Greetings Supporters of Science, Reason, and Critical Thinking,
Well here we are again. I don't know about you but I haven't found much to cheer about how things have changed for our institutions of science. I have to admit to doing way too much doomscrolling. Here’s an example of science, war, and politics coming together 70 years ago that seems to be in the news currently! Though sometimes things do seem to happen together that can only be because of the way the universe works. I hope that you had a piece of π on π-Day. (Have you ever wondered if π is lowercase or uppercase?) Or maybe you caught the Lunar Eclipse on π-eve. I got to see some of it before the cloud cover got too heavy in San Francisco. We all know about 3.14 but what about 3.17? What’s the science there? What if I told you that SP wasn’t a real saint? You have to love it when myth and science bump into each other! The Difference Between Science And Religion
Looking back in time, not very far, I came up with this… “We need to find a middle way between the exaggerated deference towards science characteristic of scientism, and the exaggerated suspicion characteristic of anti-scientific attitudes — to acknowledge that science is neither sacred nor a confidence trick. The Critical Commonsensist account of scientific evidence and scientific method offered here corrects the narrowly logical approach of the Old Deferentialists without succumbing to the New Cynics' sociologism or their factitious despair of the epistemic credentials of science.”
There are so many sources out there! Not just energy and radioactive sources, but sources of good and bad science. Here’s the weekly edition of the McGill Office for Science and Society (OSS) It would seem that some guy with a sharpie can’t really change the weather. A lot of people are getting big surprises when they look up at the sky these days.
If the weather is still bad or the sun is too bright you don’t have to look up. You can check out the wealth of opportunity we have here to attend in person. Here’s a few to tickle your interest.
-Leakey Foundation Lunch Break Science - Livestream - 03/20/2025 11:00 AM
-When Eagles Roar - The Amazing Journey of an African Wildlife Adventurer - 03/18/2025 06:00 PM Note: This is in Pacific Grove.
-Wonderfest Ask a Science Envoy: Anthropocene Alarm; Partisan Contagion - 03/18/2025 07:00 PM
-Living with Lions: Coexistence with an Iconic American Carnivore - 03/23/2025 04:00 PM
-KIPAC + Friends Community Day - 03/19/2025 01:00 PM one of the best things all year!
-Evolution, Education, and a Century of Scopes - Livestream - 03/20/2025 04:00 PM
(We are heading in to the time of year when there are just too many cool presentations to attend. If you add on-line it gets really crazy. We have 87 listings for the next 2 weeks! I’m going to try and keep the list abbreviated by including very little about the presentation, so please follow any link to find out more. The full description will be there.)
And now for all of the extras I couldn’t fit in otherwise!
Keep in mind that April 1 isn’t a real holiday so why should you limit yourself to 1 Day? Be sure to check out Hoodwinked: 19th Century Quack Medicine.
For most of history, the Moon was regarded as a mysterious and powerful object. Then scientists made it into a destination…
If you just want more eclipse stuff, here’s an interesting one! Eclipse Soundscapes: Partnering with the public to illuminate the effect of eclipses on wildlife. I hope you also check out The voice of the natural world
If you only have time and space for one health newsletter, subscribe to the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It is one of the most inclusive science and medicine newsletters out there.
5 Concepts Can Help You Understand Quantum Mechanics and Technology — Without Math!
Mind the Gap: Will Tiny Discrepancies Derail Cosmology? Is a deep one! Or a far out one.
Have an excellent week learning new cool and important things that may just be like a butterfly flapping its’ wings could be.
herb masters
“One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away.” Stephen Hawking
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 03/17/2025
Searching for Wandering MHBs and Stornly Lensed Transients in the Ear of Rubin, Roman, and Euclid - 03/17/2025 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
The Euclid and Roman wide-field surveys conicide with an exciting new era for transient discovery, in which Rubin Observatory's LSST will indentify thousands of tidal disruption events (TDEs) and millions of supernovae - including hundreds of gravitationally lensed supernovae (gLSNe). These surveys will enable us to identify populations of transients that are only rarely detected in shallower time-domain surveys, including wandering MPHs spatially offset from their host nuclei that constrain MBH merger rates, and gLSNe from which we can estimate the Hubble Constant.
Speaker: Charlotte Ward, Princeton University
Controlling Learned Inverter Dynamics of Distributed Energy Resources and Long-term Planning for Long-duration Energy Storage - 03/17/2025 12:30 PM
Green Earth Sciences Building Stanford
Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is a key resource in enabling zero-emissions electricity grids but its role within different types of grids is not well understood. In this work, we find that a) LDES is particularly valuable in majority wind-powered regions and regions with diminishing hydropower generation, b) seasonal operation of storage becomes cost-effective if storage capital costs fall below US$5/kWh, and c) mandating the installation of enough LDES to enable year-long storage cycles would reduce electricity prices by over 70% during times of high demand.
Speaker: Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, UC San Diego
Massive Speedups for Policy Simulation with applications to Inventory Management - 03/17/2025 03:30 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
We consider the task of producing a single trajectory of a dynamical system under some state dependent policy. This ‘policy simulation’ task is often the core computational bottleneck in modern Reinforcement Learning algorithms. The multiple, inherently serial, policy evaluations that must be performed in one such simulation constitute the bulk of this bottleneck. As a concrete example, simulating a fulfillment optimization policy on a month’s worth of demand at a moderately large retailer is a task that can take several hours rendering granular RL infeasible at scale.
Speaker: Vivek Farias, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Seeing Triple: the Multiply-imaged Standard Candle Supernova 'H0pe' That Yielded a Value for the Current Expansion Rate of the Universe - 03/17/2025 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
Einstein first correctly predicted how mass deflects light. Galaxy clusters, comprising of up to hundreds of galaxies all residing in a still larger dark matter halo, act as excellent gravitational lenses. We present results from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Prime Extragalactic Areas and Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) program targeting galaxy cluster lenses.
Speaker: Brenda Frye, University of Arizona
Radical-SAM Enzymes Nature’s Choice to Initiate Radical Reactions - 03/17/2025 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Radical reactions are central to enzymatic catalysis, and overwhelmingly are carried out by Nature’s largest enzyme superfamily, the radical S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) enzymes (RS enzymes), with over 700,00 members that span all kingdoms of life and exhibit remarkable catalytic diversity. I
Speaker: Brian Hoffman, Northwestern University
Evolution of social behaviors in nature and under domestication - 03/17/2025 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Speaker: Andres Bendesky, Columbia University
Room: Auditorium
Is the protein folding problem really solved? (Probing hidden conformations on the energy landscape) - 03/17/2025 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
The amino acid sequence of a protein encodes more than the native three-dimensional structure; it encodes the entire energy landscape - an ensemble of conformations whose energetics and dynamics are finely tuned for folding, binding and activity. Small variations in the sequence and environment modulate this landscape and can have effects that range from undetectable to pathological, even when the protein’s folded structure is unchanged.
Speaker: Susan Marqusee, UC Berkeley
Tuesday, 03/18/2025
Development of New Routes to Benign Polymeric Materials - 03/18/2025 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
William G. Dauben Lecture
Society depends on polymeric materials now more than at any other time in history. This lecture will highlight our research to develop: 1) mechanically recyclable polymers; 2) chemically recyclable polymers; and 3) sustainable routes to biodegradable plastics.
Speaker: Geoffrey Coates, Cornell University
Securing the Future: Trust, Data & Cyber Challenges - Livestream - 03/18/2025 11:00 AM
UC Berkeley
Dr. Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer is the inaugural Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He is tasked with facilitating ICT coherence across NATO’s 50+ civil and military bodies with 25,000 users. He also performs a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) function as the Single Point of Authority for cybersecurity.
See weblink for connection information
Deployable Quantum Sensors Based on Spins Driven Far-from-Equilibrium - Livestream - 03/18/2025 12:00 PM
Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center
In this talk, Professor Ajoy will present their experiments leveraging electron and nuclear spins out of equilibrium to build highly sensitive, deployable quantum sensors. These sensors utilize solid-state systems, such as semiconductors, where nuclear spins can be optically "hyperpolarized" to levels thousands of times greater than thermal equilibrium. Finally, they show the ability to extend this approach to a broad class of materials, including defects in semiconductors and molecules containing rare-earth ions or photoexcited triplet electrons.
Speaker: Ashok Ajoy, UC Berkeley Click here for Zoom
Paul Fine, professor of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley, will discuss the importance of describing biodiversity for the future of rainforest conservation.
Understanding the mechanisms of DNA repair, one molecule at a time - 03/18/2025 03:30 PM
Genetics and Plant Biology Building Berkeley
The Passmore lab uses biochemical reconstitution, structural biology and functional studies to gain mechanistic insights into mRNA processing, mRNA stability and genome integrity - fundamental processes that affect all eukaryotes. DNA must be passed on faithfully from cell to cell and across generations.
Speaker: Lori Passmore, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Milan Delor, Columbia University Realizing lossless energy flow in semiconductors at room temperature - 03/18/2025 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Achieving ballistic charge and energy flow in materials at room temperature is a long-standing goal that could unlock ultrafast, lossless energy and information technologies. I will describe two promising avenues for realizing ballistic transport in two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors by harnessing hybridization between electronic particles and long-wavelength excitations.
Speaker: Milan Delor, Columbia University
When Eagles Roar - The Amazing Journey of an African Wildlife Adventurer - 03/18/2025 06:00 PM
Hopkins Marine Station Pacific Grove
James Currie is a safari guide with the world-renowned company Wilderness Safaris. As a lifelong wildlife enthusiast and native of South Africa, he has led professional wildlife and birding tours for many years, and his passion for adventure and remote cultures has taken him to nearly every corner of the globe.
Speaker: James Currie, Author
Wonderfest Ask a Science Envoy: Anthropocene Alarm; Partisan Contagion - 03/18/2025 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Wonderfest Science Envoys are early-career researchers with special communication skills and aspirations. Following short talks on provocative modern science topics, these two Science Envoys will answer questions with insight and enthusiasm:
UC Berkeley biologist Kristy Mualim on Genetic Biodiversity Loss in the Anthropocene, the age of planet-wide human impact, activities like habitat destruction, pollution, and resource overuse cause rapid loss of genetic diversity. UC Berkeley demographer Chris Soria on Partisan Differences in the Spread of Disease - Political partisanship significantly influences how different groups respond to public health guidance, affecting their adherence to protective measures against infectious diseases. Understanding partisan-based disparities in acceptance of scientific evidence helps us to predict the population-wide spread of diseases, and to improve public health outcomes.
Severe Mushroom Poisoning - 03/18/2025 07:30 PM
Mycological Society of San Francisco San Francisco
Dr. Meier will present the problems associated with severe mushroom poisoning from her perspective as the Senior Toxicology Management Specialist at the San Francisco Division of California Poison Control. This presentation will focus on the most dangerous poisoning syndromes, mechanisms of toxicity, clinical aspects, and medical management
Speaker: Kathi Meier, California Poison Control System, San Francisco Division
Attend in person or online via Zoom (see weblink)
Astronomy on Tap Tucson #105: Cosmic Collisions & Cosmic Dawn - 03/18/2025 07:30 PM
Astronomy on Tap Tucson
This month, we’ll be joined by two Steward Observatory graduate students: Aafaque Khan will be telling us about how to use small satellites to study the collision between our very own Milky Way and its nearest neighbor, and Lily Whitler will be talking about the very earliest galaxies to exist in the universe. And Steward postdocs Jackie Champagne and Danny Krolikowski will be updating us on all the latest and greatest in the astronomical world!
Big Science with Small Satellites: Mapping the Cosmic Collision of the Milky Way with the Large Magellanic Cloud Speaker: Aafaque Khan
The Breaking of Cosmic Dawn Speaker: Lily Whitler
Wednesday, 03/19/2025
Beyond Benchmarks - Building a Science of AI Measurement - 03/19/2025 12:00 PM
Gates Computer Science Building Stanford
The widespread deployment of AI systems in critical domains demands more rigorous approaches to evaluating their capabilities and safety. This talk presents a path toward a measurement framework that bridges established psychometric principles with modern AI evaluation needs.
Speaker: Sanmi Kiyejo
Prime Editing enables engineering crop disease resistance - 03/19/2025 12:10 PM
Morgan Hall Berkeley
Genome editing as an enabling tool has been revolutionizing the ways scientists advance basic understanding of biology and speed up application in medicine and agriculture. Creating and breeding broad-spectrum disease resistance to elite crops is critical to sustainable agriculture. Prime Editing, as one of CRISPR-based genome editing technologies, offers advantages over other relatives with precise and efficient installation of small deletion, insertion and all 12 base conversions in the genome of interest.
Speaker: Bing Yang, University of Missouri
Acorns, Shellfish, and Uplands: Archaeology in the Santa Cruz Mountains - 03/19/2025 12:10 PM
Archaeology Research Facility Berkeley
The archaeological record of the Santa Cruz Mountains, particularly around the San Vicente Creek Watershed, provides evidence of human occupation and utilization from approximately 4000 BP to the present. Despite extensive anthropogenic modifications resulting from over a century of logging, mining, and topographic restructuring the preserved deposits within this watershed offer a robust dataset for examining the longue durée of Indigenous land use, subsistence practices, and environmental stewardship. Employing a historical ecological approach, this study investigates resource use by the Cotoni people, an Indigenous Awaswas-speaking polity on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Speaker: Alec Apodaca, UC Berkeley
KIPAC + Friends Community Day - 03/19/2025 01:00 PM
Stanford University Stanford
Join us for a fun-filled day of science! This event will take the form of a science festival, featuring numerous stations with live demonstrations, experiments, and hands-on activities. A series of mini science lectures will also run in parallel, introducing the latest discoveries in astronomy and other closely related STEM fields. This event is free, open to all, and especially kids- and family-friendly! While walk-ins are also welcome, registration is strongly encouraged as we will be providing key event information to all registrants. SETI Institute scientists will be on hand to lead a solar art project and solar viewing.Hands-on activities & live experiments:
Aerospace Vehicles The Mysteries of Lights & Optics Particles to Plasmas Color Filters & Polarization Materials Gone Wrong !Cell Biophysics Fruit Batteries and Sensors Solar Art Project Exploring the Solar System Making Your Own Pulsar Cooking A Comet Gravity Simulator Galaxy Zoo Experimenting with UV-sensitive Beads CameraAstro Magnetism Solar S'moresCloud ChamberVan der Graaff GeneratorsDetecting Dark Matter Particles What Makes a Telescope? Solar Viewing Ask A Scientist Anything And more!
The long and the short of it: Mechanistic insights into the mRNA poly(A) tail machinery - 03/19/2025 03:30 PM
Genetics and Plant Biology Building Berkeley
Cells are defined by the genes they express. Moreover, rapid changes in gene expression allow cells to respond to their environments. The Passmore lab uses biochemical reconstitution, structural biology and functional studies to gain mechanistic insights into mRNA processing, mRNA stability and genome integrity - fundamental processes that affect gene expression in all eukaryotes.
Speaker: Lori Passmore, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Apparent competition among four copepod species in the San Francisco Estuary, an estuarine food desert - 03/19/2025 03:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center Tiburon
Speaker: Wim Kimmerer, Adjunct Professor Emeritus, EOS Center, San Francisco State University.
Today's originally scheduled speaker, Alison Weber-Stover, Natural Resource Management Specialist, NOAA Fisheries is unable to present.
Energy and Resources Group Colloquium - 03/19/2025 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Persistent spatialized, racialized, and socioeconomic disparities characterize drinking water access in the U.S. Despite California’s legal recognition of the human right to water more than a decade ago, many residents face challenges accessing safe and affordable water. California presents a critical case to examine how state-society interactions shape water access. Through empirical work on water policy, water access, and water quality, this talk elucidates key challenges and possibilities for more equitable water access in a changing climate.
Speaker: Jenny Rempel, UC Berkeley
Carbon, Climate, and Humanity - 03/19/2025 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Join us live for a journey into the world of carbon, the most versatile element on the planet. Your tour guide is New York Times bestselling author Paul Hawken.
Carbon is the only element that animates the entirety of the living world. Though comprising a tiny fraction of Earth’s composition, our planet is lifeless without it. Yet it is maligned as the driver of climate change, scorned as an errant element blamed for the possible demise of civilization.
Speaker: Paul Hawken, Author; Lesley McClurg, KQED, moderator
Attend in person or online
A Logic For The Future: International Relations in the Age of Turbulence - 03/19/2025 07:00 PM
Long Now Foundation San Francisco
Stephen Heintz and Kim Stanley Robinson will discuss our polycrisis, and the swift and holistic reform of global governance institutions that is needed to respond to these urgent transnational and planetary challenges we are facing.
Two Eyes are Better than One: JWST and ALMA Look at Star Formation - 03/19/2025 07:00 PM
San Francisco Amateur Astronomers San Francisco
Stars and their planetary systems form in cold interstellar gas and dust clouds impermeable to the optical light our eyes can see. By contrast, light at much longer wavelengths is able to penetrate these regions allowing us to directly observe stars that are currently forming.
Speaker: Mary Barsony, SETI Institute
Waves of Change: Ensuring Equity in Coastal Access - Livestream - 03/19/2025 07:00 PM
City of Sunnyvale
Many people across the Bay Area face safety, cultural and economic barriers when trying to access our shared outdoor spaces. How can we begin to change this? Join us as we explore equitable ways for communities to safely experience the beauty of the California coast. Find out how you can make a difference by joining this engaging online event!
Speaker: Seraph White, Outdoors Empowered Network Register at weblink to receive connection information
Exploring BioAstronautics: A Path to the Stars - Livestream - 03/19/2025 07:30 PM
Marin Science Seminar
Right now, we’re at the dawn of a new space age. As humanity prepares to return to the moon and beyond, one might ask: how can I be a part of this? Join Ben Foehr, BS in Aerospace Engineering and former graduate student studying Human Spaceflight at Colorado University at Boulder, for a look into the twists and turns this journey has in store, and, more importantly, how we can reach the stars!
Speakers: Ben Foehr, Aerospace Engineer
See weblink for Zoom instructions
Science on Tap: Bacterial-Fungal Interactions in Cheese Rind Microbes: A Taste of Science - 03/19/2025 07:30 PM
Abbott Square Santa Cruz
Discover the intricate process of traditional cheese-making, focusing on the vital interactions between bacteria and fungi. This presentation emphasizes the scientific methods used to explore microbial communication and its implications for health and cheese production.
Did you know that the unique flavors, textures, and aromas of traditional cheeses are crafted by intricate interactions between bacteria and fungi? This presentation will explore the vital role of these microorganisms in cheese production and why understanding their communication mechanisms is crucial for food science and health.
RSVP at weblink
Thursday, 03/20/2025
Lunch Break Science - Livestream - 03/20/2025 11:00 AM
The Leakey Foundation
Lunch Break Science is a dynamic live web series featuring fascinating short talks, engaging interviews, and lively Q&A with Leakey Foundation scientists. Each episode digs deeper into the latest human origins discoveries, with topics like Neanderthals, chimpanzee behavior, and more! Even better, you can interact with researchers during the show and have your questions answered on air.
See weblink to join
Conservation Priorities and Environmental Offsets: Markets for Florida Wetlands - 03/20/2025 12:10 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
We introduce an empirical framework for valuing markets in environmental offsets. Using newly-collected data on wetland conservation and offsets, we apply this framework to evaluate a set of decentralized markets in Florida, where and developers purchase offsets from long-lived producers who restore wetlands over time. We find that offsets led to substantial private gains from trade, creating $2.2 billion of net surplus from 1995 - 2018 relative to direct conservation. Offset trading also generated new hydrological externalities. A locally differentiated Pigouvian tax would have prevented $1.3 billion of new flood damage while preserving more than two-thirds of the private gains from trade.
Speaker: Will Rafey, UC Los Angeles
Attend in person or online (See weblink)
The evolution and genomics of migratory body shape in a marine fish - 03/20/2025 12:30 PM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
Animal migration is one of the most fascinating phenomena in the natural world. While we know that animal migrations are often driven by food availability or tradeoffs between survival and breeding, we know relatively less about the evolution of migration at the genetic level.
Speaker: Katie Lotterhos, Northeastern University
The Ocean's Stories Symposium - Afternoon Session - 03/20/2025 01:30 PM
David Brower Center Berkeley
Join us for a transformative day focused on the future of our oceans. Through lightning talks, expert panels and an inspiring keynote address, we’ll explore the critical role oceans play in our planet’s health. We’ll highlight how, together, marine scientists, journalists and entrepreneurs can address major challenges in an era of increased climate disruption.
Please visit the website for details… there are many
Super-Earth Laboratory: Using HD 20794 d to Understand Habitability - Livestream - 03/20/2025 02:30 PM
SETI Institute
With over 7,000 exoplanets identified in our galaxy, scientists are shifting their focus to studying these worlds' characteristics in the quest for extraterrestrial life. The backdrop for one team is the discovery of super-Earth HD 20794 d, an exoplanet detected by researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and NCCR PlanetS. Orbiting in an eccentric path, HD 20794 d moves in and out of its star’s habitable zone, making it a compelling subject for further study. WATCH ON FACEBOOK!WATCH ON YOUTUBE!
Unscripted Grounded Visual Learning - Rescheduled - 03/20/2025 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
Large-scale vision and language models like CLIP, SAM, and ChatGPT can generate compelling descriptions of images. However, these models, trained with scripted data and limited grounding, often struggle to provide detailed visual evidence and to generalize across a diverse range of infrequent visual concepts during testing. In contrast, human infants develop robust visual understanding from limited experiences, even before acquiring language.
Speaker: Stella Yu, University of Michigan
Editor's Note: This talk has been rescheduled for May 27, 2025.
Evolution, Education, and a Century of Scopes - Livestream - 03/20/2025 04:00 PM
Skeptical Inquirer
This July, the Center for Inquiry and the Freedom From Religion Foundation are teaming up to host the Scopes Trial Centennial conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This special event will explore the landmark trial’s history and its lasting impact on science, education, and the law.
One of the featured presenters at that conference will be actor John de Lancie. But first, de Lancie will be the featured guest along with guest moderator Eugenie Scott for an exclusive Skeptical Inquirer Presents conversation. They’ll discuss his decades of advocacy on behalf of evolution science education, the backstory behind the creation of his audio play The Dover Intelligent Design Trial, and open the floor for lots of questions from the audience.*
This live, online event is free, but advance registration is required. Sign up today!
Birdy Hour: Beyond Birds -The Hidden World of Insects - Livestream - 03/20/2025 05:00 PM
SF Bay Bird Observatory
We'll explore how insects share fascinating parallels with birds while playing equally crucial roles in our ecosystems. This talk will illuminate the remarkable world of insects, highlighting their complex behaviors, intricate social structures, and vital ecological services.
Speaker: Karan Gathani, California Naturalist
Register at weblink to receive connection information
The Ocean's Stories Symposium - Evening Session - 03/20/2025 05:30 PM
David Brower Center Berkeley
Join us for a transformative day focused on the future of our oceans. Through lightning talks, expert panels and an inspiring keynote address, we’ll explore the critical role oceans play in our planet’s health. We’ll highlight how, together, marine scientists, journalists and entrepreneurs can address major challenges in an era of increased climate disruption. What stories can grip the wider public and motivate impactful policy and management change?
5:00 pm
Reception and Ocean Showcase
Join us for an engaging reception highlighting work in ocean sustainability, technology and exploration. Enjoy light food & drinks while mingling with fellow attendees , exploring student projects and pioneering companies in the "blue economy" - from sustainable oyster farming to robotic sailboats and deep-sea research. Featured participants include students in our program, Hog Island Oyster Company, Captura, and Saildrone.
6:00 pm
Keynote: Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary
Designated in 2024 and encompassing 4,543 square miles, this new national marine sanctuary off the coast of Central California brings new opportunities for research, community engagement, education and outreach activities. We learn about an innovative partnership between tribal leaders and scientists.
Chairwoman Violet Sage WalkerStephen PalumbiHopkins Marine Station Stanford UniversityJason Spingarn-Koff, moderator
Afternoon session also available under separate ticket. See listing.
NightLife in the Deep - 03/20/2025 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Mysteries of the deep meet cocktails of the night. Plunge into the deep sea at our new exhibit, Unseen Oceans.
After Dark: See for Yourself - 03/20/2025 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Uncover the secrets of the cosmos: what are the green patches on Mars? How do NASA spacecraft communicate with each other? And what was the final message of the Curiosity rover? Find the answers to these celestial mysteries - and more - at After Dark, plus our Open Question session exploring health tech with researchers from UC Davis.
Exploring Mental Health and Wellness: An Experiential Event - 03/20/2025 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
In an era of fragmentation and uncertainty, having collective and safe spaces that allow for sharing and fully hearing each others’ experiences is as vital as ever. We invite you to join us at Commonwealth Club World Affairs for an interactive and experiential event exploring a breadth and depth of mental health and wellness, not in an isolated way but in a collective way.
When we gather to bring questions and experiences to the collective space, they may feel bewildering and overwhelming, but they are welcome for collective integration.
Open Question: Health Tech - When does Tech Make Us Healthier? - 03/20/2025 07:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Technology has made health seemingly quantifiable and trackable, but does it actually improve our well-being? Co-presented with UC Davis Grand Challenges, this Open Question session invites you to explore the intersection of technology, fitness, and happiness.
Part of After Dark
Alcatraz Island - A Climate Refuge for Seabirds - Livestream - 03/20/2025 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
Alcatraz Island Brandt’s Cormorants moved into San Francisco Bay in the early 1990s during a coastward population shift. Alcatraz is now one of the largest Brandt’s Cormorant breeding colonies, outperforming its ocean counterparts despite a high level of human disturbance in this urban setting. The bay hosts a large anchovy population and demersal fish nursery, with strong tidal currents and the river plume into the ocean concentrating prey for seabirds and other predators. We are working to mitigate anthropogenic stressors to support this important colony and increase seabird resilience to climate change.
Speaker: Julie Thayer has worked in the California Current marine ecosystem for three decades, with a brief hiatus on the north coast of Brazil. She studied at the University of California at Santa Cruz/Long Marine Lab and UC Davis in Marine Biology and Ecology. Thayer has done field research on Alcatraz seabirds, studying population changes, diet, productivity, and human distrubance to Brandt’s Cormorants and Western Gulls since 1990.
Nerd Nite #149: Manicures, Piercings, and Fashion Secrets - 03/20/2025 07:00 PM
Rickshaw Stop San Francisco
Spring has sprung and here at Nerd Nite SF headquarters, we’re preparing - as so many critters in the natural world do - to strut our stuff in the sunshine. It’s all kicking off at 7pm on March 20th, at our beloved Rickshaw Stop, so shine those shoes and break out the lint roller: it’s time to get fashionable!
Nailed it: The Science Behind the Perfect Manicure
Speaker: Julie Cushen, Lilaque
Ever wonder what’s in your nail polish? What’s the difference between nail lacquer, gel, and acrylics, and where did all of these products come from? Join us as we discover the history and fascinating materials science behind some of the most underappreciated highly engineered functional formulations that are both loved - and hated - by people who paint their nails.
Piercings 101: Holes, Poles, and the Art of Stabbing Yourself on Purpose
Speaker: Teo Lin-Bianco, former piercing staffer
Let’s talk about the basics-how piercings actually heal, why placement and jewelry matter, and what’s really happening when your body decides to fight back.
You’re Dressing Like SH*T! - The Not-So-Fabulous Secrets of Fashion
Speaker: Corey Goodman, fashion industry insider
Friday, 03/21/2025
Orexin/hypocretin as a common mediator of sleep disturbances and drug motivation during cocaine abstinence - 03/21/2025 12:00 PM
ChEM-H/Neuroscience Building, James Lin and Nisa Leung Seminar Room (E153) Stanford
Speaker: Morgan James, Rutgers University
Attend in person or click here for Zoom
The Predicament of the Industrialized Gut Microbiome - 03/21/2025 03:00 PM
Genetics and Plant Biology Building Berkeley
Speaker: Justin Sonnenburg, Stanford University
Molecular Confinement Effects by Self-Assembled Cages - 03/21/2025 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Size does matter in host-guest chemistry. In the early days, crown ethers and macrocyclic hosts recognized metal ions and small molecules in their cavities. However, due to the size limitation (typically, 1500 was obtained, which demonstrates the ability to completely encapsulate medium-sized molecules (M.W. 1000 - 2000), which are of particular pharmaceutical interest. Protein encapsulation within M12L24 gigantic cages will be also disclosed in this talk.
Speaker: Makoto Fujita, University of Tokyo
From the Real to the Unreal - 03/21/2025 05:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Our new temporary exhibit "From the Real to the Unreal" displays pieces from the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative. Enjoy a special documentary screening to learn more about the history of this amazing collective and make some art yourself! Space for this special evening is limited, so make sure to reserve your spot at the weblink.
Register at weblink.
In Town Star Party - 03/21/2025 08:15 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
Come join San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) for an evening of stargazing.
Event details:
Events are held at the parking lot of our headquarters, Houge Park San Jose. The event duration is 2 hours. SJAA volunteers will share night sky views from their telescopes.Please refrain from bringing your own telescopes (Binoculars are welcome). If you like to be a volunteer with or without a telescope please email at "itsp@sjaa.net".SJAA as an all volunteer-nonprofit org depends on the City of San Jose to use facilities at Houge Park. To maintain this relationship, we must provide facility-use data to the city. Therefore, we ask you to sign in (no traceable personal data collected) when you arrive at the event.
Saturday, 03/22/2025
Aquatic Exploration at Alum Rock - 03/22/2025 10:00 AM
Alum Rock Park San Jose
Springtime is a great time for creek exploration! Come to Alum Rock to learn about the creek habitat and what calls it home. Meet some real animals and then go out and see what you can find in Penitencia Creek.
Register at weblink
Ages 4 - 12
CuriOdyssey Weekend Workshop: Sensational Senses - 03/22/2025 01:00 PM
CuriOdyssey San Mateo
Embark on an exciting journey to discover your five senses and the amazing information they help us observe about the world. Through fun activities and experiments, you’ll learn how sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell work together to enhance our everyday experiences.
Ages 5 to 10 years old
Xixoxa’s Spaceship: A Space Opera - 03/22/2025 07:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Join us for the inaugural performance of our Spring Concert Series: Xixoxa’s Spaceship. Set 500 years in the future, Xixoxa’s Spaceship is a 21st-century opera that utilizes the backdrop of futuristic technology, galactic colonization, and the infinite cosmos to tell a groundedly human story of love and loss.
Composed by Victoria Young and produced by Opera on Tap, in collaboration with Chabot Space and Science Center, Xixoxa’s Spaceship is scored for 6 singers, 4 live musicians, and electronic fixed media. It is an immersive audiovisual experience curated specifically to be experienced in Chabot’s state-of-the-art planetarium.
Starry Nights Star Party - 03/22/2025 08:30 PM
Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Join the San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) and Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (OSA) for an unforgettable night of exploring the night sky. Our knowledgeable docents, members of SJAA, will be your guides to providing valuable insights into the wonders of our universe. The viewing site, Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserve, is just 30 minutes south of downtown San Jose, and features darker skies than viewing from the city. It's dark enough to see the band of our Milky Way galaxy during the Summer months.
Registration required (at weblink). See weblink for additional information.
Note the time change from our original listing.
Sunday, 03/23/2025
Alviso Bird Watching - 03/23/2025 09:00 AM
South Bay Yacht Club Alviso
Join us at the Youth Science Institute for an engaging morning of birdwatching in the beautiful natural reserve of Alviso. This event is perfect for bird enthusiasts of all ages, offering a unique opportunity to observe a diverse array of bird species in their natural habitat. Whether you're a seasoned birder or just curious about avian life, our guided tour will enrich your understanding of these fascinating creatures and their ecosystems. Don’t forget your binoculars and cameras to capture the beauty of the birds and their surroundings!
Wonderfest: 'The Thinking Game' - 03/23/2025 01:00 PM
Cameo Cinema St. Helena
2024’s The Thinking Game takes us on a fascinating journey into the heart of DeepMind, one of Earth’s leading AI labs, as it strives to unravel the mysteries of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Inside DeepMind’s London headquarters, Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis and his team are pursuing the creation of AI that matches or surpasses
Speaker: Peter Norvig, Stanford University
See weblink for tickets
Living with Lions: Coexistence with an Iconic American Carnivore - 03/23/2025 04:00 PM
Willow Camp Stinson Beach
Join Willow Camp for an exciting lineup of local speakers at their beautiful outdoor venue. The series features experts in various fields who will share their knowledge and insights with you.
Large cat expert Dr. Quinton Martins, founder of True Wild and our partner on the Living with Lions project, will start the series off with a fascinating talk about living with mountain lions.
Mountain lions in the North Bay live a fragile existence. In California, mountain lions are at the top of the food chain and play critical roles in the maintenance and functioning of our natural ecosystems. Yet mountain lions themselves live a fragile existence as more of us choose to live and play in wild places.
Monday, 03/24/2025
Sonoma State University Biology Colloquium - 03/24/2025 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Russell Huddleston, Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9
The quest for high fusion gain two years after the demonstration of ignition in the laser inertial fusion approach - 03/24/2025 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
The demonstration of energy gain by nuclear fusion in the laboratory and its eventual utilization as an unlimited energy source has been a grand challenge for physicists and engineers for 70 years. The realization as an industrial energy source would have a tremendous impact on our society and would change our approach to energy policy and climate change. In this talk, I will present the path towards the demonstration of multi-megajoule energy yield from deuterium-tritium plasmas in indirectly driven inertial confinement fusion implosions on the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Speaker: Siegfried Glenzer, SLAC National Accelerator Lab
Attend in person or online (see weblink for Zoom information
Are We Smart Enough to Curb AI’s Environmental Impacts? - 03/24/2025 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) proclaim that its potential for solving thorny problems outweigh the risks. At the same time, the Department of Energy estimates that data center energy demands will double or even triple in just the next three years??"though new players such as China’s DeepSeek could upend all predictions.
Join Climate One’s Greg Dalton in a provocative conversation with Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt, along with Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University.
Attend in person or online
Defense Against LLM and AGI Scheming with Guardrails and Architecture - 03/24/2025 07:00 PM
Valley Research Park Mountain View
A January 2025 paper called “Frontier Models are Capable of In-Context Scheming”, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.04984, demonstrated how a wide variety of current frontier LLM models (i.e. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Llama) can, under specific conditions, scheme to deceive people. Before models can scheme, they need: a) goal-directedness, b) situational awareness, including an opportunity to discover motivations for a different goal, and c) reasoning about scheming, to come up with deceptive strategies. The deceptive strategies were discovered in the “thought traces” of the LLMs, such as from internal chain-of-thoughts dialogues not shown to the end users.
Tuesday, 03/25/2025
qMRI that could be useful for picking up glymphatic flow - Livestream - 03/25/2025 12:00 PM
Stanford Sleep Community Series
The Origins of Silicon Valley: Why and How It Happened Here - 03/25/2025 06:30 PM
Immanuel Event Center Saratoga
The Great Chatbot Debate - 03/25/2025 07:00 PM
Computer History Museum Mountain View
Baja in Spring - An Extravaganza of Marine Life - Livestream - 03/25/2025 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
The Hubble Deep Field 30 Years Later - 03/25/2025 07:30 PM
Rio Theater Santa Cruz
Wednesday, 03/26/2025
Project AZORIAN: The CIA’s Attempt to Recover the Soviet Submarine and the Connections to Monterey - Livestream - 03/26/2025 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
An Evening with Kara Swisher - 03/26/2025 07:00 PM
Jewish Community Center San Francisco
Lessons for the Biosphere - 03/26/2025 07:30 PM
Shaping San Francisco San Francisco
An Introduction to Parasol Mushrooms - 03/26/2025 07:30 PM
Bay Area Mycological Society Berkeley
Thursday, 03/27/2025
SETI Live: The Climate Chronicles with Dagomar Degroot - Livestream - 03/27/2025 02:30 PM
SETI Institute
Unscripted Grounded Visual Learning - Rescheduled - 03/27/2025 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
Science on Tap: Raptor Conservation - 03/27/2025 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
After Dark: Aha(ha) - 03/27/2025 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
NightLife: Intersections - 03/27/2025 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
AI Regulation Essentials : how to develop a cohesive global strategy - 03/27/2025 06:00 PM
A&O Shearman San Francisco
Revealing the Secrets of Transistors using Supercomputers - 03/27/2025 07:00 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Public Lecture Series Menlo Park
Long Now: 'Abundance' - 03/27/2025 07:30 PM
Sydney Goldstein Theater San Francisco
Saturday, 03/29/2025
Guided bird walk at Bouverie Preserve - 03/29/2025 08:00 AM
Bouverie Preserve Glen Ellen
The Physics Show - Three Performances - 03/29/2025 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
Science Saturday: Dinosaurs and Fossils - 03/29/2025 10:00 AM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Stewardship Saturday: Navigating the Intricacies of Rehabilitation - 03/29/2025 10:00 AM
Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue Petaluma
Family Program: Magical Mini Moss Gardens - 03/29/2025 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley
Sunday, 03/30/2025
The Physics Show - Three Performances - 03/30/2025 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
Wonderfest: The Wonder of Mushrooms - 03/30/2025 03:00 PM
San Francisco Public Library San Francisco
Plastics: Climate Change & Health Impacts - What You Can Do - 03/30/2025 03:00 PM
Albany Public Library Albany
Monday, 03/31/2025
Investigating the Hidden Origins of Fast Radio Bursts and Other Radio Transients - 03/31/2025 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Update on the Bird Flu - Livestream - 03/31/2025 02:00 PM
UC Berkeley
AFM-SEM-EDS Correlative Microscopy in Materials Science - 03/31/2025 02:30 PM
Birge Hall Berkeley
Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of biotic assembly in the Hengduan Mountains, China - 03/31/2025 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquium - 03/31/2025 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Stanford Energy Seminar - 03/31/2025 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford