Cuddle Up with the SciSchmooze
Discover more from SciSchmooze
Dear Reader,
Below are a few items of interest: discoveries, ideas, and issues. Pick and choose as you wish and click on links for deeper stories.
CLIMATE
Many thousands of Emperor Penguin chicks died because some ice shelves where they hatch broke up before chicks fledged out to their waterproof plumage. Those ice shelves normally break up every Antarctic summer but some are breaking up early due to climate change. Because of these events, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared Emperor Penguins an endangered species.
It is imperative that we move away from a fossil fuel economy to ameliorate these and other destructive events, and Ecuador just set an admirable example. The Ecuadorian government voted to leave over a billion barrels of oil in the ground. Although biofuels are not quite carbon neutral, they are a better choice than fossil fuels for aircraft and internal combustion engines. Unfortunately, most biofuels (like ethanol mixed into gasoline) are produced from corn which could be better used as food. Researchers are looking for ways to instead process agricultural plant waste like corn husks and they are experimenting with - - wait for it - - panda poop.
Yes, our world is moving to electric cars, but a single large container ship produces as much greenhouse gas as 50 million cars - and nobody foresees them using batteries instead of fossil fuel. However, several cargo ships are being fitted with rigid sails which are expected to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 to 30 percent. Numerous military vessels are powered by nuclear energy. ¿Why not cargo ships? It could happen.
The U.S. public is discovering a technology for heating and cooling homes that has been common in Europe: heat pumps. They work very well when pumping heat to and from outside air, but they are far more efficient when pumping heat to and from water stored or circulated underground, a.k.a. geothermal heat pumps. (Not to be confused with geothermal energy where heat coming from Earth’s core is used to generate electricity.) The Federal Department of Energy is providing funding to encourage geothermal heat pump installations.
Let me encourage you to read (or listen to) this article from The New Yorker, “Annals of a Warming Planet - CLIMATE CHANGE FROM A TO Z - The stories we tell ourselves about the future” by Elizabeth Kolbert.
John’s guess of 41 won him a Tensegrity stand. This week we are once again raffling off a kit to build a Strandbeest model. (I take mine outside for walks to the consternation of neighbors.) Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with an integer between 0 and 1,000.
My Picks of the Week (put reminders on your mobile phone)
– SCV Audubon: Warblers Part 1 Livestream Monday 7 - 8:30PM
– Past & Future of Robotics & Machine Intelligence Tuesday Noon, UC Berkeley
– Global Crises of Water & Ice Livestream Wednesday 11AM
– Life, the Universe, & Everything Thursday 6:30 - 9:30PM, Berkeley, $
– Combatting Psychic Fraud Livestream Saturday 11:30AM - 1:30PM
BIOLOGY
Having a “pedestal” screwed into your skull might evoke squeamishness, but if it allows you to talk with your spouse for the first time in 18 years, it is definitely worth it. Ann Johnson has over 200 electrodes under her skull which interface with an artificial intelligence computer system and an avatar video program. When Ann tries to speak - an ability lost to a stroke 18 years ago - the AI system ‘guesses’ at what she intends to say which is then spoken by the avatar. The results are awesome due to work and research at the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco campuses, and advancing research at Stanford University and Oregon Health & Science University.
Year ago, my German Shepard-Husky mix bolted from my friend’s place in Clayton and disappeared. Somehow she crossed several busy thoroughfares and at least one freeway to reach a friendly household in Orinda 24 kilometers from her starting point and in a direct line to our home in Oakland. Was she navigating by her own magnetic compass? She stopped there when winds shifted from blowing eastward and reversed to blowing westward. ¿Did she lose the ‘scent’ of Oakland? The owner there braved checking the dog tag and phoned our house; a happy ending. This is a trivial story compared to far more amazing stories of animals navigating through unfamiliar landscapes. Some animals navigate by stars when the night sky isn’t obscured by clouds, smog, or electric lights. Many animals navigate using the position of the Sun. Scientists are learning that the Earth’s magnetic field is used by numerous animals for navigation. There’s intriguing evidence that some people have brains that sense the magnetic field, but there is no evidence that anyone is aware of that perception. We humans navigate mainly by remembering in which direction to start and where to make turns. This is also true for animals as well but this simply cannot explain some animal migrations:. a Monarch Butterfly will migrate to the same location where its great-great-grandmother had once laid eggs, although it had never before been within hundreds of kilometers of there.
HEALTH
It’s taken freaking forever, but some insights into long COVID are now being published. Studies at New York Medical College indicate COVID can re-activate the Epstein-Barr virus responsible for mononucleosis. Most of us get mononucleosis as kids and the symptoms are over in a day or two, but the virus can reëmerge in adults and cause months of fatigue. Researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Leicester found elevated levels of molecules in long COVID patients that suggest blood clots are forming in the brain and lungs. One of them, fibrinogen, can cause tiny blood clots in the brain, and the other, D-dimer, is frequently associated with blood clots in the lungs.
Some folk with Type 1 Diabetes are building and programming their own computer controlled artificial pancreases. The software is open-source - meaning that it is free and anyone can suggest improvements to the computer code. Pharmaceutical companies have even borrowed code from these do-it-yourselfers.
Nerdy Videos
Fukushima and Tritium - Cup O’Joe - Joe Schwarcz - 4 mins
13 miles down and 1000°F - Just Have a Think - Dave Borlace - 12 mins
Super Massive Black Holes - Dr. Becky - Becky Smethurst - 12 mins
Perpetual Motion with Superfluids? - PBS SpaceTime - Matt O’Dowd PhD - 16 mins
How To Do Your Own Research - Sabine Hossenfelder - 17 mins
N-adic Numbers - Veritaseum - Derek Muller - 32 mins (very challenging)
Embrace your humanity; be kind and brave (but not foolish),
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.”
Daniel Boone (1734 -1820) Frontiersman and Virginia House of Delegates Member
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 09/04/2023
SCVAS Learn: Warblers 2023 - Part 1 - Green, Yellow and Gray - Livestream - 09/04/2023 07:00 PM
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
The fall migration of Warblers is an exciting event for birders. It can also daunting because many of these tiny tree-top insectivores lack the distinctive breeding plumage that makes them so memorable. How do we sort through the many similar features and identify the individuals we find? Why are there so many species on our checklist which (according to the range maps) shouldn’t be here at all? In this three-part presentation, instructor Matthew Dodder will guide you through the basic (and not-so-basic) challenges of our “confusing Fall Warblers”. We will discuss places to go to find Warblers, what marks and behaviors to watch for, and how to enjoy some of the most confusing and enigmatic migrants of the fall season.
Fee covers all three sessions
Tuesday, 09/05/2023
Chemical Tools to Study Biological Systems - 09/05/2023 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
The human proteome is extremely complex, comprising > 10,000 proteins and 100 times proteoforms for each gene product. In cancer and other diseases, several new protein variants may result from mutations, fusions and posttranslational modifications (PTMs) that further influence the functions and structure of proteins. This necessitates the identification of proteins and PTMs at a single molecule level in a cell or an organism to understand biological processes, disease analysis and biomarker discovery. Despite the power of protein sequencing in revolutionizing precision medicine diagnostics, there are no efficient single molecule protein sequencing (SMPS) methods to identify several nonreactive amino acids and PTMs at the proteome-wide level. We have developed multiple bioconjugation approaches for the selective labeling of amino acids of poor reactivity1 and mono-methyl lysine,2-3 N-methyl terminus,4 di-methyl lysine and monomethylhistidine posttranslational modifications (PTMs) to fill the present gap in the range of available techniques to sequence and identify proteins and PTMs at the single molecule and single cell level with high sensitivity and high accuracy. The broad utility of these bioconjugation reactions is demonstrated by the conjugation of various affinity probes and fluorophores on amino acids on proteins and PTMs. We showed the utility of our chemical methods in identifying PTMs at the single molecule level by using fluorosequencing SMPS technology. These chemical approaches are broadly applicable to other SMPS technologies and thus have the potential to further our understanding of the role of methylated lysine- and histidine-containing PTMs in regulating various cellular signaling processes and aid in biomarker discovery.
Speaker: Monika Raj, Emory Winship Cancer Institute
The Past and Future of Robotics & Machine Intelligence: 250 Years of Research Experience - 09/05/2023 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
The Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences invites you to a special panel on AI led by Distinguished Professor Emerita Ruzena Bajcsy, joined by colleagues Claire Tomlin, Shankar Sastry, Jitendra Malik, Rodney Brooks, and Ken Goldberg.
Are robots on the verge of becoming human-like and taking over most jobs? When will self-driving cars be cost-effective? What challenges in robotics will be solved by Large Language Models and generative AI?
Robots have been a topic of fascination since the word “robot” was coined in Czechoslovakia in 1920. Since the 1940s, the fields of robotics, control theory, computer vision, machine intelligence, machine learning, and AI have evolved with related but different terminologies, notations, and conferences.
Although renowned roboticist Ruzena Bajcsy recently retired from Berkeley, she will return to discuss her insights on how robotics research has evolved over the past half-century with five senior colleagues who have combined research experience of over 200 years.
Avi Loeb's Search for Extraterrestrial Life - Livestream - 09/05/2023 03:00 PM
Commonwealth Club
Famed astronomer Avi Loeb returns to The Commonwealth Club to answer some of the biggest questions facing humankind: How do we prepare ourselves for interaction with interstellar extraterrestrial life? And can our species itself become interstellar?
Loeb, the longest-serving chair of Harvard's Astronomy Department, shook the scientific community when he theorized that our solar system had been visited by a piece of advanced alien technology from a distant star. The object, dubbed 'Oumuamua, sparked worldwide discussions and arguments, and Loeb was at the center of it all.
Now, in his new book Interstellar, Loeb builds on that original idea and asks, What's next? He gives a call to arms that reimagines the idea of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Dismantling our science-fiction-fueled visions of a human and alien life encounter, he provides a blueprint for how such an interaction might actually occur, resetting our cultural understanding and expectation of what it means to identify an extraterrestrial object. From awe-inspiring searches for extraterrestrial technology, to the heated debate of the existence of unidentified aerial phenomena, Loeb provides a thrilling, front-row view of the monumental progress in science and technology currently preparing us for contact. He also lays out the profound implications of becoming - or not becoming - interstellar; in an urgent, eloquent appeal for more proactive engagement with the world beyond ours, he contends why we must seek out other life forms, and in the process, choose who and what we are within the universe.
Tens of thousands of people have viewed Dr. Loeb's 2022 Commonwealth Club program. Don't miss his return engagement as he raises some of the most important questions facing us as humans and argues that scientific curiosity is the key to our survival.
Progress toward building the world’s greatest microscope: The joys of making theory and experiment work together - 09/05/2023 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
In a 1967 episode of the iconic television series Star Trek, Mr. Spock explained:
“If I let go of a hammer on a planet that has a positive gravity, I need not see it fall to know that it has in fact fallen.” Mr. Spock
Spock’s idea to see with your mind’s eye the motion of matter is an extremely powerful concept in the field of chemical dynamics. Just as with the classical motion of matter in a gravitational field, the quantum mechanical world of chemical motion is also well on its way to being understood. This viewpoint opens us to the idea that we might make slow-motion movies of the atoms involved in chemical reactions; if you will; “the world’s greatest microscope” is a matter of accurate theoretical calculation. In this lecture, you will see examples of such computed movies that reveal the intricate dance of atoms during simple reactions at surfaces. While this sounds straightforward, obtaining reliable movies requires more than computation. Like all theories in chemistry, the approximations needed to obtain results must be tested by comparison to experiment. Theory can also be exploited to compute accurate rates of thermal reactions, perhaps the most fundamentally important quantities in chemistry. New ways to measure rates of reactions at surfaces with unprecedented precision and accuracy reveal the subtle ways that quantum mechanics influences the theory of chemical reaction rates.
Speaker: Alec Wodtke, Georg-August University of Göttingen
Revolutionizing Risk: How Sensors, Data and AI Are Reshaping the Insurance - 09/05/2023 05:00 PM
New York Life Insurance Company San Francisco
Insurance is one of the world's most ancient businesses. It is also the cornerstone that holds economies firm. Yet, as the number of sensors and the amount of data continue is on the brink of an unprecedented transformation. In today's interconnected landscape, data forms the very fabric of our daily experiences.
As sensors and sensor-generated ambient Westerndata become embedded in every aspect of our modern lives, a number of questions arise:
- How can the insurance sector tap into the wealth of data from sensors, wearables, and IoT devices?
- What groundbreaking insurance services can be built with user-generated and ambient sensor data?
- What new experiences could insurance companies unlock in the age of sensors and generative AI?
- How can ambient data, such as building temperature, lighting, and occupancy, revolutionize the insurance market in our AI-driven era?
The aim of this event is to offer multiple ideas and a vision for innovative solutions with user-generated data to make insurance services hyper-personalized. Come and join us at this event to explore the synthesis of tradition and innovation, changing the very foundation of insurance services.
Join us in the heart of San Francisco for an in-person panel discussion with industry leaders and pioneers to discuss the future of insurance.
Speakers: Signe Amdi Holm, Co-Founder and CEO if Datasolvr; Markus Lampinen, Co-Founder and CEO of Prifina; Ashley Greenwald, Senior Associate, Huntsman AG; Host and Moderator: Boudjemaa Nait Kaci, NY Life Insurance Co.
Register at weblink
Creating the Science, Covering the Science - 09/05/2023 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Join us in-person and online for a discussion with journalist Katie Hafner, who covers scientific advances, especially those by women, and her husband, Dr. Robert Wachter of UCSF, who is on the forefront of the digital transformation of health care and has been influential in advancing public understanding of the COVID crisis. Dr. Wachter coined the term “hospitalist” in 1996 and has overseen that medical specialty, the fastest growing specialty in modern medical history. His tweets on COVID-19 have been a trusted source of information on the clinical, public health, and policy issues surrounding the pandemic, garnering more than 500 million views.
Hafner and Wachter are at the center of advancing public understanding of science and health care through various media. We will discuss Hafner’s popular "Lost Women of Science" podcast, her groundbreaking nonfiction books, and her recent switch to fiction with The Boys. We’ll also discuss Dr. Wachter’s perspective on COVID - including lessons learned - as we enter a new phase of the pandemic, how health care will be transformed by digital tools like ChatGPT, and how to communicate about science in the face of uncertainty, political polarization, and misinformation. In addition, they’ll discuss the experience of working and writing together as a married couple, particularly when the pandemic forced them - like so many couples - into the same bubble.
Speakers: Katie Hafner, Journalist; Robert Wachter, UC San Francisco; George Hammond, Moderator
Use promo code WonderfestPromo for $10 off ticket price
IEEE Computer Society Chapter Open house, Award ceremony, and talk AI and Conversational Commerce - 09/05/2023 06:30 PM
SEMI Global Headquarters Milpitas
In today's fast-paced digital landscape, conversational commerce has emerged as a game-changer, and AI is at the heart of this transformative shift. Through AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, businesses are revolutionizing the messaging space, enabling customers to engage in seamless conversations while making purchases and completing transactions right within their favourite messaging apps. This fusion of AI and conversational commerce empowers businesses to offer personalized product recommendations, answer inquiries in real time, and facilitate effortless transactions - all within the familiar messaging interface. Join us as we delve into the world of AI-driven conversational commerce and discover how it is reshaping customer interactions, boosting engagement, and revolutionizing the future of e-commerce.
Speaker: Raghu Suram, Product Manager
Registration required at weblink
Wednesday, 09/06/2023
The global crises of water and ice - Livestream - 09/06/2023 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
As recognized in science and increasingly in politics and business water will play the role of the “main fuel” for future conflicts. The former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, referred to water as “the conflict material of the 21st century” already in 2003. Verstraete et al. (2009) summarize the importance of water: Global poverty defined in almost every way, is disproportionally concentrated in the arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid regions - the drylands- of the world, where people living in such areas are trapped in a downward spiral of environmental degradation and loss of well-being. Between 38% and 47% of the Earth’s land area consists of such “subhumid” regions, where currently about one-third of humanity lives. Desertification, or the spread of deserts, also continues almost unabated. On July 28, 2010, the United Nations included the right to clean water in the declaration of universal human rights. However, humanity is further away from balanced water supply than ever before. As estimated by the UN, around 2050 between 2 and 7 billion people are expected to be affected by water scarcity, and it is not surprising that nearly 300 potential crisis zones were identified, where military conflicts could arise over the availability of freshwater. This presentation first selectively discusses a few general facts about water availability from the confusing variety of different, sometimes conflicting sources of information. A brief discussion of the effects of climate change on the hydrological cycle will follow, which includes a highly simplified description of the main underlying meteorological and atmospheric-physical mechanisms. At this point considering the situation of the ice on Earth becomes important as the ice/snow cover is rapidly declining almost everywhere. The phenomenon directly affects the issue of sufficient water availability, because many of the most important river systems (e.g., in Asia, Europe, the US) are dependent on the ice reservoirs in our planet’s mountains. Since concern about this is growing rapidly, the issue of the global ice is also discussed at the end of this presentation.
Speaker: Stephen Borrmann, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
The “endless forms”: Genetics, development, and evolution of flower diversity - 09/06/2023 12:00 PM
Barker Hall, Rm 101 Berkeley
In this talk I will discuss the use of monkeyflowers to probe the genetic and molecular bases of floral trait variation among species, to characterize the developmental mechanisms of pattern formation, and to test the adaptive significance of floral trait variation in the evolution of pollination syndromes.
Speaker: Yaowu Yuan, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut
Editor's Note: This lecture is also listed on UC Berkeley's calendar at the same time, but in Morgan Hall, room 101. We don't know which is correct, or if one is a satelite of the other.
Energy and Resources Group Colloquium - 09/06/2023 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Dr. Tasha Fairfield, London School of Economics
We are excited to hear from The Scobee Education Center’s Rick Varner: “SATX Solar Eclipses: Don’t be Blinded by the Light” and Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. William Kosmann: “Voyager’s Family Portrait of the Solar System”!
Watch on Youtube or Facebook with links at the weblink
Thursday, 09/07/2023
Coastal Walk at Pillar Point Bluff - 09/07/2023 10:00 AM
Pillar Point Bluff Parking Lot Moss Beach
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful walk at Pillar Point Bluff just north of Half Moon Bay! You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about the area’s interesting natural history, from the coastal scrub habitat to the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve which hosts tide pools and breeding grounds for harbor seals.
The walk is moderate at about 2.5 miles round trip with about 300 feet of gradual elevation gain.
In 2004, POST stepped in to fund protection of the Bluff, restore it to ecological health, and construct a 1.6-mile section of the California Coastal Trail that now runs across it. Today all 161 acres of the Bluff are fully protected in perpetuity - a process that took four transactions, 11 years of work, and an array of visionaries, landowners, and donors, both public and private.
Register at weblink
Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium - Yun Freund - 09/07/2023 12:00 PM
Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium San Jose
Speaker: Yun Freund, VP of Engineering at Google Cloud
The Deep Synoptic Array: the origins of fast radio bursts - 09/07/2023 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Speaker: Vikram Ravi, Caltech
Test Station Development - Consumer Electronics - 09/07/2023 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
The goal of this presentation is to educate students on several topics around production of consumer electronics as it relates to engineering. We’ll discuss tradeoffs between product and test stations design. From early stages of the product design process known as design for manufacturing (DFM) to best practices around test station development. When producing a product, you look at things from a holistic view. Since any stage in the production process can cause a bottle neck and reduce throughput. Too much or too little testing can result in serious consequences for the business.
Speaker: Michael Vargas, Pocket Engineering
Attend in person or online here. Passcode: 2009A
Science on Tap: Marine Heat Waves - 09/07/2023 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Science on Tap is our new series that mixes the best parts of learning about science with some of the best brews on the central coast! Each event will feature a happy half-hour highlighting beverages from our partners at local breweries followed by a panel discussion from experts about the work they’re doing to benefit our natural world and communities. The evening will consist of a happy half-hour with beverages both alcoholic and non along with small bites and music from 5:30 - 6:00, followed by talks from 6:00-7:00 and a discussion and Q&A from 7:00-7:30. All proceeds from ticket sales go toward creating more educational events and supporting local scientists and organizations. Learn more about each session below and sign up today to reserve your space!
After Dark: Drawing Sound - 09/07/2023 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Immerse yourself in an unpredictable improvisational performance that considers sound and visuals in relation to each other. In their ongoing collaboration Drawing Sound, sound artist Fred Frith generates soundscapes while visual artist Heike Liss draws her Klangbilder "sonic images" directly on windows. Presenting their work in two sets, Fred and Heike will move through Fisher Bay Observatory and invite an additional collaborator: the shifting light of the world beyond the glass windows. 6:30 p.m.Performance in conversation with the Bay as the Sun sets. 8:30 p.m.Performance in conversation with the cityscape as the lights illuminate. Fred Frith is best known as a pioneering electric guitarist and improviser, songwriter, and composer for film, dance, and theater, starting in 1968 with the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He's a multi-instrumentalist who has appeared on over 400 albums and has performed with musical luminaries, including John Luther Adams, Brian Eno, Terry Riley, and John Zorn. Fred’s composing credits for film include the acclaimed documentaries Rivers and Tides, The Tango Lesson, and Last Day of Freedom. He has been commissioned to write music for small ensembles and large orchestras internationally. Heike Liss is an award-winning artist in the fields of video, photography, and site-specific installation. She takes her cues from the people and the world around her and works in a variety of media. Her works have been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, and at film festivals. Heike has collaborated with choreographers Sonsherée Giles and François Verret; musicians Ellen Fullman, Marcus Weiss, Caroline Penwarden, and Theresa Wong; multimedia artists Ellen Lake, Nomi Talisman, and Michael Trigilio; and poet Lyn Hejinian.
NightLife: California Love - 09/07/2023 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
California knows how to party. Join us to celebrate the vibrant biodiversity that makes the Golden State so special.
Life, The Universe, and Everything - 09/07/2023 06:30 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Berkeley
Join Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, for a wide-ranging conversation with California magazine’s editor-in-chief, Pat Joseph, as they explore such topics as the startling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the Great North American Eclipse of 2024, and the abiding mysteries of dark energy.
Wine reception with Dr Filippenko follows the talk
Fear and Loathing in the Heavens: The 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet - 09/07/2023 07:00 PM
Los Altos Public Library Los Altos
In 1705, Edmond Halley liberated humanity from the belief that comets were portents of doom. Yet, two centuries later, in 1910, as Halley’s Comet returned to perihelion, newspapers and magazines, religious leaders, misguided theorists, and shameless grifters managed to rekindle that fear. When astronomers announced that the earth would pass through the comet’s tail, opportunists exploited the natural human anxiety - often with fatal consequences.
Join Dr. Richard J. Goodrich, author of Comet Madness: How the 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet (almost) Destroyed Civilization, for an entertaining lecture about the comet’s 1910 return and the reasons that many believed the earth would not survive the encounter.
Friday, 09/08/2023
Bair Island Walking Tour - 09/08/2023 10:00 AM
Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail Redwood CityLearn about this beautiful POST protected space, and join us for a 1-mile gentle/flat walking tour of Bair Island!
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a walking tour at Bair Island! You’ll be guided by POST ambassadors who will share the history of this beautiful protected space, information about the species that live there, and what you can do to contribute.
This easy 1 mile walk with little to no elevation gain will highlight the wetlands and the marine life that live within, such as: Endangered Ridgeway’s rails and salt marsh harvest mice. Also cottontail rabbits, peregrine falcons, pelicans, egrets, terns, and stilts. We recommend bringing binoculars to catch sight of some of the beautiful birds at Bair Island.
Register at weblink
Semiconductor Innovation For Transformative Impact - 09/08/2023 02:00 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Semiconductor technology advancements have enabled the capability and cost of computing devices to improve exponentially over time, with transformative impact - witness the rise of cloud computing and the Internet of Things, which together with advances in machine learning have ushered in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today’s leading-edge microprocessor chips comprise 80 billion transistors. The complexity of these semiconductor devices requires sophisticated design automation tools and manufacturing facilities, which are increasingly expensive and capital intensive: a leading-edge chip fabrication plant, or “fab,” costs roughly $10 billion. As a result, close collaboration between electronic design automation (EDA) companies, fabless chip design companies, chip manufacturers, wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) companies, materials suppliers, and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies is necessary to sustain the exponential pace of technology advancement.
This seminar will begin by providing a high-level overview to explain why chips are considered “the new oil,” with a market projected to grow to $1T by the end of this decade. Then it will discuss challenges ahead for the industry and the need for new innovations and talent. As an example, integration of nano-electro-mechanical switches with conventional CMOS transistors to enable dramatic improvements in computational speed and energy efficiency will be described. The importance of a culture of inclusion for spurring innovation with maximum positive impact will also be discussed.
Speaker: Tsu-Jae King Liu, UC Berkeley
Astro 101: Sights of the Cosmos, Intro to Astronomy - 09/08/2023 07:00 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
This event provides a different introduction to astronomy than our Intro to the Night Sky talks. During this hour, you'll gain an appreciation for the size and scale of the cosmos and our place within it. You'll see many examples of the beautiful objects visible in the night sky, learn something about how we see them through our telescopes and what we can deduce about them through the light they send us. And then you can make your own prediction of whether we're alone in the universe.
This talk is free of charge. Just come and enjoy the show. After the talk, you can check out telescopes that will be set up as part of our In-Town Star Party.
Saturday, 09/09/2023
Family Nature Walks - Foothills Nature Preserve - Rescheduled - 09/09/2023 11:00 AM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos
Environmental Volunteers’ Family Nature Walks program is designed to help students and their families get to know our local open space areas. Small family groups will be guided by a knowledgeable environmental educator during an exploration of a local open space. These small groups will be introduced to fun nature-based activities, and a chance to learn more about the plants and animals all around us. Join us for some fun, outdoor learning!
Each group will have a maximum limit of 12 participants.
Families/groups are welcome to sign up for as many as they like. The nature walks are intended for children aged 6 to 11, and we ask that each group is accompanied by an adult.
If registration is full, get on the waitlist! If the waitlist is large enough, additional groups can be created if EV Nature Walk leaders are available.
Intended for ages 6 - 11, plus adult supervision.
This walk will now take place on September 23.
Combating Psychic Fraud - Livestream - 09/09/2023 11:30 AM
Bay Area Skeptics
The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world, founded in 1902.
Based in part on his own experiences with psychics attempting to contact the dead, Houdini helped form the S.A.M’s Paranormal Investigation Committee (P.I.C.) to expose those “supernatural” frauds. P.I.C. has carried on that work for more than 100 years.
Mark Carlon and Catherine Woytowicz will talk about P.I.C.’s current work to raise awareness of fraud. They have created a presentation on typical fraud cases and are partnering with community law enforcement agencies to raise awareness of these scams - especially psychics who are preying upon people who lost loved ones during COVID.
Mr. Mark Carlon is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) and S.A.M. and is the chair of the Paranormal Investigation Committee.
Ms. Catherine Woytowicz is a magician, mentalist, and comic who performs corporate magic and facilitates critical thinking/structured thinking techniques with her company, Just the Trick. She has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Design & Discovery.
Presented by the National Capitol Area Skeptics, this event will be livestreamed HERE
A Million Miles Away Film Screening - 09/09/2023 12:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Join us for an early screening of the film, A Million Miles Away, which tells the inspirational true story Jose Hernandez, a NASA flight engineer.
Inspired by the real-life story of NASA flight engineer José Hernández, A Million Miles Away follows him and his devoted family of proud migrant farm worker on a decades-long journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. With the unwavering support of his hard-working parents, relatives, and teachers, José’s unrelenting drive & determination culminates in the opportunity to achieve his seemingly impossible goal. Acclaimed writer and director Alejandra Márquez Abella has created a dazzling tribute to the loyalty and tenacity of the entire Hernández family, as well as anyone who dares to dream.
Sunday, 09/10/2023
Coastal Walk at Cowell-Purisima Trail - 09/10/2023 10:00 AM
Cowell Purisima Coastal Trailhead Half Moon Bay
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful Sunday walk along the Cowell-Purisima trail that POST helped create by protecting adjacent farmland. While it may be foggy, we hope to catch gorgeous views of the ocean, nearby farmland, and glimpses of harbor seals, pelicans, hawks, rabbits, and whales during the winter season.
You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about POST’s work with farmers on the coast, and to create recreational opportunities along one of the most scenic stretches of our state’s coastline!
The walk is a part of our Wednesday walk series (despite it being on a Sunday). It is moderate at about 4.5 miles round trip with about 400 feet of gradual elevation gain. It is mostly flat throughout, however, it is quite a long walk.
Register at weblink
Bay Area Skeptics: HANGIN’ OUT with Leonard Tramiel at Chabot Space & Science Center - 09/10/2023 10:00 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Leonard Tramiel, Ph.D. physics, has been a volunteer docent at Chabot Space and Science Center since 2000. Lots to see, including a Soyuz capsule that illustrates better than anything else why basketball players are not recruited to be astronauts. If you haven’t been to Chabot in a while, you won’t want to miss the new NASA Ames exhibit that includes, among other items, a full-scale model of the Artemis Rover, intended for launching next year. Have you met Leah and Rachel? The classic 1883 and 1915 refracting telescopes are still being used at Chabot, and - although you may not realize it - a surprising number of astronomical phenomena are visible during daylight. Leonard is a certified operator on both telescopes, and weather permitting, can give us a tour and demonstration of those observatories. There is also a planetarium show included in the admission fee. This is your second opportunity to hang out with Leonard; earlier this year he hosted a very popular HangOut at the Computer History Museum. If you missed that, here’s another chance!
Monday, 09/11/2023
Meiotic Chromosome Dynamics in Zebrafish - 09/11/2023 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Dr. Sean Burgess, Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis
Scanning Probe Nano-Optics: from biochemical nano-fingerprinting to light-matter interactions in quantum materia - 09/11/2023 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Scanning probe optical microscopy offers access to material properties beyond the fundamental diffraction limit in conventional optics. In this talk, I will start by introducing nano-spectroscopic material identification - nano-fingerprinting. Nanoscale composition and heterogeneity of a range of materials, including natural specimens and biomedical devices, can be delicately identified without perturbation. Furthermore, scanning probe optics facilitates the investigation of nanoscale light-matter interactions in quantum materials. A representative topic is the study of confined light-matter waves - polaritons - in van der Waals (vdW) materials. Using the nano-optical apparatus, we have studied various polaritons in vdW materials and their heterostructures, showing unique nanophotonic virtues in reduced dimensions. Notably, weak vertical bonding in vdW systems allows the engineering of hybrid polaritons in heterostructures. Nano-optical responses can be tailored on demand by stacking, twisting, microstructuring, and isotope heterostructuring of the constituent vdW layers.
Speaker: Siyuan Dai, Auburn University
SCVAS Learn: Warblers 2023 - Part 2 - East and West - Livestream - 09/11/2023 07:00 PM
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
The fall migration of Warblers is an exciting event for birders. It can also daunting because many of these tiny tree-top insectivores lack the distinctive breeding plumage that makes them so memorable. How do we sort through the many similar features and identify the individuals we find? Why are there so many species on our checklist which (according to the range maps) shouldn’t be here at all? In this three-part presentation, instructor Matthew Dodder will guide you through the basic (and not-so-basic) challenges of our “confusing Fall Warblers”. We will discuss places to go to find Warblers, what marks and behaviors to watch for, and how to enjoy some of the most confusing and enigmatic migrants of the fall season.
Fee covers all three sessions
Europa: Exploring an Ocean World - 09/11/2023 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Over two decades ago, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed that beneath a frozen ice shell, Jupiter’s moon Europa likely harbors a deep, salty ocean of liquid water that may present a habitable environment for life. As a result, Europa has become a foremost target for Solar System exploration.
In this talk, Dr. Trumbo will discuss our current state of knowledge about Europa, recent discoveries made using Earth-based observatories, and NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission to explore this potentially habitable world.
Speaker: Samantha Trumbo, Cornell University
Tuesday, 09/12/2023
This is Not Your Usual Heat Extreme - Livestream - 09/12/2023 11:00 AM
Woods Institute for the Environment
A Scientist’s Primer on Depression - 09/12/2023 12:00 PM
Gladstone Industries San Francisco
Illuminating Birds - Drawing as a Way of Knowing - Livestream - 09/12/2023 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
The False Promise of Optimization - 09/12/2023 07:00 PM
The Interval at Long Now San Francisco
Wednesday, 09/13/2023
Building Climate Change Resilience - How can ocean numerical models help? - Livestream - 09/13/2023 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Data Dignity and the Inversion of AI - 09/13/2023 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
The John and Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series at Bodega Marine Laboratory - 09/13/2023 12:00 PM
Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute
Use and Abuse of Science in the World of Sport: Two Talks- Livestream - 09/13/2023 03:00 PM
McGill University
Energy and Resources Group Colloquium - 09/13/2023 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
The next decade of discovery with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory - 09/13/2023 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Thursday, 09/14/2023
The Power of Milky Way’s Stellar Streams Enabled by Multi-Object Spectroscopic Surveys - 09/14/2023 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
100 Years to Thrive: Designing Longer and Wealthier Lives - 09/14/2023 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
After Dark: See for Yourself - 09/14/2023 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Frank Drake Award Ceremonies: Open to Everyone - 09/14/2023 06:00 PM
SRI International Menlo Park
Skeptalk: Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic - Livestream - 09/14/2023 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Friday, 09/15/2023
Morning Hike at Rancho Cañada del Oro - 09/15/2023 09:30 AM
Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Corical regulation of REM Sleep - 09/15/2023 12:00 PM
ChEM-H/Neuroscience Building, James Lin and Nisa Leung Seminar Room (E153) Stanford
Saturday, 09/16/2023
The Physics Show - 09/16/2023 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
The Physics and Chemistry of the Atomic Nucleus - Livestream - 09/16/2023 10:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society
Sunday, 09/17/2023
Morning Hike at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve - 09/17/2023 09:00 AM
Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve Los Altos
The Physics Show - 09/17/2023 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
Presidio: Changes Through Time - 09/17/2023 11:00 AM
The Presidio San Francisco
Monday, 09/18/2023
The Good, the Bad, and the Bugly: Invasive Insects and Disease - Livestream - 09/18/2023 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University Biology Colloquium
SCVAS Learn: Warblers 2023 - Part 1 - Rare and Regular - Livestream - 09/18/2023 07:00 PM
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society