Hello again Science Fans!
In the era of planned obsolence and less than robust construction, it is refreshing to see that some things are still over-engineered and over-built. The Mars helecopter, Ingenuity, certainly counts as one of the later. Ingenuity was designed to make 5 flights. It was intended as a test to see if it could fly through the thin atmosphere of Mars.
Ingenuity was dropped from the belly of Perseverance, the Mars rover, shortly after landing. It not only flew the planned 5 missions, but continued on in a new role, helping scout clear paths for Perseverance to take towards new exploration targets.
Flight #72 proved to be the last, with one of the helecopter’s blades having been damaged. With more than 2 hours of flight time since April, 2021, Ingenuity proved once again that we can build things that capture the imagination of those of us back on Earth. Ingenuity will be missed!
Scientific Method
One of the very first things I learned in my high school science classes was the definition of the scientific method. The Oxford dictionary defines it as “a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.”
As new tools become available that provide new data, old, accepted hypotheses can find themselves challenged, and revised, or discarded altogether. This month there have been several such challenges to existing theories based on new findings from the James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST’s resolution is so much better than anything we’ve had before that it is able to see further back in time, further than we’ve ever seen before, and it is finding things that shouldn’t be there, at least based on the standard models of Cosmology. While some find these types of challenges exciting in that they give cosmologists new opportunities to refine and correct their hypothesis, others are reluctant to see their previously accepted research challenged and proven wrong.
Other images from the very early universe show galaxies that defy what we thought we knew about how galaxies form. JWST has also discovered objects emitting radio signals that scientists can’t explain, such as this pair of “rogue” planets (free-floating planets not orbiting a star).
If you find astronomy interesting, you might like to subscribe to Dr. Becky Smethurst’s YouTube channel. She is an astrophysicist at Oxford University with an ability to explain things in English, rather than astrophysicistese. This video goes into some depth on the challenges to current cosmology ideas. Fascinating stuff.
By the way, The US Postal Service is issuing two stamps featuring images from the JWST. Unfortunately, both are used for Priority Mail, so most of us will never see them, unless you specifically go the Post Office and buy them. It would be nice if the USPS issued some similar stamps for “regular” mail!
Earth-Space Interface
Last Sunday, an asteroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere and broke up some distance west of Berlin, Germany. This asteroid was only the 8th one to be discovered before it reached Earth’s atmosphere, giving astronomers around 95 minutes to prepare to witness and record the entry. Dr. Franck Marchis, senior astronomer and director of Unistellar Citizen Science at the SETI Institute in Mountain View was deeply involved in the mobilization, as this story from the SETI Institute relates. And it seems that chunks of meteorite about the size of a walnut have been found in Havelland, Germany. Somehow I can’t imagine how you could scour acres of land looking for 2 cm rocks, but it seems the researchers found some. By the way, there’s a picture in that article of one of the meteorites next to a wooden folding ruler for scale. That sort of folding ruler used to be common in the US too (in inches, of course). I had one from my father that, alas, was stolen a few years ago. They are still commonly used and available in Germany in hardware stores. I almost bought one this past summer, if not for the fact that they were all in metric.
Another offshoot of the Unistellar Citizen Science work is called UNITE, and it involves amateur astronomers around the world in the search for exoplanets. This story from the Mercury News shows how members of UNITE from around the world, including Fadi Saibi and his 14 year old daughter from Sunnyvale, helped identify TOI-4600c, a planet orbiting a star around 815 light-years away.
We’ve been following the OSIRIS-REx mission which returned samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu to Utah in September, 2023. While the probe returned much more material than expected, most of it couldn’t be accessed because two bolts securing the top of the cannister would not come off. Engineers had to design a new tool and finally were able to get the canister open. Dr. Becky’s video also contains a segment on this recovery effort, explaining why it wasn’t as simple as grabbing a socket from your tool box!
The animal kingdom
This could be a Disney movie script. An invasive ant is causing a chain-reaction involving acacia ants, elephants, lions, and zebras. The web of life is complex!
Speaking of elephants, one of their cousins, a 14,000 year old female wooly mammoth, has been in the news. By analyzing chemicals in her tusk, researchers have written her biograpy, as well as that of a 17,100 year old male mammoth, with some pretty specific and surprising results.
This spring, much of the eastern US will be noisy for a few weeks as cicadas from two different broods are expected to emerge from the earth, breed, and die. Different broods return to the surface of different cycles with different periods. This year, Brood XIII, a 17-year group, and Brood XIX, a 13 year group, will emerge at the same time, something that hasn’t happened since 1803!
I grew up in New Jersey which hosts Brood II, next due to appear in 2030. I vividely remember them appearing when I was in fifth or sixth grade. They were everywhere, and the sound was constant, and loud.
I was once given a parakete as a gift. Occasionally, when I was away, friends would take care of him and would try to teach him to swear at me. They didn’t succeed. Over in Britain, five swearing African Gray parrots who taught 3 other parrots to swear will now be put in with 92 non-swearing ones in hopes that the 8 will lean not to swear. What could possibly go wrong?
We know that animals see the world differently then we do. Their eyes are different. Some can see frequencies of “light” that we can’t. Others rely more on other senses as their eyes aren’t that good. Have you ever wondered what the world would look like if you could see what the animals see? How would such vision affect our perspective of the world? Scientists have come up with a computer model that can predict what the world looks like through their eyes for us to see. Here’s how it works for honeybees and UV-sensitive birds.
We’ve written before about a project to remove dams in the Pacific Northwest on the Klamath River. The aim of the effort is to restore water flow and ecology of the area along the river to what it was before. Earlier this month, a gate was opened on the Iron Gate Dam, beginning the restoration of water flow on the Klamath, and hopefully leading to restoration of salmon native to the area.
A Women’s Health Anniversary
Tuesday marked the 51st anniversary of “Roe v. Wade”, the case that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion. The history leading up to this legal decision is more complicated than I knew, as historian Heather Cox Richardson explained in her daily column on the 21st. Of course, on June 24, 2022 the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving it to the individual states to determine this issue.
Have a great week in Science!
Bob
Upcoming Events:
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Monday, 01/29/2024
Coastal Ecosystem Transition Dynamics: Insights from Ecological Change - 01/29/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Dr. Smith is currently a Conservation Research Fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium: I am a community ecologist studying how species interactions shape the structure, functioning, and stability of nearshore marine ecosystems. I focus on temperate rocky reefs and am particularly interested in combining theory with observational and experimental approaches to understand how climatic perturbations (e.g., marine heatwaves) alter the behavioral responses of predators and herbivores, and how these interactions in-turn affect community and ecosystem dynamics. I received my Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and conducted postdoctoral research at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. I am currently an Ocean Conservation Research Fellow at Monterey Bay Aquarium, where I am conducting research aimed at understanding mechanisms of kelp forest recovery.
Speaker: Joshua Smith, Monterey Bay Aquarium
Drivers of plankton communities and foodweb structure in a changing ocean - 01/29/2024 12:00 PM
Mitchell Earth Sciences Building (04-560) Stanford
Zooplankton are essential components of marine pelagic ecosystems: as trophic intermediaries they play a key role in energy transfer up the food web, they mediate biogeochemical cycling and organic export, and their month-to-year life cycles and close species links to the physical environment make them important sentinels of climate change. My research employs a multipronged approach that combines ship-board sampling and laboratory-based manipulations, using a variety of methods including, biochemical markers (bulk isotopes, amino acid isotpoes, fatty acids, DNA metabarcoding) and data assimilation tools to understand the drivers of plankton food-web structure and function within the larger context of ecosystem response to environmental forcing. I will present my research on plankton foodweb structure and biogeochemical implications in connection to zooplankton community response to physical forcing. I will focus these presentations on the two food-web pathways that determine secondary production in the ocean and impact zooplankton-mediated carbon export: the links from phytoplankton and microzooplankton to metazoan zooplankton. These trophic pathways are driven by resource availability but also impacted by the type of metazoan zooplankton: e.g., gelatinous (salps and pyrosomes) or crustacean (copepods, euphausiids) zooplankton. Importantly, increases in gelatinous zooplankton are hypothesized to be linked to climate change, and could represent fundamental shifts in ecosystem function. I will contrast trophic and biogeochemical fluxes between gelatinous- and crustacean- domination regions, demonstrating the ecosystem effects of zooplankton community composition, which also have documented shifts in response to climate change in some areas of the world. Understanding that mechanisms driving foodweb and biogeochemical pathways is needed for predicting the response of marine ecosystems to climate change, required for developing effective mitigation and sustainability plans in a rapidly changing earth system.
Speaker: Moira Décima, UC San Diego
Room: Hartley Conference Center
Disparities in Police Crime Reports on Social Media - 01/29/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
A large and growing share of the American public turns to social media for news. On these platforms, reports about crime increasingly come directly from law enforcement agencies, raising questions about content curation. We gathered all posts from almost 14,000 Facebook pages maintained by US law enforcement agencies, focusing on reporting about crime and race. We found that Facebook users are exposed to posts that overrepresent Black suspects by 25 percentage points relative to local arrest rates. This overexposure occurs across crime types and geographic regions and increases with the proportion of both Republican voters and non-Black residents. Widespread exposure to overreporting risks reinforcing racial stereotypes about crime and exacerbating punitive preferences among the polity more generally.
Speaker: Julian Nyarko, Stanford Law School
See weblink for instructions to gain entry to the building.
Room 126
The Gordian Knot of Lake Tahoe - 01/29/2024 12:30 PM
Shriram Center Stanford
Lake Tahoe is one of the longest studied lakes in North America. Yet, the processes that control its motions, health and clarity are still not fully understood. These processes are a complex interaction of physical, biological and biogeochemical processes, all of which are subject to large-scale changes associated with climate change. Today we will consider some recent examples where direct field observation or 3-D numerical simulation have being used to advance our understanding. These include the role of wind-driven upwellings in producing boundary jets; and the role of differential cooling in deep lake mixing and hypolimnetic oxygenation.Speaker: Geoffrey Schladow, UC Davis, emeritus
Shot noise in a strange metal - 01/29/2024 02:30 PM
Birge Hall Berkeley
Strange metal behavior has been observed in materials ranging from high-temperature superconductors to heavy fermion metals. In conventional metals, current is carried by quasiparticles; although it has been suggested that quasiparticles are absent in strange metals, direct experimental evidence is challenging to acquire. We measure shot noise to probe the granularity of the current-carrying excitations in nanowires of the heavy fermion strange metal YbRh2Si2. When compared to conventional metals, shot noise in these nanowires is strongly suppressed. We argue that this suppression can be attributed neither to electron-phonon nor to electron-electron interactions in a Fermi liquid, suggesting that the current is not carried by well-defined quasiparticles in the strange metal regime we probed. This work sets the stage for similar studies of other strange metals, to test for universality of this response, and ideally for studies in single devices that may be tuned between Fermi liquid and strange metal regimes. It is also important to consider the noise in strongly interacting Fermi liquids, to see if interactions modify the expectations familiar from conventional mesoscopic physics.
Speaker: Douglas Natelson, Rice University
Climate Solutions for Tribal Renewable Energy Development - 01/29/2024 03:30 PM
McCone Hall Berkeley
Unprecedented development of renewable energy projects and infrastructure is expected across the U.S. to meet decarbonization goals by mid-century. How do Tribal Nations fit into this energy landscape? Tribal lands hold an estimated 6.5% of the utility-scale solar potential in the contiguous United States. Siting principles that support a just energy transition are needed to understand and account for land use, land availability, and spatial consequences in socio-cultural landscapes. Decision support tools for siting utility-scale solar projects typically ignore social considerations. This talk focuses on key factors for co-developing climate solutions with Tribal communities. Through early engagement with a Tribal government entity, we co-developed a Renewable Energy Siting Tool (REST) to explore options for solar energy development and assess implications of scenarios with different priorities, such as efficiency, access, and costs. We used a geographical information system - multicriteria decision analysis approach (GIS-MCDA) and an analytical hierarchy process to evaluate siting options based on eight criteria secured from public databases. With a baseline scenario, 20% of the land is feasible for development. Ongoing work with REST involves social considerations, including land designations and heritage sites, in a web user interface.
Speaker: Kimberly Yazzie, Stanford University
The Path to an Energy Frontier Muon Collider - 01/29/2024 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
Muon colliders offer a unique path to multi-TeV, high-luminosity lepton collisions. Muon collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 10 TeV or above would offer significant discovery potential where the constituent collision energies exceed those of the LHC program by an order of magnitude. Significant progress on the fundamental R&D and design concepts for such a machine has led to a new international effort to assemble a conceptual design within the next few years. This effort will assess the viability of such a machine as a successor to the LHC program. The remaining challenges and the R&D required to deliver a complete machine description will be described.
Speaker: Mark Palmer, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Bacterial growth dynamics across scales - from protein synthesis to the human gut microbiota - 01/29/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Speaker: Jonas Cremer, Stanford University
Room: Auditorium
Flying robots: exploring hybrid locomotion and physical interaction - 01/29/2024 04:00 PM
Cory Hall Berkeley
Autonomous flying robots have become widespread in recent years, yet their capability to interact with the environment remains limited. Moving in multiple fluids is one of the great challenges of mobile robotics, and carries great potential for application in biological and environmental studies. In particular, hybrid locomotion provides the means to cross large distances and obstacles or even change from one body of water to another thanks to flight. At the same time, they are capable of operating underwater, collecting samples, video and aquatic metrics. However, the challenges of operating in both air and water are complex. In this talk, we will introduce these challenges and cover several research solutions which aim to adress these in different modalities, depending on locomotion and objectives. Bio-inspiration plays a crucial role in these solutions, and the topic of flapping flight in the context of physical interaction will also be presented.
Speaker: Raphael Zufferey, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland
The Many Frontiers of High Magnetic Field Research - 01/29/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Magnetic fields represent a remarkably flexible research tool that has opened up new frontiers of research in physics, engineering, chemistry, geochemistry, environmental sciences, biology, and biomedicine. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (the National MagLab) in the United States exists to provide uniquely powerful magnetic fields to thousands of researchers annually, provided free of charge to investigators from around the world who submit the most meritorious research proposals. This talk will survey a variety of the creative uses of high magnetic fields at the National MagLab, spanning the research disciplines listed above, to convey the excitement of present-day research using the most powerful magnets in the world.
Speaker: Greg Boebinger, Florida State University
An uncertain future for the US critical mineral supply chain - 01/29/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
The United States is strategically disadvantaged in building its critical mineral supply, in particular in the upstream and downstream portion. In this presentation, I will report findings on a year-long conversation with government officials, academics, and international industry experts on the status of the US critical mineral supply chain, in particular in the area of electrification (lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper & REE). Overall, the US and its government agencies lack a coherent view of how a robust, resilient & sustainable supply chain will be built starting from exploration to mining, processing to manufacturing. While important research is ongoing on finding replacement materials and recycling, these activities are likely not to have an impact relative to the state of the energy transition we are finding ourselves in today. Additionally, the US is betting too much on single horses, such as the Salton Sea, that remain unproven at operational scale, are unattractive to investors and constitute an unresolved environmental justice concern. Innovation in exploration in particular is completely neglected which means that proven and mineable reserves of critical minerals remain uncertain. In a simple analogy, the US is researching new technology for farming, but has no land to farm on. In the second portion of my presentation, I will focus on a plausible roadmap with very specific recommendations to get the US on a more certain footing. Important to such roadmap is the timing at which priority on innovation, development and manufacturing needs to take place, how are allies, Australia and Canada, will play a crucial role and how such roadmap requires having Environmental Justice and the Geosciences as pillars of its foundation.
Speaker: Jef Caers, Stanford University
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Tuesday, 01/30/2024
What is up down there? Insights into ancient life through deep-sea exploration - 01/30/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Steve Haddock
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Reaction-Diffusion and Mechanical Models in Vertebrate Skin Patterning - CANCELED - 01/30/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Editor's Note: This event has been canceled.
Extreme Electrodynamics of Neutron Stars and Black Holes - Rescheduled - 01/30/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Speaker: Roger Blandford, Stanford University
Editor's Note: This event has been rescheduled for February 6, 2024
Innovative Patient-Centered Care for Cancer - 01/30/2024 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
The current system of cancer care is not built to optimize for patients, according to our speakers. Clinical trials optimize for sponsor outcomes. Hospitals and clinics optimize for payer reimbursement. Translational research optimizes for publication impact. Electronic health records are optimized for billing efficiency.
Join us in-person as Mark Laabs (cancer survivor and founder of Rare Cancer Research Foundation, or RCRF) and RCRF President Marshall Thompson advocate for a better way.
Putting the patient at the center of the cancer research and care ecosystem requires new tools and capabilities. Patients are uniquely positioned - as both ultimate source and beneficiary of all cancer-related samples, data, and findings - to power a change in the way we approach oncology innovation in the clinic and in the laboratory. The first steps toward a patient-centered oncology research, collaboration, and clinical exploration program are possible today, and the RCRF is building toward a future that empowers all cancer patients to participate in and benefit from the promises of modern personalized medicine.
Moderator: Gerald Anthony Harris, Quantum Planning Group
Attend in person or online
Wonderfest: The Psychology of Confidence - RESCHEDULED - 01/30/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Editor's Note: This event was rescheduled for January 23, 2024.
Wednesday, 01/31/2024
RoundTable: Taking Generative AI Enterprise Models to Production - 01/31/2024 09:00 AM
The Hibernia San Francisco
Generative AI (GenAI) is an emergent area that has many AI users excited. One key feature of GenAI applications includes using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to pull up text data from internal enterprise sources. Another key feature is to reason about the retrieval results, the question, and the context of the enterprise LLM application.
These features, RAG and Reasoning, have the advantage of reducing hallucinations and reducing the need for foundational model training on enterprise domain data (which may constantly be changing on a large scale). Reasoning improvements start with prompt engineering best practices, such as specifying the LLM application's role, subject domain, type of detailed answer, format of answer, and providing multiple-shot question-answer examples. Other reasoning improvements include Re-Act, to reason, and take action, to result in an observation.
Panel: Moderator: Ronald Petty, RX-M; Yashesh Shroff, Intel; greg Makowski, Cybernator
How to Make an Eye: Cephalopod Eye Development and the Evolution of Complexity - 01/31/2024 12:00 PM
Weill Hall Berkeley
Understanding the mechanisms that enable the evolution of complexity remains a difficult problem in biology. In On the Origin of Species, Darwin discussed the eye as an important context to better understand his theory of natural selection and the generation of complex phenotypes. My lab is interested in the evolution of visual systems and uses rigorous, high resolution cell and developmental analyses across extant species to better understand how novel and complex traits arise. Coleoid cephalopods (Octopus, cuttlefish and squid) have among the most acute, image-forming eyes found across animals, and little is known about the genetic, genomic and molecular mechanisms underpinning this remarkable elaboration. We have established the squid Doryteuthis pealeii as an experimentally tractable model for comparative eye development. By marrying genetics and in vivo cell biology to a phylogenetically comparative approach, we have identified developmental mechanisms underlying visual system novelties and nervous system growth and expansion. By studying the evolution and development of visual systems, we are able to leverage the diversity of life to gain a deeper understanding of basic principles of ontogeny and the emergence of complexity.
Speaker: Kirsten Koenig, University of Texas at Austin
Science on Tap: Integrating Aquaculture to Improve Olympia Oyster Restoration in Elkhorn Slough, CA - 01/31/2024 07:00 PM
Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz
Can aquaculture be adapted to support conservation and ecosystem restoration? The only native oyster on our coast, the Olympia oyster, is depleted throughout its range. Many estuaries in central California are facing local extinction. Without a healthy oyster population, these estuaries lose vast amounts of biodiversity and cannot protect shorelines from storms and erosion. Oyster recovery is therefore central to estuary habitat restoration and resiliency. In 2018, The Elkhorn Slough Reserve partnered with Moss Landing Marine Labs to explore aquaculture as a conservation strategy for oyster recovery. Beginning with just 200 oysters collected from the slough, we developed a hatchery for them to reproduce in. Their offspring were then transplanted back out to sites around the estuary where they grow into parents of the next generation. Aquaculture is adept for producing baby oysters and maintaining fast growth rates, both important factors for restoring a natural population. However, Olympias are not common in aquaculture and the knowledge needed to grow this species was not readily available. Our aquaculture program combines ecology and physiology experiments to enhance native oyster restoration and support adaptive management in the Elkhorn Slough. This presentation will describe our journey over the last five years to re-establish oyster habitat and re-learn the oyster's ecology.
Wonderfest: The Most Famous Equation - 01/31/2024 07:30 PM
Marin Science Seminar San Rafael
Around the world, people recognize that E=mc^2 oozes cosmic insight. But what does this "most famous equation" really say? What are energy and mass? And what makes the speed of light, c, so important? [Hint: mass, moving at speed c, doesn't turn into energy!] Using little more than common experience and middle-school math, Einstein's "special relativity" gem can come to life - with surprising insights into the nature of reality.
This event is co-produced by Wonderfest and Marin Science Seminar. Our speaker is long-time physics teacher Tucker Hiatt, founding director of Wonderfest. Tucker has been a Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Chemistry Department, and is a recipient of the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence.
Thursday, 02/01/2024
Berkeley Institute for Data Science Seminar - 02/01/2024 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Sandrine Dudoit, UC Berkeley
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
The Los Angeles basin: from shallow hidden faults to its deep kilometric roots - 02/01/2024 12:00 PM
Mitchell Earth Sciences Building (04-560) Stanford
Home to more than 13 million people, the urban area of Los Angeles sits on top of a large-scale deep sedimentary basin that during large earthquakes can considerably amplify the recorded seismic amplitudes. One significant example of this effect is the magnitude 6.7 Northridge in 1994. The repercussions of the seismic amplification during this event were profound, affecting structures, infrastructure, human lives, and the entire Los Angeles region. Thus, the accurate and high-resolution knowledge of the shaking intensity throughout the basin is fundamental for informing building codes and designing earthquake-reliance infrastructure in the necessary locations. Achieving such characterization requires detailed mapping of existing faults and imaging the seismic velocity structures concealed beneath the Earth's surface.
Seismic investigations stand out as indispensable tools for comprehensively characterizing seismic hazards in diverse regions. In this presentation, I will first demonstrate how seismic passive ambient noise recorded on dense arrays can be used to identify preexisting near-surface faults present in heavily urbanized areas. The findings reveal the identification of previously unmapped shallow faults, exhibiting a remarkable correlation with both shallow seismic activity and active survey images.
I will then change the focus in the latter part of the seminar where we delve into the exploration of deep basin structures and the filling sediments that play a crucial role in amplifying seismic waves during earthquakes. Our approach involves imaging the roots of the Los Angeles basin by leveraging millions of P- and S-wave arrival times accumulated over 40 years through the conventional seismic network. We complement this data using two distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) instruments, which recorded hundreds of earthquakes on telecommunication fibers for over a year. The combination of the high-spatial density of DAS with the substantial number of cataloged events from the conventional station dataset allows us to significantly enhance the existing velocity models and capture the basin's structure at an unprecedented level of detail.
Speaker: Ettore Biondi, CalTech
Room 350/372
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 02/01/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Speaker: Adam Burgasser, UC San Diego
Amazonian Kichwa Geospatiality and Decolonial Spatial Justice: Theorizing Runaguna Jatun Llakta - 02/01/2024 03:30 PM
McCone Hall Berkeley
Latin America is one of the world's most urbanized regions, with over 80% of its total population projected to be living in urban areas by 2050. Amazonia, often associated with images of remote, mostly rural spaces, has not escaped this trend. In recent decades, Amazonian cities have grown, prompting Indigenous people to assert that urban centers are an integral part of how they historically imagined Amazonia from within. Amazonian Indigenous people are typically assumed to make their home in rural frontiers and remote hinterlands, far from the dense urban conurbations that characterize Latin America. In emerging cities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, Kichwa Indigenous people are actively shaping urban spaces and planning processes while confronting exclusions and violence from the neoliberal government, settler society, and extractivist companies.
My research explores the Kichwa epistemic and material practices that contribute to producing a new urbanity in Ecuadorian Amazonia. I draw on the Kichwa concept of Runaguna Jatun Llakta (people-urban space relations) to show how the Kichwa people produce the city through the confluence of Rina Shukllaktama (mobility and migration), Jatun Yuyayta Shayachina (place-making), and Runa Yachay (epistemologies and ontologies). Reflecting the embodied, gender-based relationships between people and space that characterize Amazonian Kichwa geography, I argue that the concept of Runaguna Jatun Llakta illuminates an emerging Amazonian urbanity by re-centering Indigenous geographies, Indigenous planning, and Indigenous technologies (systems to create cultural and environmental changes).
In my research, I work with 5 Kichwa women-run organizations, all of which are responding to settler-colonial urban power using their institutions, resistance actions, and Indigenous planning praxis in strategic ways. I integrate archival, geospatial, ethnographic, and participatory mapping methods informed by Indigenous and feminist geographic theory from the Global South. The goal of my feminist-Indigenous geo-ethnography is to center South-North scholarly dialogue in support of underrepresented peoples' struggles while furthering a relational and ethical approach to Indigenous knowledge co-production in mobility and gender studies in Indigenous Amazonia. My community- based research has also included training and knowledge co-production with Kichwa women in geospatial research to bring diverse epistemologies to bear on urban development in Amazonia.
Based on my lived experience as a Kitu-Kara woman and my longstanding partnership with the Amazonian Kichwa in Ecuador, as well as my rigorous academic training and international planning practice in Latin America, I am committed to advancing research and teaching rooted in Kitu-Kara and Kichwa standpoints. By bringing together theories and methodologies from gendered ethnic communities in the Global North and South, I seek to contribute to healing a historically exploited, wounded, and divided region and contesting socio-spatial injustices in urban development.
The long-term goal of my research is to develop the Kichwa Life Course Geography (KLCG), a geospatial platform designed to visualize Indigenous urban geographies and mobilities in cities of the Amazonian tri-border region of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. Based on documentation collected through the mixed methods approaches of feminist-Indigenous geo-ethnography, the KLCG will facilitate geovisualizations and place-based, participatory policy and planning work, grassroots research, and academic research. The KLCG will also advance collective self-determination by reducing digital and geospatial barriers to participation in city and regional planning and foster training and knowledge co-production with Kichwa women in transnational geospatial research.
Speaker: Alexandra Lamiña, University of Texas at Austin
The Coming 6th Generation (6G) of Mobile Wireless - 02/01/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
The first commercial 5G deployments were in March of 2019 - now almost 5 years ago--and the path to 6G is well under way. It is without a doubt that 6G will be evolution and revolution beyond 5G, but its territory is still rife with speculation. However, some of the differences are already clear. Not only is the technology going to be different, the change in commercial and government approach to commercial wireless systems has changed in a dramatic fashion. This talk will cover a little of what remains to be realized from the original 5G vision and what to expect from the work on 6G in the coming decade.
Speaker: Roger Nichols, Keysight Technologies
This lecture may also be available online. See the weblink for Zoom information.
NightLife: Black Thursday - 02/01/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Celebrate Black joy with a vibrant night of history, culture, and innovation.
After Dark: Phenomenal Fun - 02/01/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
The Exploratorium is your playground after dark! Sip a cocktail and explore extraordinary science phenomena with 600+ interactive exhibits. Watch water freeze, eavesdrop on people at the parabolic dishes, and paint in colors using soapy water. No kids allowed - but you can still act like one.
PubScience: Is Anybody Out There? Innovative Approaches in the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations - 02/01/2024 06:30 PM
Ocean View Brew Works Albany
Speaker: Dan Werthimer, Berkeley SETI Research Center
Friday, 02/02/2024
Energy Innovation: What It Is and How to Accelerate It - Livestream - 02/02/2024 10:30 AM
Osher Livelong Learning Institute
Innovation is central to economic prosperity (although not necessarily equity and justice), and is particularly key to efforts to address the climate crisis. Berkeley professor Daniel Kammen will examine perspectives and methods to track, understand, accelerate, and make more just and inclusive the process of energy innovation.
While UC Berkeley and Stanford University consistently top the charts as among the most climate innovative universities in the country, the lessons of "Silicon Climate Valley" need to spread rapidly with a far faster route to uptake to transform our energy and wider economic systems.
Speaker: Daniel Kammen, UC Berkeley
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Isotopes in planets: From the earliest planetesimals to the Moon forming giant impact - 02/02/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Thomas Kruijer
Delivering the Future of CRISPR-Based Genome Editing - 02/02/2024 03:00 PM
Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union Berkeley
Jennifer Doudna developed CRISPR-Cas9, a groundbreaking technology that some call "genetic scissors." With it, scientists can snip and edit DNA - the code of life - unlocking remarkable possibilities in biology, including treatments for thousands of intractable diseases. This work has changed the course of genomics research, allowing scientists to rewrite DNA with unprecedented precision. In recognition, she was co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier.
Speaker: Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair and Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley
Room: Pauley Ballroom
First Friday: Celestial Cinema - 02/02/2024 06:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Join Chabot in a galaxy far, far away to get a behind-the-scenes look at how space films are made and put the science in science fiction with experts in the field of filmmaking. Create your own flipbook sci-fi adventure, attend hands-on workshops and guest lectures, and take a trip to a distant galaxy in our Planetarium. First Friday: Celestial Cinema is a sci-fi fantasy adventure the whole family can enjoy!
N = 1: Alone in the Milky Way - 02/02/2024 08:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Planetary scientist Dr. Pascal Lee will review our present knowledge about each term of the Drake Equation used to estimate the number (N) of advanced civilizations present in our Milky Way galaxy, which is at the heart of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He will examine star and planet formation, geological and biological evolution, the emergence of intelligence and technology, and possible fates of advanced civilizations. Even though planets are plentiful in the Milky Way and life as a natural product of chemical and biological evolution is likely common, he reaches the surprising conclusion that the number of advanced civilizations in our Galaxy is likely a small number, most likely N~1. Says Dr. Lee: "We might be it in the vastness of our galaxy, or there might be just one other...". Implications of N~1 are profound and will be discussed.
Speaker: Dr. Pascal Lee, Mars Institute and SETI Institute
Saturday, 02/03/2024
Roots of Jazz in the Music of Steely Dan - 02/03/2024 11:30 AM
Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley
Get ready to swing and sway as you learn about jazz and its roots through the music of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. Local band The Dans of Steel will delight guests with a performance that will break down the music of Steely Dan into its Jazz and Afro-American components. Visitors of all ages will have the opportunity to learn about composition analysis, the historic use of Afro-American musicians in their recording sessions, and their idols Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and others.
One hour showtimes:
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Nike Missile Site Veteran Open House - 02/03/2024 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.
Part 3 Neurobiology of Morality - Livestream- 02/03/2024 03:00 PM
Bay Area Humanists
In "Neurobiology of Morality," Dr. Strand begins by briefly introducing the historical assumption that morality and religion are closely linked. Next, Sarah describes that contemporary moral psychologists show that humans - whether male or female, atheist or religious, American or Aboriginal - make remarkably similar moral judgments. So if religion doesn't guide our moral judgments, what does? The presentation concludes with a discussion of data from human and non-human studies that suggest regions in the frontal and temporal lobes form a "moral network" and that morality is subject to evolutionary mechanisms in much the same way as physical and behavioral traits.
Dr. Sarah Strand created her course Psychology of Religion for California State University Sacramento after speaking to community groups around Northern California and Nevada for ten years.
Agenda: 2:55 pm ~ 3:05 Socialize in small group breakout rooms < for members to chat about what they hope to get out of this event. 3:08 pm < Everyone returns to the main room.
3:10 pm ~ 4:00 pm Presentation, Please use Q&A section. 4:00 pm ~ 4:10 pm Socialize in small group breakout rooms < members to chat about the event.
4:10 pm ~ 4:40 pm Q&A in the main room with Dr. Sarah Strand 4:40 pm ~ 5:10ish pm Optional socializing in the main room or breakout rooms.
Register at weblink to attend.
Starry Nights Star Party - 02/03/2024 06:30 PM
Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
The San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA), working with the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (OSA), is glad to co-host a public star party at Rancho Cañada del Oro (RCDO) Open Space Preserve. This site, just 30 minutes south of downtown San Jose, features dark skies. It's dark enough to see the band of our Milky Way galaxy in the summer.
Do not bring your own telescope (binoculars are welcome, but please no tripods). SJAA club members will set up their telescopes to help star party guests get the most knowledge and enjoyment out of the dark night sky.
In addition to traditional telescopes, the SJAA has incorporated Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA) into the Starry Nights Program. We will be using an automated telescope with a camera-like sensor to show live images on an iPad.
· This is a family friendly event, and although younger children are welcome, this activity is best suited for children aged 5 years and older.
· No touching the telescopes or eyepieces. (Maybe a focus knob, if instructed by the astronomer. It's OK to ask).
· Dress in warm layers (it gets cold at night).
· Flashlights: To help preserve everyone's night vision, if you bring a dim white flashlight, be sure to have it wrapped in red plastic, or get it wrapped at the sign-in desk.
· Registration for this event has a limit of approximately 85 people due to available parking space at the observing site.
Registration required at weblink
Sunday, 02/04/2024
Solar Observing - 02/04/2024 01:30 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
It's there for us year round, lighting our days and providing energy for our lives, so maybe it's time to give it a closer look. Join SJAA for amazing and detailed views of the Sun, and be assured that we'll be using special telescopes that will keep your eyeballs perfectly safe.
We'll have white-light telescopes with dense solar filters that reveal sunspots. Further, we'll show you hydrogen-alpha telescopes that isolate a very specific color of red that reveals prominences (often thought of as solar flares) and intricate texture within the Sun's chromosphere (its atmosphere).
We can also share with you a little about how the Sun works and how complex magnetic fields drive the number of sunspots and prominences that we'll see on a given day.
Around 1:45, we'll have a short, informal introductory talk, and at other times, you can enjoy the views and ask questions about the Sun, telescopes, or astronomy in general.
We're also planning station for your get a better feel for a huge scale of our solar system! And you'll get a solar system you can fold up and carry in your pocket.
You may bring your own telescope. If you have a properly filtered white light or H-alpha telescope and want to share views with others, please arrive at 1:30 or earlier, so you have time to set up before the event officially starts.
Weather dependent. Sign up at weblink
Monday, 02/05/2024
Montane Grasshopper Fitness Constraints in Changing Environments - 02/05/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Dr. Monica M. Sheffer, UC Berkeley
Catching transcription factors for proteasomal degradation: a dance with chromatin - 02/05/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Speaker: Xin Gu, Harvard University
The Search for Wavy Dark Matter: Axions ABRACADABRA to DMRadio - 02/05/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
The particle nature of dark matter remains one of the great open questions in physics. There is a broad category of candidates whose mass is so light that they behave more as waves than as particles. The most well-known is the axion, which has had a renaissance as a dark matter candidate as theoretical studies have improved our understanding of axion cosmology and advances in quantum sensing and cryogenics have opened new opportunities for detection. In this talk, I will present an overview of the field of wavy dark matter and with a focus on my work to realize a definitive search for GUT-scale axions with the DMRadio program and the ABRACADABRA demonstrator.
Speaker: Lindley Winslow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Multimodal Machine Learning and Climate Change Adaptation - 02/05/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
Climate change is escalating the frequency and severity of natural disasters worldwide, necessitating urgent societal adaptation. In this talk, I present a multimodal machine learning (ML) framework designed to predict natural disasters. Traditionally, weather forecasting has depended on dynamical equations for over a century. However, recent advancements in artificial intelligence are revolutionizing this domain. The innovative multimodal ML framework leverages processing techniques from computer vision, natural language processing, time series signal processing techniques to integrate various data types, such as satellite imagery, textual information, and tabular data, to generate both short-term and long-term forecasts. Our first case study demonstrates that, for 24-hour hurricane forecasting, our ML models achieve results that are competitive with those produced by established national weather forecasting agencies. In our second case study, we explore the potential to create global models with a multi-year scope for assessing flood risks. Artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the way our interaction with weather, and these ML-driven risk assessments will have profound impacts on urban planning, infrastructure investment, renewable energy planning, and insurance policy.
Speaker: Cynthia Zeng, Massachusets Institute of Technology
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
The Hunt for the First Galaxies - 02/05/2024 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Seeking the first galaxies to form after the Big Bang is the primary rationale for building the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These first galaxies have eluded the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) because the expansion of the Universe has stretched their light to wavelengths undetectable by HST. With its increased sensitivity in infrared light, JWST has discovered hundreds of galaxies more distant than HST could possibly detect, and the first galaxies are forming stars earlier and more rapidly than expected.
Speaker: Dr. Marcia Rieke, University of Arizona
Tuesday, 02/06/2024
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Reaction-Diffusion and Mechanical Models in Vertebrate Skin Patterning - Rescheduled - 02/06/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Extreme Electrodynamics of Neutron Stars and Black Holes - 02/06/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
From UC Berkeley to NASA: My Path to Astronaut - 02/06/2024 04:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Indigenous Sovereign Futures - 02/06/2024 07:00 PM
The Interval at Long Now San Francisco
Odd Salon: Colossal - 02/06/2024 07:30 PM
Public Works San Francisco
Wednesday, 02/07/2024
How tire rubble pollution can impact human health - Livestream - 02/07/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Bioanalytical Systems for Translational Research: From Microscale Cell Culture Platforms to Biofluid Self-Sampling Tools - 02/07/2024 12:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Energy Transition in Indian Country: some thoughts from ongoing research - 02/07/2024 03:30 PM
McCone Hall Berkeley
Microplastic? Macro Problems - Livestream - 02/07/2024 06:00 PM
City of Sunnyvale
Exploring the Gravitational Wave Universe: New Discoveries and Plans - 02/07/2024 07:00 PM
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series Los Altos Hills
Getting a Grip on Geysers - 02/07/2024 07:30 PM
Marin Science Seminar San Rafael
Thursday, 02/08/2024
Grid Decarbonization - 02/08/2024 01:30 PM
Environment & Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 02/08/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
After Dark: See for Yourself - 02/08/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
NightLife 15! - 02/08/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Defects in Aircraft Design & Materials: Engineering Lessons Learned - 02/08/2024 06:30 PM
Hacker Dojo Mountain View
A child's garden of climate change denial - Livestream - 02/08/2024 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Friday, 02/09/2024
Publishing Applied Technology Research at Cell Press - 02/09/2024 02:00 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
In Town Star Party - 02/09/2024 07:15 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
Saturday, 02/10/2024
Family Nature Adventures: Let's Chat About Scat - 02/10/2024 10:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Toxic Beauty: The Effects of Phthalates and Bisphenols on Human Stem Cells and Embryo Development - Livestream - 02/10/2024 10:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society
The Secrets behind a Skeptical Podcast - 02/10/2024 01:00 PM
Berkeley Public Library Berkeley
Monday, 02/12/2024
Symbolic Systems Forum - 02/12/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
Physics Condensed Matter Seminar - 02/12/2024 02:30 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Coordination of hippocampal codes for physical and visual space in food-caching birds - 02/12/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquium - 02/12/2024 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Advancing Energy Equity in California - 02/12/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
The Fast Radio Sky - 02/12/2024 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford