Hello again Science fans!
Early on Wednesday, May 26, the full moon will move through the shadow of the Earth, creating a total lunar eclipse. It will be visible here in California, with the window of totallity running from 4:11 AM to 4:26 AM, relatively short for a lunar eclipse. The moon will also be pretty low in the western sky at that time of night, so you will need to be somewhere with a good view to the west to see it. Want to see it but don’t want to get out of bed? Chabot Space and Science Center is hosting a virtual watch party.
This month’s full moon is also a “super moon”, meaning the moon is closer to Earth than other months, so it looks a bit larger and brighter. This is the second super moon this year, with last month’s full moon also qualifying. Since the moon isn’t totally dark during an eclipse, but is lit by sunlight reflecting off of earth, it appears red. Since the popular press doesn’t seem capable of just describing things as they are, this is being dubbed a super blood moon.
Editor’s Note: I didn’t quite get the reason for the moon’s red appearance correct. The light hitting the moon is refracted and scattered by Earth’s atmosphere and it bends into the Earth’s shadow. Blue and green shades scatter out of the white light, leaving reddish light, kind of like what we see at sunset. If you were on the moon, it would look like a circular sunset around the Earth. Thanks to Ron Hipschman of the ExplOratorium for that correction.
Since the sun, moon and Earth have to be lined up just right for eclipses to occur, both a solar and lunar eclipse often occur close together, and this time the annular solar eclipse will happen on June 10, but it won’t be visible in California. It will be partially visible in the northeast US however. Here’s a link to a map showing where it will be visible. In annual solar eclipse differs from a total solar eclipse in that the moon is centered on the sun in an annular, but doesn’t appear large enough to completely block it out. So the sun looks like a ring of fire, instead of going black.
Thanks to both Andrew Fraknoi and Alex Filippenko, our two favorite astronomers, for providing us details with about this eclipse.
On November 18 - 19 the next lunar eclipse will be visible in all of North America, but it will be a partial eclipse. The accompaning solar eclipse, which will be total, will only be visible in the very southern part of the planet on December 4. Next year, on May 15 - 16, another total lunar eclipse will be visible in the US.
For more information on these, and other eclipses past and future, see timeanddate.com.
I moved to California from south Florida. When I lived there, one of the bigger conservation stories dealt with the Florida panther. While this big cat once roamed throughout the southern US, only a handful remained, mostly in the area to the west of the Everglades. So it was nice to come across this story about the resurgance of the panther in the subsequent years.
Meanwhile, closer to home, a park Ranger was taking a walk through the Mokelumne River watershed in the Sierra Nevada foothills when he discovered not only a petrified forest, but one of the largest fossil finds ever in California.
Sometimes devices invented for a specific purpose prove useful in other settings, and that’s the case for the MasSpec pen, a device being developed at the University of Texas in Austin to analyze tumors in seconds. A prospective student who was taking a tour of the campus during her interview had a different idea for the pen. It turns out that this pen can also be used to identify fish species, providing a fast and cheap way of determining if the fish you are looking at in the market is really what you think it is. This is outside-the-box thinking at its best!
You often hear about the size of the human population of the Earth. Would it surprise you to learn that there are six times as many birds on the planet as people? And that most of them are one of only four species?
We’re seeing truly great news regarding COVID-19 these days. California has one of the lowest infection rates in the country, and the country as a whole is doing well. Locally, Santa Clara County, site of the very first COVID-caused death in the US, had only 0.1 new case per 10,000 people over the past 14 days. California is moving towards elimination of the color tiered system of restrictions and things are beginning to open up. With that will come some in-person events. The California Academy of Sciences has resumed the Nightlife series of Thursday night events already, with the first two selling out quickly. While not weekly events just yet, and while full capacity isn’t part of the equation, this is a sign of progress. The ExplOratorium plans to reopen to the public on July 1, including the return of After Dark, their weekly party night at the museum.
The pandemic has affected everyone in so many ways, some obvious, and some not so obvious. The forced isolation and changes in social interaction patterns and activities over the past year will give sociologists lots to study. Some observations here on small talk, one of those things that you probably didn’t think about until the pandemic changed our lives.
Have a great week in Science!
Bob Siederer
Monday, 05/24/2021
Countdown to Launch - James Webb Telescope - Livestream - 05/24/2021 11:00 AM
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
2021 is an exciting year for astronomy, with the launch of the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (Webb). Webb, NASA’s and ESA’s flagship mission, will revolutionise astronomy. It will be the largest and most powerful telescope launched into space, and it has strong Scottish connections with one of the key instruments built here at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. Here I will talk about the engineering of Webb and its key science objectives as we look forward to significant astronomy discoveries when it is launched.
Speaker: Olivia Jones
Water Management to Meet the Needs of the Twenty-First Century - Livestream - 05/24/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
Globally, our water supply is becoming increasing dependent on groundwater, but as a direct source and as a means of water storage. Climate change and population growth will only serve to increase our reliance on groundwater. To sustain groundwater supplies, we will therefore need to ensure sufficient aquifer recharge to minimize water-level drawdown. However, a larger threat to groundwater supply looms. In nearly every aquifer, a geogenic contaminant lays in wait within the sediments. The question is therefore not whether a contaminant exists within the subsurface but whether the guiding biogeochemical processes will lead to its partitioning into the water. Understanding, predicting, and controlling the soil processes that underlie groundwater quality are critical for sustaining our food and water in the 21st Century.
Speaker: Scott Fendorf, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom link
The Net-Zero America Project - Livestream - 05/24/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
An increasing number of companies and governments around the world are pledging to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in the face of mounting risks from global climate change. Given its technological, financial, and natural resource endowments, the United States is well-placed to lead by example. The Net-Zero America transition scenarios aim to inform U.S. policy and investment decisions around achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Comprehensive national-level modeling is used to define a diversity of technological pathways that would achieve net-zero emissions. Subsequent analysis is quantifying the scale and cost of physical assets, institutional change, and human-resource efforts for all sectors over time. A high level of spatial definition helps to illustrate the extraordinary scale, geographic impact, and pace of changes needed to achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. Significant challenges and potential bottlenecks are implied, and provide a focus for future research to understand how best to address transition inhibitors.
Speaker: Jesse Jenkins, Princeton University
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A Hybrid Method to Predict Sports Related Concussions with Machine Learning - Livestream - 05/24/2021 07:00 PM
SF Bay Association of Computing Machinery
Existing evidence in Sports Related Concussions(SRC) is insufficient to determine the best combination of measures in the use of evaluation tools. Three Machine learning methodes and SRC prediction rules are dicussed.This talk describes a hybrid machine learning model based on the combination of human/knowledge based domains and computer generated feature rankings to improve accuracy of diagnosing SRC. Four feature selection criteria were constructed to create the optimal model, which was run on both Google AutoML and Random Forest for validation. The results show that the hybrid model has the best performance in predicting resolution time for 14-day and 28-day thresholds, along with outperforming previous published work. This research has significant impact in the use of domains and symptom ranking with machine learning to increase diagnosis accuracy. The hybrid model’s success in the use of domains to increase the efficiency of model training may have practical applications in real time situations.
Speaker: Melody Yin, 8th grade student at the Harker School
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Neil Degrasse Tyson - An Astrophysicist Goes to the Movies - Canceled - 05/24/2021 07:30 PM
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts San Jose
Speaker: Neil Degrasse Tyson
This event was originally scheduled for May 11, 2020 and has now been canceled
Tuesday, 05/25/2021
Promising Immunotherapies for Cancer: From the Blacklist to the Nobel Prize - Livestream - 05/25/2021 09:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Dr. Ralph Moss details the origin of cancer immunotherapy and how it disappeared for almost 100 years. Recently, it has been rediscovered and has become one of the most widely used cancer treatments. Inducing fever with compounds of killed viruses, immunotherapy triggers the human immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. Immunotherapy generally provides a higher quality of life during treatment, while being less harmful than most conventional cancer treatments available today.
Speakers: Ralph Moss, National Center for Compelentary and Integrative health; Adrea Brier, Commonwealth Club, Moderator
Nature-Based Sequestration: One Key to Solving our Climate Crisis - Livestream - 05/25/2021 10:00 AM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR)
Reducing the carbon that we are putting into the atmosphere is not enough. We must also draw down and sequester hundreds of millions of metric tons of carbon. We will cover natural techniques for carbon sequestration through farming, ranching, and habitat restoration, as well as the prospects for a technological approach to sequestration. Join us to hear more about the new innovations being used in nature-based sequestration.
Presented by The Climate Center.
Assemblymember Robert Rivas / California State AssemblyJeanne Merrill / California Climate and Agriculture NetworkAlbert Straus / Straus Family CreameryMichelle Passero / The Nature ConservancyTorri Estrada / Carbon Cycle InstituteAaron Schreiber-Stainthorp / Jackson Family WinesEllee Igoe / Solidarity FarmAmanda Hansen / California Natural Resources Agency
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It’s not easy growing a supermassive black hole - Livestream - 05/25/2021 11:00 AM
The Royal Institution
When we think of black holes, we often think of them as endless hoovers, sucking up anything around them. In reality, it’s very difficult to grow a black hole; to get matter close enough to that point of no return. Instead, most matter will happily orbit a black hole. Just like the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun orbits a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way over 4 million times more massive than the Sun itself.
Join astrophysicist Rebecca Smethurst as she reveals how supermassive black holes like this got so big.
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Succulents for Little Green Thumbs - Livestream - 05/25/2021 03:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden
Discover the beautiful diversity of the world of succulent plants! Almost every imaginable size, color, texture, and form can be found in these types of plants, representing many different plant families found around the world. We'll explore together some of their amazing features, talk about where and how they grow, and see a few of the most rare ones we have in the Garden's collection. Choose the "Presentation + Kit" option to pick up from the Garden Shop a prepaid child's succulent kit that includes a clay pot, two 2" pot succulents of your choice, a bag of soil, and top dressing rocks. A wonderful way to connect your little one with the joys of caring for their own plant! This program is geared for a youth audience.
See weblink for registration and details.
Bonanza en los Andes - Investigations of Water Resources in the puna - Livestream - 05/25/2021 03:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz
Zurite, Perú (3400 m.a.s.l.) derives irrigation water from the 2.12 square kilometer Upper Ramuschaka Watershed (URW) ~ 1000 m above. The URW is part of the puna biome - a seasonally dry grass and shrub ecosystem existing at the altitudinal limits of vegetation and from which non-glacially fed streams originate. Faculty, 29 students from the U.S. and from Perú, and local community members completed a two year investigation of water resources in the URW and collaborated with the community to build 1.3 km of irrigation canals to serve over 100 families. We have quantified seasonal dynamics in water resources and identified hydrologically important low gradient peat forming wetlands, known locally as bofedales. Dry season release of large quantities of stored water from bofedales appears to sustain baseflow, suggesting bofedales are key features in achieving regional water security.
Speaker: Jasper Oshun, Humboldt State University
Zoom information can be found on the EPS advising Google calendar
Caring for the Uncharismatic: Shining the Spotlight on Indo-Pacific Finless Porpoises, With Lessons Learned from Malaysia - Livestream - 05/25/2021 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
The Indo-Pacific finless porpoise is a small cetacean commonly found throughout Southeast Asia's coastal regions. As it lacks a dorsal fin and is often inconspicuous in its surfacing behavior, it does not capture people's attention as dolphins do, thus rendering it rather uncharismatic. It is likely that finless porpoises are more threatened than is generally realized. Scientists, conservationists, and decision-makers alike should be encouraged to pay the species more attention as threats from human activities increase rapidly throughout the species' range. In this webinar cetologist and conservationist, Dr. Louisa Ponnampalam will discuss her work studying and advocating for the finless porpoises in Malaysia. Join us for a special opportunity to learn about a rare and beautiful species.
Register at weblink
Neil Degrasse Tyson - The Cosmic Perspective - Canceled - 05/25/2021 07:30 PM
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts San Jose
Speaker: Neil Degrasse Tyson
This was originally scheduled for May 12, 2020 and has now been canceled.
Wednesday, 05/26/2021
Lunar Eclipse Virtual Watch Party - 05/26/2021 01:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center
Stay up with Chabot astronomers to virtually watch a total eclipse of the Moon as it passes through the shadow of the Earth. It has been more than two years since we’ve enjoyed a total lunar eclipse, and this one will be extra special: it will happen during a perigean full Moon - a “supermoon.”
Starting at 1:47 a.m. PDT, the Moon will fade only slightly as it enters the penumbra, the outer part of the Earth’s shadow. Then at 2:45 a.m., the Moon begins to enter the umbra, the darker rusty red part of the Earth’s shadow. By 4:11 a.m., the Moon will be fully immersed in the umbral shadow, but not for long as it begins to emerge from the umbra at 4:28 a.m.
Chabot astronomers will be live streaming the eclipse, using a telescope mounted camera, starting at 1:30 a.m. PDT.
See weblink for Facebook and YouTube links.
The Toxic Culture of Medicine - Livestream - 05/26/2021 10:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
The COVID-19 global pandemic has shined a bright light on our medical system unlike perhaps any other time in this country's history. For more than a year now, we have seen how the daily work of making important, even life-and-death decisions is frequently made harder by factors and variables outside the control of an individual doctor and patient. Meanwhile, even before the pandemic, hospitals and medical offices faced tremendous budget problems, and big pharmaceutical and insurance companies continued to shape the delivery of medical care in all corners of the country; the pandemic only exacerbated these trends.
In a new book, Uncaring, Dr. Robert Pearl - former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group and a Stanford professor - shows how all these stresses have led to a toxic culture in medicine, particularly for physicians. He says doctors resist change, leading to important clerical mistakes. They don't offer equal treatment to all patients. Their competitive work ethic leads to burnout and bad decisions. All these mistakes, he warns, can be and frequently are matters of life and death.
As we emerge from the pandemic and engage in a public debate about the appropriate role of government, technology, big pharmaceutical and insurance companies in our health-care system, Pearl believes we have paid little attention to what it actually feels like to be a doctor. If we want to improve medical outcomes for doctors and patients alike, Pearl believes we need to start seeing health-care professionals as the real and flawed human beings they actually are, and real issues they face every day in their professional lives.
Speakers: Dr. Robert Pearl, Stanford University; Julie Kliger, FTK Consulting, Moderator
Active Galactic Nuclei and Tidal Disruption Events - Livestream - 05/26/2021 11:00 AM
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
A tale of hungry black holes and unfortunate stars. At the centre of every galaxy lies a supermassive black hole. Some of these black holes are in an 'active' state, pulling in a steady stream of material from the surrounding area. While in this state these black holes have a significant effect on their host galaxy's evolution. Other supermassive black holes, like the one at the centre of the Milky Way, are dormant. But even dormant black holes will occasionally feast on an unsuspecting star that strays a little too close...
Speaker: Philip Short
Register at weblink to receive connection information
How to Prepare for Climate Change - 05/26/2021 12:00 PM
Mercy High School Alumni Association
Why did a music major and a surgeon get trained by Vice President Al Gore's Climate Reality Project later in life to press for urgent action on climate? Come hear David Pogue (NYT best-selling author and CBS Sunday Morning correspondent) and Mercy High School sophomore parent Andrea Metkus, M.D. as they share their personal stories on why they've become climate activists. Joining them are Mercy science teachers Jennifer Lambdin and Dr. Pat Bradley. Register for the Event here
This lecture will give a brief overview of the SDGs with reference to recent industry specific trends and ESG benchmarks. An important part of the lecture will be about mapping a roadmap of integrating the SDGs in your organization that has been developed by the presenter, Nitesh Dullabh. He will be sharing a few industry examples to demonstrate how the SDGs are assisting teams in driving organizational purpose and performance. The lecture will include some best practice practical tools and techniques to demonstrate organizational impact.
Speaker: Nitesh Dullabh has been focused on sustainability and socio-economic businesses in the public and private sector. He joined South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry and served as South Africa’s economic attaché in Beijing and Shanghai for almost 4 years.
Science on Tap - Armed and Dangerous: How octopuses use and lose their arms - Livestream - 05/26/2021 07:00 PM
Science on Tap
Octopuses have a fascinating and important place in the marine ecosystem because they connect many different organisms in the food web. They are hunted by fish, marine mammals, and even other octopuses, so they have had to evolve a variety of interesting, well-known strategies they use to live another day. They can effectively hide from, startle, and evade a would-be predator. As a last resort, if they’re attacked, they also have the ability to completely regenerate lost arms. However, almost nothing is known about their ability to retaliate, which means defending themselves when they are cornered by a predator. We also don't know how an octopus’ behaviors may change to compensate after it loses one of its eight arms. Which arms are they using? Which arms are they losing? In this talk, I will share what I have been doing to investigate the causes and impacts of arm loss in a variety of octopus species.
Speaker: Kelley Voss, UC Santa Cruz.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
A Little Talk About Aliens: Techno-signatures and the New Science of Life in the Universe - 05/26/2021 07:00 PM
Silicon Valley Astronomy Series
Today, the search for intelligent, civilization-building life in the Universe is undergoing a profound renewal. Thanks to the discovery of thousands of planets orbiting other stars, the introduction of new observing technologies, and increased support from both public and private sectors, a new science of searching for “techno-signatures” is emerging. In this talk Dr. Frank will unpack this frontier area, discussing what counts as a techno-signature; how to be systematic in thinking about exo-civilizations and their evolution; what techno-signatures can tell us about our own future. He believes that within the next few decades we will likely have actual data relevant to the question life, perhaps even the intelligent kind, in the Universe.
Speaker: Dr. Adam Frank of the University of Rochester
Thursday, 05/27/2021
Black Holes, the Universe, and Us - Livestream - 05/27/2021 10:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Join us for a virtual discussion, live-streamed direct from Berlin, Germany, with Heino Falcke, the German astrophysicist, about his research into the nature of black holes. His new book A Light in the Darkness is the story of how the first photographic evidence of black holes was achieved by Falcke in April 2019, and what its significance for humanity might be. Falcke wrestles with the ways in which black holes force us to confront the boundary where human life ends and the celestial begins. He also ponders why black holes are so difficult for most of us to understand, comparing that to our inability to envisage our own inevitable death.
Black holes develop when a massive star dies, and its matter is condensed. That extreme amount of mass contained in a small space generates a gigantic amount of gravitational force, allowing the black hole to suck up everything that comes near, including light. These astronomical wonders are the subject of intense scientific and philosophical theorizing - the journey to a black hole might even be a journey to the end of time itself. Which is why Falcke regards black holes as exquisite representations of fear, death - and, surprisingly, the divine.
Empirical and profound, Falcke examines both the physical nature and the spiritual meaning of black holes, which he calls “the epitome of merciless destruction.”
Moderator: George Hammond, Author
Use discount code Wonderfest21 to attend for free.
Labside Chats: A Conversation with a Scientist, featuring Haley Ohms, Ph.D. - Livestream - 05/27/2021 11:00 AM
Seymour Science Center
Tune in for the next Labside Chat with Haley Ohms, assistant project scientist at UC Santa Cruz and researcher with the Fisheries Collaborative Program. Learn more about the ecology and evolutionary biology of steelhead in the Carmel River.
Join the conversation! Submit your questions in advance for Haley, then watch the conversation to hear the answers during the live chat. Help us put together questions such as:
How are steelhead in the Carmel River responding to the removal of the San Clemente Dam?How is climate change impacting steelhead and other migratory fish along the Central Coast? In addition to removing dams, what other management actions can help restore declining steelhead populations?
See weblink for connection button.
Counterfactuals: the science of can and can't - Livestream - 05/27/2021 11:00 AM
The Royal Institution
Physicist Chiara Marletto proposes a new way of thinking about laws of nature. Thinking about which laws are possible or impossible may generate an alternative way of providing explanations, and therefore new scientific theories.
In this talk, Chiara will explain this fascinating, far-reaching approach (known as Constructor Theory) which holds promise for revolutionising the way fundamental physics is formulated and for providing essential tools to face existing technological challenges, from delivering the next generation of information-processing devices beyond the universal quantum computer to designing AIs.
Chiara's new book on the subject, 'The Science of Can and Can't: A Physicist's Journey Through the Land of Counterfactuals', is available from amazon and all good bookshops.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
The Hidden Costs of AI - Livestream - 05/27/2021 04:00 PM
Computer History Museum
What happens when artificial intelligence drives a shift away from democracy, increases inequity, and harms the planet? How is AI shaping our understanding of ourselves and our societies? Drawing on more than a decade of research, AI expert Kate Crawford reveals how AI is a technology of extraction: from the minerals drawn from the earth, to the labor pulled from low-wage information workers, to the data taken from every action and expression. Sharing insights from her new book, Atlas of AI, Crawford will discuss the hidden costs of artificial intelligence and what’s at stake as it reshapes the world.
Register at weblink to receive connection information.
Shocking Origin: Meteor Impacts and the Chemistry of Life - Livestream - 05/27/2021 05:00 PM
SLAC Public Lecture
When and where life originated on Earth - and if, or where, life exists elsewhere in the cosmos - are some of the biggest scientific questions of our time. Even the origin of the basic materials needed for life is a mystery. Meteorites and comets are often cited as potential sources of simple organic molecules. When these impact Earth, they experience extreme conditions - pressures a million times higher than the atmospheric pressure at Earth’s surface and temperatures as hot as the surface of the sun. Under these conditions, the simple molecules can reform into more complex and novel structures, including nucleotide bases for RNA and DNA. We can study how these organic fragments form and how they can build up complex products using SLAC’s X-ray free-electron laser. With observations that take place in a tiny fraction of a second, we can shock-compress materials to create extreme conditions and visualize the breaking and forming of chemical bonds. In this presentation, I will show how this technique may hold the key to revealing the origin of life via complex chemical dynamics taking place on ultrafast time scales and at ultrahigh pressures and temperatures.
Speaker: Arianna Gleason, SLAC
See weblink for Zoom information
ANDY WEIR Discusses 'Project Hail Mary' with SETI Scientist Pascal Lee - Livestream - 05/27/2021 05:00 PM
SETI Institute
Books Inc. proudly presents #1 New York Times-bestselling author Andy Weir in celebration of his critically-acclaimed new novel, Project Hail Mary. Andy will be in conversation Pascal Lee, planetary scientist with the SETI Institute.
With Starred reviews from Booklist, Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal, Project Hail Mary is an ever-entertaining space thriller.
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information.
Hardcore Natural History: Regeneración Pajaro Valley Climate Action - Livestream - 05/27/2021 06:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
Join us as we speak to Natalie Olivas, Community Organizer at Regeneración Pajaro Valley Climate Action where she helps to build community capacity to advocate for equitable climate action. She works across sectors to interweave climate justice into various programs and curriculums. Natalie has experience working with local governments, businesses, and nonprofits in policy analysis, meeting and analyzing sustainability goals, and education and outreach. Her mission to help build equitable and sustainable communities while centering the needs of historically marginalized and oppressed groups.
Regeneración works with community partners to inspire everyone in the Pajaro Valley to respond locally to the global challenge of a changing climate. We co-create relevant and relatable climate solutions with the people most at risk from climate impacts.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
NightLife - SOLD OUT - 05/27/2021 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 40,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude the albino alligator), the night is sure to be wild.
Reserve your entry to the iconic Shake House and our four-story Rainforest, where you can explore the Amazon’s treetops surrounded by free-flying birds and butterflies.
Venture into our latest 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 Photography competition.
Bask in the glow of one of the largest living coral reef displays in the world: our 212,000-gallon Philippine Coral Reef tank.
Take in the interstellar views from the Living Roof, then grab a bite from the Academy Cafe and head to the West Garden outdoor bar to drink and dine under the stars. For adults 21+.
See weblink for additional details
After Dark Online: Transitional Landscapes - 05/27/2021 07:00 PM
ExplOratorium
As the Bay Area prepares for climate change and the impacts of sea level rise, the development planned for Treasure Island - incorporating innovative strategies for urban agriculture, sustainability, sea level rise, and environmental stewardship - is one forward-looking project.
Join us in exploring the participation of artists in developing climate adaptation solutions. We'll present the objectives of the Treasure Island Art Program, give a view of the landscape architecture plan for Treasure Island, and introduce a series of conversations about the role artists who work with long-term ecologies could play in considering landscapes in transition and climate adaptation. These discussions help lay the groundwork for future potential commissions for environmental art projects through the Treasure Island Art.
This program is presented in collaboration with the Treasure Island Development Authority, The San Francisco Art Commission, and the Exploratorium.
See weblink for list of speakers and links to Facebook and YouTube.
Where Earthquakes Hide in the Desert: What we've learned from recent fault ruptures in the western U.S. - Livestream - 05/27/2021 07:00 PM
US Geological Survey Public Lecture Series
Three large earthquakes since 2019 have ruptured incompletely mapped faults in the western U.S.Both satellite and field measurements give extremely detailed maps of how the ground deformed.Imaging these earthquakes and studying the previously unrecognized connectivity among the causative faults offers a rare window into the types of earthquakes that can occur, including how large and how often.
Speaker: Austin Elliott, USGS Research Geologist
NightSchool: Sharks Jaws & Maws - Livestream - 05/27/2021 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Get a better understanding of shark physiology and peer into some jaws and maws. During this evening highlighting the diversity of sharks, we’re embarking into the wonderful world of filter-feeders, finding out what fossilized shark teeth can tell us about ancient oceans, and getting an up-close look at specimens from the Academy’s scientific collections.
We’re also celebrating the Academy’s new exhibit, Sharks, opening on May 28.
Join Dave Catania, Sr. Collection Manager of Ichthyology, for a fascinating glimpse into the Academy’s scientific collections. He’ll show off some of his favorite shark specimens, showcasing the class’s wide range in size, feeding habits, dentition, reproductive strategies, and hydrodynamics. Ancient shark teeth contain clues to ecology and oceanography when you study their shape and chemistry. Dr. Sora Kim, Assistant Professor at UC Merced, focuses on shark teeth from the Eocene (about 50 - 35 million years ago), a period of increased carbon dioxide concentrations and global warming and a time when sharks roamed Arctic and Antarctic waters. Some sharks don’t have exactly what you’d call teeth. They’re filter-feeders, and Dr. Misty Paig-Tran studies the mechanics of how large elasmobranchs, a group that includes sharks and rays, filter-feed so well. She’ll talk about why filter-feeding sharks are so cool, and how their sophisticated filtration systems can affect our lives.
All NightLife virtual programming is intended for audiences 21+
See weblink for YouTube and Facebook links.
Friday, 05/28/2021
Megathrust earthquakes and their associated tsunamis cause some of the worst natural disasters. In addition to earthquakes, a wide range of slip behaviors is present at subduction zones, including slow earthquakes that span multiple orders of spatial and temporal scales. Episodic tremor and slip (ETS) events may provide insights into the rupture characteristics of megathrust earthquakes, and understanding ETS initiation processes may shed light on earthquake nucleation processes. However, the nucleation processes of ETS events are poorly understood despite their quasi-periodic occurrence. Here we show that the 2009 Cascadia ETS event was likely dynamically triggered by the M6.9 Canal de Ballenas earthquake in the Gulf of California, about 2300 km away. The M6.9 earthquake ruptured northward towards Cascadia at a speed exceeding local shear wave speed - a supershear earthquake. The supershear rupture caused abnormally large ground motions and dynamic strains across the North American plate boundary and dynamically triggered seismicity in California. Further, the earthquake dynamically triggered three very low frequency earthquakes (VLFEs) in Cascadia upon the arrival of its surface waves, including one with a moment magnitude of 5.7. These VLFEs are adjacent to the slip zone of the 2009 Cascadia ETS event and likely caused the onset of the ETS event. We show that slow earthquakes at Cascadia are sensitive to external stress perturbations and ETS events can be dynamically triggered. Our results are consistent with the downdip edge of the Cascadia megathrust fault being weak due to the overpressurized fluid. Consequentially, slip events can be easily initiated in this region, which would load the adjacent fault patches and may act as a catalyst to trigger a sequence of slip events.
Speaker: Wenyuan Fan, UC San Diego
Zoom information can be found on the EPS advising Google calendar
Environmental Career Panel Discussion - 05/28/2021 03:00 PM
Acterra's Young Professionals
Acterra's Young Professionals, De Anza's Zero Waste & Climate Awareness Club, and DASB Environmental Sustainability Committee are excited to announce an environmental career panel discussion featuring professionals with a diverse range of sustainability backgrounds and professions.
This event will feature brief presentations from our career panel, a Q&A session and then individual breakout rooms for you to be able to speak one on one with these professionals.
Saturday, 05/29/2021
Science Saturday: Water Wild - Livestream - 05/29/2021 10:00 AM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Dive in for a refreshing look at rivers, creeks, and streams. We'll focus on freshwater wildlife, watershed science, and the Museum's role in studying the health of these important places.
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Truth is Stranger Than Science Fiction - Livestream - 05/29/2021 07:00 PM
East Bay Astronomical Society
Humankind speculated about the existence of planets orbiting other Suns for hundreds, if not thousands of years before their existence was finally confirmed. During that time we invented and depicted many new and now iconic sci-fi worlds - mysterious planets with exotic landscapes, orbiting alien star systems. When our technology finally caught up with our imaginations, what we found was even more extraordinary than we had imagined. As science curator at the NASA Exoplanet Archive, I’ll take you on a tour of some of the more fantastic exoplanet discoveries we have made, including some famous, fan-favorite fictional planets brought to life
Speaker: Jessie Christiansen, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Caltech
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Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 05/29/2021 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!
Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be available for an open forum for all of your most pressing astronomy questions.
Tuesday, 06/01/2021
Whole Earth Seminars - Livestream - 06/01/2021 03:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz
Thursday, 06/03/2021
Micromitigation: Fighting Air Pollution with Activated Carbon - Livestream - 06/03/2021 07:00 PM
Counter Culture Labs
After Dark Online: 500 Queer Scientists - 06/03/2021 07:00 PM
ExplOratorium
NightSchool: Hi-Res Reefs - Livestream - 06/03/2021 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Friday, 06/04/2021
Maria Sibylla Merian, A Passion for Plants and Insects - Livestream - 06/04/2021 11:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden
Saturday, 06/05/2021
Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 06/05/2021 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center