Hello and a belated Happy Trip Around the Sun,
I was thinking how much I was looking forward to the end of '23 and having a fresh start on a new year. Well that didn't bring a noticeable change in how things look around the world. Many innocent people are dying at the hands of nature or at the hands of other people. The horror of the capacity of humans to do so much harm and inflict so much suffering on others will never do anything but bring sorrow to me.
I've been away from the keyboard and the SciSchmooze for for longer than usual and there is so much to share. The coming year will be full of new discoveries, challenges, and achievements. One thing about science is it is never really done. It seems that science and technology (applied science) never rest and constantly offer new insights and solutions to questions and problems. They often bring new questions and problems as well.
Consider the The Story of Plastic. It's a pretty new material in our world, it has been around less than 150 or so years. It was first intended to replace the ivory in billiard balls. Nylon was first used a few years before WWII. During WWII the use of plastic increased more than 3 times. When I was born it was the new wonder material to be used in the home as well as industry. Those seem like pretty naieve days. Now we not only seem to have too much of it, Humanity can’t recycle its way out of consumption problems. Though very small, microplastics is really getting much attention and it does seem like we have a severe problem. One might say plastics are everywhere! Five new places scientists have uncovered plastics. It will take an immense effort to get them under control if it is even possible and the worst of predictions become reality. Meet The Plastic-Eating Worms
One of many more challenges we seem to be having to face are The Dangers Of Ultra-Processed Foods. I can't stress enough how important science education is becoming for everyone to be able to understand and address the challenges ahead. I hope many more opportunities like this become common... If you are a Marin County student in grades 9-12 If you know of similar opportunities in the area or elsewhere please share them far and wide.
I think the opportunities we have here are often taken for granted. Bob Siederer keeps on loading up the Bay Area Science calendar with great opportunities we have in the bay area. Here are a few that I think are worth your attention in the next week or so...
A Rose Is a Rose by Any Name, or Is It? Tue @ 7 in San Francisco and Eating Down the Food Chain: Let Them Eat Algae Tue @ 7 in Pacific Grove!
King Tide Bair Island Walking Tour Fri @ 10 in Redwood City (Note: I have a certain bias about this place. It is AMAZING!)
Saturday Cinema: The Art + Science of Luminous Animations Sat @ 1 in San Francisco
TEDx Berkeley: Butterfly Effect Sat 3 to 5:30 (A discount is available for some tickets, use the code TEDxFAMILY)
Are we really that different from other living creatures we share the planet with? Where Do Living Creatures Get Their Sense Of Rhythm? Here's A Compelling Theory to Explain a Key Trait of Modern Humans as well. We humans could learn a lot from paying attention to how and what we do while sharing with some of the other creatures. Consider these...
Evolution Led Humans into a Trap
The Nuclear Energy Dilemma: Climate Savior or Existential Threat?
"Mother nature isn't messing around."
Climate Change Lessons From 2023
I'm sorry that the word didn't get out enough for this but hopefully there will be more chances. I can't recommend Citizen Brain with Josh Kornbluth enough. It was shown this week only, at Club Fugazi in San Francisco. It was a great take on brain health and should be seen by many more people. You should also check out Creative Brain Week Dublin 2023. It was “a heady mix of World-Leading Neuroscientists, Educationalists, Health Policy Makers, Artists and Innovators exploring the brain and creativity.” There are a lot of resources and presentations to be relished.
Here's a bit of info to think about if you are concerned about avalanches in Tahoe or elsewhere: What causes innocent-looking snow slopes to collapse? A physicist and skier explains, with tips for surviving
Iceland has been “hot” lately. Check out Reykjanes multiview - Live from Iceland This is from 2 years ago but it is beautiful and terrifying at the same time... Geldingadalur’s Fagradalsfjall volcano
Since we have all survived 2023 and some are “drying out” a bit, I offer this up to all of you.
Anuses are like martinis. Some like 'em dry and some don't.
Have a great week learning more cool new stuff and working towards a better 2024.
herb masters
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“Nothing could be more obvious than that the earth is stable and unmoving, and that we are in the center of the universe. Modern Western science takes its beginning from the denial of this common sense axiom.”
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“I beg this committee to recognize that knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up, it increases by diffusion, and grows by dispersion. Knowledge and information cannot be quantitatively assessed, as a percentage of the G.N.P. Any willful cut in our resources of knowledge is an act of self-destruction.”
------------------ — Daniel J. Boorstin
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 01/15/2024
Tomales Bay winter shorebird count - 01/15/2024 11:00 AM
Tomales Bay
Audubon Canyon Ranch will once again be conducting our regular series of six winter shorebird counts on Tomales Bay and we encourage experienced birders to join us.
Since 1989, we have monitored seasonal populations of shorebirds on Tomales Bay with the help of volunteer field observers. Three bay-wide counts are completed within each early-winter and late-winter census period; an additional bay-wide count is conducted each August and April to record peak numbers of fall and spring migrants. Data from the first count of the season (November 20) will be contributed to the Pacific Flyway Shorebird Survey.
Each count requires 60 to 90 minutes to complete; volunteers often allow for some extra time to get settled before the count begins. Volunteers should be able to identify shorebirds.
Exact location will be provided when you sign up.
Tuesday, 01/16/2024
Building physics into AI to discover new medicines - 01/16/2024 10:00 AM
Tan Hall Berkeley
Despite their significant hype, machine learning (ML) models have struggled to solve one of the biggest challenges in modern biophysical chemistry: structure-based drug design. The task of designing a molecule that binds to a particular biomolecular target is extremely challenging for ML for two fundamental reasons: (1) the amount of experimental data is low and (2) the data type, 3D coordinates of molecules, is not native to most current ML models. Both of these challenges are problems of physics, and in this talk I will propose that the key to solving them is to build physics directly into our ML models. I will present our work building equivariant Euclidean Neural Networks (e3nns), ML models that directly incorporate the symmetries of 3D space, to solve two important problems for the chemistry of drug design. First, I will show how e3nns can learn the electronic structure of molecules with dramatically less training data than non-equivariant models. Second, I will highlight how coupling e3nns with generative ML methods can achieve state-of-the-art models for de novo molecular generation. Both of these applications highlight the critical role inductive bias plays in machine learning and how getting this right for molecular systems will be key to unlocking the future of AI-driven chemistry.
Speaker: Josh Rackers, Genentech
Broken Code: Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose its Harmful Secrets - Livestream - 01/16/2024 12:00 PM
Stanford University
Jeff Horwitz will discuss his research and reporting that led to his book Broken Code: Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose its Harmful Secrets. Broken Code expands on “The Facebook Files,” his blockbuster, award-winning series for The Wall Street Journal, and lays out not just the architecture of Facebook’s failures, but what the company knew - and disregarded.
See weblink for YouTube link, or register to watch on Zoom. In person attendance for Stanford affiliates only.
Speaker: Jeff Horwitz, Wall Street Journal
Fractionalization and emergent gauge symmetries in quantum condensed matter - 01/16/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Since this is a hastily arranged “in-house” colloquium, I plan to make it partially pedagogic concerning a body of thought that has developed in condensed matter theory over the past half century, but which has only much more recently come to be satisfactorily understood. I will plan to spend roughly half of the time explaining what the title means, and the second half with describing some recent developments (some of which are original to my group) in terms of expanding these ideas and searching (still with uncertain success) for realizations in the world of quantum materials.
Speaker: Steve Kivelson, Stanford University
Systemic Racism in Science Communication - 01/16/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Dione Rossiter
Astronomy on Tap Tucson #94: Pulsars and Poetry - Livestream - 01/16/2024 06:30 PM
Astronomy on Tap
The Discovery of Pulsars: a Guide to Unidentified Blinking Objects
Speaker: Maria Mutz, University of Arizona
Space Travel by Words: Poetry About Up There, Down Here, and In Between
Speaker: Fuda Nguyen, University of Arizona
On tap this month, we have physics graduate student Maria Mutz talking about pulsars and other unidentified blinking objects, and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory graduate student Fuda Nguyen giving us an exclusive poetry reading! And you won’t want to miss the latest Astronomy in the News with Steward postdocs Jackie Champagne and Danny Krolikowski!
Representation Learning in lower dimensions and Spectral methods in Machine Learning - Livestream - 01/16/2024 07:00 PM
IEEE Computer Society of Silicon Valley
The talk will explore Eigen Decomposition, PCA, Kernel PCA, Eigen Faces, t-SNE, UMAP, Manifold Learning, a taxonomy of dimensionality reduction techniques, and discuss how the speaker used them for some of his research experiments.
Speaker: Vishnu Pendyala, San Jose State University
Register at weblink
Eating Down the Food Chain: Let Them Eat Algae - 01/16/2024 07:00 PM
Hopkins Marine Station Pacific Grove
How will planet Earth feed more people in the next century while increasing sustainability? One solution comes from tiny plants called micro-algae, with their high nutrients, vitamins and food value. Chuck Greene is a world leader in looking at this solution, and will talk about its need and its promise
Can we create a global food production system that meets society's projected nutritional requirements while simultaneously reducing its carbon, land, and freshwater footprints to levels consistent with our sustainability goals?
Speaker: Chuck Greene, University of Washington Friday Harbor Labs
Attend in person, or register to attend online at weblink
A Rose Is a Rose by Any Other Name, or Is It? - 01/16/2024 07:00 PM
Mycological Society of San Francisco San Francisco
In this presentation, J.R. Blair will explore scientific name changes of fungi in the past few decades. Starting with a primer on taxonomic hierarchy (Domains, Kingdoms, Phyla, etc.), the Binomial System of Nomenclature, and species concepts, he will discuss the reasons that species names are changed and why higher level relationships (such as Genus and Family) have been shuffled by the scientific community.
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Secrets of Award Winning Astrophotography - Livestream - 01/16/2024 07:30 PM
San Jose Astronomical Society
Andy Campbell discusses all things Astro and awards, providing valuable insights into entering the highly competitive world of Astrophotography competitions. During the presentation, Andy delves deep into the world of astrophotography and explores tips and techniques that have led to award-winning entries. An experienced judge, Andy also highlights the judging criteria and offers practical advice to improve your astrophotography skills.
Register to receive connection information
Wednesday, 01/17/2024
Billionth of a billionth to billions of billions - measurements at (and beyond) the quantum mechanical limits - Livestream - 01/17/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Measurement is a concept that is so ubiquitous in any experimental science, as it is the only avenue through which we can understand the world, and beyond. In the last two decades, technological advances have allowed us to construct ever more precise sensors, to the point that we are now limited by the laws of quantum mechanics even when measuring systems at macroscopic scales. In this talk, I will describe two experiments I have worked on, that have leveraged lasers to preform measurements with exquisite precision. While these experiments (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and optical tweezers) are aimed at advancing fundamental physics, I will also motivate why these techniques can be of interest to the broader scientific community.
Speaker: Gautam Venugopalan, Stanford University
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
Muscle Stem Cells Get a New Look: Dynamic Cellular Projections as Sensors of the Stem Cell Niche - 01/17/2024 12:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Mechanisms whereby quiescent stem cells sense tissue injury and transition to an activated state are largely unknown. Quiescent skeletal muscle stem cells (MuSCs) have elaborate, heterogeneous projections that rapidly retract in response to muscle injury; the cytoskeletal changes associated with retraction in turn promote downstream MuSC activation events. MuSC projections may therefore provide a surveillance function for muscle damage as direct sensors of their niche environment. These concepts may extend to other types of quiescent stem cells.
Speaker: Robert Krauss, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Agriculture, Trade, and the Spatial Efficiency of Global Water Use - 01/17/2024 12:10 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Over 90% of global water use occurs in agricultural production, which is subject to two pervasive distortions: (i) incomplete property rights for farmers accessing water and (ii) subsidies, taxes, and tariffs affecting agricultural output. This paper combines a rich collection of global geospatial data with a dynamic spatial equilibrium model to quantify the impact of agricultural and trade policies on regional water scarcity and welfare. In the data, we show that water-intensive crops concentrate highly in water-abundant locations, implying a strong role for comparative advantage in governing global water use, though a small number of regions with very water-intensive production are losing water rapidly over time. In the model, we capture production, consumption, and trade in agriculture across many countries and crops, as well as the dynamic evolution of local water stocks as farmers extract from the common pool resource. We calibrate the model to match observed global patterns of agricultural production and hydrologic trends and use it to conduct counterfactual simulations of alternative policy regimes. We find that eliminating international trade in agriculture would dramatically increase water depletion across most of the world, and especially so in drier food-importing regions, resulting in large reductions in welfare over time. In contrast, other observed and hypothetical agricultural policy liberalizations have mixed effects on depletion that vary greatly across locations, suggesting nuance in implications for policy.
Speaker: Tamma Carleton, UC Santa Barbara
Thursday, 01/18/2024
Easy Walk at Wavecrest - 01/18/2024 10:00 AM
Wavecrest Open Space Preserve Half Moon Bay
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a very easy 2-mile walk at Wavecrest Open Space in Half Moon Bay! We’ll walk through groves of trees and fields where we’ll have a great chance to spot a variety of birds, especially raptors! We’ll also walk along the coastal bluffs where we may see whale spots and other sea life.
You’ll hear from POST representatives about how we have been working for years to protect a variety of properties that make up this beautiful open space. We will proceed at a very slow and easy pace so this hike is great for all ages and ability levels.
Register at weblink
Unraveling Sleep in Aging - 01/18/2024 01:00 PM
San Francisco Towers San Francisco
The seminar will focus on how sleep loss affects the brain, how it may contribute to neurodegenerative disease and the underlying mechanistic changes that are occurring.
Speaker: Christine M Walsh, PhD, Associate Professor, Sleep in Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease Program, Memory & Aging Center, UCSF Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences
Register at weblink
Electric Grid Cybersecurity - 01/18/2024 01:30 PM
Environment & Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
In this talk we will delve into the intricate world of cybersecurity within smart grid systems, focusing on both defensive and offensive methodologies. The smart grid, integral to modern power systems, faces unique challenges due to its complex network architecture and the integration of renewable energy sources. As these grids become increasingly digitized, the need for robust cybersecurity strategies becomes paramount. The lecture will begin by exploring the landscape of smart grid cybersecurity, highlighting the evolving nature of threats and the criticality of safeguarding these essential infrastructures. We will examine various defensive techniques, including advanced AI/ML algorithms, intrusion detection systems, and resilience planning, that are key to defending against cyber attacks. Shifting focus, we will also discuss the less-traveled path of offensive strategies in cybersecurity, a proactive approach. This includes penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, and the development of simulated attack scenarios to preemptively identify and address potential security breaches. Throughout the talk, we will emphasize the importance of a balanced approach that integrates both offensive and defensive tactics, ensuring a comprehensive security posture. The goal is to provide insights into how these strategies can be effectively implemented to protect smart grids against the ever-growing range of cyber threats.
Speaker: Mostafa Mohammadpourfard, Arizona State University
Room 292A
Pathways Versus Incentives: Climate Activism to Climate Outcomes - Livestream - 01/18/2024 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy
Climate activists have pressured financial institutions to accelerate global decarbonization by aligning portfolios with Paris Agreement transition pathways and targets. SFI traces the progression from IPCC scenarios to corporate target setting via the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and financial institutions’ portfolio alignment methods. We identify four critical weaknesses: flawed GHG Protocol emissions counting rather than accounting, reliance on centrally-planned pathways, implicit divestment-driven approaches, and tension with fiduciary duties. These issues undermine the theory of change behind activist and financial sector efforts. As an alternative, we propose Emissions Liability Management (ELM) which treats emissions as liabilities matched by removal assets, enabling firms to maintain emissions solvency. Rather than chasing pathways, ELM provides incentives for emissions reductions and removals consistent with shareholder obligations. By reframing climate action in financial terms, ELM can engage financial markets as agents of change.
Speaker: Julian Maire, Sustainable Finance initiative
Register at weblink
After Dark: See for Yourself - 01/18/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Glow up your January with a night at the Exploratorium! Sip a cocktail and wander our galleries, where you can play with over 650 interactive exhibits. And don’t miss the final weeks of our seasonal exhibition Glow, inviting you to see, touch, and play with light in thrilling and unexpected ways.
Astronomy on Tap Santa Cruz: Voyage of Invisible Radio Wonders - 01/18/2024 06:30 PM
Humble Sea Brewing Co Santa Cruz
Strap in for a ride with the Solar Wind as we explore the subtle ways in which human activities have sculpted some of the most energetic structures in our Solar System besides the Sun: Earth’s & Jupiter’s radiation belts. Beyond Jupiter, we’ll discover how surfing and volcanoes cross paths to create these curious belts that cocoon our planets in an invisible radio glow. As we head into the greater wilderness of space, we’ll meet the first example of a radiation belt outside of our Solar System. Finally, we’ll find a sea of brilliant radio lighthouses illuminating the cosmic matter between galaxies as a map to the treasure that we seek: answers to questions like “where did we come from?” and “how did the universe begin?”
Speakers: Lordrick Kahinga & Melodie Kao
For the Love of Sparrows - 01/18/2024 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Bird Alliance San Francisco
If you still think of sparrows as LBJs (little brown jobs); skulky little drab guys, hard to identify, and generally unexciting…prepare to have your world rocked! The two Eds will take you on a journey through the world of sparrows to reveal the subtle beauty of their plumage and their songs. Along the way, you may pick up some useful ID tips and learn about the unparalleled variety of sparrow song composition.
Speakers: Ed Harper, educator and photographer; Ed Pandolfino, author
Attend in person (register at weblink) or via Zoom here.
Peninsula Gem & Geology Society - 01/18/2024 07:00 PM
Redwood City Community Activities Building Redwood City
Joint General Meeting with the Sequoia Gem and Mineral Society. Paul Rose will give an in-person presentation on the Quartzite Show and upcoming Tucson Show.
Friday, 01/19/2024
King Tide Bair Island Walking Tour - 01/19/2024 10:00 AM
Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail Redwood City
Learn about this beautiful protected space, and join us for a walking tour of Bair Island during the King Tide! Led by docent Vicki Martell, this hike will take you through ~1.5 miles of paved trails. Bair Island is part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
King tides happen just a few times a year and reaches over 9 feet at Bair Island (about 1-2 feet higher than normal). As we walk along the 1 mile flat, out and back trail, we will talk about what causes King tides, expectations for sea level rise in the area, and how restoring tidal marsh can help protect us against sea level rise. We will see the tide rising to over 9 feet at about 11am. We may see migratory birds, so bring your binoculars. We’ll meet rain or shine. Come see what our future sea level may look like.
The interpretive walking tour 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. Make sure to bring binoculars to catch sight of some of the beautiful birds at Bair Island.
Register at weblink
How does sleep fix broken brains? - 01/19/2024 12:00 PM
ChEM-H/Neuroscience Building, James Lin and Nisa Leung Seminar Room (E153) Stanford
Speaker: Paul Shaw, Washington University, St. Louis
Attend in person, or click here to attend online.
Open Questions in the Structure and Composition of Gas Giants: From Jupiter to Hot Jupiters - 01/19/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Jonathan Fortney
Using Physics as a Microscope to Dissect Transcriptional Dynamics in Development - 01/19/2024 02:00 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
Over the last few decades we have largely identified the repressors and activators that shape gene expression patterns in developing embryos and that, in turn, dictate cellular fates. Yet, despite amassing this great reservoir of knowledge, we are still incapable of predicting how the number, placement and affinity of binding sites for these transcription factors in regulatory DNA dictate gene expression patterns in space and time. Achieving such predictive understanding calls for going beyond molecular parts lists and for obtaining the in vivo biochemical information necessary for fueling theoretical models of transcriptional regulation in developing animals.
In this talk, I will show how we are using physics as a “microscope” to uncover the molecular mechanisms by which activators and repressors dictate transcription in space and time in developing animals. Specifically, using novel quantitative tools that we have developed for precision measurements, I will show that most developmental genes are transcribed in stochastic bursts, and that many transcription factors regulate gene expression by modulating the frequency, duration, and/or amplitude of these bursts. We will then engage in an iterative dialogue between theoretical models and quantitative experiments aimed at revealing the mechanisms underlying this control of transcriptional bursting. Our results challenge the textbook picture of activator and repressor action based on stable protein-protein interactions and call for a description of transcriptional control that acknowledges that the nucleus is not a bag of well-mixed transcription factors. Most importantly, our work sets a path forward for reaching a predictive understanding of cellular decision making and demonstrates how a quantitative dialogue between theory and experiment can shed light on biological mechanisms beyond the reach of even the best super resolution microscopes.
Speaker: Hernan Garcia, UC Berkeley
Trustworthy autonomous Vehicles at a Large Scale, Safety, Generalization, and Social Good - 01/19/2024 03:00 PM
O'Brien Hall Berkeley
As AI becomes more integrated into physical autonomy, it presents a dual spectrum of opportunities and risks. In this talk, I will introduce our efforts in deploying trustworthy intelligent autonomy at a large scale for vital civil usage such as self-driving cars, assistant robots, and first responders to emergencies. During the deployment and transition, training data often exhibit significant imbalance, multi-modal complexity, and nonstationarity. I will initiate the discussion by analyzing ‘long-tailed’ problems with rare events and their connection to safety evaluation and safe reinforcement learning. I will then discuss how modeling multi-modal uncertainties as ‘tasks’ may enhance generalizability by learning across domains. In cases involving unknown-unknown tasks with severely limited data, we explore the potential of leveraging external knowledge from legislative sources, causal reasoning, and large language models. Lastly, I will discuss the potential social benefits/concerns regarding deploying intelligent autonomy at a large scale. Applications cover self-driving and assistant robots.
Speaker: Ding Zhao, Carnegie Mellon University
Postcards from the Moon - 01/19/2024 07:30 PM
Tri-Valley Stargazers Livermore
The talk introduces the viewer to the evolution of the Moon's face and its varied geology so a telescopic observer can be friends with the Moon and understand what they are seeing.
Speaker: Robert Reeves
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Saturday, 01/20/2024
Morning Hike at Rancho Cañada del Oro - 01/20/2024 09:30 AM
Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for an excursion where you’ll explore the Mayfair Ranch - Longwall Canyon trails of Rancho Cañada del Oro! You will be guided by POST Ambassadors who will share with you the history of the preserve, the region, and the importance of conservation in the area.
The hike is moderate to strenuous at about 4 miles round trip with about 700 feet of gradual elevation gain.
This wonderful preserve is a hub for wildlife, such as deer, bobcats, mountain lions, and more! In the Spring, you can expect a colorful array of wildflowers adorning the hillsides, and you may get a chance to see a beautiful little creek running through Llagas meadow.
Register at weblink
The Physics Show (three performances - SOLD OUT) - 01/20/2024 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
The Physics Show is a fun science show for kids and their families. These will be the exact same shows that were presented in September, 2023
Links to purchase tickets:
SOLD OUT!!!
Fungus Among Us at Sanborn - 01/20/2024 10:30 AM
Sanborn Science and Nature Center Saratoga
Join us for a hike to learn about the fantastic world of fungi! Are they a plant? Which ones are poisonous What happens to it after the mushroom dies? Learn more about one of the oldest living terrestrial beings on our planet!
Ages 7 - 12, with registered adult
Register at weblink
Saturday Cinema: The Art + Science of Luminous Animations - 01/20/2024 01:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Celebrate the Exploratorium’s winter exhibition Glow: Discover the Art of Light with radiant animations, both meditative and kinetic. Five short films capture the holiday spirit, the translucent elements of nature, the radiance of winter’s starry skies and ancestral stories, and the science of salt crystals shaped like jeweled snowflakes.These films shine light on the creative and diverse ways that individuals draw gleaming inspiration from nature, chemistry, manufactured materials, and mathematical forms.Running time: 30 minutes Wâhkôhtowin (All My Relations) by Barry Bilinsky (2022, 6 min.)The filmmaker, of Cree Metis and Ukrainian descent, explores the power of stories as they are shaped over many nights and many years, through all languages across the world. This beautifully animated story unfolds in an intimate tipi setting between a grandmother and her children’s children on a clear winter night. Through an Indigenous worldview we learn of our relation to the stars and the spirit world and of our connection to our ancestors. Co-presented with the American Indian Film Institute. The Arctic by Wenting Zhu (2018, 3 min.)This film captures crystallization, revealing radiant growth patterns of different salts. It serves as a reminder of the “stunning beauty of the ice worlds.” Produced by Yan Liang, founder of Beauty of Science. Co-presented with Beauty of Science.
White Out by Jeffrey Scher (2007, 3 min.)More than two thousand individual watercolor paintings animate a celebratory world of winter play. Colorful images shimmer against the brightness of snow while capturing the frivolity of humans slipping and sliding in frosty cold. Jeffrey Scher is an Emmy Award winning animator who has made music videos for Bob Dylan, Graham Nash, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, and others.
Attraction by Emily Scaife (2017, 4 min.)Take a peek into an alluring world of insect and plant life animated in a field of translucent colors, giving view to the dust and desires of an alternative tiny universe. Painting directly on film, the artist conjures an imagined landscape that shimmers with pulsating, lustrous forms such as erupting fungal fantasies and bursting botanicals.
Let Your Light Shine by Jodie Mack (2014, 4 min.)In this exuberant handmade animation, optical polyrhythms and a thousand rainbows explode off the screen. The artist Jodie Mack’s playful nature is captured in this prismatic celluloid experience.
Screenings at 1:00 and 3:00
TEDx Berkeley: Butterfly Effect - 01/20/2024 03:00 PM
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Berkeley
A butterfly flaps its wings. The air ripples, and time flows. Months later, a typhoon starts brewing above the ocean.
In its popular understanding, the butterfly effect broadly speaks to the ways in which small changes can have drastically larger consequences downstream. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz identified this phenomenon as he struggled with complex weather modeling, small initial adjustments often leading to dramatically different results later on. His key insight, however, was that you could never predict which of these small adjustments would end up being significant. Ultimately, he named this uncertainty the butterfly.
Rarely, though, are we ever isolating a single moment or choice. As innovation and creativity continue overflowing, our global trajectory is constantly shifting. Different lives overlap in an overwhelmingly complex network, and the degree of unpredictability surrounding our future and our present is higher than ever. At the same time, the potential for positive change and connection is also at its peak.
At TEDxBerkeley 2024: Butterfly Effect, we invite you to flutter between ideas, as we consider how seemingly distant actions, motivations, and stories often intersect to create powerful impact. Join us on January 20th, 2024 at Zellerbach Hall to reflect on the smaller details and moments - on the butterflies - that have shaped both your story and the world around us.
See weblink for speakers
City Public Star Party - 01/20/2024 05:20 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Come join the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers for free public stargazing of the Moon, planets, globular clusters and more!
SFAA members with telescopes are encouraged to attend and share their views of the stars with the general public.
Dress warmly.
Rain, heavy fog and overcast skies cancel. Check the SFAA website for a cancellation notice before leaving for the star party.
Editor's Note: Location changed from Presidio Parade Grounds to Tunnel Top Park
Jazz Under the Stars - 01/20/2024 06:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Jazz Under the Stars is a FREE monthly public stargazing event! Occurring on the Saturday nearest the 1st quarter moon (check our Events Page), join us in building 36 on the 4th floor observatory for a night of smooth jazz, bright stars, and a lot of fun! We play our jazz from CSM's own KCSM 91.1. Founded in 1964, KCSM has grown to become one of the top 35 most listened to non-commercial stations in the US. With their help, the Astronomy department at CSM opens its observatory doors and balcony, for a night of science and fun! We operate for public viewing 8” dobsonian telescopes, prefect for viewing the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. We also have a 140mm refractor, with which we view the craters on the moon. Finally, our 11’ schmidt-cassegrain is for our deep sky needs. It can peer deep into globular clusters, and nebulae. Occasionally we even have the chance to image galaxies on our 20" telescope. Our astronomers will also be available for questions and conversation, which you wouldn’t get anywhere else! Feel free to ask us your questions about the cosmos. Don't miss out, join us at our next Jazz Under the Stars!!
Weather in the bay area is notoriously hard to predict, and often the sources we use don't get it correct. Before leaving you home, be sure to check this webpage. If we are to cancel it will be posted here at least a few hours before the start of the event.
Sunday, 01/21/2024
The Physics Show (three performances - SOLD OUT) - 01/21/2024 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
The Physics Show is a fun science show for kids and their families. These will be the exact same shows that were presented in September, 2023
Links to purchase tickets:
SOLD OUT
Living with Lions in the North Bay - 01/21/2024 11:00 AM
Stafford Lake Park Novato
Come and discover the fascinating world of mountain lions with Living with Lions Education Coordinator Liz Martins and Marin County Parks ranger Alec.
The presentation will cover how to coexist with these majestic creatures, their impact on the environment, and the crucial role they play in balancing the ecosystem. There will be an opportunity for a Q&A session. All ages are welcome. No pets (except for service dogs) are allowed. Adverse weather or poor air quality may cancel; if in doubt, call (415) 473-2816 two hours before the event to confirm the status.
What is ChatGPT? - 01/21/2024 02:00 PM
Castro Valley Library Castro Valley
Join the Castro Valley Library for an introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence models like ChatGPT, Bard and Claude.
You’ll learn:
How they workTheir best usesWays to evaluate their outputTheir shortcomings and potential risks
This workshop is designed for adults and teens who are new to Generative AI.
Monday, 01/22/2024
The neural mechanisms driving flexible behavior and rapid learning - 01/22/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Speaker: Kiah Hardcastle, Harvard University
Auditorium
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquium - 01/22/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Speaker: Phil Hopkins, Caltech
Using Spatial Data to Inform Renewable Energy Transmission Planning - 01/22/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
In order to achieve ambitious decarbonization targets, the electric sector is undergoing a massive expansion or renewable energy, storage, and transmission infrastructure. Modeling methods to identify the least-cost resource mix are well-established. However, spatial modeling and planning methods are still emerging. There is a need to identify high-resolution portfolios of future renewabl generation resources in order to enable the electrical grid modeling necessary to ensure reliability. This presentation will focus on methods developed by Leslie and her research teams, as published in PNAS. We will also explore a case study (California Statewide Integrated Resource Plan) where these methods have been applied.
Speaker: Emily Leslie, Montara Mountain Energy
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
LLM + Graph Database for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) - 01/22/2024 07:00 PM
The Intel Museum Santa Clara
LLMs are often like the know-it-all at a bar - they can quickly and confidently produce realistic sounding answers to just about any question - even if the answers are complete fabrications. But an LLM can be grounded in reality by combining it with a Knowledge Graph in order to prevent hallucinations, and to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.
This presentation will show you the benefits of Graph Databases over regular databases and how to use GenAI with RAG to eliminate hallucinations, enforce security, and improve accuracy. We will also discuss why a vector index plus Knowledge graph provides better, smarter, faster results than a pure vector database.
We will demonstrate an end-to-end retrieval pipeline. The code in the demo will be available in a Jupyter notebook on Github for you to reuse.
Speaker: Soham Dhodapkar, Neo4j
Attend in person or online. Register at weblink
Tuesday, 01/23/2024
Who Will Build the Ark? - 01/23/2024 05:30 PM
San Francisco Public Library San Francisco
Getting Ready for California’s New Electrical Grid: A Conversation with KALW - 01/23/2024 06:00 PM
KALW @ 220 Montgomery San Francisco
The Science, Medicine and Mythology of Menstruation - 01/23/2024 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Embodied Economies: How our Economic Stories Shape the World - 01/23/2024 07:00 PM
The Interval at Long Now San Francisco
Behind the Bark: What Noisy California Sea Lions and Other Marine Mammals Can Tell Us About the State of Our Ocean - Livestream - 01/23/2024 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
Wonderfest: The Psychology of Confidence - 01/23/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Wednesday, 01/24/2024
Plasmonic Nanoparticle-Based Biodiagnostics - 01/24/2024 12:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Removing Legal Barriers to Transmission + Unlocking Targeted Electrification - 01/24/2024 03:15 PM
Environment & Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
Science Uncorked: Lending a Kelping Hand: Bull Kelp Restoration on the Northern California Coast - 01/24/2024 06:00 PM
Gourmet au Bay Bodega Bay
Insanely Great: The Apple MAC at 40 - 01/24/2024 07:00 PM
Computer History Museum Mountain View
Virtual Skeptics in the Pub - 01/24/2024 07:00 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Drought, Atmospheric Rivers and Floods, Oh My! - Livestream - 01/24/2024 07:00 PM
City of Sunnyvale
Thursday, 01/25/2024
Towards a National Police Accountability Database - 01/25/2024 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
When Did Yosemite Valley Become a Deep Canyon? - 01/25/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Interstellar Interlopers - 01/25/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Science on Tap: Cetaceans & Tales of Whales - 01/25/2024 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
NightLife - 01/25/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Finding Aliens on Earth - Livestream - 01/25/2024 06:00 PM
Night Sky Network
Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum - Livestream - 01/25/2024 06:00 PM
US Geological Survey Public Lecture Series
Searching for Trolls under the Electron Bridge - 01/25/2024 07:00 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Public Lecture Series Menlo Park
Friday, 01/26/2024
Peering inside giant planets with giant laser dynamic compression experiments - 01/26/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Saturday, 01/27/2024
Coloring the Universe with Rubin Observatory - Online - 01/27/2024 09:00 AM
Vera C Rubin Observatory
Science Saturday: Sandy’s Birthday! - 01/27/2024 10:00 AM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Salamander Search at Sanborn - 01/27/2024 10:30 AM
Sanborn Science and Nature Center Saratoga
Stewardship Saturday: Icing Out Iceplants - 01/27/2024 11:00 AM
Doran Regional Park Bodega Bay
Lunar Landing Sites, Past and Future - Postponed - 01/27/2024 07:30 PM
East Bay Astronomical Society Oakland
Monday, 01/29/2024
Sonoma State University Biology Colloquium - 01/29/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Symbolic Systems Forum - 01/29/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
Bacterial growth dynamics across scales - from protein synthesis to the human gut microbiota - 01/29/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquium - 01/29/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
An uncertain future for the US critical mineral supply chain - 01/29/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford