Hello again science fans,
Bonjour à tous les fans de science,
(Over 45,000 Bay Area residents speak French at home.)
CLIMATE
Above is the world’s second all-electric cargo ship. It’s 120m long, 24m wide, and has the battery capacity of a thousand Model Y Teslas (50,000,000 Wh). Like the other and smaller electric cargo ship - the Yara Birkeland - it is plying inland rivers instead of the open oceans. Ocean shipping accounts for about 3% of the world’s CO2 emissions, but don’t expect batteries to power cargo ships that cross thousands of kilometers of open oceans anytime soon. Instead, open ocean shipping is turning to wind energy. The Anemos is a 1,000 tonne cargo sailing ship that resembles the great clipper ships of yore. Several cargo ships and a passenger ship have added Flettner rotors.
BIOLOGY
Hollywood taught me about the Giant Squid, but somehow the Colossal Squid evaded my attention until this week. I’m anointing the Colossal Squid as my Nightmare Monster of the Week.
Visit Mono Lake if you haven’t already. Fascinating formations, wildlife, and history. It now has its own choanoflagellate. Colonies of Barroeca monosierra live in the lake and carry around their own microbiome of bacteria. Choanoflagellates are thought to have introduced oxygen into our atmosphere starting about 2.4 billion years ago. Breathe deep.
Many single-celled organisms form small colonies, but this does not qualify them to be multicellular since each cell is identical to every other. ¿How and when did cell differentiations originate to create true multicellular organisms? Quite likely, this ‘event’ occurred multiple times with different types of organisms. An hypothesis being tossed around invokes the low temperatures of Snowball Earth as a catalyst for multicellularity.
Posted on a fictitious Internet dating platform:
Single dad with sons in important positions seeks eligible female desiring offspring.
E Woodii, Ngoye Forest, South Africa
The only known surviving cycad plants of Encephalartos woodii are all derived from a single male plant. Botanists are hoping that someone will find a female of the species.
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RAFFLE
We are offering a long sleeve Polaris Dawn t-shirt with one of the crew floating outside the craft. [Polaris Dawn is scheduled to launch at half past midnight early Wednesday morning.] Pick your color and size. 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, John of Placerville guessed closest to the randomly generated 206 to win a 450ml laboratory beaker coffee mug.
COVID
Some sufferers of long COVID complain of continuing ‘brain fog.’ There is frightening evidence that damage to the blood-brain barrier may be to blame. Very ungood. Do not skip the latest vaccine.
¿Are dogs able to detect COVID infections in people? Uh, sorta. Well-trained dogs were impressive in a California study, but they missed some infections and made false positives. Test kits are far better.
This two-year-old article by Ed Jong from The Atlantic is well worth reading. His conclusion: “More pandemics will happen, and the U.S. has spectacularly failed to contain the current one. … Normal led to this. It is not too late to fashion a better normal.”
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
"The Gulf of Greater Farallones & Its Inhabitants"
Whales, dolphins, and porpoises (collectively 'cetaceans') enchant us with their grace, intelligence, and beauty. They have an exceptional ability to inspire people and serve as ambassadors for ocean conservation. Yet, these magnificent creatures face more threats than ever before - entanglement in marine debris and fishing gear, ship strikes, noise pollution, climate change, contaminants, loss of habitat, whaling, and more. The American Cetacean Society, SF/Bay Chapter believes that solving these threats begins with education and scientific research.
Purpose: The classes will introduce you to the ecology and local marine mammals, seabirds, and sharks in the Marine Sanctuary; increase your understanding of cetacean, pinnipeds, and seabird behaviors; explore the many threats to these animals and learn about conservation efforts to protect them and their habitats.
Attendees: This course will be useful to educators, graduate students, naturalists, and the general public of all ages.
Schedule: 6 classes, Wednesdays from 6 - 9:30 PM (Sep. 11 – Oct. 16)
All sessions are conducted via Zoom.
Presenters: Experts in the fields of marine science and conservation including a professor of Marine Geology, a Marine Science biologist; a Master Birder in ocean species; a Great White Shark researcher focusing on the population within the Gulf; and leading experts on marine mammal entanglement and ship strikes.
Cost: $300 for 6 classes
Registration: American Cetacean Society - San Francisco Bay Chapter
Information: acs.sfbsy.ssherman@gmail.com
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“Einstein without Tears” A Course about Einstein: His Life & Science
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State
This non-technical, non-mathematical introduction to some of the most awe-inspiring ideas from the work of Albert Einstein is designed for people with little or no science background. If you’ve been intrigued by Einstein (who was Time magazine’s “Person of the Century” in 1999,) but have been scared away by thoughts of pages filled with equations, this is the class for you! We’ll explain everything with analogies, clear photos and diagrams, and touches of humor.
You will come away from this course with a new appreciation of the physical world and its behavior under extreme conditions. You’ll also see why Einstein’s theories continue to fascinate both scientists and science fiction fans today. Our goal is to give a concise overview of Einstein’s ideas, and show how modern science (especially astronomy) has now confirmed the bizarre predictions of his theories.
Along the way you will come to understand such weird notions as: why there is no such thing as a universal “now;” how space itself can bend and warp; that there are at least two ways to do realistic time travel; how giant black holes can form in space (we'll explain just what those are); and – in the latest triumph for Einstein – the existence of gravity waves (whose discovery got the Nobel prize a few years ago.)
Schedule: 6 classes, Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:30 PM (Oct. 8 – Nov. 12)
All sessions are conducted via Zoom.
Cost: $125 plus a modest membership fee.
Information & Registration: Einstein without Tears
Questions about registering?: Email olli@sfsu.edu
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Andrew Fraknoi retired as Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College in 2017. He was chosen the California Professor of the Year in 2007 by the Carnegie Endowment and has won several national prizes for his teaching. He is the lead author of OpenStax Astronomy, a free, electronic textbook, which is now the leading introductory text in the field. He has also written books for teachers, children, and the public. He appears regularly on local & national radio, explaining astronomical ideas in terms everyone can understand. The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi to recognize his contributions to the public appreciation of science. See: Exploring the Universe with Andrew Fraknoi for more information about his work, and examples of the science-fiction stories he has recently been publishing.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State is a friendly community of inquiring adults, age 50+, offering non-credit courses, lectures, and interest groups. Many are held remotely, so you don’t need to reside in San Francisco to participate. You must become a member of the Institute to take the class -- it's easy to register and the fee, which lets you take other classes and join groups, is reasonable.
MY PICKS of the WEEK (Hint: save dates & times to your mobile phone)
How Plants Do The Twist Wed Noon, Berkeley
Elections & the Supreme Court: Collapse of Science & Secularism? Livestream Thu 4pm
After Dark: Out There Thu 6 - 10pm, ExplOratorium, San Francisco, $
First Friday Nights at Curiodyssey Fri 5 - 8pm, San Mateo, $
The Future of Mars Helicopters Fri 8pm, College of San Mateo
Documentary Film: Journeys of Black Mathematicians Sat 1pm, San Francisco, $
Jazz under the Stars Sat 8pm, San Mateo
Tropical House Public Opening Sun 10am, Berkeley, $
ENVIRONMENT / ECOLOGY
A dearth of vultures led to an estimated 2.5 million excess human deaths in India. Really. The chain of events is something like this:
Cheap drug, diclofenac, used widely on cattle
Cattle turned loose after no longer needed for milk or breeding
Cattle die and are eaten by vultures
Diclofenac kills the vultures
Dearth of vultures
Rotting cattle contaminate streams
Rotting cattle support feral dog populations
Rabies and contaminated water kill people
In the study of ecosystems, “it is never one thing.”
My title for this next story: “Cane Toad butts save Australian crocodiles.”
Australia has been plagued by well-meaning introductions of non-native species. Rabbits were brought in for sport shooting in the 1850s and now number in the hundreds of millions. Also numbering in the hundreds of millions are Cane Toads that were brought in to eat beetles that were munching on sugar cane crops in the 1930s. An Australian Saltwater Crocodile will happily gulp down a Cane Toad, but the toads have toxins that quickly kill the crocodile. Solution: Cut Cane Toads in half, toss away the front half where the toxins lie, inject a harmless, tasteless, nauseating drug into the toad’s back half, and toss the toad butts into the salt marsh where the crocodiles quickly learn to avoid anything that smells or tastes like a Cane Toad.
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
Namib Desert Live Cam This video allows you to ‘go back in time’ 12 hours to watch a variety of animals: Oryx, Ostrich, Jackal, Zebra, Gnu, et al. Click various places on the red timeline.
Yerkes Observatory I - 2 mins
Yerkes Observatory II - 3 mins
Senolytics and Aging - Cup o’ Joe - Joe Schwaarcz - 4 mins
Greenland’s Hiawatha Crater - SciShow - Hank Green - 6 mins
Definition of Life - Big Think - Lee Cronin - 7 mins
Eyelash Vipers - Bizarre Beasts - Sarah Suta - 11 mins
Advance in Seawater Desalination - Just Have a Think - Dave Borlace - 11 mins
Concerning the Stranded Astronauts - Neil deGrasse Tyson - 11 mins
¿Is Science dying? - Sabine Hossenfelder - 15 mins
¿¿ Life on Exoplanet K2-18b ?? - Dr. Becky - Becky Smethurst - 15 mins
¿What Is Elementary Particle Spin? - ScienceClic - Octave Masson - 20 mins
Why Democracy Is Mathematically Impossible - Veritasium - Derek Muller - 22 mins
Enjoy the holiday - and support Labor,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.”
Doug Larson (1926 - 2017) American newspaper editor and jounalist
“It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of middle-class security all bear the union label.”
Barack Obama (1961 - ) 44th President of the United States
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Tuesday, 09/03/2024
Delivery of Peptide-Based Targeted Protein Degraders - 09/03/2024 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Molecular degraders are becoming ubiquitous in chemical biology research given their proven ability to selectively degrade a diverse array of intracellular proteins. This process is achieved by employing a heterobifunctional ligand with one end that recruits an E3 ubiquitin ligase and another that binds to the protein of interest (POI). These compounds catalyze the selective ubiquitin-tagging of the POI, ultimately resulting in the proteasome-mediated degradation of the target protein. In addition to conventional small-molecule based approaches led by class of molecules known as PROteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs), there has been a slow but steady development of peptide-based degraders, which we refer to as PepTACs, for proteome editing within eukaryotic cells. PepTACs offer many advantages similar to small molecule-based PROTACs, with the added benefit of being designed based on protein structural data for any desired POI. Moreover, peptides cover an extensive protein interaction surface, which is particularly advantageous for targeting POIs lacking known small molecule ligands. However, PepTACs face significant limitations, such as limited stability in biological fluids and poor cellular permeability. In this presentation, I will discuss new strategies developed in my research lab to enhance the intracellular delivery PepTACs, specifically those designed against onco-targets overexpressed in various Wnt-driven cancer cell lines. Collectively, I will highlight how peptide composition and formulation conditions can be precisely tuned to enhance intracellular delivery efficiency.
Speaker: Chris Alabi, Cornell University
Some types of information nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of an atom can provide - 09/03/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Some types of information nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of an atom can provide You are familiar with the idea of NMR as a tool that provides chemical structure, i.e., identity of functional groups that constitute a particular molecule, including secondary and tertiary structure of large macromolecules of interest to biochemists, and also proximity parameters, e.g., which specific region on a protein a drug molecule binds to. In this talk we will provide examples of how NMR of an atom can provide very detailed information about adsorption and diffusion of an atom or molecule in porous media. For example, the adsorption isotherm is a physico-chemical property, but what are the details associated with it, such as, when there is a measured 5.2 molecules per pore for a given overhead pressure, we might have the notion that nearly every pore has 5; but actually what fraction of the pores have 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... even 8 molecules? In competitive adsorption of molecules A and B, what fraction of the pores have 3A and 1B? When atoms diffuse through a porous material, what is the rate constant for leaving a pore with 7 atoms and jumping into the next pore that has 3 atoms? How does this rate constant differ from jumping from a pore with 3 atoms into the next pore with 7? Can an atom in a nano-confined space provide signatures of the shape and symmetry of the confining space, and even differentiate between the original and a deuterated version of it? Can a Xe atom detect chirality in its environment? These are some of the questions we have answered using NMR of Xe atom.
Speaker: Cynthia Jameson, University of Chicago
Music as Medicine - 09/03/2024 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
What are the deep connections between music and healing?
Music is one of humanity's oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.
Join us as neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin shares some of the findings he put in his latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, in which he explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He examines the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, to cognitive injury, depression and pain.
Levitin is not your typical scientist - he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today's most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history.
Come learn about the critical role music has played in human biology.
Attend in person or online
Members discount 30% - 50%
Wednesday, 09/04/2024
From Stranding to Soaring: Leveraging Long-Term Data for Marine Megafauna Conservation - Livestream - 09/04/2024 11:00 AM
Monteray Bay Aquarium Research Institute
This presentation explores two distinct but complementary approaches to assessing population viability in marine megafauna using long-term datasets. First, I examine common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) population viability trends in the Bay of Biscay using stranding data from 1997-2019, revealing a concerning decline in female lifespan from 24 to 17 years and a 2% decrease in population growth rate. Second, I analyze changes in age at first reproduction of Wandering Albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) on Crozet Islands using a 50-year capture-mark-recapture dataset, uncovering sex-specific trends and environmental influences, including a marked decline in age at first reproduction for both sexes. I then integrate these findings into a broader discussion on marine conservation strategies, focusing on the development and application of removal limit algorithms and harvest thresholds. This research underscores the critical importance of long-term monitoring in understanding population dynamics and demonstrates how diverse data sources can inform effective conservation measures for vulnerable marine species facing anthropogenic pressures and environmental change.
Speaker: Etienne Rouby, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
See weblink for Zoom information
How Plants do the Twist: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Elucidate the Evolution and Development of Climbing Plants - 09/04/2024 12:00 PM
Barker Hall, Rm 101 Berkeley
One of the most striking, yet poorly understood, forms of plant movement is the climbing capacities of woody vines, also known as "lianas". These plants weave through the forest, attaching to host branches as they grow towards light at the top of the canopy. Surprisingly, this complex and unusual phenotype has independently evolved in at least one-third of vascular plant families and can represent upwards of 40% of the leaf area in tropical forests. Thus, the ability to climb is a strategic lifeform in the evolution of plants to compete for light. Despite the evolutionary and ecological significant of lianas, we still lack an understanding of how plants evolved to climb.
In this talk, I will present a multi-scaled approach to elucidate the evolution and development (evo-devo) of cells and phylogenetics, developmental anatomy, comparative transcriptomics, to cell wall biology. I begin by discussing the role of "vascular variants" i.e., aberrations in the distribution and abundance of vascular tissues, in the large neotropical liana tribe, Paullinieae (Sapindaceae). I will conclude by discussing our ongoing efforts to elucidate the developmental mechanism underlying twining motion of common bean vines, through hormonal perturbation, RNA seq, and our efforts to understand the link between microtubule orientation and whole-form architecture.
Speaker: Joyce Onyenedum, New York University
Resolving the Nearshore: Remote Sensing and Data Driven Analysis of Fine Scale Mixing, Turbidity, and Sea Surface Ocean Temperature - Livestream - 09/04/2024 03:00 PM
Bodega Marine Laboratory
Speaker: William Speiser - PhD Candidate, UC Davis
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Investing in resilience: monetizing carbon to support forest restoration in California - 09/04/2024 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
I will present my dissertation research from ERG, highlighting my partnership with Blue Forest during my PhD and how this research has shaped our current initiatives. The presentation will focus on the interplay between wildfire, forest management, and carbon, emphasizing strategies for monetizing carbon benefits in a high-quality way.
Speaker: Micah Elias, Blue Forest
Understanding and Steering Generative AI Systems - 09/04/2024 04:00 PM
Evans Hall Berkeley
Large language models, vision-language models, and other generative AI systems are rapidly permeating society-when it was released, ChatGPT was the fastest-growing app in history. With the rapid proliferation of this technology, we need tools for society to understand and steer its effects.
One route to understanding is measuring the growth in overall capabilities of AI systems. I'll discuss my work on the MATH and MMLU datasets, which have been used to track large language model capabilities, and revealed that experts were systematically underestimating the rate of progress in the field.
However, benchmarks alone tell us a limited story, since the promise (and complexity) of generative AI lies in its open-ended behavior. To tackle this complexity, we need tools that can adaptively query an AI model to find unexpected behaviors, then categorize them into human-interpretable patterns. I'll describe systems that we built for this task, and how we can leverage AI as part of this pipeline.
Finally, it is not enough to understand AI models-we also need to steer them based on our understanding. I will show how, by understanding the structure of neural representations, we can steer AI models to be more accurate and truthful.
Speaker: Jacob Steinhardt, UC Berkeley
Astronomy on Tap San Antonio #47 - Two talks about Space Weather - Livestream - 09/04/2024 05:00 PM
Astronomy on Tap
We are excited to hear from Southwest Research Institute's Dr. Robert Ebert: Space Weather Report: Making SWiPS: The Solar Wind Monitor for NOAA's Space Weather Mission, SWOF-L1 and The University of Texas at San Antonio PhD Candidate Kim Moreland: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun - Inside NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center
Watch on YouTube
Watch on Facebook
Thursday, 09/05/2024
Humane & Sustainable Food Lab Seminar Series - 09/05/2024 10:00 AM
Alway Building, Rm M112 Stanford
Most of Dr. Gardner's 30 years of research at Stanford has been focused on investigating the potential health benefits of various dietary components or food patterns using randomized controlled trials. The interventions have involved vegetarian diets, soy, garlic, omega-3 fats/fish oil/flax oil, antioxidants, Ginkgo biloba, and popular weight loss diets. These trials have studied outcomes that include weight, blood lipids and lipoproteins, inflammatory markers, glucose, insulin, and body composition. Most of these trials have been NIH-funded. Until recently (see below), the most impactful of these was an NIH-funded weight loss diet study - DIETFITS (Diet Intervention Examining The Factors Interacting with Treatment Success) that involved randomizing 609 generally healthy, overweight/obese adults for one year to either Healthy Low-Fat or Healthy Low-Carb diet (JAMA, 2018). In the past decade, the interests of Gardner's research group have shifted to include three additional areas of inquiry. One of these is Stealth Nutrition. The central hypothesis driving this is that in order for more effective and impactful dietary improvements to be realized, health professionals need to consider adding non-health related approaches to their toolbox of strategies. Examples would be connections between food and 1) global warming and climate change, 2) animal rights and welfare, and 3) human labor abuses (e.g., slaughterhouses). An example is a summer Food and Farm Camp run in collaboration with the Santa Clara Unified School District since 2011. Every year ~125 kids 5-14 years of age come for a 1-week summer camp to tend, harvest, chop, cook, and eat vegetables...and play because it is summer camp! The objective is to study the factors influencing the behaviors and preferences that lead to maximizing vegetable consumption in kids. A second area of interest and inquiry is institutional food. Universities, worksites, hospitals, and schools order and serve a lot of food, every day. If the choices offered are healthier, the consumption behaviors will be healthier. A key factor to success in institutional food is to make the food options "unapologetically delicious" a term he borrows from Greg Drescher, a colleague and friend at the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA). Chefs in institutional food settings can be part of the solution to improving eating behaviors. In 2015 Gardner helped to initiate a Stanford-CIA collaboration that now involves ~70 universities that have agreed to use their dining halls as living laboratories to study ways to maximize the synergy of taste, health and environmental sustainability. If universities, worksites, hospitals and schools change the foods they order and serve, that kind of institutional demand can change agricultural practices - a systems-level approach to achieving healthier dietary behaviors. The third area is diet and the microbiome. His lab partnered with the world renowned lab of Drs. Justin and Erica Sonnenburg at Stanford to conduct multiple human nutrition intervention studies. The most impactful of these studies was the Fe-Fi-Fo study (Fermented and Fiber-rich Foods) study published in Cell in 2021. In that 10-week intervention, study participants consuming more fermented foods increased their microbial diversity and decreased blood levels of ~20 inflammatory markers. Their Maternal and Offspring Microbiome Study (MOMS) examined the transfer of the maternal microbiome to the infant among 132 pregnant women randomized to increase fiber, or fermented food, or both, or neither for their 2nd and 3rd trimester; the infants were tracked for 18 months.
In January 2024, Netflix released a documentary TV series which chronicles portions of the experiences of four pairs of identical twins who participated in an eight week study run by Dr. Gardner which compared the impacts of a vegan diet with an omnivore diet. The full study included a total of 22 pairs of identical twins and randomized one twin from each pair to either a vegan or omnivore diet. Allowing his research to be featured in the series, titled You Are What You Eat, has been one of the most impactful choices he's made. (See https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2024/01/qa-christopher-gardner-featured-netflixs-eat for more details.)
Dr. Gardner's long-term vision in this area is to help create a world-class Stanford Food Systems Initiative and build on the idea that Stanford is uniquely positioned geographically, culturally, and academically, to address national and global crises in the areas of obesity and diabetes that are directly related to our broken food systems.
Attend in person or online (see weblink for stream information)
Understanding and manipulating immune modulation by the microbiome - 09/05/2024 10:30 AM
Innovative Genomics Institute Building (IGIB) Berkeley
Certain members of the commensal microbiota elicit a potent T cell response upon colonization. In this talk, I will describe two recent projects from my research group that share the goal of characterizing and manipulating anti-commensal immunity. In the first project, we explore the functional properties of colonist-induced T cells by engineering the skin bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis to express tumor antigens anchored to secreted or cell-surface proteins. Upon colonization, engineered S. epidermidis elicits tumor-specific T cells that circulate, infiltrate local and metastatic lesions, and exert cytotoxic activity, showing that the immune response to a colonist can be redirected against a target of therapeutic interest by expressing a target-derived antigen in a commensal. In the second, we colonize germ-free mice with a complex defined community (>100 bacterial strains) and profile T cell responses to each strain individually. We find that T cell recognition of Firmicutes is focused on a widely conserved cell-surface antigen, opening the door to new therapeutic strategies in which colonist-specific immune responses are rationally altered or redirected.
Speaker: Michael Fischback, Stanford University
Room 115
Ancient structural variants control balanced mating morphs is walnuts and pecans - 09/05/2024 12:30 PM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
The maintenance of stable mating type polymorphisms is a classic example of balancing selection. One lesser known but intriguing example of a balanced mating polymorphism in angiosperms is heterodichogamy - polymorphism for opposing directions of male and female flowering times in hermaphrodites. This mating system is common throughout Juglandaceae, the family that includes walnuts (Juglans), as well as pecan and other hickories (Carya). I'll discuss our resulting mapping the locus in each genus, where we find two ancient (>50 Mya) structural variants involving different genes that both segregate as genus-wide trans-species polymorphisms.
Speaker: Graham Coop, UC Davis
What is 'Oppenheimer' Good For? Panel Conversation and Q&A - 09/05/2024 04:00 PM
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Berkeley
Join us for a thought-provoking, interdisciplinary panel and Q&A discussion about the film Oppenheimer. We'll hear from historians, physicists, and a filmmaker about Christopher Nolan's Academy Award-winning film. Reception to follow.
Panelist: Dmitri Brown, Assistant Professor of History, UC Berkeley
Panelist: Cathryn Carson, Professor and Chair of History, UC Berkeley
Panelist: Jon Else, Professor Emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley
Panelist: Yasunori Nomura, Professor of Physics and Director of the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, UC Berkeley
Panelist: Kyoko Sato, Associate Director of Science, Technology, and Society, Stanford University
Moderator: Steven Kahn, Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Presenter: Benjamin Hermalin, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, UC Berkeley
Register at weblink
The Elections and the Supreme Court: On the Brink of the Total Collapse of Science and Secularism - Livestream - 09/05/2024 04:00 PM
Skeptical Inquirer
Today's religious right wing and their enablers on the Supreme Court are not just poised to abolish the separation of church and state; they seem determined to repeal all modern progress made by humanity in the past 300 years by repealing the very Enlightenment itself.
Join us for our final Skeptical Inquirer Presents livestream of 2024. Our guest will be Edward Tabash, a respected constitutional lawyer and chair of the CFI Board of Directors. The Center for Inquiry does not support or oppose candidates for political office. However, we can both legally and scientifically discuss the likely consequences of more religious right-wing extremist judges on the Supreme Court and the federal appellate and trial courts - consequences that would be dangerous and far-reaching.
Register at weblink
The Coming 6th Generation of Mobile Wireless - Rescheduled - 09/05/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
Speaker: Roger Nikols, Keysight Technologies
This talk has been rescheduled for September 19, 2024
Microgrid-Based Smart Grids: Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things for Improved Resilience/Self-Healing - 09/05/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
In this presentation, first, a brief history of the production and evolution of electricity will be presented, then an overview of our body of work on the application of artificial intelligence (AI)-based control techniques and Internet of things (IoT) for control and management of microgrids (MGs), which are considered the cornerstone of smart distribution grid, will be presented.
In general, MG power management is a multi-objective problem and may not have a single solution, and it is hard to solve with conventional analytic techniques. Multi-agent systems and bargaining games between the smart agents is presented to obtain a set of trade-off solutions (called Pareto-frontier), and the application of Nash bargaining solution (NBS) is used to directly obtain the "best trade-off solution" on the Pareto-frontier. In addition, an MG-based distribution system architecture for enhancing resilience and self-healing of distribution systems will be presented.
Speaker: Hashem Nehrir, Montana State University, Emeritus
Attend in person or online (see weblink for Zoom information)
This talk was originally scheduled for September 19, 2024
Climate Counteraesthetics: Middling Mediations In A World Ablaze - 09/05/2024 05:00 PM
Wheeler Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Anna Kornbluh
Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World - 09/05/2024 05:00 PM
SRI International Palo Alto
Join SRI for our next PARC Forum event as we welcome Parmy Olson, author of Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World, and Karen Myers, Vice President of SRI's Artificial Intelligence Center for engaging discussions around AI.
Discover how AI is poised to transform the world and what the future holds for society. Don't miss this opportunity to gain insights from leaders in the field of AI!
Speaker: Parmy Olson, Bloomberg, author; Karen Myers, SRI
Look Out Below: Groundwater Rise Report Briefing - 09/05/2024 05:00 PM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR) San Francisco
SPUR's latest report, Look Out Below, examines how rising groundwater is likely to affect one Bay Area city: East Palo Alto. SPUR partnered with community-based organization Nuestra Casa and examined recent scientific studies to learn more about the threat and potential policy responses. The report explains specific risks and offers five recommendations - all applicable to other Bayshore cities.
Join SPUR and our partners to explore the current tide of knowledge on groundwater rise and combined coastal flood impacts, highlight pivotal community-based organizations and partnerships emerging in San Mateo County, and dive into regional policy challenges and opportunities. This event promises to be an informative and collaborative session, guaranteed to make a big splash in your understanding of these critical issues.
After Dark: Out There - 09/05/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
From icy moons to asteroids, outer space holds many wonders and unknowns. This After Dark invites you to get inquisitive about the vastness above with our partners at NASA - learn more about the Europa Clipper Mission, which will send a spacecraft to investigate Jupiter's moon, and a study on asteroid threat assessment to Earth. Then keep exploring with our exhibits on astronomy and space sciences, including mesmerizing artworks that evoke aerial views of planets from space.
Ages 18+
NightLife the Musical - 09/05/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Lights, curtains, action! Berkeley Rep joins NightLife for a sneak peek of their new show, Mexodus (and more!).
Ages 21+
Friday, 09/06/2024
Lunch & Learn: Diving Deeper Into AI - 09/06/2024 11:30 AM
Mechanics' Institute San Francisco
Following the success of our March 2024 panel on AI in marketing and public relations, we're excited to host a more intimate "Lunch and Learn" with presenter Warner Johnston, founder of 5 Borough Communications, member of the interim SFPRRT board - and an AI ace and early adopter of this emerging technology.
Join us for a deeper dive into the fascinating world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs). We'll explore the latest advancements affecting the public relations realm, discuss real-world applications for communicators, and address the critical ethical and privacy implications. Bring your laptop and follow along!
Whether you're an AI enthusiast or simply curious about the latest tech trends, this session will provide valuable insights into this transformative field. Let's uncover the potential and challenges of AI together!
First Friday Nights at Curiodyssey - 09/06/2024 05:00 PM
CuriOdyssey San Mateo
Join us for a Summer Sunset! Dance to some of your favorite pop and rock hits with the band, Right Time! while enjoying animal presentations, authentic Singaporean food from Satay By The Bay, and tacos from Carnitas Aguirre. Kids will imagine, create, and tinker with giant tangrams and maze puzzles!
First Friday: Sci Fi - 09/06/2024 06:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Think you got what you've got what it takes to be a main character in a Sci-Fi movie adventure? This First Friday, grab your hoverbike and head to Chabot Space and Science Center, where adventure awaits. Explore the science behind the fiction with special guest speakers, design your own spacesuit with Spaceship Runway, and groove to live music in the Pleiades Courtyard. See you there, astronaut!
First Friday Astronomy: Stargazing and Beyond: A Global Network of Citizen Astronomers - Livestream - 09/06/2024 07:30 PM
SETI Institute
Dr. Franck Marchis, Senior Astronomer and Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute and Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Unistellar, will present: "Stargazing and Beyond: A Global Network of Citizen Astronomers".
The event is free and open to the public.
For those that cannot attend in person, the lecture will be live-streamed on YouTube at boi.st/astrobroncoslive. Those attending the live-stream are welcome and encouraged to ask questions via chat.
The Future of Mars Helicopters - 09/06/2024 08:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Ingenuity has shown that flying in the Martian atmosphere is possible, and that helicopters can provide critical insight and support to ground-based assets. Though Ingenuity was designed for five flights, to date, 66 flights have been completed with ~119 min of flight time and ~9 miles flown. What would it take for an Ingenuity-class helicopter to help return the first samples from Mars to Earth? To start, it would include the smallest robotic arm ever flown on Mars, more capable rotors, a driving system, and flight software upgrades. The Mars Sample Recovery Helicopters are in development to provide back up to the Perseverance rover as part of the Mars Sample Return mission concept. Come hear about the work required to quickly transition a helicopter design from a technology demonstrator to a flying, driving, sample collecting capable vehicle and the potential future of rotorcraft on Mars!
Speaker: Shannah Withrow, NASA Ames
Room: Planetarium
Saturday, 09/07/2024
Tropical House Public Opening - 09/07/2024 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley
Be the first to enjoy the reopening of the Virginia Haldan Tropical House, which opens to the public the weekend of September 7th-8th, 2024.Â
Closed since 2021, this Garden Jewel-the East Bay's only tropical glass house open to the public-has been a beloved destination for visitors of all ages for over 50 years. Come experience this unique, humid tropical environment filled with magnificent, exotic plants, a living wall, pond and fountain, in a space designed to be ADA compliant and accessible for all!
Visit our docent Discovery Station during opening weekend to learn more about some familiar and rare plants from the Tropics featured in this collection.
See weblink for timed admission tickets
Nike Missile Site Veteran Open House - 09/07/2024 12:00 PM
Nike Missle Site Mill Valley
Veterans of the Nike program come to the site to share their stories with visitors and give guided tours of SF88 between the hours of 12pm - 3pm.
The SF-88 Nike Missile Site is the most fully restored Nike missile site in the country. During the tense years of the Cold War, from 1953 to 1979, the United States Army built and operated close to 300 Nike missile sites in the United States. These sites were designed to be the last line of defense against H-Bomb carrying Soviet bombers that had eluded the Air Force's interceptor jet aircrafts. SF-88 in the Marin Headlands was one such site. Today, Golden Gate National Recreation Area works together with a dedicated group of volunteers to preserve the site as it was during operations to remind visitors of the physical and psychological effects of the Cold War on the American landscape.
Documentary Film Screening & Discussion - Journeys of Black Mathematicians: Forging Resilience(2024) - 09/07/2024 01:00 PM
Roxie Theater San Francisco
Film screening followed by an audience discussion with Director George Csicsery & University of San Francisco Associate Professor Of Mathematics & Statistics, Dr. Emille Davie Lawrence, featured in the film.
Journeys of Black Mathematicians: Forging Resilience is part one of two films produced by Zala Films as part of the Journeys of Black Mathematicians project (https://www.jbmfilm.com). Forging Resilience traces the evolution of a culture of Black scholars, scientists and educators. The film follows the stories of prominent pioneers, showing how the challenges they faced and their triumphs are reflected in the experiences of today's working Black mathematicians. Their mathematical descendants in turn are contemporary college students, and K-12 children across the U.S. who are learning that they belong in mathematics and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Co-presented by San Francisco State University Mathematics Department & the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath).
Jazz Under the Stars - 09/07/2024 08:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Jazz Under the Stars is a FREE monthly public stargazing event! Occurring on the Saturday nearest the 1st quarter moon (check our Events Page), join us in building 36 on the 4th floor observatory for a night of smooth jazz, bright stars, and a lot of fun! We play our jazz from CSM's own KCSM 91.1. Founded in 1964, KCSM has grown to become one of the top 35 most listened to non-commercial stations in the US. With their help, the Astronomy department at CSM opens its observatory doors and balcony, for a night of science and fun! We operate for public viewing 8" dobsonian telescopes, prefect for viewing the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. We also have a 140mm refractor, with which we view the craters on the moon. Finally, our 11' schmidt-cassegrain is for our deep sky needs. It can peer deep into globular clusters, and nebulae. Occasionally we even have the chance to image galaxies on our 20" telescope. Our astronomers will also be available for questions and conversation, which you wouldn't get anywhere else! Feel free to ask us your questions about the cosmos. Don't miss out, join us at our next Jazz Under the Stars!
Weather in the bay area is notoriously hard to predict, and often the sources we use don't get it correct. Before leaving you home, be sure to check this webpage. If we are to cancel it will be posted there at least a few hours before the start of the event.
Sunday, 09/08/2024
Tropical House Public Opening - 09/08/2024 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley
Be the first to enjoy the reopening of the Virginia Haldan Tropical House, which opens to the public the weekend of September 7th-8th, 2024.
Closed since 2021, this Garden Jewel - the East Bay's only tropical glass house open to the public-has been a beloved destination for visitors of all ages for over 50 years. Come experience this unique, humid tropical environment filled with magnificent, exotic plants, a living wall, pond and fountain, in a space designed to be ADA compliant and accessible for all!
Visit our docent Discovery Station during opening weekend to learn more about some familiar and rare plants from the Tropics featured in this collection.
See weblink for timed admission tickets
Monday, 09/09/2024
Ketone Metabolism in Brain Aging - 09/09/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Mitsunori Nomura, Buck Institute
UC Berkeley Structural & Quantitative Biology Seminar - 09/09/2024 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Jim Hurley, UC Berkeley
Alien Oceans: NASA's Europa Clipper Mission - 09/09/2024 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
NASA is launching a spacecraft to Jupiter's ocean moon Europa in October 2024 to learn more about its potential habitability. Scientists describe Europa as an "ocean world" because decades of evidence from analysis of spacecraft observations strongly suggest that an ocean of liquid water is hidden beneath the moon's icy surface. The search for life beyond Earth is one of NASA's primary objectives. If humans are to truly understand our place in the Universe, we must learn whether our planet is the only place where life exists. Life needs a source of energy, the presence of certain chemical compounds, and temperatures that allow liquid water to exist. Jupiter's ocean moon Europa seems to be just such a place! Join us to learn more about Europa and why NASA wants to go there.
Speaker: Dr Kevin Hand, Jet Propulsion Labs
Tuesday, 09/10/2024
UC Berkeley Organic Chemistry Seminar - 09/10/2024 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Book Talk: Killed by a Traffic Engineer - Livestream - 09/10/2024 12:30 PM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR)
Characterizing and Mitigation Climate-Intensified Exposures Among Agricultural Workers - 09/10/2024 12:40 PM
Berkeley Way West Berkeley
UC Berkeley Physical Chemistry Seminar - 09/10/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
You've Just Been F$%^#D by Psyops: UFOs, Magic, Electronic Warfare, Mind Control, Artificial Intelligence and the Death of the Internet - 09/10/2024 05:00 PM
David Brower Center Berkeley
Wonderfest: How Attention Affects Perception - 09/10/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Wednesday, 09/11/2024
Conservation Genomics - Livestream - 09/11/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Research Institute
Parentage based tagging for the study of aquatic species - Livestream - 09/11/2024 03:00 PM
Bodega Marine Laboratory
Coping with Political Stress: Staying Grounded, Engaged and Effective - 09/11/2024 06:00 PM
Manny's San Francisco
Thursday, 09/12/2024
Enhancing Cybersecurity and Resilience for Transnational Dissidents - Livestream - 09/12/2024 12:00 PM
Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity
UC Berkeley Integrative Biology Seminar - 09/12/2024 12:30 PM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 09/12/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Science on Tap: Nuclear Testing Impacts and Resilience - 09/12/2024 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
After Dark: See For Yourself - 09/12/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Vagrancy in Birds - Livestream - 09/12/2024 07:00 PM
Marin Audubon Socitey
Bots vs Ballots: AI and the 2024 Election - 09/12/2024 07:30 PM
KQED, The Commons San Francisco
Skepticism or Denial? The Erosion of Trust in Scientific Expertise - Livestream - 09/12/2024 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Friday, 09/13/2024
Next level two-dimensional quantum materials - 09/13/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Saturday, 09/14/2024
Kits Cubed STEM Fair 2024 - 09/14/2024 10:00 AM
Oakland Technical High School Oakland
Designing Tomorrow - Livestream - 09/14/2024 10:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society
Family Nature Adventure: The Amazing World of Butterflies, Insects, and Helpful Pollinators - 09/14/2024 10:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Foothills Family Nature Walk - 09/14/2024 11:00 AM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos
City Public Star Party - Observe the Moon Night - 09/14/2024 07:30 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Observe The Moon Night at Foothill - 09/14/2024 07:30 PM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
Sunday, 09/15/2024
Solar Observing - 09/15/2024 02:00 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
Monday, 09/16/2024
Sonoma State University Biology Colloquium - 09/16/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Butterfly Walk in the Garden - SOLD OUT - 09/16/2024 01:30 PM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley
Theory of Coulomb driven nematicity in a multi-valley two-dimensional electron gas - 09/16/2024 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
UC Berkeley Structural & Quantitative Biology Seminar - 09/16/2024 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Understanding Excitons in Heterogeneous Metal-Halide Semiconductors with First Principles Computational Modeling - 09/16/2024 04:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley