Hello again Science Fans!
In the two weeks since I last wrote the SciSchmooze, so much has happened in the world related to science that I’m not sure where to begin. I usually start collecting articles in the two weeks prior to the issue and have 10 - 15 to write about. Today, I have 28! Things have happened so fast, however, that some of them are sure to be outdated. So let’s see if I can make heads or tails of what I’ve saved for this issue.
Starting with … Space
Have you forgotten about Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts who were sent to the International Space Station on the Boeing Starliner capsule last June, expecting to return to earth a few days later? Because of several issues with the Starliner, they stayed at the Space Station and the capsule returned to earth empty, safely, but not without additional thruster issues. The two astronauts will now return to Earth earlier than had been previously announced.
There’s been a lot of discussion about whether or not they have been stranded on the Space Station, with the press using that word in headlines because it is sexier. NASA has always maintained that they are not stranded, and now the president wants them back early. You can decide for yourself what is the strongest argument.
Here’s a detective story involving the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. The telescope, which does not look at all like what most of us think of when we think of a telescope, collects radio waves that make their way through space to earth. And, occasionally, it gets television signals! Where did those come from?
Gravitational lensing, a theoretical possibility of Einstein’s theory of relativity, was first verified a few years ago. Since then, many examples have been found. Gravitational lensing can appear as a ring of light if the alignment of things is just right. And now we’ve seen a case of an Einstein Ring around nearby galaxy NGC 6505! The ring is actually the light from a distant galaxy many light years away, behind NGC 6505 from our perspective.
There’s a super massive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as there is in most galaxies. Known as Sagittarius A*, this black hole is emitting “flares”, some short, some longer and very bright, with no observable pattern. Here’s a video of the flares over a 9 hour period, condensed into 30 seconds.
Then there’s this exoplanet named Tylos that has a climate unlike anything we’ve ever seen anywhere, with clouds of vaporized metal and rains of liquid sapphires and rubies! Wind speeds were clocked between 8.5 miles per second and 16.7 miles per second. That’s faster than the speed of sound. There are also huge temperature extremes between morning and evening on this tidally locked planet.
Artificial Intelligence
As regular readers know, I’m somewhat skeptical about AI. There’s no doubt that it is a transformative technology. But it has significant drawbacks given its propensity to hallucinate. It is supposed to save us time, but instead of making us more productive, it may make us dumber and overconfident. I think a similar thing happens every time there is a big disruptor. Those clinging to the “old way” lament that users of whatever the new technology is don’t understand or care how it works. Think of the transition from slide rules to electronic calculators. Do we really need to know the math behind what the calculator is calculating?
How has AI affected education? Here’s a look at the four worst ways, as well as some ideas for how AI can benefit education.
By now, I’m sure you’ve read about the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which announced a large language model that uses a fraction of the computing resources, and accompanying cost, that ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others consume. Why the huge difference? This article may help you understand, and how it might affect AI going forward.
Health
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer. It is often not detected until it has spread, and treatment options are limited. Now, researchers have developed an mRNA vaccine that has completed a phase 1 clinical trial, and shows promise in treating this deadly cancer.
Separately, a new test has been developed that detects pancreatic cancer with 85% accuracy, far earlier than existing methods.
Science, history, and politics
Let’s start with Rose Ferreira. She’s one of thousands of researchers working on various scientific projects have had their work scrubbed. Her work was with NASA. Here’s Phil Plait’s thoughts on this, and the general attack on science by the administration.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr has been confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The only Republican to vote against his confirmation was Mitch McConnell. Too little, too late. Immediatelly, he moved to fire 5,200 HHS workers across various agencies, including the NIH and CDC. This is a long article by a doctor that is worth the read as it looks at the types of programs being cut, what some of Kennedy's statements really mean, and the potential side effects for public health.
The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science just held their 2025 meeting in Boston, and the cuts and potential fallout were a main topic of discussion and lament. One statement in this article really bothered me; “The Trump administration has said its plan for the N.I.H. would curb waste, not research”. Who decides what is research and what it waste? What if that person thinks all research is waste? That is not at all far-fetched. See the comments in the previous article.
Here are six examples of crucial jobs no longer being performed because of the cuts to public health, environmental, and safety spending, told by the people who performed the work. It is easy to throw out everything. What’s hard is to pick through the thousands of studies and decide which ones are worth keeping and which can go. Scientists need to make those decisions, not politicians who don’t understand the ramifications of the work.
While these cuts are supposed to be saving the taxpayer’s money, in reality that often isn’t true. In many cases, the money saved in avoiding an outcome (such as a pandemic, or the spread of a food-borne illness) far outweigh the monetary cost. In others, the work is paid for by industry, not the government. This is especially true in food safety and some health-related areas.
More on Kennedy…how he “follows the science”…as he sees the science anyway. His first speech to HHS employees highlighted his view that spirituality needs to be the foundation of our wellness. Thoughts and prayers.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the caps placed on “indirect costs” in biomedical research grants. Here’s a follow up interview with three such people who work “indirectly” and how what they do supports the actual research…or used to.
For the history component, I turn to Heather Cox Richardson who, as usual, puts things in historical perspective. Here, she looks at the cuts to USAID, NIH, the Department of Education, and FEMA, where those programs came from, and how the public feels about them.
Two days later, on President’s Day, she reflects on the holiday, George Washington, and where we are today.
An Election
Today, Germany held a so-called snap election. I won’t go into the details of the differences between their political system and ours, or any parliamentary system for that matter. If you are interested in what lead to this early election, the party positions, and the overall system, I’ll send you to “Feli from Germany” on YouTube. Feli’s explanation is clear, unbiased, and very informative. She starts with a video on what caused the government crisis that resulted in the collapse of the coalition government and the snap election. A month later, it appeared that aspects of the “crisis” were planned and staged. Last week, she took a look at everything that has happened during the campaigns, the different party positions, the likely Chancellor-to-be, and the poll standings. Today she talked about outside interference, what happens after the election, and the latest developments.
As I write this, the voting is over and the results are more or less what the pre-election polls predicted. 84% of Germans voted, the highest percentage since Germany’s reunification. No party received a majority, so the winning party must form a coalition government with one or more of the other parties before a chancellor can be named.
By the way, Feli is now a US Citizen, and holds dual citizenship with Germany. Her perspectives on both US and German culture are quite well reasoned.
A Somber Anniversary
Monday marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As impossible as it seemed at the time that such an event could occur in this day and age, who would have thought that the war would still be going on three years later. The toll on Ukraine and Russia has been staggering, in both human and economic terms.
Even more unimaginable is the administration’s statements blaming Ukraine for starting the war and recent comments made to heads of European governments by Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding NATO and Ukraine.
My friend and her daughter remain safely in Germany, although she’s very concerned about the German election results because of anti-immigration and refugee positions put forth by some of the political parties.
Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine).
Have a great week in Science!
Bob
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 02/24/2025
Habitat Conservation Planning, a Legal Framework for Reconciling Development and Ecological Needs - 02/24/2025 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Christian Marsh, Downey Brand LLC
Eccentric Binaries and their Disks - 02/24/2025 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Alexander Dittmann, Institute for Advanced Studies
Understanding Abstraction and Conceptual Representation Across Development and Across Species - 02/24/2025 12:10 PM
Berkeley Way West Berkeley
Imagine encountering a novel fruit. Even though you have never seen it before, you will be able to make a number of predictions about it: it may be edible, it may have seeds, and the tree it’s growing on probably has more fruits like it. Moreover, other trees like this one probably grow the same fruit as well. The capacity for abstraction allows humans to learn and generalize quickly from sparse data, allowing us to make wide ranging predictions in new situations. Previous research has suggested that humans may be the only species capable of abstract knowledge formation, but this remains controversial, and there is also mixed evidence for when this ability emerges over human development. In the first part of this talk, I will present studies investigating abstract rule formation in capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, and children in experiments guided by the predictions of a hierarchical Bayesian cognitive model. In the second part of this talk, I will present early work on a combination of computational and empirical methodologies aimed at directly measuring children’s categorical organization, and charting the trajectory of categorical development. Our first method is based on machine learning techniques (deep metric learning) that allow us to understand how children implicitly organize their categories, using data from a simple sorting game that is intuitive to children. Our second method (MCMC with children) explores children’s categorical representations using adaptively generated rather than hand-picked stimuli, and obtains fine-grained information about the kinds of items that the child considers to be category members. I will present proof-of-concept results for these methods, demonstrating age-dependent differences in how fruit categories are structured, and ongoing work exploring richer category structures such as the development of color concepts and knowledge of biological kinds.
Speaker: Daphna Buchsbaum, Brown University
The Role of the Humanities in the Design of Human-Machine Relationships - 02/24/2025 12:30 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum Stanford
The humanities provide useful frameworks for understanding cultural production and the human experience, in all its complexity and uncertainty. As a result, humanities theories and methods have an important role to play in our decisions about how to integrate machines into our lives and how machines are designed. We will look at three projects that bring humanities theories and methods to the design of digital tools and socio-technological systems.
Speaker: Catherine Nicole Coleman, Stanford University
See weblink for building admission information
Wind and Solar Constraints Guide Energy Storage Opportunities - 02/24/2025 12:30 PM
Green Earth Sciences Building Stanford
Clean energy transitions in many jurisdictions involve dramatic increases in shares of variable wind and solar power in their electricity grids, supplemented by clean firm power to provide reliability. To plan a resilient, clean energy future, we will need to account for natural resource constraints as we develop and deploy new technologies. To address this aim, I blend perspectives from earth science, energy system modeling, and materials chemistry.
I will discuss my work that incorporates multi-decadal wind and solar weather data into energy system models, showing that it is critical to incorporate this variability for evaluating seasonal and interannual benefits of energy storage. Long-duration energy storage can make reliable wind-solar-battery electricity systems more affordable. Geologic hydrogen storage is a promising example of this. In additional work, I find that half of the active natural gas storage sites in the U.S. could beneficially be repurposed for national-scale geologic hydrogen storage. This work also guided electrolyzer and fuel cell development, finding that innovation in capital cost is more valuable than efficiency innovation for seasonal energy storage applications.
Building on this body of work, future research will analyze other natural resource constraints of net-zero emissions energy systems, guide high-value technology innovation for specific end-uses, and identify opportunities and consequences of repurposing fossil infrastructure for decarbonization solutions.
Speaker: Jacqueline Dowling, Stanford University
Interlayer excitons and trions in electron-hole bilayers - 02/24/2025 02:30 PM
Birge Hall Berkeley
The interplay between attractive and repulsive Coulomb interactions can stabilize a wide variety of quantum multiparticle composites and rich quantum phases. Analogous to atoms, ions and molecules formed by electrons and nuclei, electrons and holes in semiconductors can produce multiparticle states - excitons, trions, biexcitons, and mesoscopic droplets - but these are generally limited to transient excited states under photoexcitation. In this talk, I will present our recent progress on experimental realization of thermodynamically stable exciton and trion fluids in van der Waals heterostructures. By putting a two-dimensional electron gas and a two-dimensional hole gas close to each other while remaining electrically isolated, we achieve spontaneous formation of interlayer excitons and trions in full thermal equilibrium, with tunability via electrostatic gating. Using optical spectroscopy and electrical transport measurements, we investigate thermodynamic properties of such excitons and trions based on MoSe2/hBN/WSe2 heterostructures. Our results include:
an excitonic insulator phase at balanced electron and hole densitiesperfect Coulomb drag behavior in the dipolar exciton fluid;quantum oscillations and quantum Hall phase transitions in the excitonic insulator;spontaneous formation of three-particle trion states at imbalanced electron-hole densities.
These findings provide new insights into strongly correlated electron-hole systems and open pathways for excitonic quantum phases such as exciton condensates and superfluids
Speaker: Ruishi Qi, Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute
Circuit assembly and plasticity of the vertebrate retina - 02/24/2025 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Dr. Wong studies the developmental mechanisms that shape the structure, function and circuitry of the retina. Her research has identified activity-dependent and independent mechanisms working in concert to assemble the stereotypic wiring patterns of retinal circuits.
Speaker: Rachel Wong, University of Washington
Room: Auditorium
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope: A quest to explore the restless, high-energy Universe - 02/24/2025 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Prof. Peter Michelson from Stanford University, will discuss the development of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, an international observatory led by NASA, and its many discoveries during the past 16 years of operation.
Speaker: Peter Michelshon, Princeton University
Controlling Learned Inverter Dynamics of Distributed Energy Resources and Long-term Planning for Long-duration Energy Storage - 02/24/2025 04:00 PM
Soda Hall Berkeley
Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is a key resource in enabling zero-emissions electricity grids but its role within different types of grids is not well understood. In this work, we find that a) LDES is particularly valuable in majority wind-powered regions and regions with diminishing hydropower generation, b) seasonal operation of storage becomes cost-effective if storage capital costs fall below US$5/kWh, and c) mandating the installation of enough LDES to enable year-long storage cycles would reduce electricity prices by over 70% during times of high demand. Given the asset and resource diversity of the Western Interconnect, our results can provide grid planners in many regions with guidance on how LDES impacts and is impacted by energy storage mandates, investments in LDES research and development, and generation mix and transmission expansion decisions (Staadecker, M. et al., Nature Communications, 2024). In the second project, we propose for the first time, a non-cooperative game framework that incorporates learned inverter dynamics of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) from a nonlinear high-fidelity model to represent their participation in a Virtual Power Plant to meet regulation services in support of the upper-level grid (Serna-Torre, P. and Hidalgo-Gonzalez, P. PSCC, 2024). This work is first of its kind and it is a stepping stone to answering fundamental questions related to inverter dominated grids.
Speaker: Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, UC San Diego
Bumps, wiggles, and vibrations: hints of dark matter in our Galaxy - 02/24/2025 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
The nature of dark matter remains one of the most pressing questions in physics, driving searches across a vast range of scales - from microscopic interactions of individual particles to macroscopic gravitational effects on the cosmos. In this talk, I will explore two exciting avenues for probing dark matter: direct interactions with materials and its influence on stellar streams. At sub-GeV masses, traditional direct detection methods become ineffective, requiring new approaches that exploit the material properties of detector crystals to observe nuclear recoils and phonon excitations. Meanwhile, in the Milky Way, stellar streams serve as cosmic detectors, offering a unique way to probe the presence of low-mass dark matter subhalos through perturbations in their structure. I will discuss recent developments in both of these frontiers, highlighting how they can contribute to our ongoing search for the subtle signatures of dark matter.
Speaker: Tongyan Lin, UC San Diego
This seminar was originally scheduled for February 17, 2025.
AI and the Future of Citizenship: Preparing for a Digital Democracy - 02/24/2025 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
As artificial intelligence becomes an ever-present force in our lives, it’s clear that this technology is not going away. And as it continues to transform education, governance and civic engagement, one crucial aspect remains largely unexplored: how to develop informed, engaged citizens for a democracy shaped by artificial intelligence.
This event brings together experts in artificial intelligence, democracy building, and civic education to explore how AI intersects with the ways people learn about democracy, government and civic responsibility. They will examine the potential benefits and risks of AI in shaping how citizens understand and interact with democratic processes in the digital age, as well as the shared responsibilities of all stakeholders - including AI developers, educators, and subject matter experts - in the vital work of cultivating informed and active citizens. Please join us as our panel explores these critical issues and offers insights and practical strategies for preparing future citizens in a rapidly evolving, AI-driven world.
Speaker: Saanvi Arora, Youth power Project; Jerry Kaplan, Stanford University; Ace Parsi, iCivics; Rachael Myrow, KQED, Moderator
Attend in person or online (see weblink for tickets)
Free for educators and students
Building Advanced AI Applications and Agents in One Hour - 02/24/2025 06:30 PM
Valley Research Park Mountain View
This workshop combines the best of two engaging sessions, offering a comprehensive and hands-on experience in building advanced AI applications and AI agents. We will use the state-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision Language Models (VLMs) to explain the process. Participants will explore practical techniques to leverage these powerful models for tasks such as Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Natural Language Processing (NLP), decision-making, text/image generation, and task automation. This workshop enables attendees to understand the essential topics, including open-source package requirements in Python, model selection, fine-tuning, and integrating external data sources. The session covers the design and implementation of AI agents by utilizing open-source models like Llama for tuning parameters and deploying real-world AI solutions. Emphasis will be placed on architecture design, training optimization, scalability, efficiency, and ethical considerations. The workshop will adapt its use case and model selection (e.g., language agent vs. vision agent) based on the audience's background to ensure relevance and effectiveness of the session. By the end of the session, participants will have the foundational knowledge and skills to effectively create and deploy full-stack AI applications and agents tailored to their fields of interest.
Speaker: Mehdi Bahrami, Fujitsu Research of America
Attend in person or online (See weblink)
Presentation starts at 7:15
Wonderfest: Ask a Science Envoy: Black Holes & Kelp Forests - 02/24/2025 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Black Holes: Discovering the Invisible
Black holes are among the most extreme objects in the universe. They push the boundaries of our knowledge, holding many unsolved mysteries. This talk will explore black holes from “small” to enormous, including how to detect these invisible marvels. In the process, we will probe the very frontiers of astrophysics.
Speaker: Natasha Abrams, UC Berkeley
The Structure of Kelp Forests
Kelp forests constitute one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, and they’re hidden right beneath the waves of our coastline. To research how these ecosystems function, we need to study what lives there. Come learn how scientific diving and modern genetics are helping us unravel the complex structure of kelp forests.
Speaker: Will Johnson, Stanford University
Editor's Note: This event was originally scheduled for February 25, 2025
Tuesday, 02/25/2025
Morphological and Interfacial Impacts Deconvolution for Li Metal Batteries - Livestream - 02/25/2025 10:00 AM
Stanford University StorageX
Lithium (Li)-morphology and solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) are among the most significant performance regulators in Li-metal batteries (LMBs). While both Li-morphology and SEI composition play key roles in the cyclability of LMBs, less is understood about the individual contributions of each factor to overall Li reversibility, particularly at a practical current density (1 mA cm-2) at which the kinetics of both factors are not naturally separated. Herein, an interface engineering approach is introduced to deconvolute the impacts of Li-morphology and SEI composition on battery performance. By using interfacial nanofilms with differing resistivity (resistive HfO2 versus conductive ZnO), the morphology of Li is varied, and by virtue of similar acidic character of the nanofilms, the formation of anion-rich SEIs is maintained. It is established that although the surface acidity of the thin films enables preformation of a more anion-rich SEI, it is not preserved after Li plating. It is further shown that resistance-controlled, low-surface-area Li-morphology exhibits up to threefold increase in stable cycle life when tested in multiple electrolytes.
Speaker: Sanzeeda Baig Shuchi, Stanford University
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Nucleic Acid Chemical Biology - 02/25/2025 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
I will present our efforts to design and develop molecular probes that can selective label nucleic acids in vitro and inside cells. These probes allow RNA secondary structure mapping, profiling single-stranded DNA for active transcription annotation, mapping RNA-RNA interactions inside cells, and covalent targeting of nucleic acids. I will also present our recent studies on RNA modifications. Over 150 types of post-transcriptional RNA modifications have been identified in all kingdoms of life. We have discovered RNA demethylation and characterized proteins that selectively recognize m6A-modified mRNA and affect the translation status and lifetime of the target RNA. I will present our recent advances on developing chemical and biochemical methods to sequence various RNA modifications.
Speaker: Chuan He, University of Chicago
Bystander T cell activation: an immunologic double-edged sword - 02/25/2025 11:00 AM
Weill Hall Berkeley
Memory CD8 T cells are conventionally called to arms by TCR recognition of cognate antigen; however, inflammation alone can elicit T cell cytotoxicity in the absence of cognate antigen. The consequences of this phenomenon, termed bystander activation, can range from beneficial (pathogen clearance) to deleterious (autoimmune pathology), yet the mechanisms controlling bystander-mediated cytotoxicity remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that bystander activation is immune to cell-intrinsic regulators of conventional T cell activation, given an independence to TCR signals. Instead, we show that bystander activation is shaped by cell-extrinsic factors, like IL-4 signals resulting from genetics, therapies, or contemporaneous infections. Lastly we demonstrate that conventional animal models underestimate the contribution of bystander activation to immunity. We explore the relevancy of these findings in sharpening protective bystander responses towards infections, blunting pathologic bystander responses, and harnessing this double-edged sword to destroy tumors.
Speaker: Nicholas Maurice, University of Minnesota
Estimating Circadian State from Wrist-Worn Wearables Measuring Light - Livestream - 02/25/2025 12:00 PM
Stanford Sleep Community Series
Speaker: Lara Weed, Stanford University
Revolutionizing Micromachine Manufacturing: AI-Driven Design and MEMS 2.0 with the Matter Compiler - Livestream - 02/25/2025 12:00 PM
Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center
The Matter Compiler is a modular, AI-driven, fully autonomous real-time digital manufacturing platform capable of designing and fabricating complex 3D micromachines using arbitrarily extensible material and process libraries. It pioneers a revolutionary approach to building advanced devices beyond the constraints of semiconductor fabs - ushering in the era of MEMS 2.0. A hallmark achievement is the Micro-Power Relay: a compact, high-current device with ultra-low resistance, rapid switching, and unparalleled energy efficiency, unlocking transformative potential in energy systems and data centers. By seamlessly integrating diverse materials and processes, the platform offers unprecedented opportunities for collaborative innovation in future device design and process development, pushing the boundaries of microfabrication and advanced manufacturing.
Speaker: James Stolken, Atomic Machines
Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back - 02/25/2025 12:00 PM
Social Sciences Building Room 820 Berkeley
In their new book, “Data Grab,” Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry argue that the role of data in society must be understood not only as a development of capitalism, but also as the start of a new phase in human history that rivals in importance the emergence of historic colonialism. This new form of “data colonialism” gives shape to a social order based not on the extraction of natural resources or labor, but rather on the appropriation of human life through data. Resisting it will require strategies that decolonial thinking has foregrounded for decades.
Back to the Future? - Rediscovering Roman Engineering in the Mediterranean Sea - 02/25/2025 12:00 PM
Braun (Geology) Corner (Bldg 320), Rm 220 Stanford
Throughout the Mediterranean Sea, scores of ancient marine concrete monuments, once components of artificial harbors constructed by Roman builders as part of their vast imperial maritime infrastructure, have survived for two millennia and counting. Modern marine concrete usually survives in the sea for little more than 50 years and sometimes even less. What did Roman builders know that modern harbor engineers do not? This was one of the questions that the Roman Maritime Concrete Study, an international, multidisciplinary project that I organized and co-directed in the first decade of this century, hoped to answer. Field work was undertaken to collect and analyze concrete cores extracted from submerged and awash structures at various ancient harbor sites in Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Israel. and Egypt. The results of this study were published in BUILDING FOR ETERNITY: THE HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY OF ROMAN CONCRETE ENGINEERING IN THE SEA, Oxford, 2014 and 2021.
The key ingredient responsible for the amazing longevity and resilience of Roman marine concrete (RMC) was volcanic ash or sand from the Bay of Naples (pulvis puteolanus). It was the binding element in the mortar that, along with aggregate, comprised the concrete itself. This Neapolitan volcanic ash has a unique chemical composition. When it was mixed with quick lime and seawater to which rock aggregate was added, the resulting concrete could be placed while still in a liquid state into the sea within a variety of wooden formworks to set quickly and then cure over time. The internal chemical processes that occurred as the concrete cured underwater eventually reduced the surface porosity until it became like rock itself. Moreover, these elements enabled any cracks that might occur in a RMC block to self-heal. Some material scientists have claimed that RMC may be the most durable substance yet created by humankind.
Speaker: Bob Hohlfelder, University of Colorado, emeritus
Attend in person or online (See weblink)
The Legacy Survey of Space and Time - 02/25/2025 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Fueled by advances in microelectronics, software, and large optics fabrication, a new type of sky survey will begin in 2025. With 1000 deep images per night, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will cover the entire southern sky to 24th magnitude every 3 nights for ten years in 6 wavelength bands - creating a digital color motion picture of our Universe. LSST opens a new discovery space: faint transients. Alerts will be issued within 60 seconds of detection. The deep images from LSST will chart billions of remote galaxies, providing multiple interlocking probes of the mysterious Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Scientists worldwide will access these data, leading to unexpected discoveries. I will briefly review the project history, the 3200 megapixel camera, and laboratory testing of the CCD detectors. I will then focus on the interference to astronomy from low Earth orbiting communications satellites.
Speaker: Tony Tyson, UC Davis
Plasmonics for Sustainability and Societal Impact - 02/25/2025 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Metallic nanoparticles, used since antiquity to impart intense, vibrant color into materials, known in the 19th century as “Faraday’s colloid” and in the 21st as the optical readout of COVID antigen tests, are a central tool in the nanoscale manipulation of light. When excited by light, metallic nanoparticles undergo a coherent oscillation of their conduction electrons- known as a plasmon- which is responsible for their strong light-matter interactions and properties, as “optical antennas” or “plasmonic nanoparticles”. Light excitation gives rise to important properties: generation of nonequilibrium, “hot” electrons and holes that can drive chemical reactions very efficiently on the nanoparticle surface, and strong electromagnetic fields that give rise to ultrasensitive surface-enhanced Raman and IR spectroscopies (SERS and SEIRA) of adsorbate molecules. By coupling optical antennas and catalyst particles, one can transform traditionally thermocatalytic chemical reactions into photodriven reactions that proceed under surprisingly mild, low temperature conditions. This new type of light-based catalyst- an antenna-reactor nanoparticle complex- can be utilized for remediating greenhouse gases, converting them to useful molecules for industry, or into benign chemicals for a cleaner planet. As surface-enhanced spectroscopies surpass fifty years since their discovery, we can begin to apply machine learning strategies in simple ways to overcome some of their inherent limitations, making them more practical tools for the rapid and streamlined identification of toxic molecules in our environment and in ourselves.
Speaker: Naomi Halas, Rice University
Birdy Hour: Western Snowy Plovers in a Changing World - Livestream - 02/25/2025 05:30 PM
SF Bay Bird Observatory
The Western Snowy Plover is a threatened shorebird that breeds along the west coast of the U.S. Because of this status, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has set goals to restore plover numbers throughout the region. In addition, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project has established goals to increase plover numbers in the Bay Area. For more than 20 years, SFBBO has worked with both of these efforts to study and conserve local plovers.
In her talk, Maddy will introduce the Western Snowy Plover, its ecology and life history, and the threats facing plovers in the Bay Area and beyond. She will then dive into information on how local plovers fared during the 2024 breeding season, which areas were the most successful, and some of the most interesting things that happened during the season. Finally, with the context of the most recent season in mind, she will zoom back out and discuss different management strategies proposed that SFBBO and our project partners use to mitigate those threats and support our local plover population.
Speaker: Maddy Schwarz, SF Bay Bird Observatory
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Dragonfly - 02/25/2025 06:00 PM
Hacker Dojo Mountain View
NASA’s 4th New Frontiers Mission is the Titan Dragonfly relocatable lander. This coaxial quadrotor vehicle will be launched on a rocket to Titan in 2028. Following a gravity assisted Earth flyby and an approximate 6-year transit, Dragonfly will enter the Titan atmosphere around 2034 with the goal of exploring Titan’s pre-biotic chemistry and habitability. The multirotor design for this unique application has continually evolved since 2016 with constraints such as Titan’s cryogenic atmosphere at 95 Kelvin (-288 F), gravity 14% that of Earth’s, atmospheric density 440% of standard sea-level air, and the inability to test the entire system together under all these conditions until the first flight on Titan. This talk will discuss some of the unique challenges for rotary wing operation on Titan and highlight some contributions of the NASA Ames Aeromechanics Office to Dragonfly.
Speaker: Jason Cornelius, NASA Ames
Registeration required at weblink
James Web Space Telescope: Revealing the Invisible Universe - Livestream - 02/25/2025 06:00 PM
Night Sky Network
The universe is filled with beauty beyond even our wildest imaginations. Sophisticated observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope help us peer into that sublime reality, and it is to the great fortune of humanity that these science instruments produce data that captures the essence of the natural beauty of the cosmos.
However, without a careful eye toward revealing that beauty, the data would remain black-and-white snapshots for scientific analysis rather than admiration. Astronomical image processors blend the artistic visual principles with the scientific knowledge of how these observatories operate and the objects they study to compose images that capture the imagination and inspire the viewer to learn more about our universe.
In this talk, Principal Science Visuals Developer Joseph DePasquale will provide some background on the observatory and the art and science of image processing that reveals the inherent beauty of the infrared universe.
Speaker: Joe DePasquale, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore MD
The Business of Ocean Sustainability - 02/25/2025 06:00 PM
Hopkins Marine Station Pacific Grove
We invite you to explore the art of sustainable cuisine through our upcoming lecture, "The Business of Ocean Sustainability." This presentation will trace the journey of how Passionfish pioneered sustainable practices in the restaurant industry, from our humble beginnings to becoming a beacon of environmental stewardship. Discover how our commitment to fresh, local, and sustainably sourced ingredients has not only reshaped our industry but also created a model for others to follow. Join us as we delve into the vital connection between ocean health and culinary excellence, showcasing how every meal can be a step towards a more sustainable future. We are thrilled to share this journey with you at the Friends of Hopkins lecture.
The speakers, Ted and Cindy Walter, are the founders of the Passionfish restaurant in Pacific Grove.
Attend in person, or register to watch online (see weblink)
Boatworks Auditorium
Wonderfest: Ask a Science Envoy: Black Holes & Kelp Forests - RESCHEDULED - 02/25/2025 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Editor's Note: This event has been rescheduled for February 24, 2025
K Allado-McDowell on Neural Media - 02/25/2025 07:00 PM
Long Now Foundation San Francisco
In this lecture, K Allado-McDowell presents a framework for understanding generative AI through the concept of neural media. Drawing on histories of design, technology, and culture, Allado-McDowell reveals how previous media regimes shaped culture and subjectivity, and how neural media like AI now shape our perception, self-conception, and knowledge of reality. Against the backdrop of climate change and mass extinction, neural media present unique challenges and opportunities, which Allado-McDowell explores through their work as an artist and author.
Speaker: K Alado-McDowell, writer, artist, musician
An Evening with Amy Tan: The Backyard Bird Chronicles - Livestream - 02/25/2025 07:00 PM
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Mountain View
Join POST for a special evening with New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, known for her iconic novel The Joy Luck Club. Amy will share insights from her latest work, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a heartfelt exploration of her connection to nature through birdwatching. Through this intimate look at her own backyard, Amy’s book highlights the profound impact that everyday interactions with the natural world can have on our lives.
Amy will be in conversation with Alexis Madrigal, KQED journalist and co-host of Forum. Amy will delve into her journey into backyard birding, the inspiration behind her new book, and the broader themes of nature, identity, and storytelling. This evening will be a unique opportunity to explore how the simple act of observing birds can deepen our sense of connection to nature, and strengthen our commitment to conservation.
In person tickets are sold out. Register at weblink to attend virtually.
Nicaragua Humpback Whales - What Do We Know About Them? - Livestream - 02/25/2025 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
Formal research on Nicaragua humpback whales has been ongoing since 2016 uncovering intriguing information and discoveries for this important breeding area. Join us as Joëlle De Weerdt presents the latest research advancements drawing from the results of her PhD thesis as well as giving us new, exciting perspectives in what the future holds for humpback whale research.
Speaker: Joelle De Weerdt, Association ELI-S
Register at weblink to attend
Wednesday, 02/26/2025
Impact of Environmental Disasters on Drinking Water Infrastructure - 02/26/2025 09:00 AM
Spilker Hall Stanford
The frequency and intensity of environmental disasters, both natural (e.g. wildfires and hurricanes) and human caused (i.e. chemical spills), is increasing and public drinking water systems operating in impacted communities are at risk. Since 2017, widespread organic compound contamination has been found in at least 20 wildfire impacted water systems. Uncertainty about the source of these contaminants and their fate within water systems has repeatedly hindered community recovery eEorts. A complicating factor during disaster response is the growing prevalence of plastic components within drinking water infrastructure. It is well established that plastics are vulnerable to thermal degradation, however, the impact that this may have on drinking water quality has not previously been studied. Further, many plastics are susceptible to permeation by organic compounds, which could result in the contamination of otherwise undamaged components.
In this talk I will discuss how plastic drinking water infrastructure may act as both a primary and secondary source of contamination during environmental disasters. Specifically, focusing on (i) assessing the type and variability of organic compounds generated during thermal degradation of plastics, (ii) identifying plastic characteristics that influence contaminant generation, sorption, and diEusion, (iii) determining eEicacy of current decontamination strategies, and (iv) evaluating organic contaminant leaching from materials exhumed from wildfire impacted water systems. Secondly, I will go beyond the lab bench and discuss my experiences in responding to various environmental disasters. In this portion of the talk I will focus on the role that academics may have in disaster response and recovery situations, the scientific questions that we uncovered, and the impact that we as scientists and/or engineers can have on public policy and disaster response protocols.
Speaker: Kristofer Isaacson, University of Southern California
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Changing ice in a warming climate - 02/26/2025 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Yao Lai, Stanford University
Energy and Resources Group Colloquium - 02/26/2025 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Gauthami Penakalapati
Driving the next mass solar technology (tandems) when 'solar is done' - 02/26/2025 04:30 PM
Shriram Center Stanford
Tandem PV is a startup commercializing a new solar technology (perovskite-silicon tandem panels). In this seminar, CTO and co-founder Colin Bailie will discuss his journey to date from technology to startup and hopefully soon to product. Starting from a graduate student at Stanford working on the seminal demonstrations of the technology, to transitioning to a startup. Navigating a world in which solar technology is difficult to fund (in the US). Why the world still needs better solar and why perovskite+silicon tandems are that next leap forward. And where the future of solar might go in the short- and medium- terms.
Speaker Colin Bailie, Stanford University
Attend in person or online (see weblink for connection information)
Offshore Wind Energy Project: Morro Bay California Out of Sight Maybe, But Out of Mind Definitely Not - Livestream - 02/26/2025 05:30 PM
Stanford Energy Science and Engineering
In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Government auctioned offshore wind leases over 583 square miles of ocean waters off Humboldt Bay in Northern California, as well as near the Central Coast’s Morro Bay. These leases pave the way for five wind farms, each to feature hundreds of towering turbines - each turbine up to 900 feet high, roughly the height of a 70-story building.
Two of the leases, are located about 50 miles offshore from Morro Bay, each cover approximately 80,000 acres. The bid prices for these leases were $130 million and $150 million, respectively. As part of the sale terms, developers are encouraged to establish workforce training programs for the offshore wind industry and forge community benefit agreements (CBAs) with local communities, stakeholder groups, and tribal entities whose lands may be impacted by offshore wind development.
California’s ambitious energy goals call for a zero-carbon power grid by 2045, with offshore wind farms playing a critical role. The state’s blueprint envisions these wind farms producing 25 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by 2045 - enough to power 25 million homes. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that California's offshore wind potential could reach approximately 200 GW.
From inception to completion, these projects are estimated to take up to eleven years. However, as of today, no large-scale offshore wind farms are operational in California, and these projects come with a range of complexities and uncertainties, including:
Financial considerations: Offshore wind farm construction could cost up to $5 billion per farm, with substantial state and federal subsidies required to support these initiatives.Infrastructure development: The project will demand significant upgrades to ports, harbors, and support facilities on the coast.Environmental concerns: The impact on migrating whales, marine mammals, and other wildlife remains unknown, and there may be restrictions on commercial fishing.Local community impact: Communities will need to invest in infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the wind farms.Job creation: The wind industry is expected to generate up to 12,000 specialized jobs (less after constructon), which is part of the reason the San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors voted in favor of supporting offshore wind development in 2023.
This event provides the public with an opportunity to learn more about the proposed offshore wind project. Stakeholders, including public officials, regulatory agencies, developers, environmental organizations, local citizens, and others, will share their views followed by Q&A.
The greatest career mentor in chemistry: the ocean - 02/26/2025 07:00 PM
Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz
Marine natural products chemistry is the field of studying compounds from marine organisms. The biosynthetic potential of our natural world to make unique chemistry scaffolds and exotic compounds exceeds what most chemists consider in medicinal chemistry or drug discovery. These unique compounds often exhibit biological properties that have the potential to stop or heal disease or infection. In fact, approxiately 60% of approved small molecule drugs on market have been inspired by or derived from natural products. I look forward to discussing my training experiences in marine natural products, from undergrad research to graduate diving expeditions including getting the bends in Papua New Guinea. Currently, I continue to be inspired by natural products while working in Discovery Chemistry at Genentech, Inc. Lastly but most importantly, I will also highlight other brilliant mentors in my life who have helped me pivot and see possibilities that I wouldn't have considered without them along the way.
Speaker: Sarah Robinson, UC Santa Cruz
New Luddites vs. Biopiracy and AI - 02/26/2025 07:30 PM
Shaping San Francisco San Francisco
“New Luddites” Camila Morena and Jim Thomas join us fresh from the latest conference on biotech at Asilomar. Up close and deep in the international negotiations on biodiversity, climate change, and synthetic biology, both of them have seen how the proponents of AI are working to inject their techno-fantasies into every realm. They share a cogent presentation of what’s going on beyond our view, and how a new Luddism is the sensible response.
Thursday, 02/27/2025
Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium - 02/27/2025 12:00 PM
Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium San Jose
Speaker: Chris Eidler, Hewlett Packard, retired
Fossils, footprints, and the evolution of human locomotion - 02/27/2025 12:30 PM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
Bipedal locomotion is considered one of the defining features that “makes us human”. Hypotheses about the evolution of human bipedalism date back at least as far as Aristotle, and questions about locomotion remain fundamental to the study of human evolutionary biology. Over the past century, paleontological discoveries have shed light on the diverse anatomies and styles of locomotion that characterized our extinct relatives, and those findings have driven numerous hypotheses of when and how humans came to walk and run the way we do today. This talk will highlight my team’s recent fossil discoveries in Kenya, and our latest experimental research, which are together reshaping our understandings of human anatomical and locomotor evolution. Some of our discoveries also provide surprising insights into ancient human environments and behaviors, such as the co-existence of multiple ancient human species on the same landscapes (i.e., sympatry). These emerging lines of research show great potential for advancing our understandings of multiple facets of human evolution.
Speaker: Kevin Hatala, Chatham University
Fire Safe Sonoma Speaker Series - Livestream - 02/27/2025 02:00 PM
Audubon Canyon Ranch
Erika Lutz, Prescribed Fire Information Coordinator for Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program and Devyn Friedfel, Pepperwood‘s Fire & Stewardship Manager will share more about their roles while providing valuable knowledge on prescribed burning basics and its role in keeping ecosystems healthy.
Register HERE for their presentation.
SETI Live: Space is the Case - Livestream - 02/27/2025 02:30 PM
SETI Institute
During his time as an Artist in Residence (AIR) at the SETI Institute, visual artist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst Martin Wilner invited prominent SETI Institute scientists to participate in his ongoing project, The Case Histories. Interested in exploring how scientists relate to the possibility of encountering an alien life form, Wilner invited researchers such as Jill Tarter, Seth Shostak, and Franck Marchis to send him daily messages and share thoughts of interest. These messages, filtered through the prism of psychoanalytical principles, were then transformed into drawings and visualized as daily elements of a calendar. More recently, Wilner has expanded his conversations into the realm of AI, an “alien” intelligence that is already in our midst.
In this conversation, hosted by SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget, discover how Wilner weaves connections between the human mind, machine learning, consciousness, and our ideas about extraterrestrial life.
Rules, Regulations, and Randomness: From Biological to Social Systems - 02/27/2025 03:30 PM
Weill Hall Berkeley
Across both biological and social systems, rules and regulations play a crucial role in ensuring robustness and resistance to fluctuations across diverse environments. The expansion of rule systems over time is particularly relevant in contemporary political discourse, where some argue that society is over-regulated and that bureaucratic structures should be reduced. However, in the absence of a comprehensive science of regulation - one that spans all levels of living systems - we lack a rigorous framework for addressing these questions. In this talk, I propose a framework for a “science of regulation,” which integrates insights on the mechanisms and the role of randomness in regulation across biological and social systems. I address this in three parts, focusing on comparisons between biological and social structures, regulatory networks in individual systems, and the dynamics of individual regulators. First, I will introduce a unifying model that explains the evolution of abundance distributions and functional diversity in both biological and social systems, demonstrating how variations in the model’s parameters account for differences in behavior across prokaryotic cells, federal agencies, and cities. Second, I will use the legal and sport rules data to quantitatively examine the complexity of rule growth in a manner analogous to how the growth of biological regulatory networks has been examined. Third, I will explore the role of randomness with respect to individual regulators, e.g., genes that switch between transcriptionally on and off states, emphasizing potential pitfalls in interpreting probability modes in mesoscopic molecular dynamics as modes of behavior.
Speaker: James Holehouse, The Santa Fe Institute
NightLife - 02/27/2025 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Calling all creatures of the night: explore the nocturnal side of the Academy at NightLife and see what's revealed. With live DJs, outdoor bars, ambiance lighting, and nearly 60,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude, our alligator with albinism), the night is sure to be wild.
Step inside the iconic Shake House and our four-story Osher Rainforest, where you can explore the Amazon’s treetops surrounded by free-flying birds and butterflies.
Venture into our aquarium exhibit Venom to encounter live venomous animals and learn the power of venom to both harm and heal.
Visit the BigPicture exhibit in the Piazza to marvel at the most recent winners of the BigPicture Natural World Photography competition.
Bask in the glow of one of the largest living indoor coral reef displays in the world: our 212,000-gallon Philippine Coral Reef habitat.
Take in the interstellar views from the Living Roof, then grab a bite from the Academy Café and head to the West Garden outdoor bar to drink and dine under the stars.
Ages 21+
After Dark; Mars - 02/27/2025 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Meet NASA's Mars rovers and orbiters, interact with the Mars Relay Network, and play with 700+ interactive exhibits that will upend your perception of the universe.
Firewise Landscaping Panel - 02/27/2025 06:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Join us for an informative session featuring experts from the UC Master Gardeners, Monterey County Firewise, and the local fire department. These specialists will discuss effective fire-wise landscaping techniques tailored for our unique environment. Learn how to create defensible spaces around your area, select fire-resistant plants, and implement practices that reduce fire risk in your landscapes. Additionally, there will be a Q&A segment, allowing attendees to ask questions and gain insights into protecting the landscape. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your knowledge and promote safety in our community.
A Conversation with Tom Steyer on Climate Progress in 2025 - 02/27/2025 06:00 PM
Manny's San Francisco
Join us for an insightful discussion with Tom Steyer, former Presidential candidate and a leading advocate for climate action, as he breaks down the potential progress to be made in 2025 and the critical role the private sector must play in driving real change.
Attend in person or online
DeepSeek AI: What You Need to Know & Why It Matters - Livestream - 02/27/2025 06:00 PM
UC Santa Cruz
Join us for an insightful conversation about the disruptive AI reasoning model R1 by DeepSeek. Developed by the Chinese AI company founded in 2023, DeepSeek has quickly risen to prominence with its open-source large language model (LLM) that rivals top-tier international models.
We'll explore the origins of DeepSeek, its advanced architecture, and how it delivers unparalleled performance across various benchmarks. We'll also discuss the practical applications of this technology and how it is having a profound impact on the future of artificial intelligence.
Speakers: UCSC Silicon Valley Professional Education instructors Praveen Krishna and Zara Hajihashemi will lead our conversation as we discuss DeepSeek and its importance in the industry.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Friday, 02/28/2025
Signal (re)processing: How disease states shape signal transduction in CD8+ T cells - 02/28/2025 11:00 AM
Weill Hall Berkeley
Persistent antigen signaling is known to drive CD8+ T cell exhaustion (TEX) in cancer and chronic infection, but which downstream kinase cascades control this process are unknown. We found that activation of protein kinase C (PKC) triggers degradation of PKC theta while sparing PKC eta, leading to terminal TEX cells. In chronic infection, PKC theta supports progenitor exhausted (TEX-PROG) cells and maintains the antigen-specific T cell response, whereas PKC eta drives terminal exhaustion (TEX-TERM) both in vitro and in vivo. These kinases activate distinct phospho-cascades: PKC theta promotes MAPK and CDK pathways, whereas targets downstream of PKC eta include casein kinase I G2 (CK1G2). An engineered PKC theta variant resistant to degradation, or deletion of CK1G2, enhances CD8+ T cell function and tumor control. These findings reveal that TCR signaling engages distinct phospho-proteomes to regulate effector or exhausted states, opening new therapeutic avenues for T cell engineering and immunotherapy.
Speaker: Thomas Mann, Salk Institute
Insomnia and Inflammation: A Two Hit Model of Depression Risk, Treatment, and Prevention - 02/28/2025 12:00 PM
ChEM-H/Neuroscience Building, James Lin and Nisa Leung Seminar Room (E153) Stanford
Speaker: Michael Irwin, UC Los Angeles School of Medicine
Attend in person or click here for Zoom
UC Santa Cruz Geophysical & Planetary Physics Seminar - 02/28/2025 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Janice Bishop
Eclipse Soundscapes: Partnering with the public to illuminate the effect of eclipses on wildlife - 02/28/2025 01:00 PM
Eclipse Soundscape Project
In this talk, Brent Pease will discuss how darkness during the day affected wildlife and highlight the power of the public in large-scale research. Dr. Pease played a key role in the Eclipse Soundscapes project as a facilitator, organizing and engaging almost 100 volunteers to participate as Data Collectors during the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. These volunteers deployed AudioMoth devices to capture soundscapes from various sites, contributing to a large-scale participatory science effort. Now, Dr. Pease is collaborating with the Eclipse Soundscapes team to analyze all of the collected Eclipse Soundscapes data, helping to uncover how eclipses influence animal behavior through sound.
Brent Pease is an assistant professor in the Forestry Program at Southern Illinois University, where he researches and teaches topics in wildlife conservation and management. He earned his doctorate in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology from North Carolina State University. A native of southern Illinois, Dr. Pease enjoys being back in the region to raise his family among the public lands and state parks of Illinois.
Eclipse Soundscapes collected sound data and observations from the October 2023 annular and April 2024 total solar eclipses to study their impact on U.S. ecosystems. As we process and share this data, we’ll provide updates through webinars, social media, and our email list. We’ll also highlight similar projects, so stay involved for more insights!
In-Person Location: Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Moris Library, Guyon Auditorium.Virtual Attendance: YouTube Live @NASASolarSTEAM
Interested in more NASA citizen science opportunities? Click here to check out all of the current NASA Citizen Science Projects.
Advances in Operando Spectroscopy and Microscopy of Catalysts to Make Chemicals from CO2 and Plastic Waste - 02/28/2025 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
As we enter the era of catalytic activation of small molecules, such as CO2, N2 and H2O, to realize the so-called refinery of the future one of the main questions to answer for scientists involve the coupling of carbon fragments, originating from CO2. The goal is to manufacture increasingly complex carbon-containing molecules from CO2 - or the related molecule CO - instead of making them from crude oil fractions. This requires a profound knowledge of the physicochemical processes taking place at the catalytic surface of both thermo- and electrocatalytic activation processes of CO2. This is the topic of the lecture, in which I will discuss the latest progress made in our group in understanding CO2 activation over nickel and cobalt (thermocatalytic conversion) as well as copper (electrocatalytic conversion), and the subsequent conversion processes of the reaction products to make long-chain hydrocarbons, methanol and aromatics, thereby making use of combination catalyst materials and reaction processes. Special emphasis is on the use of advanced operando spectroscopy and microscopy methods to elucidate both reaction and deactivation mechanisms. Examples include vibrational spectroscopy (infrared and Raman), X-ray methods (X-ray absorption and diffraction), electronic spectroscopy (UV-Vis, fluorescence and luminescence) as well as electron microscopy. I will discuss the design of operando cells, the strength and weaknesses of the different analytical methods, and the required data analysis tools, futher corroborated by theoretical calculations. The last part of the talk will be focused on the conversion of alternative resources, namely plastic waste, thereby illustrating the issue of mass transfer processes, as well as the role of active sites embedded at the outer surface of solid catalysts, to ensure for example pre-cracking of these large hydrocarbon molecules.
Speaker: Bert Weckhuysen, Utrecht University
This is lecture 2 of 2. The first was held on February 21.
Saturday, 03/01/2025
Mt. Tamalpais Turtle Observers Training - 03/01/2025 09:00 AM
Lake Lagunitas Parking Lot Fairfax
Saturday, March 1
9:00 - 10:30 over zoom
1:00 - 3:00 field visit
Western pond turtles are the only species of freshwater turtle in California and they are important indicators of the health of our lakes. By becoming a Turtle Observer you can turn your interests into action by contributing to conservation efforts through data collection, observation, and using cool tools like spotting scopes. Once you have completed the two-part training you have the choice to visit several locations at any time you want during the spring to participate. Kids are GREAT Turtle Observers!
The online meeting (9:00 - 10:30 via Zoom) will cover the importance of wildlife conservation, how to identify the various turtle species in Marin, monitoring protocols, and the benefits of becoming a community scientist. In the afternoon (1:00 - 3:00) we will gather at Lake Lagunitas to meet other volunteers in person, practice using spotting scopes and binoculars, and put identification skills into practice. Volunteers will be expected to conduct 3 sessions on their own. The season runs through the end of May. Heavy rain will postpone the outdoor session. Sign up for this community science program by completing this google form.
First Saturday: Free Tour of the Santa Cruz Arboretum - 03/01/2025 11:00 AM
Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden Santa Cruz
Around the World in 60-90 Minutes!
On the first Saturday of each month, the Arboretum offers a docent or staff-led tour of the Arboretum.
Sometimes you will see New Zealand, South Africa, California, and Australia. Sometimes you might see combinations of several gardens or the developing World Conifer Collection or Rare Fruit Garden. Tour length varies depending on what's in bloom and what the participants request.
Meet your tour guide(s) at 11:00 am at the entrance to the visitor parking lot. (Tours are canceled when the weather isn't suitable.)
Arboreteum cost is $10 General, $8 Seniors, $5 Ages 4 - 17
Frontiers in AI: Language, Inference, and Innovation - 03/01/2025 03:15 PM
UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Campus Santa Clara
UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Graduuate Student Assembly Presents an afternoon with Nathan Lambert, Alessio Fanelli, and Dylan Patel.
Held in the Event Center
Register at weblink
Sunday, 03/02/2025
Morning Hike at Lower La Honda Creek - 03/02/2025 09:00 AM
La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve La Honda
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful hike at Lower La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve where you’ll experience the area’s sweeping views and gorgeous rolling grasslands! The preserve is over 6,100 acres, of which POST has contributed 5,200 acres. You will be guided by POST ambassadors on the meandering trails of Lower La Honda Creek, featuring a still-active cattle operation and views of the surrounding ridgelines!
The hike is moderate to strenuous at about 6 miles round trip with about 1100 feet of gradual elevation gain. There are some steep portions of this hike so hiking poles, closed-toed shoes with tread, and plenty of water/snacks for yourself are recommended.
Register at weblink
Exact location will be provided when you register.
Are There Constitutional Constraints Against President Trump's Actions? - 03/02/2025 11:00 AM
Mountain View Senior Center Mountain View
The second Trump administration hit the ground running with a flurry of Executive Orders, the scope of which raises questions of legality and constitutionality. Can the presidency unilaterally eviscerate USAID activities if the programs had been created and funded by Congress? Doesn't that violate the principle of separation of powers? Can President Trump unilaterally eliminate birthright citizenship? Eliminate all "DEI" programs within the federal government? Can he unilaterally form the Department of Government Efficiency and, if so, what powers could it have? What about Panama, Greenland, and Canada? In this presentation Prof. Chan will discuss how the U.S. constitution had been crafted in order to prevent the concentration of power (that the Trump administration is now attempting to wield), and how those constraints can fail.
Speaker: Leland Chan, Golden Gate University
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Solar Observing - 03/02/2025 01:30 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
It’s there for us year round, lighting our days and providing energy for our lives, so maybe it’s time to give it a closer look. Join SJAA for amazing and detailed views of the Sun, and be assured that we’ll be using special telescopes that will keep your eyeballs perfectly safe.
We’ll have white-light telescopes with dense solar filters that reveal sunspots. Further, we’ll show you hydrogen-alpha telescopes that isolate a very specific color of red that reveals prominences (often thought of as solar flares) and intricate texture within the Sun’s chromosphere (its atmosphere).
We can also share with you a little about how the Sun works and how complex magnetic fields drive the number of sunspots and prominences that we’ll see on a given day.
Around 1:45, we'll have a short, informal introductory talk, and at other times, you can enjoy the views and ask questions about the Sun, telescopes, or astronomy in general.
Monday, 03/03/2025
NuMA Mechanically Reinforces the Spindle Independently of its Partner Dynein - 03/03/2025 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Nathan Cho, UC San Francisco
Galactic Accretion through the Dynamic Circumgalactic Medium - 03/03/2025 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
The region of space surrounding galaxies, the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is the site of all gas flows into and out of galaxies and is therefore responsible for regulating or promoting galaxy growth. Observations reveal an interesting diversity of gas properties in this tenuous medium, but it is only recently that we are able to resolve it in cosmological simuations to investigate the physics there. Using the Figuring Out Gas and Galaxies in Enzo (FOGGIE) simulations that resolve the CGM of Milky Way-like galaxies in exquisite detail, I will describe how dynamic gas motions in the CGM like turbulence, rotation, or bulk radial flows drive the galactic ecosystem away from classical assumptions. These gas flows also disrupt inflowing filaments of gas, ultimately affecting how galaxies accrete new gas to convert into stars. I will show that upcoming missions that will observe the CGM in emission will be able to directly observe these gas flows, and how simulations can be used to predict and interpret the new data to increase our understanding of the cosmic ecosystem.
Speaker: Cassandra Lochhass, Harvard University
Symbolic Systems Forum - 03/03/2025 12:30 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum Stanford
Speaker: Lily Hu, Yale University
See weblink for building admission information
Air-Borne - Life in a Breath - Livestream - 03/03/2025 03:00 PM
Commonwealth Club
Take a breath. Just breath.
And then reserve your ticket for a special online-only talk with New York Times columnist Carl Zimmer, who will tell you all about what just went into your lungs. Zimmer will share the ideas that are in his new book Air-Borne, giving a fascinating, previously untold story of the air we breathe, the hidden life it contains, and invisible dangers that can turn the world upside down
Every day we draw in two thousand gallons of air - and thousands of living things. From the ground to the stratosphere, the air teems with invisible life. This last great biological frontier remains so mysterious that it took more than two years for scientists to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus.
Zimmer will lead us on an odyssey through the living atmosphere and through the history of its discovery. From the tops of mountain glaciers, where Louis Pasteur caught germs from the air, to Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh above the clouds, where they conducted groundbreaking experiments. Meet the long-forgotten pioneers of aerobiology, including William and Mildred Wells, who tried for decades to warn the world about airborne infections, only to die in obscurity.
Zimmer also chronicles the dark side of aerobiology with gripping accounts of how the United States and the Soviet Union clandestinely built arsenals of airborne biological weapons designed to spread anthrax, smallpox and an array of other pathogens.
Breathtaking, isn’t it?
Use discount code WonderfestPromo to receive $10 discount
UC Berkeley Structural & Quantitative Biology Seminar - 03/03/2025 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Hao Wu, Harvard Medical School
The Development of Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy - 03/03/2025 04:00 PM
Alumni House Berkeley
Martin Meyerson Berkeley Faculty Research Lecture
Speaker: Caros Bustamante, Molecular and Cell Biology, Physics, and Chemistry professor, UC Berkeley
What Physicists Do - 03/03/2025 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Speaker: CD Hoyle, CSU Humboldt
The Validity of Psychiatric Diagnosis: What’s in a Name? - 03/03/2025 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
This presentation by Dr. Descartes Li (UC San Francisco) looks at some of the complexities and controversies about psychiatric diagnoses. It examines the DSM-5's "Harmful Dysfunction" definition, contrasting it with the NIMH's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project. The lecture also discusses philosophical approaches to understanding mental illness, including reductionism, cultural relativism, emergentism, and mechanistic approaches to psychiatric diagnosis. Finally, it outlines four perspectives for viewing mental disorders: disease, dimensional, behavioral, and life story, advocating for a comprehensive approach to diagnosis.
Moderator: Patrick O'Reilly, Commonwealth Club
Reconstructing Our Galactic Story with Stellar Sound - 03/03/2025 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Why are we here? Although we may think we know our place in the Galaxy, the Sun was likely born far from where it resides today. In recent years, ESA’s space-based Gaia satellite and NASA’s K2, Kepler, and TESS missions have helped to uncover not only our own Sun’s history but that of our stellar neighbors. While the field of Galactic archaeology has uncovered some of the stories of our Galaxy, decades-old mysteries still remain about how the Galaxy formed and evolved --- touching on larger, age-old questions of why life exists.
In this talk, we will explore how stellar sound waves are revealing the origins of the Milky Way and our place in it. From the Sun's home here in the Galaxy's disc to the graveyard of disintegrated galaxies surrounding us, we will tour through the halls of the Milky Way as seen by ESA and NASA missions. Along the way, we will retrace how generations of stars have set the stage for life here and elsewhere in the Galaxy. We will also preview how upcoming space-based missions may unearth secrets of the oldest regions of the Galaxy.
Speaker: Joel Zinn, CSU Long Beach
Tuesday, 03/04/2025
UC Berkeley Organic Chemistry Seminar - 03/04/2025 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Intracellular lipid transport in immunoregulation and metabolism - 03/04/2025 11:00 AM
Weill Hall Berkeley
'Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean' - 03/04/2025 12:00 PM
Philosophy Hall Berkeley
Extreme Plasmas around Neutron Stars and their Radiation - 03/04/2025 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
From ‘Discernible’ to ‘Unequivocal’: The Arc of History in Climate Change Attribution Science - 03/04/2025 07:00 PM
Cemex Auditorium Stanford
Wednesday, 03/05/2025
Toward Better Understanding of Clouds and Aerosols in the Climate System - 03/05/2025 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Energy and Resources Group Colloquium - 03/05/2025 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Energy Transition: A Place-Based Economic Development Strategy - 03/05/2025 04:30 PM
Shriram Center Stanford
Anesthesia at Stanford: Stanford's Contributions to an Emerging Medical Specialty - 03/05/2025 05:00 PM
Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge Stanford
'Most Delicious Poison' - 03/05/2025 05:00 PM
Doe Memorial Library Berkeley
Building Smarter, Safer Systems: Unlocking AI’s Potential for Autonomous Systems with Proven Performance - 03/05/2025 05:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Campus Santa Clara
The Surprising Expansion History of the Universe - 03/05/2025 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Copernicus 4.0: How Our Views of Earth's Importance and the Search for Life are Changing - 03/05/2025 07:00 PM
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series Los Altos Hills
Thursday, 03/06/2025
UC Berkeley Integrative Biology Seminar - 03/06/2025 12:30 PM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
Urban change in energy landscape via AI - 03/06/2025 01:30 PM
Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
Interactive Language Agents: Training, Evaluation, and Interface - 03/06/2025 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
NightLife: Hot Dino Nights - 03/06/2025 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: Play of Light - 03/06/2025 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Friday, 03/07/2025
Morning Hike at Bear Creek Redwoods - 03/07/2025 09:30 AM
Bear Creek Redwoods Los Gatos
UC Santa Cruz Geophysical & Planetary Physics Seminar - 03/07/2025 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
A Conversation with Eirc Schmidt - 03/07/2025 02:00 PM
PARC Forum Palo Alto
First Friday: Space for Her - 03/07/2025 06:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Free First Friday: Wild Monterey Bay Book Talk and 'From the Unreal to the Real' exhibit opening - 03/07/2025 06:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
The Moon & Mars: Amazing Places for Humans to Soon Explore - 03/07/2025 08:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Saturday, 03/08/2025
Mt. Tamalpais Frog Docent Program Training - 03/08/2025 09:00 AM
Lake Lagunitas Parking Lot Fairfax
Morning Hike at Windy Hill - 03/08/2025 09:00 AM
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve Portola Valley
Wake up to Nature Breakfast Benefit - 03/08/2025 09:30 AM
Mitchell Park Community Center Palo Alto
North Bay Science Discovery Day - 03/08/2025 10:00 AM
Sonoma County Fairgrounds Santa Rosa
Fire ecology hike at Bouverie Preserve - 03/08/2025 10:00 AM
Bouverie Preserve Glen Ellen
Family Nature Adventures: The Buzz About Bees - Discovering Nature’s Tiny Heroes! - 03/08/2025 10:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
EV Ride and Drive - 03/08/2025 11:00 AM
Sunnyvale Community Center Sunnyvale
CuriOdyssey Weekend Workshop: Rocket Power - 03/08/2025 01:00 PM
CuriOdyssey San Mateo
Cinema Arts: 'Universe in a Grain of Sand' - 03/08/2025 01:30 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
City Public Star Party - 03/08/2025 06:30 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Jazz Under the Stars - 03/08/2025 06:30 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Sunday, 03/09/2025
'SEA Adventures: Stories of Wildlife Encounters' - 03/09/2025 11:00 AM
Seymour Marine Discovery Center Santa Cruz
Monday, 03/10/2025
Artificial and Post-Artificial Texts: The Reader’s Expectation after AI - 03/10/2025 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Asteraceae in Isolation: Island Biogeography of the Largest Plant Family - 03/10/2025 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Tell-tale electromagnetic Signatures of Massive Black Hole Binaries - 03/10/2025 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Symbolic Systems Forum - 03/10/2025 12:30 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum Stanford
Innovator's Edge in Supply Chain Transparency and Food Waste Reduction - 03/10/2025 03:30 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
AWAKE: beam-plasma interactions and plasma wakefield acceleration - 03/10/2025 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
The quantum limit of gravitational-wave detection - 03/10/2025 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park