Hello again Science Fans! I’m filling in for David this week (and next). For those of you who celebrate, happy Easter!
More about Time
In my February 25 SciSchmooze, I went into a discussion about time. There was one error (that I know of) in that discussion where I said how there was a two week difference between the start of Daylight Savings Time here in the US versus Europe, with them making the change later than us. The difference is actually three weeks, with Europe changing to Daylight time early this morning. They will return to standard time one week before us in the fall. That discussion included leap year and leap seconds. But there’s a new problem.
Climate change is causing the Earth’s rotation to slow down and, as a result, at some point in the not too distant future, we’ll need to have a negative leap second, and that has never been done before. There are significant consequences of skipping a second! Cosmic interactions are complicated!
AI
Artificial Intelligence seems to be in everything these days. All sorts of products claim to have an AI component. But all that AI requires a lot of computing power, and that requires a lot of electrical power. By 2026, the amount of electricity needed to run data centers, handle cryptocurrency, and run AI will be about the same amount of energy consumed by the entire country of Japan!
All that computing power requires a LOT of transisitors, with smaller and smaller nanometer technology to pack more transistors onto a silicon wafer. Here’s a look at the history of circuit growth and where we’re projected to go in the future.
I’m a firm believer in the value of education. I developed and taught a college-level computer internals course back in the day that explained how mainframes worked. It was aimed at future programmers. The idea was that the more you knew about how the computer worked, the better you could program it. The same is true today with things like AI. Even if you aren’t a programmer but just a casual user of something with AI, knowing more about what happens when you do something helps you understand the results, especially when those results aren’t what you might have expected.
I came across some free courses offered by NVIDIA that might help you understand what all the hype is about with AI, as well as how to use things like ChatGPT more effectively. I have not taken these courses myself, so I’m not necessarily recommending them. There are other bits of instruction out there on places like YouTube, and on other vendor sites. With a little bit of research on your part, you could become more comfortable with the technology of today, and where it is going in the future.
Environmental Transportation
Herb and I and a mutual friend had the pleasure of attending an open house tour of the new electric Caltrain trainsets that will replace the diesel-hauled trains that have plied the rails between San Jose and San Francisco for the past 40 years or so. This year marks the 160th anniversary of the start of commuter service on the same corridor between these two cities. The new trainsets are built by Stadler, a Swiss company, and are based on their KISS platform. KISS is an acronym meaning “Komfortabler Innovativer Spurtstarker S-Bahn-Zug” which translates from Swiss German into “comfortable, innovative, sprint-capable suburban train”. Twenty-three 7 car sets are currently on order or onsite. One battery operated 4 car set has been ordered to test for use between Tamien and Gilroy. If successful, the model could replace the remaining diesel service to the south county area.
Since these are all electric, they are emission free.
Another type of advanced train is being tested, having recently set a Guinness World Record for distance traveled without refueling a hydrogen fuel-cell train. Several of these are on order for San Bernardino County’s Transportation Authority and are based on Stadler’s FLIRT design, a cousin to the KISS.
Did you know that even today’s diesel-hauled freight and passenger trains are really electric? The diesel part is actually a big generator, and the traction is provided by electric motors on the locomotive’s axles. So electric propulsion of trains is nothing new.
Biology
Somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, someone was born with blue eyes. That person is a very distant relative of every person with blue eyes today, me included, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen.
If you enjoy strawberries, you may enjoy this article about the Driscoll company, the berry giant based in Watsonville. After reading this one, I think I’ll stick to organic strawberries when at all possible.
Iceland
The volcanic activity near Grindavík, Iceland continues, with the latest eruption lasting at least 2 weeks at this point. This latest phase released a lot of sulphur into the air, and it spread across northern Europe, reaching as far east as the Baltic states last Friday.
Space
Our Sun’s rotation isn’t quite what you might expect. At the equator it rotates in around 24 earth days, while at the poles it takes around 34 days. There’s a new theory to explain why it behaves this way.
For the first time, astronomers were able to capture the light from a supernova in the Messier 101 galaxy, also known as the PinWheel. Several different telescopes were focused on this galaxy as the light emerged, giving the astronomers the most detailed look at what actually happens when a star goes supernova.
As the Curiosity rover continues to explore the surface of Mars, we learn more about the history of our red neighbor. Scientists now say Mars had more water, and it stayed wet longer, then they had previously thought, based on photographs from Curiosity, which is acting like a robot geologist on Mars.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of the lesser known space telescopes. It doesn’t get as much recognition as the James Webb or Hubble telescopes, but the data it collects is vital to our understanding of the Universe as it is the main source pictures in the x-ray range of light. But NASA’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget cuts funding for the operation of this vital observatory, and this represents a significant danger to other astronomical research.
Event picks
There are 103 (!) events listed on the calendar for the next two weeks, so there’s a lot to see and learn. Here are some suggestions:
AI & the Humanities: AI is Weird - 04/01/2024 05:00 PM in Berkeley
The Shocking Nature of Wildfires Science Show - 04/03/2024 11:30 AM at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley
Does Coffee Cause Cancer? Myths about the Food We Eat - Livestream - 04/04/2024 04:00 PM
Looking ahead, tickets for the ever-popular Lick Observatory summer lectures and concerts will go on sale April 17 at noon. These sell out quickly, especially the Friday night lectures. Not all of the speakers have been announced yet. Plan ahead!
Have a great week in Science.
Bob
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 04/01/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/01/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Computational symbolic mathematics: Computer algebra for non-numerical problems - 04/01/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
Some of the greatest triumphs stemming from research in symbolic systems are computer algebra systems, particularly those addressing non-numeric problems that arise in nearly every discipline of mathematics: logic, geometry, calculus, differential equations, transforms, group theory, statistics, and beyond. This talk will demonstrate some of the immense power of such systems, tricks for extending their use, and examples of the underlying algorithms that empower them. It will also present a vision for mathematics and mathematics education in which hand calculation (for numerical and especially symbolic problems) is ever more replaced by computer algebra.
Speaker: David G. Stork, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University
See weblink for instructions to gain entry to the building.
Room 126
Adaptive and Affordable Urban Water Supply Planning - 04/01/2024 12:30 PM
Shriram Center Stanford
Climate change is increasing hydrological variability and water stress in many regions, leading urban water planners to invest in expensive new water supply infrastructure. These costly investments raise water bills, challenging affordable water access for low-income populations. Adaptive infrastructure planning, in which planners develop infrastructure incrementally if-and-when needed, has the potential to enable water reliability in a changing climate with less infrastructure. Using case studies in California, I present advances toward 1) quantifying the impact of climate change on urban water affordability and 2) reducing the cost of urban water infrastructure development by adapting to climate signals.
Speaker: Sarah Fletcher, Stanford University
Algorithmic Tools for Redistricting - Fairness via Analytics - 04/01/2024 03:30 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
The American winner-take-all congressional district system empowers politicians to engineer electoral outcomes by manipulating district boundaries. To date, computational solutions mostly focus on drawing unbiased maps by ignoring political and demographic input, and instead simply optimize for compactness and other related metrics. However, we maintain that this is a flawed approach because compactness and fairness are orthogonal qualities; to achieve a meaningful notion of fairness, one needs to model political and demographic considerations, using historical data.
We will discuss a series of papers that explore and develop this perspective. In the first (joint with Wes Gurnee), we present a scalable approach to explicitly optimize for arbitrary piecewise-linear definitions of fairness; this employs a stochastic hierarchical decomposition approach to produce an exponential number of distinct district plans that can be optimized via a standard set partitioning integer programming formulation. This enables a large-scale ensemble study of congressional districts, providing insights into the range of possible expected outcomes and the implications of this range on potential definitions of fairness. Further work extending this (joint with Julia Allen & Wes Gurnee), shows that many additional real-world constraints can be easily adapted in this framework (such as minimal county splits as was recently required in Alabama legislation in response to the US Supreme Court decision Milligan v. Alabama). In another paper (joint with Nikhil Garg, Wes Gurnee, and David Rothschild), we study the design of multi-member districts (MMDs) in which each district elects multiple representatives, potentially through a non-winner-takes-all voting rule (as was proposed in H.R. 4000). We carry out large-scale analyses for the U.S. House of Representatives under MMDs with different social choice functions, under algorithmically generated maps optimized for either partisan benefit or proportionality. We find that with three-member districts using Single Transferable Vote, fairness-minded independent commissions can achieve proportional outcomes in every state (up to rounding), and this would significantly curtail the power of advantage-seeking partisans to gerrymander.
Speaker: David Shmoys, Cornell University
Room 3108
What Physicists Do Seminar - CANCELED - 04/01/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Opening Windows into the Cell: Bringing structure to cell biology using cryo-electron tomography - 04/01/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Elizabeth Villa, Ph.D. is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California San Diego. She completed her Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Fulbright Fellow and became a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich. She was recruited to UC San Diego in 2014. Dr. Villa was the recipient of an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to pursue high-risk high-reward research developing cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and new technological and computational techniques to advance structural cell biology. She was named a Pew Scholar in 2017, and she was selected to become a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2021.
Speaker: Elizabeth Villa, UC San Diego
Room: Auditorium
Lessons from a climate career in food and industrial decarbonization - 04/01/2024 04:30 PM
Skilling Auditorium Stanford
Akshai Baskaran will share learnings of his journey from studying at Stanford (BS Chemical Engineering ‘15, CISAC Honors Program) to management consulting at Bain & Company and finally making his mark at climate companies, including Impossible Foods (plant-based meat), Brimstone (carbon-negative cement), and Gravity (industrial and commercial carbon measurement and decarbonization). The talk will provide his perspective on challenges with consumer climate companies, scaling hard tech companies, and opportunities in industrial decarbonization.
AI & the Humanities: AI is Weird - 04/01/2024 05:00 PM
Stephens Hall Berkeley
The contemporary humanities is largely concerned with the social and political function of texts and images, often at the expense of the meta-discipline’s long engagement with the uncanny, the visionary, the paradoxical, the otherworldly, and the abject. But it may be these latter concerns that become most salient in the humanistic encounter with contemporary AI and its exploding impact on culture and consciousness. Drawing from ideas developed in his book High Weirdness (MIT Press, 2019) and his Burning Shore Substack, Davis will explore how the concept of the weird helps illuminate the speculative and reality-bending properties of AI discourse and practice, as algorithms, machine learning, and massive data sets open up an ontologically unstable space of mythology, weird fiction, and dreamlike encounters with the simulacrum.
Speaker: Eric Davis, Author
The Formation of New Worlds and the Building Blocks of Life - 04/01/2024 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Astronomers have recently discovered thousands of exoplanets in orbit around other stars. What are these different planets like? Are any hospitable to the development of life? Answering these questions leads us to delve into the rich chemistry that accompanies the formation of new solar systems. Powerful telescopes including JWST are now illuminating, in greater detail than ever before, the distinctive chemistry at play during planet formation. Complementing this, laboratory experiments that mimic the extreme conditions found in space can reveal how molecules behave in these exotic environments. The emerging view of planet formation chemistry is helping to explain the staggering diversity of planet types and compositions that can form - and to predict how newly formed planets can be seeded with the building blocks for life.
Speaker: Jenny Bergner, UC Berkeley
Tuesday, 04/02/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/02/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Reaching 1 Million Electric Vehicle Chargers by 2030 - Livestream - 04/02/2024 12:30 PM
SF Planning+Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR)
The California Energy Commission says California needs 1.01 million electric vehicle chargers by 2030 to support 7.1 million passenger plug-in vehicles. But the Bay Area and California are way behind in meeting those goals. A particular challenge has been installing EV charging in multifamily buildings like apartments and condos. Peninsula Clean Energy has committed to helping the community pick up the pace of EV charging installation in multifamily buildings. Come hear about the region’s EV charging goals, challenges, and solutions.
Moderator: Sam Fishman / Sustainability and Resilience Policy Manager, SPURCaylee Mercado / Grant Specialist, Bay Area Air Quality Management DistrictPhillip Kobernick / Senior Transportation Programs Manager, Peninsula Clean Energy
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Using Robots to Map the Deep Ocean Seafloor at Scales of Meters to Centimeters - 04/02/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Dave Caress, UC Santa Cruz
Electron-hole fluid in van der Waals heterostructures - 04/02/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Atomically thin two-dimensional heterostructure provides an exciting platform to realize strongly interacting electron and hole fluid in the ground state. With the combination of both repulsive and attractive Coulomb interactions, the quantum electron-hole fluid can host a variety of novel correlated phenomena of multiparticle charge complexes. I will discuss the rich phase diagram of the electron-hole fluid, including bosonic exciton fluid, fermionic trion fluid, electron-hole plasma, and different mixture phases. I will also show that optical spectroscopy provides a powerful way to probe the phase diagram as well as transport of the electrons, holes, and excitons in the electron-hole fluid.
Speaker: Feng Wang, Stanford University
Chemistry between the stars: from clouds to planets - 04/02/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
The space between the stars is not empty but filled with a very dilute gas. In spite of the extremely low temperatures and densities, these clouds contain a surprisingly rich chemistry, as evidenced by the detection of more than 300 different molecules, from simple to complex and from gas to solid-state ices. These clouds are also the birthplaces of new stars and planets. New powerful observatories such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) have found water and a surprisingly rich variety of organic materials near forming stars, including simple sugars, ethers and alcohols. How are these molecules formed in space? Which molecular processes play a role? How common are they and can they be delivered to new planets?
Speaker: Ewine F. van Dishoeck, Universiteit Leiden
Driving Climate Solutions: Amazon’s Path to Net-Zero Carbon - 04/02/2024 04:00 PM
Spieker Auditorium Berkeley
Kara Hurst leads Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon. Utilizing Amazon’s scale, speed and innovation, the Sustainability organization includes teams executing the work of The Climate Pledge; Sustainable Operations; Sustainability Science and Innovation; Social Responsibility and responsible supply chain management; Circular Economy; Sustainable Products, packaging and shopping; Sustainability Technology; Sustainable Transportation; and social and environmental external engagement and policy setting.
Register at weblink
State of the Industry Panel: AI and AR, Supercharged - 04/02/2024 05:00 PM
Center for Education Research (CERAS) Stanford
Please join the Stanford Accelerator for Learning for an exciting panel discussion featuring industry experts from Meta, Niantic (creators of Pokemon Go), Xreal, and Magic Leap on the integration of AI and augmented reality and the future of immersive learning experiences. After the discussion, get hands-on with interactive demos featuring the latest AR glasses!
Moderator
Alex Stolyarik, GSE LDT 23' Founder of Ecosystemone
Speakers
Alex Driskill-Smith, Director, Strategic Partnerships at Magic LeapAlicia Berry, Executive Producer at NianticJon Li, Head of the US Market at XREALNari Choi, Director of Strategy & Partnerships (AI, VR, AR) at Meta
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with augmented reality (AR) technology stands to revolutionize the educational landscape. This combination offers a dynamic and interactive learning environment that can overlay the world around us with animated 3D content and data visualizations, personalizing learning experiences, and making education more accessible, engaging, and effective. With growing processing capabilities, computer vision algorithms can map and analyze any environment, bringing complex concepts to life in high fidelity. As AI continues to evolve and AR technology advances, their convergence is set to create a transformative educational experience that could reshape how knowledge is acquired and applied in the real world.
The panel will be followed by a Q&A and a hardware demo.
Register at weblink
Panel Discussion on Private Sector and Climate Change - 04/02/2024 06:00 PM
UC Berkeley Berkeley
Rausser College of Natural Resources and Haas School of Business are hosting a panel discussion on the private sector’s role in helping to fight climate change with speaker Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer at Amazon.
Register at weblink
Editor's Note: The webpage for this event now lists the times as 4:00 - 5:30. The registration link still lists 6:00 - 7:30. We are leaving our listing with the later time, but if you plan to attend, please verify the starting time with UC Berkeley.
Wonderfest: Ask a Science Envoy: Biorhythms; Decarbonization - 04/02/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Wonderfest Science Envoys are early-career researchers with special communication skills and aspirations. Following short talks on provocative modern science topics, these two Science Envoys will answer questions with insight and enthusiasm:
Stanford biologist Mila Pamplona-Barbosa on Biological Rhythms: From Ants to You - How can ants possibly organize their behavior? An ant colony can have hundreds to millions of individuals and, even with all that complexity, the colony still manages to get work done. How does this time-dependent self-organization happen? And what does this have to do with the internal timings of the human body?UC Berkeley climate policy scientist Ari Ball-Burach on Complexity in Controlling Greenhouse Gases - Social, technological, and economic systems are complex: they exhibit both balancing and reinforcing feedbacks, and they strongly interact. Wise policy can use this very complexity to advance the "decarbonization" of the atmosphere. Complexity-aware decarbonization policy addresses climate change at local, national, and global scales.
Black Holes & Spin-offs - 04/02/2024 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
The popular notion of a black hole "sucking in everything" from its surroundings only happens very close to a black hole. Far away, the pull of the black hole is identical to that of anything else of the same mass. However, black holes do give rise to many remarkable phenomena such as extragalactic quasars and, in our own Galaxy, microquasars. This is because gravity is not the only law of physics that must be obeyed. Matter can be spun off from near black holes in the form of winds and jets that spread through their surroundings and thus cause black holes to have tremendous cosmic influence many light years beyond their event horizons. In this lecture, I will describe various approaches that I employ to investigate these phenomena, and their spin-offs.
Speaker: Katherine Blundell, University of Oxford
Attend in person, or register at weblink to attend online
Wednesday, 04/03/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/03/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Balancing ocean protection and production in the Anthropocene: working to unleash ocean solutions at a global scale - Livestream - 04/03/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
With the acceleration of the global biodiversity and climate crises, the need to protect and sustainably manage ocean resources has never been greater. However, the science needed to integrate ocean protection and sustainable production in the blue economy remains underdeveloped and contested. The scientific divide and the knowledge gaps still remaining have created serious real-world challenges for practitioners seeking to reconcile protection and production approaches, and is therefore hindering progress in achieving effective global conservation targets. Via case studies and emerging ideas, this seminar will explore how science can bring together the “twin pillars” of protection and production, integrating mutually reinforcing meaningful protections at scale, while also driving management of production systems to internationally agreed sustainability standards.
Speaker: Randi Rotjan, Boston University
See weblink for Zoom connection.
Spring Break at the Lawrence Hall of Science - The Shocking Nature of Wildfires Science Show - 04/03/2024 11:30 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Soak up the sun and celebrate Spring Break with special events, extended hours, and more at The Lawrence! Bring your suntan lotion and dig in the sand in our Forces That Shape the Bay outdoor exhibit, featuring Sunprint® Kits, beach chairs and umbrellas for relaxing, and fun games and beach-themed activities to keep the family entertained and engaged!
It’s shocking, but 70% of the land burned in Western wildfires is from lightning-sparked blazes. Learn more about how electrical charges can impact the world around us in this explosive interactive science show during Spring Break at The Lawrence! Explore thunderstorm science and learn about how wildfires burn. Spark an interest in electricity and fire safety in this spectacular show.
Showtimes at 11:30 and 2:30
The full event runs March 30 through April 8.
Thermal Satellite Imagery for the Detection and Monitoring of Nuclear Weapons: Early Approaches for Automating Imagery Analysis - 04/03/2024 12:00 PM
Gates Computer Science Building Stanford
AI is an untapped component of space-derived insights about global security. High-resolution satellites image millions of square kilometers of the Earth’s surface each day, yet a human analyst can review only a tiny fraction of this data - creating a vast delta between what is known, and what is knowable in images collected from space. Imagery analysis has long been assisted by processes like the automated detection of objects like ships and aircraft, but there is very little AI-assisted analysis for delivering insights. Stanford University faculty and students, supported by HAI, recently embarked on a first-of-its-kind effort to work toward implementing AI into satellite imagery analysis.
Speakers: Sulgiye Park, Allison Puccioni, and Francesca Verville
Art, Ecology, Poetry: Playing with Facts, Fact-Checking Creativity - Livestream - 04/03/2024 03:40 PM
Estuary and Ocean Science Center
Speaker: Elizabeth Bradfield, Writer/Naturalist, Brandeis University
See weblink for Zoom information
Think like a channel, act like a carrier - The case of SLC9C1, a voltage-gated sperm-specific Na+/H+ exchanger - 04/03/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Cristina Paulino is a first-generation academic from Portugal, who did her undergraduate in Biochemistry at the Heinrich-Heine University, Germany. She obtained her PhD at the the Max-Planck Institute (MPI) of Biophysics, Germany, in 2014. Here, she became proficient in cryo-electron microscopy under the supervision of Werner Kühlbrandt and her interest in membrane protein biochemistry was sparked. Shortly after a successful postdoc in the group of Raimund Dutzler at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, she was appointed as an Assistant Professor and head of the cryo-EM unit in 2017 at the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB), The Netherlands. In 2023, Cristina became a full professor at the Biochemistry Centre (BZH) of the Heidelberg University, Germany. Her research is focused on elucidating the mechanism of action of membrane transporters and channels on a molecular level. It is driven by fundamental questions about how these essential proteins work and are regulated; how structure relates to function; how malfunction causes diseases; and, if applicable, explore their pharmacological potential.
Speaker: Cristina Paulino, Heidelberg University
Silicon Valley Dejargonizers, a toastmasters club meeting - Livestream - 04/03/2024 06:00 PM
Silicon Valley Dejargonizers
How would you explain wifi to kids? How would you explain your genealogy all the way from early humans?How does raising interest rates control inflation?Would you like to get the skills to explain such complex topics in simple terms?At Silicon Valley Dejargonizers, a toastmasters club at District 101, we practice the skills to simplify complexity, one word at a time, through stories, analogies and examples.We have a demo speech that exemplifies the purpose.
Myths of Astronomy - 04/03/2024 07:00 PM
Randall Museum San Francisco
Much of what we think we know about space comes from film and television, but Hollywood's job is more often to entertain than to educate. In this fun and informative presentation, Dr. Thomas Targett will sort fact from fiction, taking a tour through the worlds of Star Trek, Star Wars, and much more.
Global Demographics: A Window onto our Rapidly Changing Future - 04/03/2024 07:00 PM
Berkeley City Club Berkeley
Economist Adele Hayutin will take us on a worldwide tour of population developments and their dramatic consequences.
China’s population is declining as Africa’s is soaring. The workforce is shrinking in many places and growing more slowly almost everywhere else. And the number of people 65 and older will more than double in the next thirty years. These are but a few of the stunning demographic changes that are occurring around the globe.
Join us at Arts & Culture when economist Adele Hayutin will take us on a worldwide tour of these developments and their dramatic consequences. With easy-to-understand maps and graphs, she will explain the population dynamics of the past and show how they will combine over the next few decades to threaten economic security and political stability. She will underscore the urgent need for strategies to address these momentous shifts.
Thursday, 04/04/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/04/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America - Livestream - 04/04/2024 12:00 PM
Commonwealth Club
From massive forest fires in California to hurricanes in Louisiana, receding coastlines in Massachusetts and devastated fisheries in Alaska, the climate catastrophe is already here.
Discussion of the climate crisis has always suffered from a problem of abstraction. Data points and warnings of an overheated future struggle to break through the noise of everyday life. Deniers often portray climate solutions as inconvenient, expensive and unnecessary. Many politicians, focused always on their next election, do not yet see climate as a winning issue in the short run, so they don’t take any action at all. But climate change, and its devastating consequences, has kept apace whether we want to pay attention or not.
CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti has seen that crisis unfold for himself, spending nearly two decades reporting across the United States (and the world) documenting the people, communities, landmarks, and traditions we’ve already surrendered. Vigliotti shares with urgency and personal touch the story of an America on the brink.
In his new book, Before It’s Gone, Vigliotti traces his travels across the country, taking him to the frontlines of climate disaster and revealing the genuine impacts of climate change that countless Americans have already been forced to confront. This is the story of America, and Americans, on the edge, and a powerful argument that radical action on climate change with a respect for its people and traditions is not only possible, but also the only way to preserve what we love.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Exploring Some Big Questions in Poorly Mixed Hydrologic Systems with Electrical Geophysics - 04/04/2024 12:00 PM
Mitchell Earth Sciences Building (04-560) Stanford
“Non-local” mathematics - which describe longer-range dependencies in time or space than classical, local mathematics - are important in a broad range of scientific disciplines. In hydrogeology, for example, one prediction challenge described by non-local mathematics is “anomalous” solute-transport behavior, defined by characteristics such as concentration rebound, solute retention, early solute breakthrough, and long breakthrough tailing. These behaviors lead to consequences like poor 1) pump-and-treat efficiency, 2) descriptions of mixing or spreading, and 3) prediction of biogeochemical storage, release, and transformation processes. These phenomena have been observed in diverse geologic settings. Observational challenges and the complexity of subsurface systems lead to severe prediction challenges with standard measurement techniques. Here, I explore the role of electrical geophysics in determining parameters controlling anomalous solute transport behavior and its applications in a variety of hydrologic settings.
Speaker: Kamini Singha, Colorodo School of Mines & Stanford University
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Room 350/372
A Conversation with Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability Officer and EVP at Mastercard - Livestream - 04/04/2024 03:00 PM
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Ellen is spearheading the integration of Mastercard's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy into the organization. As part of this work, she is driving climate leadership for Mastercard-wide programs and commitments, such as reaching net-zero emissions by 2040, and helping accelerate the company’s impact in climate action initiatives like Priceless Planet Coalition. Mastercard’s ESG efforts, established more than a decade ago, are rooted in a belief of doing well by doing good in order to have true impact and enable both people and the planet to thrive.
Previously, Ellen served as Chief Impact Officer and Head of Sustainable Impact at HP. Her global team developed and delivered a wide range of programs focused on climate action, human rights and digital equity. Earlier in her career, she served in several management and consulting roles.
Ellen is part of the advisory board of the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, is a deputy advisor on the World Economic Forum’s Champions for Nature community and has served as a faculty member of The Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme at the University of Cambridge.
Register at weblink
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - CANCELED - 04/04/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Spiking Neural Networks: Learning Algorithms and Hardware Acceleration - 04/04/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
Spiking neural networks (SNN), a class of brain-inspired models of computation, are well equipped with spatiotemporal computing power critical for a wide range of applications. Moreover, recent advancements in neuromorphic computing have led to large-scale industrial neuromorphic chips with promising ultra-low energy event-driven data processing capability. Nevertheless, major challenges are yet to be conquered to make spike-based computation a competitive choice for real-world applications. In this talk, first, I will present techniques for tackling major challenges in training complex SNNs by developing biologically plausible learning mechanisms and error backpropagation (BP) operating on top of spiking discontinuities. Second, SNN hardware accelerators, which provide an efficient dedicated computing platform for processing spiking workloads, will be discussed.
Speaker: Peng Li, UC Santa Barbara
This lecture may also be available online. See the weblink for Zoom information.
Gen Z Activists and Entrepreneurs in Europe: Enabling Digital and Green Transition - 04/04/2024 04:00 PM
Philosophy Hall Berkeley
Europe is witnessing a significant shift, shaped by the emergence of Gen Z as a driving feature of the European labor force. The ascent of activists and entrepreneurs heralds a potential revolution in businesses operating on the old continent. Understanding and integrating the unique values and approaches of Gen Z, including as a means of addressing the twin (digital and green) transition is critical. As generations that will bear the brunt of the challenges posed by climate change, Gen Z and Millennials are also the generations that are most actively involved in addressing environmental issues (Pew, 2021). In this lecture, we will consider how Europe is changing through demographic shifts, policy developments and environmental necessity.
Speaker: Prof. Dana Redford
Does Coffee Cause Cancer? Myths about the Food We Eat - Livestream - 04/04/2024 04:00 PM
Skeptical Inquirer
Does vitamin C really prevent the common cold? Was red meat really declared a carcinogen by the World Health Organization? Is red wine really good for your heart? Are eggs good for you or bad for you? There’s a lot of “conventional wisdom” about food and nutrition out there … and it’s hard to keep up with what’s true and what isn’t.
Join us for a Skeptical Inquirer Presents livestream with Dr. Christopher Labos. His new book, Does Coffee Cause Cancer? And 8 More Myths about the Food We Eat, tackles numerous questions about food, popular food myths, and how sloppy science perpetuates all manner of misconceptions about food and nutrition. It’s a fascinating and clarifying look at the things we think about the things we eat.
A conversation with David Leonhardt from the New York Times - 04/04/2024 05:00 PM
SRI International Palo Alto
Join us on Thursday, April 4, as SRI Chief Executive Officer David Parekh sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times editor and writer David Leonhardt to discuss his new book, Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream, and how innovation, ingenuity, and investment fueled America’s technological and economic growth.
Attend in person or online. Register at weblink
NightLife Intersections: Fashion - 04/04/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Strut don’t walk for NightLife’s most fashion-forward event. We're serving more than looks in a night all about weaving connections through fashion. Discover the important role fashion plays in artistic expression and how it can be used to connect communities. See it all in action with an engaging panel conversation with Alia Sharrief from The Hijabi Chronicles, Cindy Phan from The Ao Dai Festival, and Joey Montoya from Urban Native Era, moderated by KQED radio reporter and podcast producer Marisol Medina-Cadena. Then, head straight to the catwalk for a fierce fashion show featuring work from all three designers!
Featuring:
The Ao Dai Festival- Named after the traditional Vietnamese garment, the Ao Dai Festival leverages fashion as a powerful vehicle for sharing and connecting with Vietnamese culture and history. Activist and founder Jenny Do also emphasizes affecting positive change through art, and uses her platform to raise awareness of social issues such as human trafficking, women’s rights, and child abuse.The Hijabi Chronicles - Created in 2014 by hip hop artist, emcee, and human rights activist Alia Sharrief, the Hijabi Chronicles aims to give Muslim women in hip hop proper representation and celebrates their creativity and diversity through the lens of modesty.Urban Native Era - The brainchild of Joey Montoya (Lipan Apache), Urban Native Era (UNE) aims to increase the visibility of Indigenous Peoples through fashion and design. More than a decade on, UNE crafts minimal yet powerful designs to create timeless garments that are made for everyone.
After Dark: See for Yourself - 04/04/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Uncover the history, geography, and ecology of the Bay tonight! Investigate the past and present of local landscapes, all while enjoying spectacular views of the waterfront and cityscape all around you. Immerse yourself in history with our map collection, experience Bay Area topography through our 3D model, and take a deep dive into ecology with interactive exhibits and artworks.
PubScience: Seek and Destroy: Molecular machines for cellular recycling and how to catch them in the act - 04/04/2024 06:30 PM
Ocean View Brew Works Albany
Speaker: Santiago Yori Restrepo, UC Berkeley
The Birds of Oregon - Livestream - 04/04/2024 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
Our speaker is Ivan Phillipsen, who with Steve Robertson, founded Wild Latitudes travel. The GGBA Travel Program has been working with Wild Latitudes for seven years now, and in that time Ivan has become a favorite tour leader among our members whohave traveled with him.
Thus far Ivan has run four different trips in the western U.S. for us: to Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Alaska. He also runs our popular international trip to Iceland. Ivan’s a bit of a Renaissance man, which partly accounts for his success as a tour leader. He’s got a M.S. in biology from Cal State San Bernardino and a Ph.D. in zoology from Oregon State University.
During his time in graduate school, Ivan worked in the field of conservation genetics, studying amphibians and aquatic insects. He became a naturalist and a tour leader to better serve his growing interests in reptiles, plants, geology, and, of course, birds. When the pandemic hit and travel companies like his were forced to temporarily close, Ivan found a new outlet for his many talents - he created a popular podcast called “The Science of Birds.” He describes it as “fun and accessible,” and in my experience, that describe it perfectly. If you like podcasts, you’ll love this one.
He’s collaborating with his Wild Latitudes partner, Steve Robertson, in offering a new trip for us this fall - Birds of the Oregon Coast - which will be the topic of his talk.
Editor's Note: At the time of listing, the event website does not show an event time. Events in this series are usually held at 7:00 PM, so that's what we are listing. Please check the weblink prior to attending to verify.
Friday, 04/05/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/05/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Bair Island Walking Tour - 04/05/2024 10:00 AM
Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail Redwood City
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a walking tour at Bair Island! 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.
Register at weblink
What are these small worlds, after all? The nature and evolution of 'mini-Neptunes' - 04/05/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Eric Gaidos, UC Santa Cruz
Polar Topological Defects - Fundamentals to Applications - 04/05/2024 02:00 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
Topological defects such as vortices and skyrmions have recently gained significant interest in solid state materials as ferroic materials (ferromagnets and ferroelectrics) have become a test-bed to realize and control these nanoscale structures. Although this phenomenon is being investigated as a pathway to energy efficient information storage, broader applications in interaction of electromagnetic waves with such features are emerging.
In the case of ferroelectrics, boundary condition engineering is used to achieve vortices, skyrmions, and merons in low dimensional epitaxial oxide heterostructures.
In this talk, I will introduce the notion that similar phenomenology but at the atomic scale can be achieved in charge density wave phases, especially nominally semiconducting chalcogenides. I will outline my group and other groups’ efforts in showing non-trivial toroidal polar topologies at the atomic level in chalcogenides with nominally empty conduction band with d-orbital character such as 1T-TiSe2, Ta2NiSe5 and BaTiS3.
Specifically, we use X-ray single crystal diffraction as a probe for high quality single crystals of a quasi-1D hexagonal chalcogenide, BaTiS3, to reveal complex polar topologies such as vortices, and head-to-head and tail-to-tail arrangement of dipoles. Recent experiments and theoretical studies on the stability and dynamics of these features, and their broad connection to low dimensional magnets, will also be discussed. Lastly, I will outline the perspective for photonic applications of polarization textures.
Speaker: Jayakanth Ravichandran, University of Southern California
Room 3108
First Friday Nights at CuriOdyssey - 04/05/2024 05:00 PM
CuriOdyssey San Mateo
Kick off Earth Month at our April First Friday!
Join us for an amazing start to Earth Month! Dance to some of your favorite pop and rock hits while enjoying animal presentations, tacos from Lilo's Kitchen, and pupusas from Antojitos Salvadoreños. Kids will be able to do fun nature-based activities like creating seed pods and leaf rubbings. Plus, you can reimagine the California Flag with other endangered wildlife on our coloring postcards, which you can send to your representatives to encourage them to protect our native species this month!
Saturday, 04/06/2024
Spring BioBlitz at the Palo Alto Baylands - 04/06/2024 09:00 AM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
Join the Environmental Volunteers for a Spring BioBlitz in the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve and Byxbee Park.
Spring is a wonderful time for flowers, pollinators, as well as courting or nesting birds. Join us to learn about some of our native and non-native species, become a community scientist and help us collect scientific data.
Please bring a digital camera or smartphone. Download the free iNaturalist smartphone app prior to the program and create a free account prior to the event. Instructions on the Bioblitz and how to join the 2023 project will be sent prior to event, and will also be available a printed guide for the day of. You can view our past BioBlitz findings for 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Help us document the biodiversity of this great preserve.
We will have families check in at the EcoCenter and then embark to record as many plants and animals as possible. Volunteers will be on site to take small groups/families who would like to learn more about plants, insects, birds, or how to use iNaturalist.
Please use this Online Registration Form to sign up.
Bringing Back the Natives Garden Online Tour - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Bringing Back the Natives
View via Zoom or YouTube. Links will be emailed 1 week before the events.
Register at weblink. Registration includes both days of the online tours as well as both days of the in-person tours.
Spring flowers at Bouverie Preserve - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Bouverie Preserve Glen Ellen
Join us for a 3-hour docent-led nature walk at the 535-acre Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen. You will be in small groups while strolling through and appreciating the unique beauty of our oak and riparian woodland habitats.
The trails are wide, unpaved, uneven, and some have steps or inclines. Wear sturdy shoes and long pants. Bring drinking water in a resealable container.
Possible hazards include poison oak and ticks. Rain or high wind cancels. No dogs allowed.
Register at weblink
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Climate Change at Chrissy Field - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Meet by restrooms @ Crissy Field East Beach SF
Join the Climate Change at Crissy Field tour to explore the breathtaking, 180-degree views of San Francisco Bay from Crissy Field and to discuss the threat of climate change and sea level rise to Crissy Field’s beauty. You will see the recent restoration that converted the US Army airfield to a bird-friendly marsh that can reduce the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. Learn about local heroes who fought for protection of SF Bay and the history of how rapid population increase changed the local habitats of birds, trees, and fish. See what SF is doing to become a sustainable city. Join a spirited discussion of how you can lower your own carbon footprint and participate in climate decisions impacting your home community.
Nike Missile Site Veteran Open House - 04/06/2024 12:00 PM
Nike Missle Site Mill Valley
Veterans 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 1953 to 1979, the United States Army built and operated close to 300 Nike missile sites in the United States. These sites were designed to be the last line of defense against H-Bomb carrying Soviet bombers that had eluded the Air Force’s interceptor jet aircrafts. SF-88 in the Marin Headlands was one such site. Today, Golden Gate National Recreation Area works together with a dedicated group of volunteers to preserve the site as it was during operations to remind visitors of the physical and psychological effects of the Cold War on the American landscape.
Starry Nights Star Party - RESCHEDULED - 04/06/2024 09:00 PM
Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
This event has been rescheduled for April 13, 2024
Sunday, 04/07/2024
Bringing Back the Natives Garden Online Tour - 04/07/2024 10:00 AM
Bringing Back the Natives
View via Zoom or YouTube. Links will be emailed 1 week before the events.
Register at weblink. Registration includes both days of the online tours as well as both days of the in-person tours.
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/07/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Monday, 04/08/2024
Eclipse Viewing Party - 04/08/2024 10:00 AM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be visible from a narrow “path of totality” arcing from Mexico to Texas to Maine. During this stunning phenomenon, the moon will completely cover the disc of the Sun, revealing the full glory of the Sun’s outer atmosphere - its corona.
Not on the path of totality? The Exploratorium’s got you covered.
We're hosting an eclipse watch party at Pier 15. View live telescope images of the total solar eclipse from Texas and Mexico. Learn safe viewing techniques from our educators, and engage in fun activities while learning about the science of the eclipse. Visitors will get a free pair of solar viewing glasses while supplies last.
Can't come to the party in person? No worries! You can still be part of the action by viewing the broadcast on our eclipse app or by visiting our website.
Whether you choose to visit us in person or online, prepare to be awestruck by this rare celestial event.
Solar Eclipse Viewing - 04/08/2024 10:00 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
This spring, here in the Bay Area, catch our last chance to experience a solar eclipse in our own back yard until 2045! Experience this amazing celestial event from Chabot’s Observation Deck, where we’ll have a stellar view of the sun as it passes through 34% totality over Oakland. Enjoy coffee, hot chocolate and eclipse crafts in our Astronomy Hall, catch the NASA livestream in our 20-inch Telescope, Rachel, and make your mark on the Center with interactive exhibitry.
Spring Break at the Lawrence Hall of Science - Eclipse Viewing Party - 04/08/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Soak up the sun and celebrate Spring Break with special events, extended hours, and more at The Lawrence! Bring your suntan lotion and dig in the sand in our Forces That Shape the Bay outdoor exhibit, featuring Sunprint® Kits, beach chairs and umbrellas for relaxing, and fun games and beach-themed activities to keep the family entertained and engaged!
Explore solar science and witness a solar eclipse! For the second time in six months, a partial solar eclipse will be visible from Berkeley. Join us for safe solar viewing, solar activities, and expert explanations of how solar eclipses happen. From here, the Moon will cover approximately 35% of the Sun.
The full event runs March 30 through April 8.
View the Great 2024 North American Total Solar Eclipse at the Sage and Drifter bar, 1368 Irving. St @15th Av - 04/08/2024 10:00 AM
Sage and Drifter San Francisco
On Monday, April 8 there will be a rare Total Solar Eclipse of the Sun! The 115 mile wide path of Totality (the Moon's shadow) crosses North America, in a Northeasterly direction from Mexico to Montreal. The 115 miles wide path of the Moon's shadow (traveling at 1,500 MPH+) passes through Texas, the Midwest, and Maine.
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024
San Francisco 34% of the Sun will be covered at 11:13 AM.
Safely View this spectacular event with host astronomer Steve White. Witness this rare event through a large 8” telescope equipped with a professional solar filter.
Host Steve White has taught astronomy at Sierra and Hartnell colleges. He will bring his 45 years of experience to answer all your questions and enlighten you on current Solar Physics. Steve will have his 8” SCT telescope equipped with a Solar Filter. He will have Eclipse viewing glasses and camera filters will be available to use.
Movement Ecophysiology of Northern Elephant Seals: From Fine-Scale Thermoregulation to Population-Level Foraging Behavior - 04/08/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Arina Favilla, UC Santa Cruz
Computing the News: Data Journalism and the Search for Objectivity - Livestream - 04/08/2024 12:30 PM
Berkeley Center for New Media
Faced with a full-blown crisis, a growing number of journalists are engaging in seemingly unjournalistic practices such as creating and maintaining databases, handling algorithms, or designing online applications. “Data journalists” claim that these approaches help the profession demonstrate greater objectivity and fulfill its democratic mission. In their view, computational methods enable journalists to better inform their readers, more closely monitor those in power, and offer deeper analysis.
In Computing the News, Sylvain Parasie examines how data journalists and news organizations have navigated the tensions between traditional journalistic values and new technologies. He traces the history of journalistic hopes for computing technology and contextualizes the surge of data journalism in the twenty-first century. By importing computational techniques and ways of knowing new to journalism, news organizations have come to depend on a broader array of human and nonhuman actors. Parasie draws on extensive fieldwork in the United States and France, including interviews with journalists and data scientists as well as a behind-the-scenes look at several acclaimed projects in both countries. Ultimately, he argues, fulfilling the promise of data journalism requires the renewal of journalistic standards and ethics. Offering an in-depth analysis of how computing has become part of the daily practices of journalists, this book proposes ways for journalism to evolve in order to serve democratic societies.
Speaker: Sylvain Parasie, Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po (Paris) and Director of Sciences Po’s Media Lab
See weblink for connection link
Physics Career Pathways - 04/08/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
As a APS Career Mentoring Fellow, our very own Dr. Alexandra Miller will discuss Physics career pathways.
Speaker: Alexandra Miller, Sonoma State University
Animal-landscape interactions on a changing planet - 04/08/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Speaker: Andrew Davies, Harvard University
Room: Auditorium
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquium - 04/08/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Speaker: Hitoshi Murayama, UC Berkeley
Enhanced Geothermal Systems: Are We There Yet? - 04/08/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
Geothermal energy has undergone a renaissance over the past 15 years, as many new technologies and new countries have joined the industry. Climate change concerns have focused attention on renewable energy, supported by a global ambition to address greenhouse gas reduction. Geothermal developments have accelerated in many parts of the world, both in countries (such as Turkey, Indonesia, Kenya, New Zealand, and the US) that have a traditional interest in "conventional" geothermal resources, as well as countries without a historical community in geothermal energy (such as France and Germany). Some new developments have followed well-worn paths using conventional hydrothermal resources in volcanic regions, while others have struck out in new directions in Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) projects in nonvolcanic regions. Technology has allowed for developments of conventional resources with lower temperature, restricted water access, and constrained surface utilization. EGS projects have launched in a variety of different directions and places. The use of innovative hybrid plants, lower resource temperatures and enhanced reservoir stimulation has made geothermal energy accessible in a much wider variety of places.
Speaker: Roland Horne, Stanford University
Tuesday, 04/09/2024
Examining Research Innovations and Policy-Level Interventions - 04/09/2024 10:00 AM
School of Journalism Berkeley
Physical systems that can learn by themselves - 04/09/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
700 Years of Great Earthquake Ruptures in the Eastern Aleutians Based on Modeling Tsunami Run-up and Stratigraphic Deposits in the Aleutian Islands an - 04/09/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
CFC Birdy Hour - Livestream - 04/09/2024 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
Wednesday, 04/10/2024
Engineering Stem Cells and Extracellular Components for Tissue Regeneration and Translational Medicine - 04/10/2024 12:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
'Rebel Health' - Livestream - 04/10/2024 03:00 PM
Commonwealth Club
Why coastal fog matters to ecosystems from a basic and applied perspective - Livestream - 04/10/2024 03:40 PM
Estuary and Ocean Science Center
Collective Climates | CED Talks - Activist Infrastructure Imaginaries - 04/10/2024 06:30 PM
Wurster Hall Berkeley
Thursday, 04/11/2024
Grid resilience and prevention of wildfires - 04/11/2024 01:30 PM
Environment & Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 04/11/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Beyond Earth | Exploring Life in Extreme Conditions - 04/11/2024 05:30 PM
swissnex San Francisco San Francisco
History on Tap: Towards Equality - 04/11/2024 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
After Dark: Seeing is Believing - 04/11/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Fungus Among Us NightLife - 04/11/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
The Science Behind Living Better Longer - 04/11/2024 06:30 PM
San Mateo Public Library San Mateo
The Birth of the Science Communicator - Livestream - 04/11/2024 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Friday, 04/12/2024
Behind-the-Scenes Look at Pupping Season - Livestream - 04/12/2024 12:00 PM
Marine Mammal Center
Forming Planetesimals in Solar and Extrasolar Nebulae - 04/12/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Dynamic Control Of Active Matter - 04/12/2024 02:00 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
Public Astronomy Viewing Nights - 04/12/2024 08:30 PM
Sonoma State University Public Astronomy Rohnert Park
Saturday, 04/13/2024
Stewardship Saturday: Investigating Tidepools for Ocean Health - 04/13/2024 08:30 AM
TBA Bodega Bay
Love our Earth Festival - 04/13/2024 10:00 AM
Bloomhouse East Palo Alto
Family Nature Adventures: Flowers - 04/13/2024 10:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Foothills Family Nature Walk - 04/13/2024 11:00 AM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos
Seed Spoon Science Presents STEM Education Outreach Science Career Fair - 04/13/2024 11:00 AM
Seymour Marine Discovery Center Santa Cruz
Afternoon Hike at Mindego Hill - 04/13/2024 03:00 PM
Mindego Hill Trail Head Redwood City
Jazz Under the Stars - 04/13/2024 06:08 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Twilight Marsh Walk - 04/13/2024 06:45 PM
Don Edwards Refuge Headquarters & Visitors Center Fremont
City Public Star Party - 04/13/2024 07:30 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Starry Nights Star Party - 04/13/2024 09:00 PM
Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Monday, 04/15/2024
Sonoma State University Biology Colloquium - 04/15/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Symbolic Systems Forum - 04/15/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
COVID-19: Do We Still Need To Be Concerned? - Livestream - 04/15/2024 03:00 PM
UC Berkeley
Spectroscopy of Advanced Materials - 04/15/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
The brain-body balancing act: The function and development of motor and sensory circuits for internal organ feedback control - 04/15/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Commercializing low-carbon cement - 04/15/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
An Evening with 'Science Friday''s Ira Flatow - 04/15/2024 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
April LASER Event - Stanford - 04/15/2024 07:00 PM
Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge Stanford