Hello again Science Fans!
I consider myself very lucky to have seen the Aurora Borealis, more commonly known as the Northern Lights. I was in Quebec on vacation when my family went out for a walk after dinner. I looked up and asked “what’s that?”. Neither my father, who spent World War 2 in Finland, nor my mother, who grew up in very upstate New York, had ever seen the Aurora before, so this was a first for all of us. The display was spectacular, similar to the picture above, and lasted about 45 minutes.
But we didn’t hear anything, which made it all the more eerie. Yet some people claim to be able to hear the Aurora, and now a Finnish study confirms that they sometimes do make a noise that some people can hear.
We’ve been following along and reporting on the progress of the James Webb Space Telescope as it is readied for launch on December 18. According to NASA officials, there are around 300 single point of failure items that could doom the mission, and 50 or so unique deployment steps before the telescope will be up and running. Here’s a video about the deployment process that NASA put out.
Meanwhile, we’re back in communication with the various rovers and satellites on and around Mars. For two weeks, Mars was on the other side of the sun from Earth, so communication was very limited. Now that we’re back in touch, Ingenuity will be attempting its 14th flight. This one is to test how well the helicopter can fly as the Martian atmosphere warms up in response to the Martian summer. The atmosphere on Mars is about 1% the density of Earth’s and it gets thinner when warmer.
Jezero crater, the site of the Perseverance rovers landing, is now confirmed to be the bed of an ancient lake. An outcropping of rocks inside the western side of the crater had previously been seen in satellite photos and looked like a river delta. Perseverance’s pictures of this area from inside the crater confirm this.
Perseverance has some built-in navigation capabilities that allow it to pick a smooth path around rocks and other obstructions. Given the radio delay caused by the distance between Earth and Mars, it is impossible for scientists to “steer” Perseverance in real time, so this capability is crucial for safe navigation. NASA released a time-lapse video showing how AutoNav works on Mars.
The “Great Resignation” is a thing. The COVID pandemic is causing many workers to reevaluate their jobs and goals and a significant number of them are leaving their jobs, resulting in some industries experiencing severe shortages of help. In the US, 2.9% of the entire workforce quit in August. That’s 4.3 million Americans! And this is not limited to the US. The experience helps rewire people’s brains. This proves the panedemic is about more than just a serious illness but has affected unexpected aspects of day to day life.
With the news that COVID vaccine boosters will now be recommended, we move into a new phase of prevention. We’re very fortunate to have easy access to vaccines in the US. In many countries, vaccines are simply still not available. You may wonder why the boosters haven’t been tweaked to better match the variants. Here are some points to consider as it is not a simple question to answer.
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, and this is the first time it has been used to create a product. Some skeptics wonder how a vaccine could have been developed so fast, fueling conspiracy theories. Moderna prepared their recipe in about 48 hours! This article from The Atlantic explains how this was possible, and why mRNA vaccines may be the key to vaccines for other diseases including Malaria and cancers.
Geordi La Forge, the fictional character on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” played by LeVar Burton, wears a visor that allows him to “see” without using his eyes. This visor uses brain implants to stimulate the areas of the brain that would normally receive information from the eyes. In the science fiction meets science department, a blind woman in Spain was able to “see” for the first time in 16 years by direct stimulation of her visual cortex. Amazing stuff!
Enjoy the rain, and have a great week in Science!
Bob
Monday, 10/25/2021
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar - Livestream - 10/25/2021 10:00 AM
UC Berkeley
Speaker: Stefan Nadj-Perge, Caltech
See weblink for Zoom information
Promises and Pitfalls of Machine Learning for Education - Livestream - 10/25/2021 11:00 AM
Berkeley Institute for Data Science
The widespread use of machine learning techniques in social settings remains controversial, with a variety of recent examples in education, healthcare, and criminal justice. In response, the machine learning community has produced a wide range of fairness measures that theoretically address different forms of algorithmic bias, but applying these measures in practice under noisy data or modern privacy requirements is no longer so theoretically clean. The first part of this talk will cover new methods applying robust optimization to handle fairness constraints under noisy protected group information. But fairness constraints are only part of the story - the second part of this talk will expand the picture of positive societal impact to a broader question of how ML can better support real world societal principles and goals. Using the education domain as a case study, we examine whether the stated or implied societal objectives of papers from highly-regarded ML conferences are aligned with the ML problem formulation, objectives, and interpretation of results. Through the lens of interviews with education domain experts, we expand the view of the ML life cycle to include a deeper dive into problem formulation and the translation from predictions to interventions.
Speaker: Serena Wang, UC Berkeley
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 10/25/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Melina Bersten
Multiscale Modeling of Coupled Physical Processes in Tight Rocks - Livestream - 10/25/2021 12:15 PM
Stanford University
Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) reservoirs are known to be multiscale in nature, with pores ranging from ~2 nm up to millimeters in propped hydraulic fractures. This wide pore-size distribution poses a challenge because the continuum fluid assumptions are not applicable below ~10 nm. Although molecular simulations are appropriate at the nanoscale, they are computationally expensive and are limited in length and time scales. This talk will discuss the application of the heterogeneous multiscale method to upscale the molecular simulations of excess adsorption in nanopores. I will show how we iteratively couple pEDFM with XFEM to model hydraulic fracture propagation and flow in naturally fractured reservoirs. Our ongoing work on the coupling of multiscale XFEM with multiscale pEDFM will be discussed. This presentation will end with a discussion of the experimental setup to validate multiscale modeling results using 3D-printed cores with designed multiscale fractures.
Speaker: Olufemi Olorode, Louisiana State University
The Hubble Tension: Is There Evidence for New Physics? - Livestream - 10/25/2021 02:00 PM
Kavli Institute for Particle Physics & Cosmology
An important and unresolved question in cosmology today is whether there is new physics that is missing from our current standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model. Recent measurements of the Hubble constant, Ho -- based on Cepheids and Type Ia supernovae (SNe) -- are discrepant at the 4-5-sigma level with values of Ho inferred from measurements of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The latter assumes LCDM, and the former assumes that systematics have been fully accounted for. If real, the current discrepancy could be signaling a new physical property of the universe. I will present new results based on an independent calibration of SNe Ho based on measurements of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB). The TRGB marks the luminosity at which the core helium flash in low-mass stars occurs, and provides an excellent standard candle. Moreover, the TRGB method is less susceptible to extinction by dust, to metallicity effects, and to crowding/blending effects than Cepheid variable stars. I will address the current uncertainties in both the TRGB and Cepheid distance scales, as well as discuss the current tension in Ho and whether there is need for additional physics beyond the standard LCDM model.
Speaker: Wendy Freedman, University of Chicago
A 'cool' route to unveil the Higgs boson’s secrets - Livestream - 10/25/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
The Higgs boson was discovered in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the world’s most powerful particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. This particle plays a unique role in fundamental physics. It gives all of the known elementary particles, including itself, their masses. While we now have a strong evidence that the Higgs field is indeed the unique source of mass for the known elementary particles, the next step is to search for new interactions that could also explain why the Higgs field has the properties required by the Standard Model of particle physics. We have no clear roadmap to this new theory but the Higgs boson plays a crucial role in this quest. This talk highlights the current experimental results of Higgs boson couplings to other particles and its self-coupling at the LHC and perspectives at future colliders. The goal of a next-generation collider is to carry out precision measurements to per-cent level of the Higgs boson properties that are not accessible at the LHC. The exploitation of the complementarity between LHC and future colliders will be the key to understanding fundamentally the Higgs boson. The Cool Copper Collider (C^3) is a new concept for linear e+e- collider that could provide a rapid route to precision Higgs physics with a compact footprint.
Speaker: Caterina Vernieri, SLAC
Testing Einstein with Lasers and the Moon - Livestream - 10/25/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Lunar Laser Ranging has enabled comprehensive, precision tests of gravity for over 50 years. I will discuss my work on the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO), which achieves millimeter-precision measurements of the lunar orbit. Such high-precision measurements provide exquisite constraints on gravitational physics including the strong equivalence principle, the inverse square law of gravity, and the time-rate of change of Newton's Constant, G.
Speaker: Dr. James Battat, Wellesley College
Settling Climate Accounts: Navigating the Road to Net Zero - Livestream - 10/25/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
As drivers of climate action enter the fourth decade of what has become a multi-stage race, Net Zero has emerged as the dominant organizing principle. Hundreds of corporations and investors worldwide, together responsible for assets in the tens of trillions of dollars, are lining-up for the UN Race to Zero. This latest stage in the race to save civilization from heat, drought, fires, and floods, is defined by steering toward zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
This talk will discuss the material in a forthcoming book by Stanford's Sustainable Finance Initiative, Settling Climate Accounts, which probes the practice of Net Zero finance. It elucidates both the state of play and a set of directions that help form judgements about whether Net Zero is going to carry climate action far enough. The book delves into technical analyses and activates the reader’s imagination with narrative accounts of climate action past, present, and future. Settling Climate Accounts offers context and foundation to ground the rapidly evolving practice of Net Zero finance. Targeted at seasoned practitioners, newly activated leaders, educators, and students of climate action the world over, this book embraces the complexity of climate action and, in so doing, proposes to animate and drive hope.
Speakers: Alicia Seiger and Thomas Heller, Stanford Law School
REgister at weblink for Zoom information
A tale of tails: the genetic basis of morphological and behavioral adaptation - Livestream - 10/25/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford University
Hopi E. Hoekstra is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Departments of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology and the Molecular & Cellular Biology at Harvard University. She is the Curator of Mammals in the Museum of Comparative Zoology and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research focuses on understanding the evolution of morphological and behavioral diversity in mammals - from identifying genes contributing to coloration to those that affect complex behaviors.
This talk will present our effort to control and use the dipole-dipole interactions between cold atoms in order to implement spin Hamiltonians useful for quantum simulation of condensed matter or quantum optics situations. We trap individual atoms in arrays of optical tweezers separated by a few micrometers. We create almost arbitrary geometries of the atomic arrays in two and three dimensions up to about 200 atoms. To make the atoms interact, we either excite them to Rydberg states or induce optical dipoles with a near-resonance laser. Using this platform, we have in particular explored quantum magnetism, topological synthetic quantum matter, and a new light-matter interface.
Speaker: Antoine Browaeys, Institut d'Optique, CNRS
Lightning-fast SQL Queries + Transactions directly on the Data Lake - Livestream - 10/25/2021 07:00 PM
SF Bay Association of Computing Machinery
Data Lakes have been built with a desire to democratize data - to allow more and more people, tools, and applications to make use of more and more data. A key capability needed to enable more users is the ability to hide the complexity of underlying data structures and physical data storage. The de-facto standard has been the Hive table format, released by Facebook in 2009 that addresses some of these problems, but falls short at data, user, and application scale. So what is the answer? Apache Iceberg. Apache Iceberg table format is now in use and contributed to by many leading tech companies like Netflix, Apple, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Dremio, Expedia, and AWS.In this talk you will learn:* The issues that arise when using the Hive table format at scale, and why we need a new table format* How a straightforward, elegant change in table format structure has enormous positive effects* The underlying architecture of an Apache Iceberg table, how a query against an Iceberg table works, and how the table’s underlying structure changes as CRUD operations are done on it* The resulting benefits of this architectural design
Speaker: Jason Hughes, Dremio
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Wonderfest - Future Farming (Not Cooking) with Robots - 10/25/2021 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Humans have grown food for over 10,000 years. As Earth's climate changes and the global population seeks fresh and healthy nutrition, advances in robotics gradually transform agriculture: robots assist in precise irrigation, drones fine-tune fertilizer delivery, and mobile robots optimize plant breeding. Robots even help combine research and art. In 1995, over 100,000 people remotely collaborated to tend a living garden; and in 2020, researchers trained a robot to sustain a diverse polyculture garden. Alas, robot help in the kitchen is significantly harder to achieve than on the farm.
Speaker: Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley
Tuesday, 10/26/2021
Geologic evolution of the Point San Pedro area: Insights from detrital thermochronology - Livestream - 10/26/2021 12:15 PM
Stanford University
The Point San Pedro - Devil’s Slide area of the San Mateo coast preserves a rich 100 m.y. history of plate tectonic interactions that affected the California margin. The coastal area is well-preserved, accessible, and a featured hike in GeolSci 5 - Living on the Edge. The ca. 105 Ma Montara Granite and overlying Paleocene strata are part of a crustal sliver (Salinia) that was displaced ca. 360 km northwestwards away from the southernmost, mid-Cretaceous Sierra Nevada batholith along the San Andreas transform during the Neogene. Geologic relationships and new detrital K-feldspar thermochronology indicate that the Salinian rocks were strongly folded during Miocene tectonic burial to 2-3 km depth. This deformation resulted from overthrusting by rocks of the Cretaceous Franciscan subduction complex across the Pilarcitos fault, a presently inactive segment of the modern San Andreas fault system.
Speaker: Dr. Marty Grove, Stanford University
Flip the Switch: Controlling the Spin Crossover Transition in an Fe2+ Organic Molecule Thin Film Through Interface Engineering - Livestream - 10/26/2021 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
The physics of organic molecule thin films has opened up the field of molecular spintronics research. Organic molecules are coveted as the active ingredients for novel spintronic and electronic devices due to their versatility and energy efficiency, but also for their inexpensive ingredients and much reduced processing cost compared to conventional circuitry. Bi-stable spin-crossover molecules are promising candidates for memory and logic devices, while at the same time a number of fascinating fundamental questions regarding their switching mechanism remain to be explored.
In Fe2+ spin crossover systems, an Fe ion surrounded by a cage of ligands similar to the metal in tetrahedral configuration, that can be found in many complex oxides. The metal can assume two distinct spin states: the low spin state with fully occupied tg states and empty eg states (S=0µB), and the high spin state partially occupied tg states and partially occupied eg states (S=4µB).
Here we present a number of ways to change the energetics of the transition between the spin states, primarily by choosing and manipulating the interface of a molecular thin film with its support. As enabling probe in this work is x-ray absorption spectroscopy, which can directly probe the occupancy of the t2g and eg states of iron. In addition to interface engineering, we show the influence of an electric and magnetic field on the spin-crossover transition and lay out a path to spin-crossover molecule based devices.
Speaker: Alpha T. N'Diaye, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
See weblink for Zoom information
Whole Earth Seminar - Wind-blown dunes in the solar system - 10/26/2021 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Speaker: Andrew Gunn, Stanford
First Results - and afterthoughts - from the Fermilab Muon g-2 Experiment - Livestream - 10/26/2021 04:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
The 2004 Brookhaven measurement of the muon’s anomalous magnetic anomaly was more than 3 standard deviations greater than the recently updated Standard Model theory. Is this a sign of new physics? To answer this, we built an even more sensitive experiment at Fermilab and have completed four data-taking campaigns. I will describe this unique experiment and its challenging data analysis. We published our first results from the Run-1 analysis and learned that the BNL measurement was not a fluke. Now what does it all mean and is the Standard Model prediction stable? I will try to convince you that our experimental results are to be trusted, but I will be speculating a bit on the new physics implications and the status of the Standard Model prediction. The talk will be aimed at a general audience.
Speaker: David Hertzog, University of Washington
Register at weblink to attend online. In-person attendance limited to Stanford affiliates.
Marine Mammals of the World: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification - Livestream - 10/26/2021 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
Marine Mammals of the World: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification by T. A. Jefferson, M. A. Webber, and R. L. Pitman, with illustrations by Uko Gorter, is a complete guide to all of the marine mammals. It was first published in 2008 with a second edition in 2015, and a third edition is underway for publication in 2023. Co-author, Marc Webber, will take us behind the scenes to understand what goes into such a mammoth undertaking. He will share observed changes across marine mammal species as well as new research and technological developments that underscore the need for this updated edition. Come ready to learn from one of our pre-eminent authorities on the world's marine mammals.
Speaker: Mark Webber, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Retired, University of Alaska
Register at weblink to receive connection information.
Wednesday, 10/27/2021
Cement & Concrete Decarbonization - Livestream - 10/27/2021 12:00 PM
Stanford Energy
The cement & concrete industries provide a material fundamental to civilization. Cement is ubiquitous, extremely low-cost, robust, easy to use, and embedded in regulations worldwide which are meant to protect public safety. At the same time, the production of cement is responsible for around 7% of global CO2 emissions and is difficult to decarbonize since its production requires very high temperature heat (>1450 C) and >50% of emissions comes directly from the raw material itself (limestone). Increased focus on hard-to-decarbonize industries from governments and investors has pushed the industry to accelerate its efforts to reduce CO2. This has led to a proliferation of new technologies for low-CO2 cement and concrete, promoted by the increasing number of startups, national or university R&D centers, or individual and collaborative efforts of industry itself. Judging which technologies have the potential to be scalable to gigatons and deployable rapidly in the face of an industry with extremely low variable cost and $1 trillion of deployed capital stock is a key challenge for investors and regulators. Supporting those efforts with the financial resources and regulatory reform is critical to decarbonizing the global economy. This webinar will give a basic background in the technical and market aspects of the global cement and concrete industries; it will highlight recent developments on cement CO2 as well as existing and emerging technologies for decarbonization; and present a framework for thinking about the economic and industrial feasibility of emerging technologies and their potential impact.
Speaker: Eric Trusiewicz, Breaklthrough Evergy Ventures
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Ask the Scientist - Lisa D. White - Livestream - 10/27/2021 02:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?
If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with our weekly Seminar speakers.
Parents must give permission for children under 18 to participate.
Dr. Lisa D. White is Director of Education at the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley. Past positions held during a 22 year career at San Francisco State University include Professor of Geosciences, Geosciences Department Chair, Associate Dean of the Graduate Division, and Associate Dean of the College of Science and Engineering. Dr. White has extensive experience with science education programs for underrepresented students and she leads multiple efforts to increase diversity in the geosciences. A micropaleontologist by training and Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and the Geological Society of America, Dr. White was the inaugural recipient of the GSA Bromery Award for Minorities, an honor bestowed upon a geoscientist who has been instrumental in opening the geoscience field to diverse communities. As Chair of the American Geophysical Union Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, Dr. White works to create a culture that embraces diversity and inclusiveness in the Earth and space sciences. As the education director at the UC Museum of Paleontology, she develops and disseminates learning materials on evolution and the fossil record, virtual geological field trip experiences, and the nature and process of science. Dr. White holds degrees from San Francisco State University (B.A. in Geology) and the University of California at Santa Cruz (Ph.D. in Earth Sciences).
Integrating virtual fieldwork, paleontology collections, and visualization tools to enhance geoscience instruction for diverse audience - Livestream - 10/27/2021 03:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
The extensive fossil holdings and significant online resources at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) are accessible through educational websites, databases, specimen photographs, and digital archival materials. As the menu of virtual offerings expands and includes virtual field experiences of unique fossil sites supported by digitally integrated gigapixel-resolution images, UCMP has a special opportunity to bring the user to the extraordinary places where geoscientists work. Complementing these efforts is the launch of a new instructional resource, Understanding Global Change, which provides rich visualizations on an interactive canvas that can be used to map and model global change phenomenon. These and other UCMP resources are central to our efforts to foster diversity in geoscience and we target a range of students from pre-college to community college, while widely sharing resources with public audiences.
Speaker: Lisa White, UC Berkeley
Register at weblink for Zoom information
Creepy, Crawly Night with 'Deep Look' - 10/27/2021 07:00 PM
KQED, The Commons San Francisco
"Deep Look" is a PBS and KQED YouTube wildlife and nature series that explores big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. They've captured the inside of a Mexican jumping bean in motion, a bee lining her nest with leaves, a flower releasing pollen, and much more. But we aren't going to focus on any flowers or butterflies in October! For this Halloween-edition of "Deep Look", we'll screen stomach-turning episodes about scorpions, turret spiders, bats, and ticks to learn what makes them...tick. The producers who created the videos will interview the scientists behind the research, and we'll make sure we get to your questions too.To learn how "Deep Look" films those microscopic scorpion pincers, our live cameras will zoom in on Josh Cassidy, "Deep Look's" cinematographer, as he films live with "Deep Look's" ultra-HD (4K) lens. He'll give us a behind-the-scenes look at how he works to tell stories on a microscopic lens with such charming protagonists.In case those visuals aren't enough, you'll get the chance to see spooky creatures up close. After the screening, the audience can encounter live bats, ticks, and spiders. Maybe even a leech. But don't worry - they'll be in escape-proof protection. We promise.
Presented by KQED Live
Science on Tap: Après Nous, Le Déluge? A View From the Antarctic Doomsday Glacier - 10/27/2021 07:00 PM
Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz
The Antarctic ice sheet formed 34 million years ago when carbon dioxide concentration in Earth's atmosphere dropped below 600 ppm. During ice age cycles of the last million years, carbon dioxide concentrations ranged from as low as 170 ppm during cold glacials to 300 ppm during warm interglacials. At the end of the last glacial period (15,000 years ago), atmospheric carbon dioxide increased by ca. 100 ppm, and the Antarctic ice sheet lost enough ice to contribute ca. 70 feet (20 m) to global sea-level rise. During the last two hundred years, the burning of fossil fuels increased carbon dioxide concentration by an additional 140 ppm (to ca. 420 ppm). The Antarctic glaciological community is in the process of evaluating how much and how fast will the Antarctic ice sheet shrink in response to the anticipated climate warming driven by human emissions of carbon dioxide. Much of this research effort has focused on Thwaites Glacier, the so-called 'doomsday glacier' that is retreating and thinning rapidly and may trigger as much as 10 feet (3 m) of global sea-level rise. The UCSC glaciology research group is leading one of the extensive research projects to understand the current behavior and project the future evolution of Thwaites Glacier.Speaker: Slawek Tulaczyk, UC Santa Cruz
James Webb Space Telescope - Livestream - 10/27/2021 07:00 PM
Mountain View Public Library
Celebrate the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope with a virtual talk by Dr. Thomas Greene, an astrophysicist in the Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA's Ames Research Center. The Webb Space Telescope will be the largest, most powerful and most complex space telescope ever built and launched into space. The launch is scheduled for December 18. You can learn more about the Webb Space Telescope on the NASA website.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be the most complex and powerful astronomical space observatory ever built. It will launch in December and will unfold itself before arriving in its final orbit in the Sun - Earth system about a month later. The large 6.5-m diameter JWST primary mirror and its infrared instruments will allow it to see some of the very first luminous objects that formed in the Universe shortly after the Big Bang. Other major science themes of JWST encompass studying the assembly of galaxies, the birth of stars and planetary systems, and planetary systems and the origins of life. JWST will be the premier astrophysics space observatory for NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) over its 5-10 year mission lifetime. It will augment the Hubble Space Telescope, which primarily works at visible and ultraviolet light wavelengths. In addition to the topics covered in this talk, many scientists will use JWST to make discoveries that we have not yet imagined.
JWST employs many unique technologies, and the mission has been in development for 20 years. All major hardware components including the telescope, spacecraft, and all science instruments have been completed. The telescope mirrors were figured by L3-Tinsley in Richmond, its main scientific camera was built by Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, and scientists at NASA Ames in Mountain View contributed to its overall design and science plans. The spacecraft was manufactured and integrated to the telescope by Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, and the observatory will be launched from French Guiana. Scientists from all over the world will use it. In this talk I will illustrate the mission's science potential and highlight some aspects of its technologies, launch, and operations plans.
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
Thursday, 10/28/2021
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 10/28/2021 12:40 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Lisa Hunter, UC Santa Cruz
NightLife: FrightLife - 10/28/2021 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Get into costume and come ready to enjoy creepy science specimens, a costume contest, and Halloween drag show with the Rice Rockettes, hosted by drag queen extraordinaire Heklina!
After Dark: Fright Night - 10/28/2021 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Face your fears and set your spirit free at tonight’s celebratory spectacle. Learn about what triggers our fear response and explore familiar superstitions that leave us with an eerie feeling. This evening will feature a specialty spooky cocktail and DJ set to send shivers down your spine. And don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for some sweet treats - and maybe some tricks - as you explore the museum.
Hardcore Natural History: Maritime habitat at Fort Ord - 10/28/2021 06:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
The museum will host ecologist Thor Anderson of Burleson Consulting, an expert in habitat restoration, wildlife, and landscape ecology, for a lecture entitled, “A Monumental Task: Restoring Maritime Chaparral Habitat on Fort Ord National Monument.”
Anderson’s presentation will cover the challenges of restoring more than 60 acres of rare Central Coast maritime habitat - most specifically on the Fort Ord National Monument through a collaboration between federal, state, and local agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private contractors.
Anderson has led a comprehensive restoration team to strategically plan and implement passive and active restoration on the former Fort Ord, and his presentation will reflect on past and present challenges, lessons learned, and the path forward with this decade-long endeavor.
Zombie Salmon and Ghost Moose: The Spooky Implications of Climate Change - Livestream - 10/28/2021 07:00 PM
US Geological Survey Public Lecture Series
The National Climate Adaptation Science Center works on research to help avoid some scary scenarios for fish and wildlife.
Learn how warming weather and shorter winters trap moose in a never-ending creepy crawly season.
For fish, higher water temperatures can make long distance migrations even more of a haunted maze.
While there is no magic spell, the more we understand these frightening impacts, the better we can prepare and adapt to avoid a grim future for fish and wildlife.
See weblink for connection information.
Dangerous Demos - 10/28/2021 07:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Don’t flinch! Exploratorium educator Zeke Kossover performs a trio of demonstrations with real science and real danger. Will you volunteer to put your face in the path of a gigantic, spiked mace? Nap on a bed of nails? Stand in a shower of sparks reaching 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit? With fearlessness and faith in physics, Zeke will ringlead this spectacle of science. Do not try this at home!
Part of After Dark. Attend in person or online via YouTube or Facebook, or at the event weblink.
Friday, 10/29/2021
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics Seminar - 10/29/2021 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Jessica Hawthorne, University of Oxford
Saturday, 10/30/2021
Coyote Point Movie Nights - 10/30/2021 07:00 PM
Coyote Point Recreation Area San Mateo
Gather friends and family, pack a picnic and join CuriOdyssey for a fun-filled summer evening during Coyote Point Movie Nights in July, August, September and October at Coyote Point Park in San Mateo. Watch your favorite movies, experiment with fun CuriOdyssey science experiments, play creatively with San Mateo County Libraries, and learn more about the San Mateo County Parks Foundation. Movies begin thirty minutes after sunset, the last Saturday of each month, activities will open one hour before the movie begins.
Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 10/30/2021 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!
Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be available for an open forum for all of your most pressing astronomy questions.
Sunday, 10/31/2021
Bat and Owls with Lindsay Wildlife Experience - Livestream - 10/31/2021 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden
Join Lindsay Wildlife staff online as we introduce you to several animals that go bump in the night! Get a close-up look at some often misunderstood California native creatures and learn why we can't live without them, not to mention what makes them so unique and cool. This program will provide insight into how to live safely and sustainably, sharing space and resources, with these amazing animals. Live animal ambassadors will include the western mastiff bat, a great horned owl and a barred owl.
Monday, 11/01/2021
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 11/01/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Mia de los Reyes
Psychological Science Acceleratior - Livestream - 11/01/2021 12:15 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum
Speaker: Nicholas Coles, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom information
Magnetism and morphology in the interstellar medium - Livestream - 11/01/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
The interstellar medium is the "stuff between the stars" in galaxies: the dynamic, turbulent environment out of which new stars are born. Understanding the processes that govern star formation and galactic evolution are areas of active research, and open questions abound. Particularly mysterious is the role of the interstellar magnetic field. Galaxies like our own Milky Way are threaded by magnetic fields, and their effect on interstellar processes is not well understood. In this talk we will explore some recent progress in this field, with a particular focus on how the morphology of interstellar gas and dust encodes information about interstellar magnetism.
Speaker: Susan Clark, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom information
Building Traversable Wormholes (In Theory) - Livestream - 11/01/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Speaker: Dr. Brianna Grado - White
Tuesday, 11/02/2021
Modern Approaches To Anomaly Detection - Livestream - 11/02/2021 11:50 AM
Magnimind Academy
New Views of our Solar System from the James Webb Space Telescope - 11/02/2021 12:00 PM
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
Low Temperature Properties of Glasses - Livestream - 11/02/2021 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Whole Earth Seminar = Extrinsic Tracers in Hydrology - 11/02/2021 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Wednesday, 11/03/2021
Taming Fruit: From Fruit Forests and Oases to Orchards - Livestream - 11/03/2021 11:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden
The drought cascade: Linking changes in climate extremes to changes in watershed function - Livestream - 11/03/2021 12:00 PM
CITRIS Research Exchange
Thursday, 11/04/2021
Understanding the ghost particle - Livestream - 11/04/2021 10:00 AM
Oxford University
Weekday Morning Walk at Pillar Point Bluff - 11/04/2021 10:00 AM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 11/04/2021 12:40 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
After Dark: Discover Wonder - 11/04/2021 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Nightlife - 11/04/2021 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Micromitigation: Fighting Air Pollution with Activated Carbon - Livestream - 11/04/2021 07:00 PM
Counter Culture Labs
NightSchool: LightSchool - Livestream - 11/04/2021 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Friday, 11/05/2021
Bay Area Chemistry Symposium - Livestream - 11/05/2021 08:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics Seminar - 11/05/2021 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
'The Falconer' - An Online Film Screening - 11/05/2021 07:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Saturday, 11/06/2021
Fall 2021 King Tides Program - 11/06/2021 02:00 PM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
The Secret Lives of Sponges: Understanding Ancient Animals at Their Own Pace - Livestream - 11/06/2021 07:00 PM
Greater Farallones Association
Sunday, 11/07/2021
Sustainable Herbs and The Business of Botanicals with Ann Armbrecht - Livestream - 11/07/2021 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden
Monday, 11/08/2021
Modeling and Simulation Tools for Industrial and Societal Research Applications: Digital Twins and Genome-based Machine-learning - Livestream - 11/08/2021 11:00 AM
Berkeley Institute for Data Science
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 11/08/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
The Asymmetry of Anti-Quarks in the Proton - Livestream - 11/08/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquia - Canceled - 11/08/2021 04:15 PM
UC Berkeley