Hello again science fans. विज्ञान प्रेमियों को पुनः नमस्कार।. (120,000 Bay Area residents speak Hindi at home.)
BIOLOGY / ETHOLOGY
Occasionally, ants get injured by predators, or from fighting, or from skate-boarding. Rather than drag around a broken, bleeding leg, an injured ant will request an amputation by another ant. Afterall, it’s pretty easy getting along on only 5 legs - or so i’m told. Since ants don’t go to med school, amputating a fellow ant’s leg must be an instinctual behavior that is encoded into its DNA. ¿How does that work? We don’t know.
Consider the Bar-Tailed Godwit. After it leaves the nest, a youngster fattens itself up, departs its home in northern Alaska and flies 11,000 km to New Zealand - non-stop - over open ocean - alone. We’ve learned that birds - along with many other animals - are able to navigate by using the Earth’s magnetic field. ¿But from where did the youngster Godwit get a map? Instinct, we suppose - but that’s not a real answer. “Instinct” for one creature may be through entirely different processes than “instinct” for another creature.
Male mosquitoes can be lured into traps using chemicals that mimic female pheromones of the same species. Or, as just discovered, males are instinctively lured into traps that play the females’ siren song: a sound that mimics the wing beat frequency of female mosquitoes of the same species. Pretty cool.
SPACE
They missed! Two asteroids “narrowly” missed Earth this last week. The smaller one - 2024 MK - passed within 300,000 km from Earth. With a diameter of roughly 150m, a direct hit would have easily destroyed a city. The larger one - 2011 UL21 - got no closer than 6.6 million kilometers. At roughly 1,500m in diameter, a direct hit would have been catastrophic. However, its mass is hundreds of times less than the Chicxulub impactor that took out the dinosaurs.
RAFFLE
We are offering a crystal ball enclosing a crude depiction of the Solar System. It comes with a color-change base. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, Robert’s guess of 139 won him a glass beer stein displaying the molecular formula for ethyl alcohol.
MEDICINE / HEALTH
For the first time in decades, fewer than a million people died of AIDS in the preceding year. We can credit several drugs that are available to combat HIV / AIDS but they must be taken every day - and not everybody finds that easy to do because of external or personal circumstances. A new injectable drug from a California firm needs to be administered only once every six months. It has just successfully completed human trials. ¿A rainbow on the horizon?
Bad news: Gen X individuals (born 1965 - 1980) are getting cancers at higher rates than their parents and grandparents. Data seem to be consistent with statistically poorer lifestyles of Gen X: “obesity, lack of exercise, eating too much red meat.” Among other possible causes could be industrial toxins and microplastics.
A dozen years ago, i visited Cuba on a public health tour. There we learned - among much else - that their biomedical research facilities had developed a drug that clinics were using to prevent the loss of toes and feet due to diabetic ulcers. In the U.S., over 150,000 amputations are performed every year due to diabetic foot ulcers. The Cuban drug, Heberprot-P, is finally on track to be approved in the U.S. but not for another 4 years. This 16-year delay is resulting in 2 million unnecessary amputations in the U.S.
MY PICKS of the WEEK (Hint: save dates & times to your mobile phone)
Speculative Storytelling & Real Science Livestream 11am Wednesday
Twists & Turns in Teaching Evolution Livestream 4pm Thursday
Making Cancer Non-Lethal in Our Lifetime 6pm Thurs, S.F., $
NightLifeCon 6 - 10pm Thurs, Cal Academy of Science, S.F., $ (CosPlay!)
Wonderfest: How to be More Uncertain 10am Saturday, Berkeley
The Lawrence Carnival 11 - 3 Sunday, Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, $
And a little later this month: SkeptiCal 2024 Livestream July 19 - 21, $
TECHNOLOGY
“Power from thermonuclear fusion is just 25 years in the future - and always will be.” This bit of wry wit has been around since the 1950s and so far has been on the mark. It was just announced that ITER - the huge multinational fusion research facility being built in France - will not begin tests next year as planned, but instead in 2034. Ouch!
Scientists are finding ever more uses for Artificial Intelligence: examining X-ray images; determining how proteins fold; developing new vaccines; etc. How about settling a biological evolution debate between Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin.
A ghostbot - a.k.a. deadbot, griefbot - is an AI representation of someone who is no longer living. My first introduction to a ghostbot was in the Interdependency trilogy of novels by John Scalzi. In the story, everything an important woman said was recorded. After her death, AI allowed the protagonist to converse with a holographic representation of her. Now you can buy a ghostbot of yourself for your descendants or anyone who might put up with you. Yes, there are ethical concerns but the industry is expanding. Just because you can create a ghostbot of yourself, should you?? There is another use for a ghostbot: ghostwriting. Rather than thinking about what to write about some new development, i could ask my ghostbot to write it for me!
Feeling lonely? There’s an AI companion for that. The State of New York is subsidizing the use of an AI companion for the elderly called ElliQ, and the reviews are generally positive. Not only does ElliQ chat with its human while emulating empathy, its knowledge-base encompasses songs, literature, science, etc. It remembers every interaction with its human and will initiate conversation to fill an overlong silence.
¿What is the future of AI? Scientists point out that the silicon-based neural networks - used to create the Large Language Models that underpin AI - are not very close in function and geometry to our brain’s own dendritic networks. Therefore efforts are underway to better emulate our biological brain with the goal of creating a superior form of Artificial Intelligence.
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
Plunging into a Black Hole - NASA - 4 mins
Hydrogenated Water - The Right Chemistry - Joe Schwarcz - 5 mins
Dyson Spheres & Advanced Civilizations - Sabine Hossenfelder - 5 mins
Evolutionary Mystery of the Hyrax - Bizarre Beasts - Sarah Suta - 10 minutes
Tuberculosis - The White Death - Kurzgesagt - John Green - 11 mins
CMB ‘Axis of Evil’ - Dr. Becky - Becky Smethurst - 14 mins
The Oldest Unsolved Problem in Math - Veritaseum - Derek Muller - 30 mins
Star Talk, 2 July 2024 Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, & Brian Greene - 58 mins
Have a great week,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“Good is better than evil because it’s nicer.”
Mammy Yokum of the Li’l Abner comic strip by Al Capp (1909 - 1979)
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Tuesday, 07/09/2024
The Science Behind 'Inside Out 2' - Livestream - 07/09/2024 10:30 AM
UC Berkeley
Join us to explore the science behind Pixar’s highly anticipated new film, Inside Out 2, and delve into the complexities of emotion and the teenage brain.
This illuminating one-hour event will feature a conversation with GGSC Faculty Director Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., and Lisa Damour, Ph.D., who both served as scientific consultants on the film. They will share their expert insights into the world of teenage emotions. They will be joined by lead editor of the film, Maurissa Horwitz, who will explain how the film tried to bring this world of teenage emotions to the screen. Moderated by GGSC Senior Fellow Allison Briscoe-Smith, Ph.D., this livestreamed conversation promises to be both enlightening and thought-provoking - for parents, teens, educators, movie lovers, and anyone interested in psychology.
Inside Out 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the beloved animated film that took audiences on a journey through the mind of a young girl named Riley, personifying her emotions as characters inside her head. In this sequel, Riley is navigating the turbulent waters of adolescence, and her emotions are more complex than ever.
Don’t miss this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the emotional landscape of teenagers, as we explore the intersections of psychology, storytelling, and cinema.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Global Change, Biodiversity, & Conservation - 07/09/2024 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
The Wood Lab of Avian and Urban Ecology at Cal State L.A. is a group of conservation-minded individuals who work to understand the effects of global and environmental change on biodiversity. In his Birdy Hour presentation, Dr. Wood will share about the group's research - which is centered on terrestrial ecosystems - with the majority of their work occurring within the Los Angeles urban ecosystem. His team focuses primarily on avian and insect communities, and they use field data, spatial analyses, and quantitative approaches to provide applied outcomes for pressing conservation issues.
Speaker: Eric Wood, Cal State Los Angeles
Register at weblink to attend
Wednesday, 07/10/2024
Speculative Storytelling, Real Science: What-if Questions in 'The Mountain in the Sea' - Livestream - 07/10/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Speculative fiction authors predicate their stories on creative “what-if” questions. Ray Nayler will demonstrate the close relationship of this process to scientific thinking. Using examples from his debut novel The Mountain in the Sea, Ray will discuss how he used a “what-if” question - “what if a species of octopus gained the ability to communicate using symbols, like humans” - to turn a lens on human consciousness and empathy, corporate greed, climate change, and resource overexploitation.
Drawing on his experience overseas working in STEM education, his time in Washington, DC as international Advisor for NOAA’s MPA Center, and his conservation work on Vietnam’s Con Dao Archipelago, where The Mountain in the Sea is set, Ray will explore how speculative fiction can be used to hypothesize about science and technology’s impacts, positive and negative, on human society - and to suggest ways in which we can live in better harmony with one another and our environment.
New Directions in Property Testing - 07/10/2024 03:30 PM
Calvin Laboratory Berkeley
Property testing algorithms seek to determine whether an unknown massive object has some particular property of interest, or is “far” from having the property, while inspecting only a tiny portion of the object. Recent years have witnessed significant progress on both classic property testing problems and the development of several new property testing problems and frameworks, motivated by connections to machine learning theory and high-dimensional data analysis. In this talk, Rocco Servedio will survey several of these new property testing problems, models, and results.
Speaker: Rocco Servedio, Columbia University
Register at weblink to attend in person. Lecture will be available on YouTube later (see weblink)
Thursday, 07/11/2024
Twists and Turns in Teaching Evolution - Livestream - 07/11/2024 04:00 PM
Skeptical Inquirer
Multiple controversies over the teaching of evolution in public schools have rocked the nation over the past century. Evolution’s foes have consistently used the same arguments, but their ambitions have shifted: from outright banning the teaching of evolution to “balancing” it with a supposed alternative to blunting it through claims that evolution is scientifically disputed.
Join us for a Skeptical Inquirer Presents livestream with CSI Fellow Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). Branch will discuss the causes, history, and consequences of these various controversies. He’ll outline the encouraging developments in evolution education over the past fifteen years as revealed by a study conducted by NCSE and discuss what skeptics have done - and can continue to do - to help.
Register at weblink
Making Cancer Non-lethal in Our Lifetime - 07/11/2024 06:00 PM
Manny's San Francisco
What will it take to make cancer non-lethal in our lifetime? What advancements in medical research are underway to achieve this goal and what are we still working to discover about the "emperor of all maladies"? Joining us at Manny's to discuss his work in the field and goals for the future is Reed Jobs! His Yosemite venture fund finances innovation in cancer care by investing equity in startups and providing grants to scientists.
Speaker: Reed Jobs, Yosemite
NightLifeCon - 07/11/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Gear up for the first ever NightLifeCon! Featuring all things anime, comics, and sci-fi.
After Dark: See for Yourself - 07/11/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Upend your perception this Thursday night at After Dark! Shoes become faces, cardboard whispers, and LEGO - pieces are the stuff of legends in our special exhibition ExtraOrdinary!. Bring your friends to decipher the secret behind Building Blocks and make new ones at Bamboo Weaving Star. Plus, hands-on workshops where you can meet your inner artist-scientist.
Multimedia Forensics: Challenges and Opportunities in the Era of Large Models - Livestream - 07/11/2024 07:00 PM
IEEE Signal Processing Society
With the implementation and wide application of related tools such as ChatGPT and Sora, people realized that seeing is indeed no longer believing. More recently, the emergence of diffusion models with powerful generation capabilities has driven this topic forward. Subsequently, as the powerful tools for deepfake generation, corresponding detection technologies continuously evolved hence raising more security concerns of the public. This talk will discuss the development of multimedia forensics and focus on researching four representative deepfake fields: face swapping/face reenactment, talking face generation, and facial attribute editing, as well as forgery and deepfake detection and will finally analyze thechallenges and future research directions of the discussed fields.
Register at weblink
Friday, 07/12/2024
Exoplanets: a cosmic odyssey bringing worlds and broadening horizons - SOLD OUT - 07/12/2024 08:30 PM
Lick Observatory Mt. Hamilton
Speaker: Nour Skaf, UC Santa Cruz
Saturday, 07/13/2024
BioBlitz at Coyote Creek Visitor Center - 07/13/2024 09:00 AM
Coyote Creek Visitor Center at Anderson Lake Morgan Hill
A BioBlitz is an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. At a BioBlitz, scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to get an overall count of the plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms that live in a place.
Join Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, BioBlitz Club, and Peninsula Open Space Trust in cataloging and documenting all of the wildlife that reside there. Docents will guide you and teach you to use the iNaturalist app on your smartphone. Flowers, trees, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, birds, and squirrels. We love them all - now let's go find them!
Community service hours available
Register at weblink
Wonderfest: How To Be More Uncertain - 07/13/2024 10:00 AM
Berkeley Public Library Berkeley
Human minds love to discover patterns, to find intuitive explanations, and, most of all, to be certain. Yet our world is complicated and filled with randomness. Statistical thinking provides us with practical tools for making sense of an uncertain world. It can lead us to make surprising conclusions from the data of everyday life. And it also teaches us useful humility in the face of uncertainty.
Our speaker, Dr. Jacob Bien, is Professor of Statistics at the University of Southern California. He is also a founding member of Wonderfest's Board of Directors.
Perils of Plastic Foodware and the Path to Healthier Materials - 07/13/2024 11:30 AM
Downtown Berkeley Farmers' Market Berkeley
Come join us for an eye-opening event with Sue Chiang! Learn about the dangers of plastics in our foodware and discover the journey towards healthier materials. Sue Chiang will share valuable insights and tips on how to make better choices for your health and the environment. Don't miss out on this informative session!
Come prepared with your own reusable food container to buy lunch from the Farmer’s Market vendors like Andy & Cindy’s Thai, after the talk!
There will be Reusable Foodware prizes!
Speaker: Sue Chiang Sue Chiang is the Director of the Green & Clean Purchasing Program at the Center for Environmental Health
Register at weblink
Galactic Archeology: Using Stars to Map the Structure and Evolution of the Milky Way - 07/13/2024 08:30 PM
Lick Observatory Mt. Hamilton
Each year Lick Observatory brings world-renown musicians and astronomers to the summit of Mount Hamilton for a musical night to remember.
The event activities include:
Concert
Astronomy talk by world-renowned scientists
Viewing through the historic 36-inch Great Lick Refractor telescope
Viewing through the 40-inch Nickel Reflector telescope
Astronomy discussions with amateur astronomers and viewing through small telescopes
Speaker: Dr. Christian Aganze earned his doctorate in physics from UC-San Diego in June 2023. Aganze is a galactic archaeologist. His research identifies brown dwarfs -cryptic celestial objects sometimes called “failed stars” because their temperatures and pressures did not become high enough to sustain hydrogen fusion and create stars. At Stanford, he hopes to identify brown dwarfs and low-mass stars (known as ultracool dwarfs) deep in the Milky Way using archival data from space-based missions and ground-based surveys (e.g., the James Webb Space Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory). Using this data, he will make predictions about the Milky Way’s structure and star formation history over time.
Speaker: Christian Aganze, Stanford University
Artist: Sambe Cruz
City Public Star Party - 07/13/2024 08:30 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Come join the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers for free public stargazing of the Moon, planets, globular clusters and more!
The event will take place in Tunnel Tops National Park, parking is located adjacent to Picnic Place (210 Lincoln Blvd for GPS) with the telescopes setup in the East Meadow.
Dress warmly as conditions can be windy or cold in the Presidio. Rain, heavy fog or overcast skies cancel the event. Check the SFAA website for a cancellation notice before leaving for the star party.
SFAA members with telescopes are encouraged to attend and share their views of the stars with the general public.
Foothills Family Nature Walk - 07/13/2024 09:00 PM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos
Environmental Volunteers’ Family Nature Walks program is designed to help community members get to know our local open space areas. Small 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.
Sunday, 07/14/2024
The Lawrence Carnival - 07/14/2024 11:00 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Step right up to our pop-up boardwalk for a science carnival! Ooh and ahh as acrobats from Oakland’s own Les Aerielles soar through the air in a trapeze arts performance. Then, try your hand at a series of carnival games and win prizes. Finally, learn the science behind your favorite frozen treat as you make your own ice cream - with science!
Performer: Les Aerielles
Event is included with admission to the science center (Adults & children ages 3+: $20). Admission is free for UC Berkeley students & staff, Members, children 2 and under, Museums for All, and active-duty military.
Purchase General Admission Tickets: lwrnce.org/the-lawrence-carnival/
Solar Observing - 07/14/2024 02:00 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 2:15, 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.
Monday, 07/15/2024
In it together: Microbial interactions with threatened marine hosts and ecosystems - 07/15/2024 11:00 AM
UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory Research Talks Bodega Bay
Advancing the Science: The Latest in Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research - 07/15/2024 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
July LASER Event - 07/15/2024 07:00 PM
Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge Stanford
Tuesday, 07/16/2024
Using Virtual Reality for Well-being, Social Connections, and Meaningful Experiences - 07/16/2024 02:00 PM
Belmont Village Senior Living Albany
Efficient LLM Deployment at the Edge Through Quantization - 07/16/2024 06:30 PM
Hacker Dojo Mountain View
Wonderfest: Ask a Science Envoy: Scavengers + Dark Matter + Biomolecules - 07/16/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Traveling Light: The Universe’s Oldest Story Told by the Cosmic Microwave Background - 07/16/2024 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Understanding Addiction and Drug Policy - 07/16/2024 07:30 PM
Manny's San Francisco
Wednesday, 07/17/2024
My home is my castle… my boat … my fishing net - Livestream - 07/17/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Bodega Marine Lab Seminar Series - Livestream - 07/17/2024 03:00 PM
Bodega Marine Laboratory
Thank you for biting? Understanding and leveraging microbial symbioses to mitigate global change impacts - 07/17/2024 04:00 PM
UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory Research Talks Bodega Bay
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society Speaker Series: Ivan Phillipsen - Livestream - 07/17/2024 07:00 PM
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
Nerd Nite SF #144: Virtual Sex, Psychedelic Drugs, and the Philosophy of War - 07/17/2024 07:00 PM
Rickshaw Stop San Francisco
Thursday, 07/18/2024
Coastal Walk at Pillar Point Bluff - 07/18/2024 10:00 AM
Pillar Point Bluff Parking Lot Moss Beach
Lunch Break Science - Livestream - 07/18/2024 11:00 AM
The Leakey Foundation
Can small be the next big thing? Plasma Accelerator R&D at DESY - 07/18/2024 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
History on Tap: Stories of Point Pinos - 07/18/2024 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
After Dark: ExtraOrdinary - 07/18/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
NightLife - 07/18/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
What an Owl Knows - Livestream - 07/18/2024 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
Friday, 07/19/2024
Global Skeptics in the Pub - Livestream - 07/19/2024 07:00 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Sunset Walk at Bair Island - 07/19/2024 06:00 PM
Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail Redwood City
Saturday, 07/20/2024
SkeptiCal: the Scientific Skepticism Conference - Online - 07/20/2024 07:00 PM
Northern California Skeptics
Global Skeptics in the Pub continues - Livestream - 07/20/2024 07:00 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Plastic Free Recycling Center Tour - 07/20/2024 11:00 AM
Berkeley Recycling Center Berkeley
ExtraOrdinary! Festival - 07/20/2024 11:00 AM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Stewardship Saturday: Experiencing Fish Kitchen - 07/20/2024 11:30 AM
Marine Mammal Center Sausalito
'Climate Capitalism - Winning the Race to Zero Emissions and Solving the Crisis of Our Age' - 07/20/2024 04:00 PM
Manny's San Francisco
Sunday, 07/21/2024
SkeptiCal: the Scientific Skepticism Conference - Online - 07/21/2024 07:00 PM
Northern California Skeptics
ExtraOrdinary! Festival - 07/21/2024 11:00 AM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Monday, 07/22/2024
What Does Machine Learning Have to Offer Mathematics? - 07/22/2024 05:30 PM
Calvin Laboratory Berkeley