthic Megafauna in the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount Chain - Livestream - 11/06/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Research Institute

Biting into shark paleoecology with geochemical, morphometric, and modelling approaches - 11/06/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz

Atmospheric rivers and flooding in California: a paleo perspective - 11/06/2024 03:30 PM
McCone Hall Berkeley

Trade, Equity, and the Environment: The Economics of the Inflation Reduction Act Electric Vehicle Subsidies - 11/06/2024 04:30 PM
Shriram Center Stanford

Thursday, 11/07/2024

Intelligent Earthquake Monitoring - 11/07/2024 12:00 PM
Mitchell Earth Sciences Building (04-560) Stanford

Smart Grid Seminar - 11/07/2024 01:30 PM
Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford

Binary Stars - 11/07/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley

Socially-Aware Navigation for Robots in Public Spaces - 11/07/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park

After Dark: Color Uncovered - 11/07/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco

NightLife: Día de los Muertos - 11/07/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco

Friday, 11/08/2024

Geophysics and Planetary Physics Seminar - 11/08/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz

Glenn T. Seaborg Memorial Lectures in Inorganic Chemistry - Lecture 1 of 2 - 11/08/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley

Saturday, 11/09/2024

Family Nature Adventures: Spidey Spectacular: Adventures with Arachnids! - 11/09/2024 10:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland

Foothills Family Nature Walk - 11/09/2024 11:00 AM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos

City Public Star Party - 11/09/2024 06:00 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco

Sunday, 11/10/2024

Coastal Walk at Pillar Point Bluff - 11/10/2024 10:00 AM
Pillar Point Bluff Parking Lot Moss Beach

Sausal Creek Salmon Stroll - 11/10/2024 11:00 AM
Dimond Recreation Center Oakland

Monday, 11/11/2024

Quantitative flux analysis of energy metabolism in mice - 11/11/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford