Hello again Science fans and welcome to another SciSchmooze!
There are 87 events on the calendar over the next two weeks. My picks include:
Wonderfest: BLACKBERRY and Corporate Psychology - 03/26/2024 05:00 PM
The Psychology of Misinformation and Its Remedies - Livestream - 03/28/2024 04:00 PM
Perlmutter, Campbell and MacCoun on Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense - 03/28/2024 05:30 PM
There is a lot of news about the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8. If you are planning to travel to see it, here’s some advice that you may find useful. If you haven’t made travel plans yet, you may be out of luck finding reasonably priced flights, accommodations or rental cars. Local astronomy legend Andrew Fraknoi also has some information for you about the eclipse.
But did you know there is also an eclipse tonight? Each solar eclipse is accompanied by an eclipse of the moon, either before or after the solar eclipse. This lunar eclipse won’t be very exciting as it is a penumbral eclipse, with the moon partially in Earth’s shadow. It will dim slightly. It will happen starting just before 10:00 PM tonight in our area, with the maximum eclipse at 12:13 AM tomorrow morning. The moon will be above the horizon during the full eclipse time here, so if it is clear (a big if) it should be visible. For all things eclipse, see timeanddate.com.
The April 8 eclipse will be a partial eclipse in the Bay Area. The next total lunar eclipse visible here will be next year on March 13 - 14, and the next total solar eclipse won’t happen in the US until 2045! You should have more than enough time to plan for that one!
As with last October’s Annular Solar Eclipse, the ExplOratorium will have a team deployed to the path of the eclipse to stream it. You can watch it here. And here’s NASA’s page covering the eclipse.
The total solar eclipse in 2017 happened near the solar minimum, the time of least solar activity in the 11 year cycle. This one will happen near the peak, and scientists are excited because this convergence of the eclipse with the near-maximum means they may be able to see some spectacular flares from the sun’s corona.
Staying in the sky for a bit, the night sky should get a “new star” that will be visible here on earth. T Coronae Borealis is a nova, a nuclear explosion from the corpse of a long-dead star. This happens about every 80 years, and it should occur again in the coming weeks.
Analysis of deep sea geological cores shows a 2.4 million year pattern in Earth’s climate, with changes caused by the interaction between the Earth and Mars, of all things. You might think Mars would be far enough away to not have much of an effect on our climate, but it does.
There’s big news in the world of physics, although some won’t like it. Sabine Hossenfelder writes about a new post-quantum theory of gravity that explains why dark matter and dark energy really don’t exist. Both of the “darks” are commonly accepted theories to explain some holes in our understanding of how the Universe came into being. This is science at its best, a new theory that explains something that the conventional wisdom hasn’t been able to do…for almost a century!
Dr. Becky Smethurst discusses the fastest growing supermassive black hole ever discovered as well as other news in the sky and space this month. Her enthusiasm is catching.
Did you know the United States just got bigger by the size of two Californias!?
If you haven’t been to Año Nuevo State Park in San Mateo or one of the other coastal locales where elephant seals congregate, you owe it to yourself to visit. We here at the SciSchmooze have occasionally sponsored trips to the park to see the harems and pups. Elephant seals were once hunted almost to extinction, but through conservation efforts have rebounded sharply. In fact, their range has expanded. Here is a success story worth reading about.
To get to Año Nuevo you will most likely pass through or near some redwood forests. These are coastal redwoods. The giant sequoias found in the Sierra Nevada are cousins. There are only around 80,000 giant sequoias remaining in California. About 160 years ago some were introduced into the United Kingdom and today there are close to half a million of them! Seems they are well suited to the weather in parts of the UK and they are thriving there. Who knew?
It is tulip time here, as well as in the Netherlands where tulips are grown for export. Viruses have been threatening this significant crop (and tourist attraction). Enter AI, and a €185,000 robots that prowls the tulip fields looking for diseased plants and culling them.
AI is the abbreviation of the year. Seems just about every product area has something new either developed with, or containing AI these days. When combined with robotics, such as the tulip monitor, the end result can be impressive. The technology behind chatbots is being used to develop AI tech that can navigate the physical world. And it is happening right here in Emeryville!
The title of the paper was “Information Management: A Proposal”. From that modest title came the World Wide Web, and all the good and bad impact it has had on life as we know it. Here’s a fascinating look at the history of www.
Lastly there’s news from Massachusetts of doctors transplanting a genetically modified pig kidney into a human patient. Best of luck to the recipient!
Have a great week in Science. I’ll be back next Sunday.
Bob Siederer
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 03/25/2024
The Fidelity or Mechanism of Chromosome Encapsulation into a Single Nucleus - 03/25/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Dr. Takashi Mikawa, UC San Francisco
Exploring the High-Redshift Universe with Millimeter-Wave Line Intensity Mapping - 03/25/2024 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
Answering outstanding questions in cosmology - such as understanding the physics of inflation, dark energy, and reionization - requires observations of ever-increasing volumes of the universe. In this talk I will discuss a new technique for measuring large volumes at high redshift: line intensity mapping (LIM) of far-IR emission lines from galaxies. This technique is enabled by advances in millimeter-wave spectrometer technology. I will introduce SPT-SLIM, a pathfinder experiment at the South Pole Telescope which will demonstrate the use of superconducting on-chip spectrometers for LIM. SPT-SLIM targets galaxies from the peak of cosmic star formation, about 10 billion years ago. I will then discuss the future of mm-wave LIM and the technical advances needed to develop this technique into a next-generation cosmological observable.
Speaker: Dr. Kirit Karkare, SLAC
Attend in person or via Zoom (see weblink)
What Physicists Do Seminar - CANCELED - 03/25/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Unraveling the tangled web: the impacts of hybridization in natural populations - 03/25/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Speaker: Molly Schumer, Stanford University
Room: Auditorium
Tuesday, 03/26/2024
AI and Science for Climate Symposium - 03/26/2024 11:30 AM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Join us at the forefront of innovation and environmental stewardship at the University of California, Berkeley for a pivotal symposium. This gathering will convene experts across the fields of artificial intelligence and the natural sciences to explore groundbreaking interventions in climate change technology.
This symposium will have two foci:
Accelerating Discovery: Development of AI and techniques to accelerate or otherwise revolutionize the discovery process and timeline.Pathways to Deployment: Chart the course for deploying emergent technologies that promise significant strides in society's ability to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Engage with an exclusive academic audience, limited to 150 participants, ensuring a focused and intensive exchange of ideas. This is an unmissable opportunity for those committed to shaping a sustainable future through scientific advancement and technological innovation.
Click here for a listing of keynote speakers, schedule, and to register
Sleep and Affective Brain Function: Neural Mechanisms of Affective Disorders and Treatment Response - Livestream - 03/26/2024 12:00 PM
Stanford University
Speaker: Dr. Andrea Goldstein-Piekarski
See weblink for link to the livestream
Wonderfest: BLACKBERRY and Corporate Psychology - 03/26/2024 05:00 PM
Cameo Cinema St. Helena
How and why do corporations decline? Blackberry (98% FRESH at Rotten Tomatoes) offers a tragicomic portrait of decline in Earth's foremost business smartphone maker. Following this special Science on Screen presentation of BlackBerry, UC Berkeley's Dr. Don Moore will illuminate the psychological challenges that face all businesses and, in fact, virtually all human relations.
Uncovering the Ocean's Deepest Secrets - Livestream - 03/26/2024 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
We are thrilled to accompany author, Susan Casey in "Uncovering the Ocean's Deepest Secrets". In her latest book, The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean, she embedded for seven years with explorers and marine scientists as they endeavored to unravel the deep sea’s many mysteries.
Is the giant squid a ferocious predator or a shy opportunist? What’s it like at the bottom of the Mariana Trench? Why are ancient marine microbes the source of our next-generation medicines? Did life begin at a hydrothermal vent? Casey unveils the latest discoveries and the technologies making them possible - and explains why a deeper understanding of the undersea world is essential if we hope to thrive in the world above.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Mushroom Parasites - 03/26/2024 07:30 PM
Bay Area Mycological Society Berkeley
This talk will cover Achlorophyllous plants, Fungal Molds, and other Fun Gis that just can't seem to live without each other. All photos were taken by me throughout California and Oregon. These plants and fungi truly opened my eyes to the intricacies of symbiosis. I'm excited to share my finds and see what piques your interests!
Speaker: Mikhael Crystallah-Selk is SOMA Science Committee Chairman
Wednesday, 03/27/2024
Beyond the Initial Cure: Expanding Horizons of Orphan Drug Indications - Livestream - 03/27/2024 09:00 AM
Stanford University
The Inflation Reduction Act stands as key legislation aimed at improving the accessibility of medicines, yet it has introduced some potential unintended consequences on biotechnology innovation and patients suffering from orphan diseases. In response, the Orphan Cures Act has emerged as a proposed bill dedicated to bolstering research and development for rare diseases. This webinar will explore how these legislative efforts intersect, examining their impact on the delicate balance between innovation, affordability, and access in the realm of rare disease treatments.
Speakers:
Mason Barrett, Policy Analyst, National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)Jon Brodo, Policy Director, Todd StrategyCartier Esham, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer & EVP of Emerging Companies, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)
Moderator:
Erika Modina, MS, 2023-25 Policy Fellow, Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Carbon cycling and oxygen dynamics at the seafloor - Livestream - 03/27/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
The seafloor plays a critical role in global carbon cycling, and thus is important to global climate change studies, including those on warming trends and ocean acidification. On smaller size scales, carbon cycling assessments are used to evaluate aquatic ecosystem health and trophic status. The oxygen flux between the seafloor and the water above integrates major benthic carbon transformations processes and is widely used as a proxy for benthic primary production and organic matter mineralization. In this talk, I review traditional methods for benthic oxygen flux measurements and explain the principles of aquatic eddy covariance, a relatively new approach for measuring benthic oxygen fluxes under naturally varying in situ conditions. I then give examples of the new insights that can be attained with the aquatic eddy covariance technique. These examples focus on benthic substrates where traditional flux methods are difficult or impossible to use. Lastly, I highlight new developments in the approach and give my view of future applications of the aquatic eddy covariance technique.
Speaker: Peter Berg, University of Virginia
Register at weblink to attend
AI and Science for Climate Symposium - 03/27/2024 11:30 AM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Join us at the forefront of innovation and environmental stewardship at the University of California, Berkeley for a pivotal symposium. This gathering will convene experts across the fields of artificial intelligence and the natural sciences to explore groundbreaking interventions in climate change technology.
Click on weblink for listing of keynote speakers and to register
Leveraging Medical Discourse to Answer Complex Questions - 03/27/2024 06:45 PM
Hacker Dojo Mountain View
We review the literature on medical discourse and attempt to build a computational model of it. Medical discourse sheds a light on communication structure of patient-doctor and other communication scenarios in healthcare and should be leveraged to facilitate and automate this communication when it is possible and practical. We propose a unified framework to represent communication discourse at the meta-level, where the subject of the communication is expressed in a language object.
So far, the broad range of work on medical discourse is detached from computational discourse analysis, and we explore the possibilities of filling this gap and computationally treat the peculiarities of how information is passed between the agents in a hospital setting. We encode such discourse-level features as social interaction, critical discourse, metaphoric language, and representation of pain.
We select the domain of question answering (QA) against a corpus of medical documents of diverse nature to evaluate our computational model of medical discourse. We compare the performance of our discourse-enriched prompt-base models with the ones without manual discourse feature engineering. It turns out that applying specific structures obtained in medical discourse studies improves the relevance and efficiency of question answering. We pro also propose a RAG architecture leveraging discourse analysis.
https://github.com/bgalitsky/medical_discourse
Speaker: Boris Galitsky
Science on Tap: From Healthy Whales to Healthy Oceans - 03/27/2024 07:00 PM
Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz
Baleen whales are some of the largest animals that have ever existed on our planet. They have enormous energetic needs that can only be satisfied by feeding on large schools of dense prey that are patchily distributed in the oceans. Using a suite of emerging technologies we have developed new tools that allow us to better estimate how much baleen whales consume and how this then leads to baleen whales acting as ecosystem engineers by recycling critical nutrients that stimulate primary productivity. Thus, given their energetic needs, the presence of whales reflects a healthy and functioning marine ecosystem that is in past sustained by the recycling of nutrients that whales produce. In this lecture, I will share our path to studying the underwater behavior of whales and how this has led us to better understand the ecological role of whales in ocean ecosystems.
Electric Vehicle Charging Basics Workshop - Livestream - 03/27/2024 07:00 PM
City of Sunnyvale
Join us for an electric vehicle (EV) online workshop focused on EV charging.
Learn about the best ways to find and use public chargers.Discover different available charging speeds, charging options for multi-family dwellings.
We'll guide you through the available rebates for Bay Area residents. This webinar is available in Spanish and English.
Healthcare Simulation Lab: Empowering future medical providers through healthcre simulations - 03/27/2024 07:30 PM
Marin Science Seminar San Rafael
Speakers: Karrina Mock CRNA and Derrick Duarte CRNA of Veterans Administration Medical Center San Francisco
Thursday, 03/28/2024
Molecular Scale Engineering of Polymer Membranes for Environment, Energy and Health - Livestream - 03/28/2024 12:00 PM
California Section American Chemical Society
Designing new polymer membranes with a set of previously unachievable transport properties will have an enormous impact on various applications, including energy-efficient separations, energy storage and health-related devices. The advancement of these technologies is dependent on polymer membranes which selectively transport only desired penetrants while maintaining chemical stability. Molecular transport in polymer membranes is greatly influenced by the chemical and morphological structures of polymers. Here two research projects are presented for designing new membranes using charged polymers for improved molecule separations. The transport mechanism in the polymer membranes is studied from the fundamental perspectives of polymer-penetrant interactions and templating diffusion pathways for selective transport of small molecules.
First, solvent-free, melt processed ion-exchange membranes based on sulfonated polymers are presented for water purification and desalination. Most membranes currently used in industry are prepared by solvent processing using large volumes of hazardous solvents. Despite the negative environmental impact, solvent processing is the only method to form thin film membranes on the order of 10-200 nm thickness. In stark contrast to conventional solvent processing, robust ion-exchange membranes based on sulfonated polymers were prepared by solvent-free melt processing, for the first time. The transport of small molecules in resultant membranes is significantly affected by different membrane formation methods.
Second, designing nanostructured polymer membranes for a new emerging biomedical application, “drug capture”, to minimize the toxic side effects of cancer chemotherapy drugs, is discussed. Typically, more than 90% of the injected drug is not trapped in the target organ, causing systemic toxic side effects. We designed 3D printed biosponge absorbers for capturing toxic drugs downstream of tumors before they spread through the body.
Speaker: Hee Jeung Oh, Pennsylvania state University
See weblink for connection information
Reinventing Cities: Can zero-carbon development play a role in San Francisco’s recovery? - 03/28/2024 12:30 PM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR) San Francisco
San Francisco has entered two City-owned sites in the fourth edition of C40 Cities Reinventing Cities Competition, a global design and development competition to transform underutilized urban sites into innovative, zero-carbon and resilient developments. The competition invites teams of architects, designers, and developers to submit proposals for sustainable development projects that meet specific site needs, with the winning team invited to negotiate with the City for development rights. Learn more about the competition, past C40 projects in San Francisco, and the City’s vision for how the two sites - 1 South Van Ness Avenue and 170 Otis Street - can play a role in meeting downtown economic recovery, housing, development, and sustainability goals.
Moderator: Sarah Atkinson / Hazard Resilience Senior Policy ManagerDoug Shoemaker / President, Mercy Housing CaliforniaJacob Bintliff / Manager of Economic Recovery Initiatives, Office of Economic and Workforce Development
Advance registration required
The Psychology of Misinformation and Its Remedies - Livestream - 03/28/2024 04:00 PM
Skeptical Inquirer
In the battle against misinformation, having truth and facts on your side is often still not enough. People are stubbornly - and seemingly inexplicably - willing to believe things that are obviously not true. What are the underlying psychological reasons for this, and what can be done to address them?
Join usfor a Skeptical Inquirer Presents livestream with Hope College social psychologist David Myers. He’ll share ten striking examples of people believing things that are clearly untrue and detail the psychological mechanisms that enable and sustain false beliefs. Finally, Myers will illustrate the contribution of scientific inquiry, education, and faith-based humility to restraining misinformation.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Perlmutter, Campbell and MacCoun on Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense - 03/28/2024 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Join a Nobel Laureate physicist, a psychologist and a philosopher for a conversation about the tools and frameworks that scientists have developed to keep from fooling themselves, to chart a course through the profusion of possibilities, to better understand the world, and to make intelligent decisions. These trust-building techniques, which the authors call Third Millennium Thinking, can be used to tackle problems both big and small.
Ironically, the deluge of information over the internet has made it even harder to distinguish the revelatory from the contradictory. How do we make health decisions in the face of conflicting medical advice? Does that article on GMOs even show what the authors claim? How should we navigate our next Thanksgiving discussion with our in-laws, who follow completely different experts on climate?
Based on a popular UC Berkeley course, Third Millennium Thinking offers a novel approach for making sense of the nonsense by thinking critically, making sound decisions, and solving problems - individually and collectively - using scientists’ tricks of the trade.
Panel:
John Campbell, UC BerkeleyRobert MacCoun, Stanford UniversitySaul Perlmutter, Nobel Laureate, UC BerkeleyGeorge Hammond, Commonwealth Club, Moderator
NightLife - 03/28/2024 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. Reservations for these exhibits are no longer required. However, please note that the last entry into the rainforest is 7:30 pm - our animals need their sleep.
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 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.
After Dark: See for Yourself - 03/28/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Dive into the world of emotions, thoughts, and other fascinating human phenomena tonight! Learn about the science behind your feelings, and investigate how human interactions shape our society. Do you trust a stranger to help you unlock a safe? Can you work with your friends to win at the cooperative game? Come play with 650+ interactive exhibits that explore the art and science of human perception. You might be surprised by what they reveal about the world - and yourself.
Will AI Be Humanity’s Last Act? - 03/28/2024 06:30 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Berkeley
Join California magazine Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph in conservation with Professor Stuart Russell, head of UC Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, about both the tremendous promise and considerable perils of artificial intelligence.
In 2023, TIME magazine counted Stuart Russell among the 100 Most Influential People in AI. He is co-author with Peter Norvig, of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the standard text on AI, and the author of Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control, judged among the best science and technology books of 2019. A professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and holder of the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley, he is also an Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery at UC San Francisco and Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum's Council on AI and Robotics.
Science Is a Piece of Cake: Astronomy Cake-off - 03/28/2024 07:00 PM
KQED, The Commons San Francisco
Do you know your astronomy? Learn about all the planets and stars in our (rare night of fog-free) Bay Area sky via ... cake! KQED's Check, Please! Bay Area producer Cecilia Phillips is hosting a cake bake-off, where celestial bodies serve as our visual inspiration. Enter in the competition as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced baker, or come be in the audience to learn about the stars overhead and eat delicious cake.
Oumuamua: Watching the scientific process unfold - 03/28/2024 07:00 PM
Los Altos Public Library Los Altos
Humanity's first discovered interstellar visitor, Oumuamua, was found in 2017 while it was already on its way out of our solar system. The sparse data astronomers could gather over the span of 2.5 months included a few surprises and mysteries. In this talk, Dr. Mathews will outline the observations, the potential explanations that have been raised, and, ultimately, what future observations will help us place this first known visitor in context.
Speaker: Dr Geoff Mathews, Foothill College
Adult Vaccinations: One Shot at a Time - Livestream - 03/28/2024 07:00 PM
Stanford University
Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, will talk about general recommendations for adult vaccinations, benefits and risks, new technologies like MRNA vs traditional vaccines, and considerations for travel and those living with chronic disease.
Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, is director of the Program on Prevention Outcomes and Practices in the Stanford Preventive Research Center.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Friday, 03/29/2024
Public Astronomy Viewing Nights - 03/29/2024 08:30 PM
Sonoma State University Public Astronomy Rohnert Park
Sonoma State University hosts astronomical viewing nights open to the public. Events are weather dependent. Check the weblink for cancelations prior to attending.
In Town Star Party - 03/29/2024 08:45 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
Come join San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) for an evening of stargazing.
Event details:
Events are held at the parking lot of our headquarters, Houge Park San Jose. The event duration is 2 hours. SJAA volunteers will share night sky views from their telescopes.Please refrain from bringing your own telescopes (Binoculars are welcome). If you like to be a volunteer with or without a telescope please email at "itsp@sjaa.net".
Register at weblink
Saturday, 03/30/2024
A Night for Beginning Astronomers - 03/30/2024 07:00 PM
Muir Woods Community Clubhouse Mill Valley
The SFAA is hosting a night dedicated to our members beginning in visual astronomy. Beginners will bring their optical instruments and experienced members will be present to provide assistance. Cosmic delights for the evening include: Jupiter with its Great Red Spot visible and its moon Io casting a shadow, an excellent opportunity to view Comet Pons-Brooks, the great Orion Nebula, and the home of Star Trek’s Vulcans.
Join us for a BYOF picnic (cookies provided!) prior to the event at 6:00 PM. Sunset will be at 7:30 PM, therefore we suggest arriving no later than 7 PM to allow for setup.
To register, either as a beginner seeking support or an experienced astronomer wanting to mentor, please click here.
Sunprint Kit Celebration at the Lawrence Hall of Science - 03/30/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Celebrate Spring Break with solar science! We’ll have a printmaking station all week featuring our Sunprint® Kits paper in Forces That Shape the Bay. Use your creativity, a variety of fun materials, and the sun’s power to express yourself and create stunning art. On Sunday, April 7, come back from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. to see your Sunprints on display for all to see and vote on your favorites to win a prize! Every visitor gets a free Sunprint Kit when they spend $40 at The Discovery Store all week long!
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 03/30/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Science Saturday: Dino Day! - 03/30/2024 10:00 AM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Roar into spring with dinos and fossils! Learn about different kinds of fossils and prehistoric animals and plants. You can even trace your lineage in the phylogenetic tree.
Stewardship Saturday: Experiencing Fish Kitchen - 03/30/2024 11:00 AM
Marine Mammal Center Sausalito
Join us for this exclusive behind-the-scenes opportunity to visit The Marine Mammal Center, observe patients being fed and support our hard-working volunteer crews with some extra help during our peak patient season. During these busier months, our patients can consume up to 1,000 pounds of fish per day! That’s a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of fishy dishes. We’ll take you behind-the-scenes to help out and experience a few hours of what it is like to be one of our committed animal care volunteers. Our hope is that you leave this event with an increased understanding of patient needs, and some goals for what you can do to support our ocean.
Intended for high school students
Afternoon Hike at Mindego Hill - 03/30/2024 03:00 PM
Mindego Hill Trail Head Redwood City
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful 5-mile hike from the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve to the top of the POST-protected Mindego Hill. You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about how we protected this beautiful property featuring panoramic views of redwood ridges and undulating hillsides.
The hike is strenuous at about 5 miles round trip with about 1,000 feet of elevation gain, so be prepared for a workout! Athletic wear and sturdy shoes are recommended! If you’d like to bring your own hiking poles, you’re more than welcome.
Protected by POST and recently opened to the public by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Mindego Hill is an excellent example of how POST works with various partners to protect some of the most threatened lands in our area.
Register at weblink
Sunday, 03/31/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 03/31/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Solar Observing - 03/31/2024 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.
We're also planning station for your get a better feel for a huge scale of our solar system! And you'll get a solar system you can fold up and carry in your pocket.
You may bring your own telescope. If you have a properly filtered white light or H-alpha telescope and want to share views with others, please arrive at 1:30 or earlier, so you have time to set up before the event officially starts.
Weather dependent. Sign up at weblink
Science on Tap: Ancient Ecology - 03/31/2024 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Dive into the ancient world with an incredible panel of experts discussing fossils, paleontology, and local research and digs! Learn more about the tooth discovered in Santa Cruz last year, current research and digs happening in the county, and get some great insights into other fossils, bones, and more. It’ll be an amazing night with great drinks and fantastic people, our last Science on Tap sold out so be sure to reserve your seats today!
Monday, 04/01/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/01/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Help us test a new activity for your future scientists aged 6 and under. Explore nature with various optical tools that can focus far beyond what our eyes typically see. Zoom in and zoom out with microscopes, periscopes, binoculars, and lenses carrying different magnifying powers. Which tools will you choose to help find what’s hidden in nature? The first hour each day (10:00 - 11:00 a.m.) is members only.
Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Symbolic Systems Forum - 04/01/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
Speaker: David G. Stork, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University
See weblink for instructions to gain entry to the building.
Room 126
What Physicists Do Seminar - CANCELED - 04/01/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Opening Windows into the Cell: Bringing structure to cell biology using cryo-electron tomography - 04/01/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Elizabeth Villa, Ph.D. is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California San Diego. She completed her Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Fulbright Fellow and became a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich. She was recruited to UC San Diego in 2014. Dr. Villa was the recipient of an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to pursue high-risk high-reward research developing cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and new technological and computational techniques to advance structural cell biology. She was named a Pew Scholar in 2017, and she was selected to become a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2021.
Speaker: Elizabeth Villa, UC San Diego
Room: Auditorium
AI & the Humanities: AI is Weird - 04/01/2024 05:00 PM
Stephens Hall Berkeley
The contemporary humanities is largely concerned with the social and political function of texts and images, often at the expense of the meta-discipline’s long engagement with the uncanny, the visionary, the paradoxical, the otherworldly, and the abject. But it may be these latter concerns that become most salient in the humanistic encounter with contemporary AI and its exploding impact on culture and consciousness. Drawing from ideas developed in his book High Weirdness (MIT Press, 2019) and his Burning Shore Substack, Davis will explore how the concept of the weird helps illuminate the speculative and reality-bending properties of AI discourse and practice, as algorithms, machine learning, and massive data sets open up an ontologically unstable space of mythology, weird fiction, and dreamlike encounters with the simulacrum.
Speaker: Eric Davis, Author
The Formation of New Worlds and the Building Blocks of Life - 04/01/2024 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Astronomers have recently discovered thousands of exoplanets in orbit around other stars. What are these different planets like? Are any hospitable to the development of life? Answering these questions leads us to delve into the rich chemistry that accompanies the formation of new solar systems. Powerful telescopes including JWST are now illuminating, in greater detail than ever before, the distinctive chemistry at play during planet formation. Complementing this, laboratory experiments that mimic the extreme conditions found in space can reveal how molecules behave in these exotic environments. The emerging view of planet formation chemistry is helping to explain the staggering diversity of planet types and compositions that can form - and to predict how newly formed planets can be seeded with the building blocks for life.
Speaker: Jenny Bergner, UC Berkeley
Tuesday, 04/02/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/02/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Reaching 1 Million Electric Vehicle Chargers by 2030 - Livestream - 04/02/2024 12:30 PM
SF Planning+Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR)
Using Robots to Map the Deep Ocean Seafloor at Scales of Meters to Centimeters - 04/02/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Electron-hole fluid in van der Waals heterostructures - 04/02/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Chemistry between the stars: from clouds to planets - 04/02/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Driving Climate Solutions: Amazon’s Path to Net-Zero Carbon - 04/02/2024 04:00 PM
Spieker Auditorium Berkeley
Panel Discussion on Private Sector and Climate Change - 04/02/2024 06:00 PM
UC Berkeley Berkeley
Wonderfest: Ask a Science Envoy: Biorhythms; Decarbonization - 04/02/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Black Holes & Spin-offs - 04/02/2024 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Wednesday, 04/03/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/03/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Spring Break at the Lawrence Hall of Science - The Shocking Nature of Wildfires Science Show - 04/03/2024 11:30 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Art, Ecology, Poetry: Playing with Facts, Fact-Checking Creativity - Livestream - 04/03/2024 03:40 PM
Estuary and Ocean Science Center
Think like a channel, act like a carrier - The case of SLC9C1, a voltage-gated sperm-specific Na+/H+ exchanger - 04/03/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Silicon Valley Dejargonizers, a toastmasters club meeting - Livestream - 04/03/2024 06:00 PM
Silicon Valley Dejargonizers
Myths of Astronomy - 04/03/2024 07:00 PM
Randall Museum San Francisco
Global Demographics: A Window onto our Rapidly Changing Future - 04/03/2024 07:00 PM
Berkeley City Club Berkeley
Thursday, 04/04/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/04/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America - Livestream - 04/04/2024 12:00 PM
Commonwealth Club
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 04/04/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Spiking Neural Networks: Learning Algorithms and Hardware Acceleration - 04/04/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
A conversation with David Leonhardt from the New York Times - 04/04/2024 05:00 PM
SRI International Palo Alto
NightLife Intersections: Fashion - 04/04/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: See for Yourself - 04/04/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
PubScience: Seek and Destroy: Molecular machines for cellular recycling and how to catch them in the act - 04/04/2024 06:30 PM
Ocean View Brew Works Albany
Friday, 04/05/2024
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/05/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Bair Island Walking Tour - 04/05/2024 10:00 AM
Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail Redwood City
What are these small worlds, after all? The nature and evolution of 'mini-Neptunes' - 04/05/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Polar Topological Defects - Fundamentals to Applications - 04/05/2024 02:00 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
First Friday Nights at CuriOdyssey - 04/05/2024 05:00 PM
CuriOdyssey San Mateo
Saturday, 04/06/2024
Spring BioBlitz at the Palo Alto Baylands - 04/06/2024 09:00 AM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
Bringing Back the Natives Garden Online Tour - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Bringing Back the Natives
Spring flowers at Bouverie Preserve - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Bouverie Preserve Glen Ellen
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Climate Change at Chrissy Field - 04/06/2024 10:00 AM
Meet by restrooms @ Crissy Field East Beach SF
Nike Missile Site Veteran Open House - 04/06/2024 12:00 PM
Nike Missle Site Mill Valley
Starry Nights Star Party - RESCHEDULED - 04/06/2024 09:00 PM
Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Sunday, 04/07/2024
Bringing Back the Natives Garden Online Tour - 04/07/2024 10:00 AM
Bringing Back the Natives
Through the Looking Glass Pilot - 04/07/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Monday, 04/08/2024
Eclipse Viewing Party - 04/08/2024 10:00 AM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Solar Eclipse Viewing - 04/08/2024 10:00 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Spring Break at the Lawrence Hall of Science - Eclipse Viewing Party - 04/08/2024 10:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Movement Ecophysiology of Northern Elephant Seals: From Fine-Scale Thermoregulation to Population-Level Foraging Behavior - 04/08/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Computing the News: Data Journalism and the Search for Objectivity - Livestream? - 04/08/2024 12:30 PM
Berkeley Center for New Media
Physics Career Pathways - 04/08/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Animal-landscape interactions on a changing planet - 04/08/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquium - 04/08/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley