Hello again science fans!
I hope your new year is off to a pleasant start and i trust the new year will bring joy along with a few minor unavoidable travails and challenges. And if learning new things brings you joy - read on!
¿If an advanced species of vertebrate arose hundreds of millions of years ago and invented - all in the space of only 10,000 years - agriculture, mathematics, automobiles, jet airplanes, atomic power, and spaceflight before self-destructing, how would we know about it? That’s the crux of the thought experiment called the “Silurian Hypothesis.” Just asking this question led scientists to the reality that evidence of such a short-lived civilization - like our own so far - would leave only miniscule clues in the fossil and geologic record. Miniscule, but given our current technology, the clues would be obvious. Video
HEALTH / MEDICINE
Both of my partner’s siblings went out to dinner with a good friend, and now all three have COVID. Although they are thoroughly miserable, they will likely fully recover since they have kept up on their vaccinations. COVID infections are currently increasing, in part due to the JN.1 variant and partly because cooler weather leads to more people congregating indoors. Every day in the U.S. about 10,000 new cases and about a hundred deaths from COVID are reported; so its lethality is far less than before. However, about nine million Americans still suffer from Long COVID. Among those is the Physics Girl, Dianna Cowern. We have frequently featured her videos in the SciSchmooze. She has been bedridden and unable to care for herself for over a year.
Bob Siederer wrote in June of 2022 that a CRISPR gene editing process was showing great promise for the treatment of Sickle Cell Disease. Last month the FDA approved two different gene editing treatments for Sickle Cell Disease patients. Yay! ¿And how much does this treatment cost? Current price is $2.2 million per patient. (OUCH!)
Placebos can increase the perception of health and even improve health. This is why medical trials normally include a cohort that is treated with a placebo to compare with the cohort that receives the real treatment. On the other hand, if a cohort is told that a treatment will make them feel worse while curing a health problem, a segment of the placebo cohort will report feeling worse. This is the “nocebo effect.” Here are a few amazing examples. The nocebo effect is common outside medical research. For example, some people experience negative mind and body effects when they believe they are near a high voltage powerline.
¿Pregnant? You probably already know that consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is harmful for the fetus. Add to that: cannabis. But not all recreational indulgences are proscribed. You could still binge-watch Ted Lasso.
GEOLOGY / MICROBIOLOGY / EVOLUTION
A team of drillers succeeded in drilling into the sea floor 850 meters below the surface and 1200 meters into mantle rock - six times deeper than ever before. From the rock samples and drill hole, a microbiologist searched for living microbes and biochemists studied the chemicals found there that may have been involved in the creation of life.
Close to where Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand come together is the Bolaven Volcanic Field, possibly where a massive asteroid slammed into Earth 789 million years ago. Tektites of this precise age have been found throughout Southeast Asia and as far away as Australia, but ground zero remained unlocated - perhaps until now. Conducting investigative geology in this region has been hampered by rain forests, politics, and leftover landmines. If the researchers are correct, the until-now unnamed collision will likely be called the Bolaven Impact Event. Stay tuned!
RAFFLE
Bill C won the colour-change 8cm crystal globe with his guess of 255. He chose the Solar System item. The prize this time is (again) a brilliant JWST Mirror pin badge made by Cepheid Studios in France. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with an integer between 0 and 1,000.
PALEONTOLOGY
¿What did you have to eat on this date a year ago? That’s hard for most of us to answer. ¿What did a young Gorgosaurus libratus (a cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex) have to eat 70 million years ago? That’s easy: two small raptorosaurs. For the first time, a fossil of a tyrannosauroid was found with fossilized prey in its stomach.
Archaeopteryx is well-known as a transitional species between non-avian dinosaurs and birds. ¿But where did flying pterosaurs (such as pterodactyls) come from? Here’s our current understanding: Early on, some archosaurs branched off to become the first dinosaurs while other archosaurs separately branched off to become lagerpetids. An hypothesis holds that some lagerpetids branched off to become flying pterosaurs. Evidence for this transition to flight has been strengthened by a new lagerpetid fossil find: Venetoraptor gassenae.
MY PICKS OF THE WEEK
Anesthesia & Hibernation:Enduring Deep-Space Travel - 7PM Tuesday, Novato
King Tide Walk Along the Embarcadero - 10:15 AM Thursday, San Francisco
You Can’t Beat an Extinct Horse - Livestream 7:30 PM Thursday
Apes & Us: A Century of Representations of Our Closest Relatives - 6 PM Friday, Stanford
Wonders of Weather - 10:30 AM Saturday, Chabot Space & Science Center, $
King Tides Walk - Noon Sunday, Palo Alto
PHYSICS
Ever since the publication of Einstein’s formulation of General Relativity as the explanation of gravity in 1915, physicists have been attempting to unify quantum theory with gravity - but without much success. Physicist Jonathan Oppenheim of the University College of London recently tossed his theoretical ‘hat’ into the ring. Essentially and mathematically he leaves gravity as the effects of mass on the curvature of space-time, but he posits that at atomic distances the curvature is jittery and non-probabilistic, much like quantum fields. Oppenheim’s conclusion is that gravity is not quantum in nature, but space-time itself exhibits some quantum behaviour at the smallest scales.
Until this last week, i was not aware of the Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures, CMAP, a National Science Foundation Physics Frontiers Center. You are probably aware that in Livermore, California, giant lasers are used in the Nuclear Ignition Facility to crush tiny capsules containing hydrogen with such force that the atoms fuse and release ‘fusion’ energy. CMAP does much the same with giant lasers but experiments there are to learn what happens to substances squeezed with forces equivalent to pressures in the centre of planets. We were taught that water comes in three phases, vapour (steam), liquid water, and ice. Experiments at CMAP have revealed additional water phases up to Ice Twenty. Allow me to recommend this 11 minute NSF video.
SCIENCE-BASED SKEPTICISM
New alternative medical treatments arise from ignorance and avarice faster than science can debunk them. (A friend of mine believes her uncle was cured of cancer by reflexology!) “There is no convincing scientific evidence that reflexology is effective for any medical condition.” I just became aware of N.E.T. or Neuro Emotional Technique, although it has been around since 1985. This article takes a light-hearted review of evidence for N.E.T.’s efficacy, or rather lack thereof.
FUN NERDY VIDEOS
Sickle Cell Disease & Gene Editing - King 5 Seattle - 3 mins
Lethal temperatures - Sabine Hossenfelder - 4 mins
Duckweed on Mars? - Cup o’ Joe - Joe Schwarcz - 4 mins
Cistercian Number System - Numberphile - Alex Bellos - 10 mins
Something weird happens as you keep squeezing - NSF CMAP - Adam Cole - 11 mins
Crazy wind turbine design may be the future - Undecided - Matt Ferrell - 13 mins
Humorous Space Memes - Dr. Becky - Becky Smethurst - 14 mins
Pre-Human Civilizations? - PBS Spacetime - Matt O’Dowd - 18 mins
Io flyby; ancient star map; Lunar elevator - Star Bites - Fraser Cain - 19 mins
Namib Desert Waterhole Live Cam
Enjoy your week and remember to date your checks with 2024 (¿Who still uses checks?)
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
********
“The seeker after the truth… is not he who studies the writings of the ancients and… puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration.”
— Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (circa 965 – c. 1040) Mathematician, astronomer, and physicist
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 01/08/2024
FDA Guidance on Real-World Evidence - 01/08/2024 11:00 AM
Mission Hall San Francisco
Dr. John Concato, from the Office of Medical Policy in FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, will discuss "FDA Guidance on Real-World Evidence." His presentation will describe the main components of FDA's Real-World Evidence Program, focusing on guidance development. Dr. Concato will also summarize the historical context leading to the current focus on real-world evidence, and he will identify challenges when using real-world data and real-world evidence in drug development. A question-and-answer period will follow.
Please RSVP for details. Attend in person or online.
Speaker: John Cancato, Associate Director for Real-World Evidence Analytics, Office of Medical Policy, CDER, FDA
Cross-Border Collaboration in Humanitarian Response: Use Cases for EdTech - 01/08/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
In this talk, Keith Bowen, Ph.D, who is Director of the Learning Design Challenge in the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, shares research into a new program using technology in the education and training of humanitarian responders in the U.S. and the Middle East. For immersive learning, the program uses Virtual Reality to situate learners in a series of sites for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. To build assessment skills, the program uses Artificial Intelligence to facilitate interaction and observation in the immersive environment. Crucially, the program uses a range of communication technologies to bring learners from high- and low-income countries together to leverage wide perspectives in collaborative problem-solving efforts. Students who are interested in EdTech can explore this kind of work in the Stanford Accelerator for Learning and its Learning Design Challenge, an annual program with classes and mentoring that gets underway this quarter.
Speaker: Keith Bowen, Stanford University
See weblink for instructions to gain entry to the building.
Room 126
(Retrieval & Vision) Augmented Language Models - 01/08/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
Large language models, on their own, have important limitations. I will discuss the trend of "augmenting" language models in various ways to overcome those limitations. Specifically, I will focus on two kinds of augmentation: retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and associated approaches; and vision-augmented language models enhanced to see (LENS).
Speaker: Douwe Kiela, Stanford University
See weblink for instructions to gain entry to the building.
Room 126
Venture Capital and Demand-side Decarbonization: How to get rich while saving the planet - 01/08/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
Venture Capital investor Mike Lin shares his entrepreneurial journey from Stanford (BS '03, MS '06), to Apple, to startup founder, to venture investing. He'll dive into his venture capital investment thesis centered on demand-side decarbonization, integrative design, and anti-fragility.
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Tuesday, 01/09/2024
Fiber Optic Distributed Sensing as a Window on Subsurface Flow - 01/09/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Dr. Matthew Becker
Wonderfest: Anesthesia and Hibernation: Enduring Deep-Space Travel - 01/09/2024 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Sci-Fi movies often depict hibernation as the secret to long-duration human spaceflight. (Note: Even with ideal starship acceleration and deceleration, the nearest exoplanet is 3.6 years away!) Of course, the boundary between science fiction and science fantasy is hazy. Advances in anesthesia may facilitate hibernation. Physiologically, however, general anesthesia is detrimental in the short term, and worse in the long term. Will long-spaceflight medical advances ever be able to deal with this sobering hibernation fact: roughly half of naturally-hibernating animals never revive!
Our speaker is Dr. Art Wallace, Professor and Vice-Chair of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at UC San Francisco. He is also Chief of Anesthesia at San Francisco's Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Wednesday, 01/10/2024
The physiological ecology of copepods: molecular approaches - Livestream - 01/10/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Tow a plankton net in a body of sea water and chances are it will catch copepods. Ubiquitous, abundant, diverse, and prey to many organisms, their importance in marine ecosystems is not in question. Because of their small size and their vast 3-dimensional habitats, copepods are poor models for physiological studies, and we know surprisingly little about their organismal biology. However, molecular techniques, such as those that quantify gene expression, have opened doors for generating snapshots of all the messages (mRNA) produced by the cells that control the animal's life processes. My group has been exploring the challenges, opportunities and limitations of transcriptomics to quantify gene expression in individual copepods. In this talk, I will focus on how one sub-arctic copepod is able to acclimatize to conditions that are both cyclical and unpredictable at the individual level.
Speaker: Petra Lenz, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Register at weblink to attend via Zoom
Science Uncorked: Understanding the Pathways to Rampant Invasion in a Newly Introduced Sea Anemone in Tomales Bay - 01/10/2024 06:00 PM
Gourmet au Bay Bodega Bay
Pairing delicious wines with delicious ideas, this series features talks by scientists from UC Davis' Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute and Bodega Marine Laboratory
Speaker: Keira Monuki
Thursday, 01/11/2024
Coastal Walk at Pillar Point Bluff - 01/11/2024 10:00 AM
Pillar Point Bluff Parking Lot Moss Beach
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful walk at Pillar Point Bluff just north of Half Moon Bay! You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about the area's interesting natural history, from the coastal scrub habitat to the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve which hosts tide pools and breeding grounds for harbor seals.
The walk is moderate at about 2.5 miles round trip with about 300 feet of gradual elevation gain.
Register at weblink
A Royal Walk with the King Tide Along the Embarcadero - 01/11/2024 10:15 AM
Between Pier 3 and 5 San Francisco
Join Exploratorium and Port of San Francisco staff on the San Francisco waterfront to observe, photograph, and discuss the king tides. "King tide" is a popular, non-scientific term used to describe exceptionally high tides.
Come find out what causes the tides, why we have higher tides at this time of year, and learn more about the Waterfront Resilience Program's efforts to protect the city's waterfront. Because of sea level rise, the king tides of today provide opportunities to experience the "normal" high tides of tomorrow.
The high tide predicted at our closest tide station is 7.12 feet at 10:43 a.m.
Museum admission not included
After Dark: King Tides - 01/11/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Give yourself the royal treatment at tonight's After Dark. Learn about king tides - the non-scientific term for the highest tides of the year - with Exploratorium scientists and researchers. This season, two out of three king tides will take place on January 11 and 12. Are the king tides of today the normal high tides of tomorrow? How are sea levels affected by the Sun and the moon? Join us at the Exploratorium to find out.
Measuring Our Chances: Risk Prediction in This World and its Betters - 01/11/2024 06:30 PM
Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center Stanford
Stanford Data Science is pleased to host our Winter Distinguished Lecture on January 11th, 2024. Our speaker is Dr. Cynthia Dwork, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard University John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Affiliated Faculty at Harvard Law School.
Fungi Fundamentals - Mushrooms of the Bay Area - 01/11/2024 07:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
The unique ecosystem of the Bay Area's coastal redwoods provides an ideal setting for mushrooms to flourish. Join us for a cap-tivating online event as we explore and uncover more about the fungal landscape.
In collaboration with the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History (SCMNH), we invite you to a special online event featuring guest speaker Christian Schwarz, co-author of "Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast." Whether you're a fungi first-timer or fanatic, Christian will guide us through the fundamentals of mushroom science and share insights on where to find these remarkable organisms. This event will be tailored for audiences in high school and beyond.
Join POST, SCMNH, and mushroom scientist Christian Schwarz for an informational tour through the fungal landscape in the Bay Area. This 90-minute webinar will be interactive and provide the audience with many opportunities to spore their curiosity by asking our speaker your fungi-est questions. We can't wait for you to come along with us on this journey to uncover all the mysteries about mushrooms. Register to receive instructions on how to join us for this fantastic fungal virtual event.
You Can't Beat an Extinct Horse - Livestream - 01/11/2024 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
A November 2023 episode of Science Friday, an NPR show beloved by many, including myself, included a short episode dedicated to the environmental problems caused by wild horses on the landscape of the western United States. In this episode, the host presented the view of Yvette Running Horse Collin rejecting the standard archaeological/paleontological conclusions that horses evolved in North America, died out, and were reintroduced to Native Americans by the Spanish. Instead, she claims that horses never became extinct in North America, but existed continuously, and were domesticated by Native Americans before the advent of Europeans. SciFri appeared to give equal weight to her views and the standard model, which was referred to as "western science" - a phrase which itself is problematic. I'll discuss Collin's position - derived from her dissertation - through the lens of archaeology, and why her conclusions are based on poor or nonexistent data, and pseudoscientific assumptions.
Speaker: Carl Feagans, US Forest Service
Friday, 01/12/2024
The photochemistry of hydrogen-rich atmospheres: from the origin of life on Earth to biosignatures on the K2-18b exoplanet - 01/12/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Nick Wogan
50th Anniversary Santa Cruz Fungus Fair - 01/12/2024 02:00 PM
London Nelson Community Center Santa Cruz
Come to Santa Cruz and explore the facinating world of Fungi. Learn interesting and fun facts about the hundreds of beautiful and fascinating species of mushrooms found in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Area. Fungi will be beautifully displayed in a re-created woodland habitat. This unique Santa Cruz tradition features three days of fantastic fun, informative speakers and demonstrations, with fungal activities for the whole family.
FFSC mushroom experts will be available throughout the fair to identify the mushrooms you've found. Bring yours, ideally stored in a paper bag rather than plastic. Paper allows fungi to "breathe" and keeps them fresher!
Nationally and locally renowned speakers will present talks on a wide variety of topics in the Main Lecture Room (Room 3) and the Mushrooms 101 Room (Room 1). See Program Schedule for details.
The habitat display area will present hundreds of mushroom species commonly found in the Santa Cruz/San Francisco/Monterey Bay area.
Visit the Kid's Room for mushroom activities such as clay sculpture, water colors, face painting, mushroom art and making mushroom dyed fabric. Peruse the fungus exploration area and look at spores through a microscope. Note to parents: the Kid's Room is only open on Saturday and Sunday.
Throughout the three day event, Fungus Fair attendees be able to learn more about local mushrooms, view remarkable mushroom arts and crafts, taste unusual and exceptionally good fungal fare, and be a part of the FFSC's overriding mission - "We Keep the Fun in Fungi!"
See weblink for schedules
The Apes & Us: A Century of Representations of Our Closest Relatives Opening Event - 01/12/2024 06:00 PM
Hohbach Hall, Room 122 Stanford
Please join the Silicon Valley Archives in celebrating the opening of this exhibit.
Centering upon a set of paintings by the Austrian artist and evolutionist Gabriel von Max (1840-1915), The Apes & Us explores a century of representations of primates in relation to humans. Come tour the cultural fascination with apes that began in the decades after Darwin published On the Origin of Species (1859) as it spread into art, literature, and film, science and pseudoscience, the scholarly and the sensational. Tours of the exhibit will begin promptly at 6:15
In Town Star Party - 01/12/2024 07:15 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
Come join San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) for an evening of stargazing.
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".
Register at weblink
Saturday, 01/13/2024
Morning Hike at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve - 01/13/2024 09:00 AM
Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve Los Altos
Join POST for this guided hike at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve! A POST Representative will share a few words about POST's decades of conservation success before hiking groups leave to explore a moderate to strenuous 4.5 mile hike with 800 feet of elevation gain.
Register at weblink
50th Anniversary Santa Cruz Fungus Fair - 01/13/2024 10:00 AM
London Nelson Community Center Santa Cruz
Come to Santa Cruz and explore the facinating world of Fungi. Learn interesting and fun facts about the hundreds of beautiful and fascinating species of mushrooms found in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Area. Fungi will be beautifully displayed in a re-created woodland habitat. This unique Santa Cruz tradition features three days of fantastic fun, informative speakers and demonstrations, with fungal activities for the whole family.
FFSC mushroom experts will be available throughout the fair to identify the mushrooms you've found. Bring yours, ideally stored in a paper bag rather than plastic. Paper allows fungi to "breathe" and keeps them fresher!
Nationally and locally renowned speakers will present talks on a wide variety of topics in the Main Lecture Room (Room 3) and the Mushrooms 101 Room (Room 1). See Program Schedule for details.
The habitat display area will present hundreds of mushroom species commonly found in the Santa Cruz/San Francisco/Monterey Bay area.
Visit the Kid's Room for mushroom activities such as clay sculpture, water colors, face painting, mushroom art and making mushroom dyed fabric. Peruse the fungus exploration area and look at spores through a microscope. Note to parents: the Kid's Room is only open on Saturday and Sunday.
Throughout the three day event, Fungus Fair attendees be able to learn more about local mushrooms, view remarkable mushroom arts and crafts, taste unusual and exceptionally good fungal fare, and be a part of the FFSC's overriding mission - "We Keep the Fun in Fungi!"
See weblink for schedules
Family Nature Adventures: Weather - 01/13/2024 10:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Join us every 2nd Saturday for Nature Adventures where we'll take a deep look into a different aspect of the surrounding redwood forest. Your adventure includes a hands-on workshop, access to scientific tools and instruments, a simple snack, and a short exploration work in the forest. We'll explore themes like forest animals, insects, and trees to name a few. Ticket does not include general admission.
Theme: Wonders of Weather
Learn how to measure and predict the weather using scientific instruments in a hands-on workshop. Then, put your skills to the test with a short walk in the forest.
Saturday Cinema: The Art + Science of Luminous Animations - 01/13/2024 01:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Celebrate the Exploratorium's winter exhibition Glow: Discover the Art of Light with radiant animations, both meditative and kinetic. Five short films capture the holiday spirit, the translucent elements of nature, the radiance of winter's starry skies and ancestral stories, and the science of salt crystals shaped like jeweled snowflakes.These films shine light on the creative and diverse ways that individuals draw gleaming inspiration from nature, chemistry, manufactured materials, and mathematical forms.Running time: 30 minutes
Wâhkôhtowin (All My Relations) by Barry Bilinsky (2022, 6 min.)The filmmaker, of Cree Metis and Ukrainian descent, explores the power of stories as they are shaped over many nights and many years, through all languages across the world. This beautifully animated story unfolds in an intimate tipi setting between a grandmother and her children's children on a clear winter night. Through an Indigenous worldview we learn of our relation to the stars and the spirit world and of our connection to our ancestors. Co-presented with the American Indian Film Institute.
The Arctic by Wenting Zhu (2018, 3 min.)This film captures crystallization, revealing radiant growth patterns of different salts. It serves as a reminder of the "stunning beauty of the ice worlds." Produced by Yan Liang, founder of Beauty of Science. Co-presented with Beauty of Science.
White Out by Jeffrey Scher (2007, 3 min.)More than two thousand individual watercolor paintings animate a celebratory world of winter play. Colorful images shimmer against the brightness of snow while capturing the frivolity of humans slipping and sliding in frosty cold. Jeffrey Scher is an Emmy Award winning animator who has made music videos for Bob Dylan, Graham Nash, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, and others.
Attraction by Emily Scaife (2017, 4 min.)Take a peek into an alluring world of insect and plant life animated in a field of translucent colors, giving view to the dust and desires of an alternative tiny universe. Painting directly on film, the artist conjures an imagined landscape that shimmers with pulsating, lustrous forms such as erupting fungal fantasies and bursting botanicals.
Let Your Light Shine by Jodie Mack (2014, 4 min.)In this exuberant handmade animation, optical polyrhythms and a thousand rainbows explode off the screen. The artist Jodie Mack's playful nature is captured in this prismatic celluloid experience.
Screenings at 1:00 and 3:00
Sunday, 01/14/2024
50th Anniversary Santa Cruz Fungus Fair - 01/14/2024 10:00 AM
London Nelson Community Center Santa Cruz
Come to Santa Cruz and explore the facinating world of Fungi. Learn interesting and fun facts about the hundreds of beautiful and fascinating species of mushrooms found in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Area. Fungi will be beautifully displayed in a re-created woodland habitat. This unique Santa Cruz tradition features three days of fantastic fun, informative speakers and demonstrations, with fungal activities for the whole family.
FFSC mushroom experts will be available throughout the fair to identify the mushrooms you've found. Bring yours, ideally stored in a paper bag rather than plastic. Paper allows fungi to "breathe" and keeps them fresher!
Nationally and locally renowned speakers will present talks on a wide variety of topics in the Main Lecture Room (Room 3) and the Mushrooms 101 Room (Room 1). See Program Schedule for details.
The habitat display area will present hundreds of mushroom species commonly found in the Santa Cruz/San Francisco/Monterey Bay area.
Visit the Kid's Room for mushroom activities such as clay sculpture, water colors, face painting, mushroom art and making mushroom dyed fabric. Peruse the fungus exploration area and look at spores through a microscope. Note to parents: the Kid's Room is only open on Saturday and Sunday.
Throughout the three day event, Fungus Fair attendees be able to learn more about local mushrooms, view remarkable mushroom arts and crafts, taste unusual and exceptionally good fungal fare, and be a part of the FFSC's overriding mission - "We Keep the Fun in Fungi!"
See weblink for schedules
King Tides Walk - 01/14/2024 12:00 PM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
Join the EV in a fun, interactive learning experience which will teach you about what King Tides are and why they are exciting! The event will include a brief hands-on science talk about the tides, and then a gentle walk through the Baylands. Be prepared for some wet trails!
Participation is free, but space is limited; please register through our EventBrite site (and sign up on the waitlist if tickets are full! We'll open more up soon).
Monday, 01/15/2024
Tomales Bay winter shorebird count - 01/15/2024 11:00 AM
Tomales Bay
Audubon Canyon Ranch will once again be conducting our regular series of six winter shorebird counts on Tomales Bay and we encourage experienced birders to join us.
Since 1989, we have monitored seasonal populations of shorebirds on Tomales Bay with the help of volunteer field observers. Three bay-wide counts are completed within each early-winter and late-winter census period; an additional bay-wide count is conducted each August and April to record peak numbers of fall and spring migrants. Data from the first count of the season (November 20) will be contributed to the Pacific Flyway Shorebird Survey.
Each count requires 60 to 90 minutes to complete; volunteers often allow for some extra time to get settled before the count begins. Volunteers should be able to identify shorebirds.
Exact location will be provided when you sign up.
Tuesday, 01/16/2024
Fractionalization and emergent gauge symmetries in quantum condensed matter - 01/16/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Whole Earth Seminar - 01/16/2024 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Astronomy on Tap Tucson #94: Pulsars and Poetry - Livestream - 01/16/2024 06:30 PM
Astronomy on Tap
Representation Learning in lower dimensions and Spectral methods in Machine Learning - Livestream - 01/16/2024 07:00 PM
IEEE Computer Society of Silicon Valley
Eating Down the Food Chain: Let Them Eat Algae - 01/16/2024 07:00 PM
Hopkins Marine Station Pacific Grove
A Rose Is a Rose by Any Other Name, or Is It? - 01/16/2024 07:00 PM
Mycological Society of San Francisco San Francisco
Secrets of Award Winning Astrophotography - Livestream - 01/16/2024 07:30 PM
San Jose Astronomical Society
Wednesday, 01/17/2024
Billionth of a billionth to billions of billions - measurements at (and beyond) the quantum mechanical limits - Livestream - 01/17/2024 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Muscle Stem Cells Get a New Look: Dynamic Cellular Projections as Sensors of the Stem Cell Niche - 01/17/2024 12:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Environmental and Energy Economics Seminar - 01/17/2024 12:10 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Thursday, 01/18/2024
Easy Walk at Wavecrest - 01/18/2024 10:00 AM
Wavecrest Open Space Preserve Half Moon Bay
Unraveling Sleep in Aging - 01/18/2024 01:00 PM
San Francisco Towers San Francisco
Electric Grid Cybersecurity - 01/18/2024 01:30 PM
Environment & Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
Pathways Versus Incentives: Climate Activism to Climate Outcomes - Livestream - 01/18/2024 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy
After Dark: See for Yourself - 01/18/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
For the Love of Sparrows - 01/18/2024 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Bird Alliance San Francisco
Peninsula Gem & Geology Society - 01/18/2024 07:00 PM
Redwood City Community Activities Building Redwood City
Friday, 01/19/2024
King Tide Bair Island Walking Tour - 01/19/2024 10:00 AM
Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail Redwood City
How does sleep fix broken brains? - 01/19/2024 12:00 PM
ChEM-H/Neuroscience Building, James Lin and Nisa Leung Seminar Room (E153) Stanford
Open Questions in the Structure and Composition of Gas Giants: From Jupiter to Hot Jupiters - 01/19/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Using Physics as a Microscope to Dissect Transcriptional Dynamics in Development - 01/19/2024 02:00 PM
Etcheverry Hall Berkeley
Trustworthy autonomous Vehicles at a Large Scale, Safety, Generalization, and Social Good - 01/19/2024 03:00 PM
O'Brien Hall Berkeley
Saturday, 01/20/2024
Morning Hike at Rancho Cañada del Oro - 01/20/2024 09:30 AM
Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
The Physics Show (three performances) - 01/20/2024 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
Fungus Among Us at Sanborn - 01/20/2024 10:30 AM
Sanborn Science and Nature Center Saratoga
Saturday Cinema: The Art + Science of Luminous Animations - 01/20/2024 01:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
TEDx Berkeley: Butterfly Effect - 01/20/2024 03:00 PM
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Berkeley
City Public Star Party - 01/20/2024 05:20 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Sunday, 01/21/2024
The Physics Show (three performances) - 01/21/2024 10:00 AM
Foothill College Los Altos Hills
Living with Lions in the North Bay - 01/21/2024 11:00 AM
Stafford Lake Park Novato
What is ChatGPT? - 01/21/2024 02:00 PM
Castro Valley Library Castro Valley
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