SchSchmooze en los tiempos del COVID
Fewer and fewer Americans are lining up to get COVID-19 shots while only 31% of our population has been fully vaccinated. Public Service Announcements are pushing for more people to get vaccinated, e.g. Barack Hussein Obama, Stewie from Family Guy, and Google. Aware that a large proportion of Republicans are hesitant, there is even a PSA by and for Republicans. Pfizer (i got my Fauci ouchy from Pfizer) is working on a protease inhibitor pill for treating COVID-19 infections. Meanwhile, our country is responding to the changing COVID-19 situation in India.
Injury to the brain can result in myriad different symptoms - sensory abnormalities, psychological problems, intellectual and memory deficiencies, balance issues, headaches, etc. Infection with the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) can result in all of the above, most likely because it frequently damages blood vessels in the brain.
Zubin Damania, MD a.k.a. ZDoggMD responded this week to the latest anti-vaxx wrinkle which is just one more example of what the World Health Organization calls an infodemic. Another doctor, Sara Bajuyo, MD, wrote an optimistic view, “How to Stop Anti-Science.” If you would like to try your hand at differentiating fake news from real, go to News Evaluator. Hint: consult Snopes.com and other fact-checking websites as you take the quiz.
I like Randall Munroe’s comments on the future of mask-wearing.
My (livestream) picks of the week:
Squaring climate change at the poles with global warming - Tuesday 3:30pm
Wonderfest: Conspiracy Theories - Thursday 8pm
What the Pandemics Are Teaching Us about Representation and Leadership in Research, STEM, and Recovery - Friday 11am
Meanwhile on Mars, as many suspected, the little ‘copter will not be abandoned. Ingenuity has been assigned a ‘new’ mission - actually considered from the beginning. Perseverance and Ingenuity will venture together across Mars’ bleak landscape evoking visions of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. By the way, if you would like a plastic Hot Wheels Perseverance model (scale = 1/67), i have one that will go to the first person responding to this offer.
Staying with the theme of space exploration, the New Horizons space probe, which intercepted Pluto on Bastille Day in 2015, is now 50 times farther from the sun than we are. It now takes seven hours for a radio signal from Earth to reach it. If we shrunk distances so that the Sun were no larger than a golf ball, Neptune would be 1.3 km away (0.8 mile) and New Horizons would be 2.15 km (1.33 mile) distant. That hardly compares with the 4.2 years for a radio signal to reach Proxima Centauri, the nearest star (other than our own Sun). ¿How far is 4.2 light-years? Imagine holding the golf ball ‘Sun’ in your hand in the SF Bay Area. The next nearest ‘golf ball’ - Proxima Centauri - would be on the Cedar Hill Golf Course in Victoria, British Columbia, 1,200 km away (746 miles).
More space news: astronomers discovered the closest ever black hole, ‘only’ 1,500 light years away. In our ‘Sun = golf ball scale,’ that’s 428,571 km (266,302 miles). Just leave your golf ball here, travel down to Ecuador, and travel around the Equator ten times where you will find a very tiny speck of a black hole. Nothing to lose sleep over.
Even more space news. Early Sunday, four scientists from the International Space Station safely landed in the ocean off the coast of Florida. (Hmmm. ¿What’s it like to go from zero g to bobbing about in the ocean?)
Be safe - and with respect to vaccinations, no one is safe until everyone is safe,
Dave Almandsmith
Bay Area Skeptics board member
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein
“Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.”
― George Washington Carver write-up here.
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 05/03/2021
Imaging quantum spin liquid behavior in single-layer 1T-TaSe2 - Livestream - 05/03/2021 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley
Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) are a novel state of matter predicted to arise in quantum antiferromagnets where magnetic frustration or quantum fluctuations are strong enough to prevent magnetically ordered states even down to the lowest temperatures. QSLs are believed to exist in strongly correlated Mott insulators, and are thus related to unconventional superconductivity. Much work on QSLs has focused on triangular lattices where frustration is strong. An example is the bulk Mott insulator 1T-TaS2 which has attracted attention as a QSL candidate due to localized d-orbitals in the Ta atoms that form a triangular lattice in this material. This scenario, however, is complicated by interlayer coupling and possible different stacking orders in the bulk, thus motivating investigation into related single-layer materials.
I will discuss our recent studies on single-layer (SL) 1T-TaSe2 that provide evidence for 2D QSL behavior. We have characterized the electronic structure of SL 1T-TaSe2 (grown via molecular beam epitaxy) by means of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and first-principles calculations. We observe Mott insulating behavior in SL 1T-TaSe2, including novel orbital texture not seen in bulk samples. Vertical heterostructures formed by a single 1T-TaSe2 layer placed on top of metallic 1H-TaSe2 exhibit Kondo behavior, providing direct evidence for a triangular array of local spins in SL 1T-TaSe2, a prerequisite for the QSL behavior. Moreover, in SL 1T-TaSe2 we observe long-wavelength super-modulations that are explained quantitatively by a QSL-based spinon Fermi surface instability.
Speaker: Wei Ruan, UC Berkeley
See weblink for connection information
Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics - Livestream - 05/03/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
Why do falling cats always land on their feet? The question has long intrigued humans. In this talk, we explore how the solution stumped brilliant minds and how it helped solve other seemingly impossible puzzles. With numerous photos and videos, physicist and cat parent Greg Gbur explores how attempts to understand the cat-righting reflex have provided crucial insights into puzzles in mathematics, geophysics, neuroscience, and human space exploration.
Speaker: Greg Gbur, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
See weblink for Zoom information.
Programmable light-matter interactions: DNA as a tool for nanophotonics - Livestream - 05/03/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do @ Sonoma State University
Light can be created, scattered, and confined by nanoparticles whose dimensions are smaller than the wavelength of light. A nanoparticle's interaction with light is often strongly tuned by its size and shape, providing an exciting opportunity to control the fate of photons with extraordinary precision. However, harnessing this potential is especially challenging because it is extremely difficult to fabricate materials and devices which are precise down to the nanometer scale. To overcome these challenges, we are studying a class of atomically precise nanoparticles, called clusters, whose sizes and shapes are programmed by DNA scaffolds. I will introduce these DNA-stabilized silver clusters, describe how we are probing their fundamental properties, and present our framework for discovering these clusters by harnessing tools from data mining and machine learning. These promising fluorescent clusters could form the basis of a new set of nanophotonic tools for bioimaging and biosensing.
Speaker: Dr. Stacy Copp, UC Irvine
Stanford Energy Seminar - Tom Jaramillo - Livestream - 05/03/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
Recent years have seen unprecedented motivation for the emergence of new energy technologies. Global dependence on fossil fuels, however, will persist until alternate technologies can compete economically. We must develop means to produce energy (or energy carriers) from renewable sources and then convert them to work as efficiently and cleanly as possible. Catalysis is energy conversion, and the Jaramillo laboratory focuses on fundamental catalytic processes occurring on solid-state surfaces in both the production and consumption of energy. Chemical-to-electrical and electrical-to-chemical energy conversion are at the core of the research. Nanoparticles, metals, alloys, sulfides, nitrides, carbides, phosphides, oxides, and biomimetic organo-metallic complexes comprise the toolkit of materials that can help change the energy landscape. Tailoring catalyst surfaces to fit the chemistry is our primary challenge. In this seminar, Thomas Jaramillo will discuss his research.
Speaker: Thomas Jaramillo, Stanford University
Tuesday, 05/04/2021
The Illusion of Evidence-Based Medicine: Distorted Science in the Age of Big Pharma - Livestream - 05/04/2021 03:00 PM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Financial interests distort the truths of evidence-based medicine, says Dr. Leemon B. McHenry. By revealing previously confidential documents released in litigation, Dr. McHenry exposes the role that pharmaceutical marketing has in the construction of medical literature, conference presentations and continuing medical education. The marketing spin is designed to be indistinguishable from the genuine science, he says, thus seriously misleading our medical professionals and the public.
Speaker: Leemon McHenry, California State University Northridge, Emeritus; Adrea Brier, Commonwealth Club, Moderator
Squaring climate change at the poles with global warming - Livestream - 05/04/2021 03:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz
For nearly four decades, satellites showed Antarctic sea ice had been slowly expanding in horizontal extent. Over the same period Arctic sea ice extent decreased rapidly, by nearly half the extent seen in the first images from modern satellite sensors. The decline in Arctic sea ice extent is roughly proportional to global warming. While Antarctic sea ice appears to hear a different drummer. Possibilities to explain the Antarctic sea ice expansion include the role of stabilizing the ocean from increasing meltwater from the base of Antarctica's vast ice shelves. Another idea is that the surface winds and heating influenced the sea ice in association with stratospheric ozone depletion or with remote tropical sea surface and deep cloud changes. And now, nature has brought about a new challenge �€" to explain why the Antarctic sea ice extent has suddenly changed course and reached extreme lows since 2016. I will focus on the roles of freshwater and wind changes and review studies that attempt to quantify their influence.
Speaker: Cecilia Bitz, University of Washington
Zoom information can be found on the EPS advising Google calendar
The Passage of Time and the Meaning of Life - Livestream - 05/04/2021 05:00 PM
Long Now Foundation
“Life is a process, not a substance, and it is necessarily temporary. We are not the reason for the existence of the universe, but our ability for self-awareness and reflection makes us special within it.” ― Sean Carroll
Sean Carroll is a Research Professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His research has focused on fundamental physics and cosmology, especially issues of dark matter, dark energy, spacetime symmetries, and the origin of the universe.
Recently, Carroll has worked on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the emergence of spacetime, and the evolution of entropy and complexity. Carroll is the author of Something Deeply Hidden, The Big Picture, The Particle at the End of the Universe amongst other books and hosts the Mindscapes podcast.
Wednesday, 05/05/2021
Ask the Scientist - Sean Craig - 05/05/2021 02:00 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?
If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with our weekly Seminar speakers.
Sean Craig, Humboldt State University
Parents must give permission for children under 19 to participate.
Register at weblink to attend and receive connection information
A tale of two Invaders: Global invasions of two cryptic species of Bryozoans (Watersipora spp.) and why species identification matters - Livestream - 05/05/2021 03:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Non-native marine species are a problem in bays and harbors all around the world, and many “hitch-hike” on ship hulls or in ballast tanks to invade new sites. The relatively recent invasion of a bright red bryozoan (Watersipora spp.) that grows like a head of lettuce is hard to miss in many California bays, for example. While most marine ecological research on this invader has been published using a single name (Watersipora subtorquata), recent work by Sean Craig and his collaborators (including Josh Mackie, formerly of San Jose State University) has shown that these invasions represent 2 separate, genetically distinct cryptic species which are indistinguishable morphologically. In addition, work in the Craig lab has shown that these two species differ markedly in their temperature tolerance, growth and reproductive timing, and growth form. While Watersipora subtorquata (now called W. subatra) is common in bays and harbors in Southern California, Watersipora “new sp” is much more common in colder water habitats from Morro Bay northward. In addition, these two species differ in the size of their larvae as well as their likelihood of settling on copper ship hull paints. Watersipora “new sp.” even shows a strong preference for settling on copper paint over unpainted substrates, suggesting adaptation for “invasions” all around the globe. In short-even though these 2 species cannot easily be distinguished, research in the Craig lab continues to show these 2 species are markedly different and these differences may help predict future invasions, as well as further understanding of the current distribution of these invaders all around the world.
Speaker: Sean Craig, Professor, Humboldt State University
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
Thursday, 05/06/2021
A New Force of Nature at the Large Hadron Colider - Livestream - 05/06/2021 11:00 AM
The Royal Institution
At the end of March 2021, scientists working on the LHCb experiment at CERN in Geneva reported an unusual discrepancy in their data that caused huge excitement in the physics community and beyond. They looked at a decade of information about how unstable particles called B mesons decayed into electrons and muons. Our current theory of particle physics, the Standard Model, predicts equal numbers of electrons and muons, but the results showed fewer muons being produced than electrons. Is this just a cruel trick of the data, or could this be the first sign of a new force of nature?
Join LHCb physicists Paula Alvarez Cartelle and Harry Cliff and theoretical physicist Ben Allanach as they explain how they achieved this surprising result, discuss the potentially huge implications for our understanding of the world and reveal if this means we are finally about to see what lies beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics.
Register at weblink to receive connection information.
The speakers will describe how their companies are using plastic waste to generate fuels, chemicals, and pavement. There will be opportunities for Q&A from attendees.
Speakers:
Bob Powell, Founder & CEO, Brightmark
Sean Weaver, Founder & President, Neo
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Clathrate Hydrates - Livestream - 05/06/2021 05:00 PM
California Section American Chemical Society
Clathrate hydrates are ice-like inclusion compounds in which space-filling water cages encapsulate different molecular substances. Dr. Saman Alavi studies clathrate hydrate materials using molecular dynamics simulations. In this talk, an introduction to these substances will be given with examples of how molecular dynamics simulations can give insights into details of their behavior not easily accessible using experimental methods. The presentation will be followed by Q & A.
See weblink to register and receive Zoom information
Frank Drake Award Gala - 05/06/2021 06:00 PM
Online Online
The Frank Drake Award of the non-profit SETI Institute celebrates outstanding contributions to the scientific study of the origin, nature, and prevalence of life in the universe, and for work on techniques for the discovery of the existence of such life. (Past winners have included Nobel Laureate Charles Townes, and Bill Borucki, who created the Kepler mission to search for exoplanets.)
This year's winners are SETI pioneers Paul Horowitz of Harvard and Dan Werthimer of Berkeley. The ceremony, hosted by Adam Savage (of television's Mythbusters), features discussions with the winners, with Frank Drake himself, and with Jill Tarter.
The virtual ceremony begins at 6 pm on Thursday evening, May 6th, and you are cordially invited.
NightSchool: Extreme Life - Livestream - 05/06/2021 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
You know the saying: “Life finds a way.” Meet the world’s most poisonous bird, tiny thermophiles, and other living organisms that have adapted - and thrive - through extreme measures and in extreme environments.
Micromitigation: Fighting Air Pollution with Activated Carbon - Livestream - 05/06/2021 07:00 PM
Counter Culture Labs
We would like to invite new members to join Counter Culture Labs' Micromitigation Meetup alternate Thursdays. We will be discussing ways to deploy existing adsorption technology using commodity granulated activated carbon for the mitigation of air pollution.
We welcome those interested in both the environmental justice and technical engineering aspects of air quality.Please sign up by joining the Counter Culture Labs' Meetup group, then RSVPing for the event. Weblink provided after signup.
Wonderfest: Conspiracy Theories - Livestream - 05/06/2021 08:00 PM
Wonderfest
As an old adage (mistakenly attributed to Confucius) notes, it’s difficult to find a black cat in a dark room, especially when there is no cat. Conspiracy theories have long been prevalent in the United States, but today they seem to be especially popular - from politics to popular culture - particularly on social media. In the spirit of another adage, "even paranoids have enemies": there are real conspiracies, and some of them are important and even dangerous. How do we distinguish the real conspiracies from the tinfoil-hat ones?
Speaker: Eugenie Scott, Former Exec. Director, National Center for Science Education
Friday, 05/07/2021
What the Pandemics Are Teaching Us about Representation and Leadership in Research, STEM, and Recovery - Livestream - 05/07/2021 11:00 AM
Gladstone Institutes
In this discussion and call to action, Tabia Henry Akintobi sheds light on the consequences of the pandemics and their root causes. She also proposes a path forward to prepare learners and leaders to advance population health through and past the pandemic.
Speaker: Tabia Henry Akintobi, PhD, MPH, Morehouse School of Medicine
This event will be held virtually via Zoom. Registration is required and available at the weblink.
Planet 9 or Planet Nein? Discoveries in the Outer Solar System - Livestream - 05/07/2021 11:30 AM
Astronomical Society of Edinburgh
There have been many headlines about the possibility of an undiscovered giant planet in the outer reaches of our Solar System. But is it real? Dr. Sam Lawler will lead you through the wilds of the distant Kuiper Belt with a surprisingly digestible (we promise!) discussion of orbital dynamics and observation biases. She will show you the latest Kuiper Belt discoveries from a large international collaboration called the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS), and you can decide for yourself whether or not you believe in Planet 9. She’ll end with a discussion of how the future of astronomy is severely threatened by megaconstellations of satellites like Starlink and OneWeb.
Speaker: Samantha Lawler, University of Regina, Canada
Register at weblink to receive connection information
A sphere cluster (SPH-Mas) based gravity model allows a semi-analytic expression of the linearised equations around irregular-shaped celestial bodies Equilibrium Points (EPs) and an easy method for searching families of periodic orbits around them. The SPH-Mas model can retrieve the same dynamical objects of the shape model when the spheres share a uniform density distribution. The dynamics are solved for a rotating asteroid-fixed frame of angular velocity equivalent to the asteroid spin axis. The SPH-Mas model has the advantage to define the same particles mesh distribution for both astrophysical and astrodynamics tools. To the core of this study, we aim to gain a general insight on the dynamics around Didymos and other minor celestial bodies in term of stable and unstable orbits for studying the dynamics of ejecta particles.
Speaker: Stefania Soldini, University of Liverpool
Zoom information can be found on the EPS advising Google calendar
Virtual Talk: Through the Looking Glass at Aloes in Wonderland - 05/07/2021 01:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden
Come take a virtual tour of this well-known Santa Barbara garden’s namesake, the aloes! Though his life’s botanical passion has been the cycads, the name “Aloes in Wonderland” came to him in a dream some 15 years ago and changed the course of the gardens focus. Jeff will share some images and stories about the aloes in Wonderland.
Speaker: Jeff Chemnick, GannaWalska Lotusland
Saturday, 05/08/2021
Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 05/08/2021 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!
Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be available for an open forum for all of your most pressing astronomy questions.
Monday, 05/10/2021
Light and Dark. A Story of the Cosmos - Livestream - 05/10/2021 11:00 AM
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
Light is the main observable in cosmology, but most of what we "see" with this light is how the dark universe behaves. We will explore how the light from millions of distant galaxies are used to shed light on the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Speaker: Marika Asgari
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Tracking Moment-by-Moment Changes on Digital Screens to Discover What People Actually See and Do With Technology - Livestream - 05/10/2021 02:30 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum
There has never been more interest and anxiety about the effects of media - addiction, wellbeing, relationships, politics, finances, work changes, and more. Parents, pediatricians and policy makers are eager for better data about the effects of technology, but it has been a challenge for scientists to accommodate. The major problem that scientists face is that media experiences now defy easy characterization. Researchers need a better microscope, and better theories about how to use it, to see what is now often invisible. A major opportunity is to use interdisciplinary science to develop a framework that can be used to assess the breadth of life experiences now reflected on screens. We have launched the Stanford Human Screenome Project, a research platform and data repository that facilitates precise mapping of media use via detailed moment-by-moment capture and computational analysis of all the actual content, actions and sequences that appear on personal screens - defining what we call the screenome. We will demonstrate diverse applications of the screenome in the study of politics, physical and mental health, learning and social relationships.
Speaker: Byron Reeves
See weblink for Zoom link.
The past century has witnessed the birth of our modern view of the large scale universe as well as an astonishing list of startling changes or paradigm shifts in our understanding. The rate of new discoveries seems to be accelerating with time. This talk will take us from the contributions of Einstein and Hubble to the most recent discoveries about the early history of the universe. We will even discuss the discoveries expected from the next generation of scientific instruments as well as the likelihood of the unexpected discovery.
Speaker: George Blumenthal, Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Cruz
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Astronomy on Tap: Los Angeles - Livestream - 05/10/2021 07:30 PM
Astronomy on Tap
We’ll hear from Sabrina Pakzad: “SOFIA: NASA’s Flying Infrared Observatory” and from Dr. Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay: “The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope on the Far Side of the Moon”. In addition, we will host interactive astronomically-themed pub trivia.
See weblink for YouTube link.
Tuesday, 05/11/2021
Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition and Modern Medicine - Livestream - 05/11/2021 10:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Assessing readiness for AI projects: Case study with a Skin Cancer Detection System - 05/11/2021 11:50 AM
Magnimind Academy
The Science of Change - Livestream - 05/11/2021 03:00 PM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Killer Snails from Beach to Lab Bench to Bedside - Livestream - 05/11/2021 06:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Wednesday, 05/12/2021
Amazon's Rise as a Global Empire - Livestream - 05/12/2021 11:00 AM
Computer History Museum
Checking in with Perseverance - Livestream - 05/12/2021 01:00 PM
ExplOratorium
The development of autonomous chemical analyzers for ocean observatories and aquaculture in California - Livestream - 05/12/2021 03:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Cocktails & Conservation: Pangolins in Crisis - Livestream - 05/12/2021 06:00 PM
Oakland Zoo
Thursday, 05/13/2021
Labside Chats: A Conversation with a Scientist, featuring Stephanie Brodie, Ph.D. - Livestream - 05/13/2021 11:00 AM
UC Santa Cruz
After Dark Online: Sustainable Energy - 05/13/2021 07:00 PM
ExplOratorium
NightSchool: Rainforests - Livestream - 05/13/2021 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Vaccine hesitancy in the era of COVID - Livestream - 05/13/2021 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Friday, 05/14/2021
Saturday, 05/15/2021
Beyond the Great Reset - One-day Systems Change Summit - Livestream - 05/15/2021 12:00 AM
Post Carbon Institute
From Water to Human Dynamics: Taking a Non-traditional path to make chemistry more inclusive - Livestream - 05/15/2021 10:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society
Gravitational Lensing: Bends in Spacetime - Livestream - 05/15/2021 07:30 PM
Mount Tamalpias Astronomy Lectures
Resolving the Local Universe with the JWST & Hubble - Livestream - 05/15/2021 08:00 PM
San Mateo County Astronomical Society
Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 05/15/2021 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center
Sunday, 05/16/2021
Bringing Back the Natives Virtual Garden Tour - 05/16/2021 10:00 AM
Bringing Back the Natives
Getting Under a Sea Otter’s Skin: The Anatomy of Sensitive Touch - Livestream - 05/16/2021 01:30 PM
Seymour Science Center
Monday, 05/17/2021
Capitalism's Last Frontier: Entrepreneurship on the Navajo Nation - Livestream - 05/17/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium