Dear friend of science and reality,
Thank you for putting up with my bent on reality. Today i'm starting out on the topic of ‘Space’ since the above photo is so amazing, but don’t miss the section on ‘Optimism’.
SPACE
The Hubble Space Telescope set a new record for the most distant star ever seen - with the assistance of gravitational lensing. With the same name as a J.R.R. Tolkien character, the star Earendel appears as a tiny dull red smudge due to its distance and the Hubble–Lemaître law. 1
Jimmy C. won a JWST mirror pin. This time the prize is a challenging paper model kit of the Hubble Space Telescope. Just send an email (only one) to david.almandsmith@gmail.com before noon Friday with an integer between zero and 1,000. We will then use a random number generator to select the target number. The person who chose the closest number wins.
The mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope are currently in Stage 6 of seven alignment tasks. Here is a video that deep-dives in JWST optics, etc. And here is a fun video showing some of the engineering that went into JWST’s sunshield. (Warning: It’s 53 minutes long!) The shield is certainly doing its job: the temperature differential between its two sides is 284 °C (512 °F).
This video brings us up to date on the Mars pair: Perseverance and Ingenuity, with recent discoveries suggesting ancient life.
Last Tuesday, three ISS crew members - Pyotr Dubrov, Anton Shkaplerov, and Mark Vande Hei - were greeted by Russian Roscosmos space agency workers when they returned to Earth. Friendly camaraderie was shown for the American Vande Hei by all of the Russians present. However, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, warned of the possibility of ending cooperation with the ISS.
Two of the problems encountered by ISS astronauts & cosmonauts are loss of bone density and loss of muscle mass. For these reasons, NASA is experimenting with Space Lettuce and squirrels.
¿Want to tip and twirl the Earth like the god Atlas? How about the entire solar system?
¿And just how are we going to chat with aliens?
OPTIMISM
There are so many current events that push me toward pessimism. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; political divisiveness in the U.S.; vigorousness of conspiracy theories; COVID-19 pandemic; ascension of autocratic governments; et cetera ad nauseum. But when i realize how much progress has been made in the last century, it gives me hope for the future.
During the 1950’s Korean War, every installation, facility, and village in North Korea became “a military and tactical target” of the U.S. Air Force resulting in half a million civilian deaths by American bombs and napalm. 2 Today, U.S. military attacks on citizens are anathema.
“In 1958, 44 percent of [U.S.] whites said they would move if a black family became their next door neighbor; today the figure is 1 percent.” 3
In 1937 in the U.S., 283 out of 100,000 people died from infectious diseases. In 2014 it was down to 46 per 100,000. 4 Last year, however, 135 out of 100,00 people in the U.S. died of COVID-19. 5 That brought annual deaths from infectious diseases up to approximately 180 out of 100,000 people - significantly less than the rate in 1937.
Globally in the 1930s, 55 people out of 100,00 died annually of famine. 6 Currently, the figure is a tenth of that.
In the early 1980s, Los Angeles had an average of 144 days of “Very Unhealthy or Hazardous Air” per year. 7 For the previous five years, Los Angeles had an average of 6 days of “Very Unhealthy or Hazardous Air” per year. (I failed to find comparable data for the Bay Area.)
We’ve made a lot of progress, but we still have a lot of work to do before we reach our potential as a wise, compassionate species. BTW, i just pledged a small monthly amount to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Ukraine program.
BIOLOGY
It was just another Smithsonian article, but it started with: “Patricia Brennan never intended to become a champion of the vagina. Her journey, in fact, began with a penis.” ¿So how could i not read It?
Some of those artificial sweeteners are sweeter than others, and some are more deadly. Now along comes allulose, another sweetener that is probably safe, but you may have to put up with farts and diarrhea. Maybe we should just stick with sugar - except for its dangers. You could try giving up sugar altogether - sort of.
¿Even feel the urge to hold and pet a Tasmanian Devil?
A couple of months ago a surgeon did a little laparoscopic surgery on me while i was under anesthesia. Thoroughly fascinating how time ceased to register. Even while sleeping, we have some sense of the passage of time.
There are tetrapods 8 with four limbs except for animals like snakes 9 and caecilians 10 who have vestigial limbs or who have lost their limbs altogether. Now along comes a fossil of an animal that uniquely lost only its forelimbs while maintaining a functional pair of rear legs.
Grinnell recently bit the dust but a suitor quickly joined Annie and her two eggs. Hopefully their efforts will succeed in fledging another generation.
PICKS OF THE WEEK
The Search for Living Worlds Beyond the Solar System - 7:30pm Monday, Cal Academy of Sciences, S.F., $
From Bioluminescence to Invasions: The Fascinating World of Phytoplankton - Livestream - 3:40pm Wednesday
After Dark: See for Yourself - 6-10pm Thursday, explOratorium, S.F., $
Urban Hikes: San Bruno Mountain - Noon Saturday
TECHNOLOGY
I was thoroughly absorbed by the issues raised by the movie, Ex Machina, and i’m a sucker for videos of robots. (Years ago i built a self-charging robotic featureless sphere.) I hope you enjoy this video on humanoid robots. There is a huge chasm to cross, however, before robots can become truly human-like.
To utilize the power that will someday come from nuclear fusion, we need something - like water - to carry heat to electricity-generating turbines. ¿But throwing cold water on the whole concept?
It’s a trope that scientists like to blow things up. Here’s a video showing some of the science behind blowing things down.
Given the right background, this invisibility shield does an amazing job. And you can make your own.
CLIMATE
According to a 2018 analysis, taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions hurts the economy. More recent analyses affirm the opposite: these efforts actually benefit the economy. Once again - with vigor - U.N. Secretary General António Guterres emphasized the urgency of reducing greenhouse gasses. The more i hear from Señor Guterres, the more i appreciate him.
On the bayfront in Richmond is a brand new residential development called “Waterline Homes.” I kid you not. Those homes might be safe from flooding for the next 80 years, but probably not much longer. ((Paradoxically, the houses next to Waterline Homes are immune to sea level rise because they are perched over bay water on pillars. As the bay rises, the owners simply lengthen the pillars.)) Already, U.S. communities from Alaska to Florida are being relocated due to rising sea levels. But where to move to?
Have a damn good week - full of joy and learning,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“Fear is useful to wake us up and make us pay attention. But if we don’t know what to do, it paralyzes us.”
- Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist (1972 - )
FOOTNOTES
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/
https://ourworldindata.org/famines#long-term-trends-in-global-famine-mortality
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 04/04/2022
The Physiological Impacts of Changing Snow Cover on a Montane Leaf Beetle - Livestream - 04/04/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Speakers: Kevin Roberts, Stockholm University
See link for Zoom information
A tale of two intercalated TMDs - Livestream - 04/04/2022 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Antiferromagnetic spintronics holds the potential to enable faster computing with lower energy requirements, although two major hurdles are the difficulty of manipulating and reading out details of antiferromagnetic order. FexNbS2 is an ising-like antiferromagnet for which these hurdles have been overcome. Its sister compound, CoxNbS2, is similar to FexNbS2 in many ways, including its spintronic capabilities - but it is an easy-plane rather than easy-axis antiferromagnet, and, due to the dominance of RKKY in this class of materials, has different sets of exchange constants as well. As we continue to explore the landscape of intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides for their next-generation technological capabilities, these two materials stand out for their similarities and their differences. What can we learn from the properties and behaviors that remain the same when some of the microscopic interactions driving them have changed? This talk will discuss recent discoveries regarding these two materials, coming from both an applications-oriented and a materials science-oriented perspective.
Speaker: Shannon Haley, UC Berkeley
Attend in person or online. See weblink for Zoom information.
Coexisting phases in triangular antiferromagnet- Livestream - 04/04/2022 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Frustrated systems have energetic landscapes with many local minima and nearly degenerate states.This makes them ideal for exploring the competition and interactions between phases and their excitations at finite temperature. In iron-intercalated niobium disulfide, an antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice, two symmetry-breaking ordered ground states coexist in complicated ways, and give rise to low-power spintronic possibilities. This talk will discuss the evolution of these states in magnetic fields up to 60T, with the introduction of disorder, under applied strain, and upon current-based perturbations.
Speaker: Shannon Haley, UC Berkeley
Attend in person or livestream by using link in weblink
Electric field control of thermal magnons in BiFeO3 - Livestream - 04/04/2022 03:00 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Spin transport through magnetic insulators has been demonstrated in a variety of materials and is an emerging pathway for next-generation spin-based computing. To modulate spin transport in these systems, one typically applies a sufficiently strong magnetic field to allow for deterministic control of magnetic order. Here, we make use of the well-known multiferroic magnetoelectric, BiFeO3, to demonstrate non-volatile, hysteretic, electric-field control of thermally excited magnon current in the absence of an applied magnetic field. These findings are an important step toward magnon-based devices, where electric-field-only control is highly desirable.
Speaker: Eric Parsonnet, UC Berkeley
See weblink for Zoom information, or attend in person
Making a $10B Investment Deliver - Livestream - 04/04/2022 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
The launch and deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope went flawlessly. The telescope and instruments began cooling as soon as the sun shield was deployed, and once the temperature of the short wavelength detectors in NIRCam dropped below 120 K, the telescope alignment process began. This process will result in the instruments receiving diffraction-limited imagery from the telescope. In addition to commissioning the telescope, all four instruments will also be checked and performance measured to ensure that science observations can proceed smoothly later this year.
Speaker: Marcia Rieke, University of Arizona
What Physicists Do - Livestream - 04/04/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Speaker: Valton Smith
See weblink for Zoom link
Stanford Energy Seminar: Building to city-scale experiments with Stanford's campus - Livestream - 04/04/2022 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
Equivalent to a small city of 30,000, the Stanford campus is an ideal environment for testing new research ideas and concepts. This talk will discuss results from recent "Living Lab" experiments with building Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems on the Stanford campus in the context of the COOLER Research Program. COOLER's goal is to make large, modern buildings more energy-efficient, flexible, low carbon, and resilient using data, optimization, and control. More broadly, this talk will discuss research and experiments with enhanced operations for electrified, low-carbon, and integrated urban energy systems. For the past 5+ years, our team has been working on these topics in direct partnership with Stanford Land, Buildings, and Real Estate, the organization responsible for managing the campus's energy operations.
Speaker: Jacques de Chalendar is a Visiting Scholar in the Energy Resources Engineering department at Stanford University.
See weblink for Zoom information
In this talk I will discuss ongoing work in my group exploring matter made of light. I will begin with a broad introduction to the challenges associated with making matter from photons focusing specifically on (1) how to trap photons and imbue them with synthetic mass and charge (2) how to induce photons to collide with one another and (3) how to drive photons to order by cooling or otherwise. I will then provide as examples two state-of-the-art photonic quantum matter platforms: microwave photons coupled to superconducting resonators and transmon qubits and optical photons trapped in multimode optical cavities and made to interact through Rydberg-dressing. In each case I will describe a synthetic material created in that platform: a crystals and fluids of microwave photons created by reservoir engineering and adiabatic tuning, and a Laughlin molecule of optical photons prepared by scattering photons through a topological cavity.
Speaker: Jon Simon, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom information
The Search for Living Worlds Beyond the Solar System - 04/04/2022 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
One of the grandest and most enduring questions in human history has been whether we are alone in the Universe. While previous generations could only speculate about the possibility of life around other stars, in the coming decades NASA will develop and deploy the telescopes required to begin exploring the environments of distant worlds. But getting these challenging observations alone is not enough - we also need an improved understanding of what we should be looking for, and how we might interpret what we observe. In this talk Dr. Meadows will highlight work being done by her NASA Virtual Planetary Laboratory team to guide this search - including understanding the factors that lead to a planet being able to support life, and how we might recognize and assess signs of alien life on a distant world. She will also provide an overview of current and upcoming NASA space telescopes, and discuss their potential for exploring living worlds beyond our Solar System.
Speaker: Victoria Meadows, University of Washington
Tuesday, 04/05/2022
The Joy of Science - Livestream - 04/05/2022 11:00 AM
The Royal Institution
Today's world is unpredictable and full of contradictions. Navigating its complexities while trying to make the best decisions is far from easy.
Join award winning broadcaster and Ri favourite Jim Al-Khalili as he explores 8 short lessons on how to unlock the clarity, empowerment, and joy of thinking and living a little more scientifically.
In this talk, discover how engaging with the world as scientists have been trained to do can empower you to think more objectively, see through the fog of your own pre-existing beliefs, and lead a more fulfilling life.
An audit is a tool used to verify compliance with regulations and controls. This requires in-depth analysis to understand the functioning of the object of the audit. If the object of the audit is an artificial intelligence-based system, understanding how the system came up with its results may be a challenge: the AI may be very complex, or its operation may be based on training, which it carries out through an iterative process that we may not be able to observe. How then do we know whether the AI is treating us fairly and that its assessments are sound and objective? The European Commission has issued a proposal for an Artificial Intelligence Act to the European Parliament and Council. This Proposal comprises several requirements specifically for AI-based software that would be used in legislative areas considered to be "high risk," as they could "create adverse impact on people's safety or their fundamental rights." How can compliance with these requirements be verified, and can that be done ex-post, or is an ex-ante audit necessary?
Speaker: Anni Hellman, EU Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content, and Technology
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Switching on the Stars at the Dawn of Time - Livestream - 04/05/2022 07:00 PM
KIPAC Public Lectures
In understanding how the Universe began and grew up, we find ourselves in the dark ages, both literally and figuratively. Empty of life and structure, space suddenly illuminated with the light of the first stars, as they roared to life 200 million years after the Big Bang. This time represents the start of the diverse and crowded cosmos we experience today€¦ but there is a missing billion years in our understanding. What did these first stars look like? How are they different from our Sun, and are they now an extinct species? Dr. Emma Chapman has taken on the challenge of exploring the Era of the First Stars using radio telescopes and stellar archaeology. In this lecture, she will tell the story of these first, lonely, and gigantic stars. We will together find out how first stars enabled the creation of galaxies, planets, and even us.
Speaker: Emma Chapman, University of Nottingham
Register at weblink to receive connection information. This event may also become a hybrid, in-person event.
Wednesday, 04/06/2022
Developing New Tools to Unlock Mysteries of the Twilight Zone - Livestream - 04/06/2022 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Midwater ecosystems are the most substantial on Earth, containing swimming fishes, crustaceans, cephalopods, and gelatinous organisms. These animals live in perpetual twilight and inhabit an important position within oceanic food webs, forming dense vertically migrating groups. These daily migrations are critical to the ocean's ability to absorb atmospheric carbon. Techniques for collecting data from these ecosystems are typically manned submersibles, ship-based profiling platforms, and remotely operated vehicles. The high-cost of these sampling methods often limits how often they can be employed. Eric Berkenpas is an engineer and the co-founder of Second Star Robotics a company developing technologies to radically reduce the cost of mid-water sensing and exploration. Learn about the tools being developed to unlock the mysteries of the ocean's twilight zone and some of the discoveries that have been made along the way.
Speaker: Eric Berkenpas, Second Star Robotics
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Historical role of fire and land management in the Klamath Mountains, California - Livestream - 04/06/2022 12:10 PM
Archaeology Research Facility Berkeley
In this talk, Dr. Clarke Knight, USGS, will discuss her most recent paper from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Knight, along with co-authors from the Karuk and Yurok Tribes, found strong Indigenous influence on forest conditions in the Klamath Mountains over the last millennium. As restoration ecologists debate management actions for California forests, this research suggests a large-scale intervention would be needed to return to historic forest biomass levels.
Register at weblink to attend virtually, or attend in person
Room 101
Ask the Scientist - Brenda Soler - 04/06/2022 02:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?
If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with our weekly Seminar speakers.
Parents must give permission for children under 18 to participate.
Brenda Mara Soler Figueroa completed a Bachelor's degree in Coastal Marine Biology at the University of Puerto Rico, Humacao, and a Master's and Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography at the Mayaguez campus. During her graduate studies, she researched the population dynamics of dinoflagellates in the bioluminescent systems in Puerto Rico and their responses to environmental changes. Brenda now works in the Marine Invasions Lab at SERC, studying the plankton assemblages associated with the ballast water. She is one of the co-chairs for the Marine Invasions Lab IDEA Inaugural committee and an executive committee member of the SERC Women in Science group.
From Bioluminescence to Invasions: The Fascinating World of Phytoplankton - Livestream - 04/06/2022 03:40 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Phytoplankton organisms are fascinating and can be considered a benefit or a nuisance for the economy. In this seminar, I will present my research at Baha Fosforescente, where dense populations of bioluminescent phytoplankton (i.e., Pyrodinium bahamense) have made this ecosystem an important tourist attraction in Puerto Rico. However, fluctuations with non-bioluminescent dinoflagellates (i.e., Ceratium furca) have been reported. Using a high spatiotemporal resolution, I evaluated how the abundance of these species and the bioluminescence varies over monthly periods within the Caribbean dry and wet season. I found seasonal variability in the dinoflagellate composition and bioluminescence potential associated with environmental variables strongly modulated by precipitation. Thousands of potentially invasive and harmful phytoplankton are transported daily in ballast water. The U.S. Coast Guard has implemented regulations to reduce their introduction. I will also discuss how the abundance and size distribution of phytoplankton in major ports worldwide relates to current ballast water regulations.
Speaker: Brenda Soler, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
See weblink for Zoom registration
Isotope Tools to Reconstruct the Life History of Native Fish - Livestream - 04/06/2022 04:00 PM
UC Santa Cruz
Speaker: Miranda Bell Tilcock, UC Davis
See weblink for Zoom information
Grounds for Science - 04/06/2022 05:30 PM
MudLab Oakland
Grounds for Science, our public program featuring Cal STEM graduate students, is back live & in-person! Join us as we launch our collaboration with MudLab, a cafe and store with a mission: to envision and build a world beyond waste.
Speaker: Jessica Heiges, UC Berkeley
Multigenerational disease research has shown links between some non-communicable diseases, their environmental origin, and lifestyle decisions our ancestors made. Defining those links will provide us with a better understanding of how our life choices can help preserve the health of our descendants. Raquel Chamorro-Garcia, assistant professor of microbiology and environmental toxicology, will talk about her research on how environmental pollutants can, through non-genetic mechanisms of action, lead to multigenerational metabolic disease.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Thursday, 04/07/2022
'Becoming Universal: A New History of Modern Computing' - 04/07/2022 12:15 PM
Humanities 1 Santa Cruz
Join us for a talk about Becoming Universal: A New History of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 2022) by Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi. Professor Haigh will introduce the book and discuss the challenges involved in creating a comprehensive, synthetic narrative about the history of computing between 1945 to 2020. For more information about Becoming Universal (MIT Press, 2021), visit https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing.
Computational Tools for Sustainable (Urban) Energy Systems - Livestream - 04/07/2022 01:30 PM
Stanford Energy
Jacques de Chalendar will discuss computational tools used for (1) tracking emissions in the US electricity system and (2) experimenting with buildings on the Stanford campus in the context of the COOLER Research Program. COOLER's goal is to make large, modern buildings more energy-efficient, flexible, low carbon, and resilient using data, optimization, and control.
Speaker: Jacques de Chalendar, Stanford University
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Wireless Broadband Growth Requires New Frequency Control Technologies - Livestream - 04/07/2022 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Engineering Colloquium
Demand for internet data capacity has been growing exponentially for more than 30 years and shows no sign of slackening. In the last 20 years, wireless bandwidth demand has tracked with wireline demand resulting, even with advanced modulation schemes like OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing), in increasing congestion of the airwaves. Inevitably, higher frequency spectrum is required to satisfy the growing demand, but existing frequency control technologies (oscillators and filters) have exhausted their ability to deliver.
Existing frequency control technology performance degrades to critical levels as frequencies rise above 2 GHz. As the frequency increases their performance (Qfactor) decreases, leading to decreased spectral efficiency with noise and interference problems. An interim solution has been fixed frequency technologies but these have led to channelization which exacerbates the congestion problem. And even these fixed frequency technologies are running out of performance as frequencies climb.
The time is ripe for a new technology to overcome the inherent limitations of existing frequency control technologies and open more of the RF spectrum to consumer use. New developments in ferrimagnetic resonator technology utilizing YIG (yttrium iron garnet) materials, including new YIG Nano-film technology, can lead to new opportunities for high bandwidth RF-based products and services.
Speaker: William Linstrom, Vida Products
See weblink for Zoom information
Not All Killers Are Bad: How Natural Killer Cells Protect You from Cancer - 04/07/2022 04:00 PM
International House Berkeley
David Raulet's research addresses how the immune system recognizes and responds to cancer cells and virus-infected cells. While his early work focused on T lymphocytes, current research emphasizes another immune cell, the natural killer cell. Related to T cells, natural killer cells employ completely different strategies to attack cancerous and infected cells. Raulet has uncovered keys to their capacity for recognizing and destroying many types of cancer cells. Nonetheless, natural killer cells often fail to become activated, or get rendered inactive, in patients with cancer. Raulet's recent work aims to understand the mechanism behind cell activation and devise therapeutic approaches that mobilize natural killer cells to eliminate cancers. Recognized with many awards for his scientific contributions, Raulet was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists.
The Formational Background of Silicon Valley - Livestream - 04/07/2022 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Engineering Colloquium
The San Francisco Peninsula spawned the technology-centric marvel known today as "Silicon Valley". The early history of amateur radio on the Peninsula played a crucial role in preparing for the emergence of "Silicon Valley". In the 1930's entrepreneurial efforts of amateur radio enthusiasts drove the development of high power vacuum tubes - much of this work revolved around Stanford University. The microwave klystron resulted from this collaboration and was of major importance to World War II radar. Dr. Frederick Terman (known as the "Father of Silicon Valley") encouraged amateur these radio activities and during WW II led the Radio Research Laboratory (RRL) at Harvard (staffed by engineers, many with amateur radio backgrounds). In the 1950s and 1960s the development of the silicon semiconductor industry became the driving force behind electronics in the Bay Area (and why it is called "Silicon Valley" today). Fairchild Semiconductor became the most important company in "Silicon Valley" during the 1960s and 1970s. Microprocessors and memory chips lead to the personal computer and the widespread use of the Internet. This talk will explore how these events lead to the high tech revolution that envelopes all of us.
Speaker: Don Estreich, Sonoma State University
See weblink for Zoom information
Revolutionary 3-D Views of Viral RNA Using Cryogenic Electron Microscopy - Livestream - 04/07/2022 05:00 PM
SLAC Public Lecture
SARS-Cov-2 and other RNA viruses are formidable natural foes of humanity. To fight them, we must understand them better, especially their main component, RNA. Although we can sequence viral RNAs to learn their chemical structure, many details of their function depend on their 3-D shape and how this shape helps them fit into a cell's molecular engines. These structural details were difficult to obtain by traditional methods, but we are now making them visible through a rapidly improving technique called cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Cryo-EM has now solved the structure of many RNAs, including important regions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus's RNA. In this lecture, I will display some of these revolutionary images of viral RNA and explain how we can use this knowledge to combat these lethal pathogens.
Speaker: Rachael Kretsch, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom link and passcode.
Nightlife - 04/07/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Calling all creatures of the night: explore the nocturnal side of the Academy at NightLife and see what's revealed. With live DJs, outdoor bars, ambiance lighting, and nearly 40,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude the albino alligator), the night is sure to be wild.
Step inside the iconic Shake House and our four-story Rainforest, where you can explore the Amazon's treetops surrounded by free-flying birds and butterflies. Reservations for these exhibits are no longer required. However, please note that the last entry into the rainforest is 7:30 pm - our animals need their sleep.
Venture into our latest aquarium exhibit Venom to encounter live venomous animals and learn the power of venom to both harm and heal.
Visit the BigPicture exhibit in the Piazza to marvel at the most recent winners of the BigPicture Natural Photography competition.
Bask in the glow of one of the largest living coral reef displays in the world: our 212,000-gallon Philippine Coral Reef tank.
Take in the interstellar views from the Living Roof, then grab a bite from the Academy Cafe and head to the West Garden outdoor bar to drink and dine under the stars. For adults 21+.
After Dark: See for Yourself - 04/07/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Spark your curiosity at After Dark! As the Sun sets, we'll hit the rainbow lights, turn the music up, and open our doors, inviting you to take your imagination out to play. Fuel up with a cocktail and prepare to roam free through six spacious outdoor and indoor spaces. Be ready to bring fresh eyes to old favorites and uncover phenomenal new experiences.
Cell Phone Miniscope 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. Crossroads
We invite you to open your eyes to the amazing world of the ultra-tiny! Be sure to grab a miniscope kit and directions - then convert your cell phone into a portable, picture-taking miniscope using a simple plastic lens from a laser pointer. Use it to see the Exploratorium at its smallest scale, then take it home to continue exploring new environments!
Roving with Perseverance 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. Bechtel Gallery 3, Wattis Studio
Take a deep dive into Perseverance's fantastic journey with these highlights from the many animations, photographs, movies, and documentation that offer insight into Persy's journey so far. From construction and pre-launch, through the images being sent back from Mars on a regular basis, this multi-screen viewing space takes you through Persy's life on Mars. An evocative soundscape by Wayne Grim and an immersive video by Rick Danielson set the mood.
Tinkering School Mars Mission Q&A 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Bechtel Gallery 3
Tinkering School (TS), a San Francisco - based educational program dedicated to youth-centered making and tinkering, created Tinkering School Mars Mission as an Earth-bound program that maintains the accuracy and challenges of real Mars rover operations. Inspired by (but not associated with) NASA's Mars missions, the TS team, composed of young people ages 14 to 20, collaborated to build an educational hands-on experience operating rovers in a simulated Martian lava tube. Join members of the team to learn more about their mission and prototypes and to test drive the newest generation of their rovers.
PubScience: The Bee's Disease: How and Why Bees Get Sick - 04/07/2022 06:30 PM
Ocean View Brew Works Albany
Nightschool - Galapagos Islands - Livestream - 04/07/2022 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Old specimens, new research: a century of stories from our Galapagos collections. More details coming soon!
See weblink for YouTube and Facebook Live links
Saturday, 04/09/2022
TEDxBerkeley 2022: Kaleidoscope - 04/09/2022 10:00 AM
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Berkeley
The kaleidoscope, a delightfully simple object, offers us a new lens to the world. Take a peek through this assortment of mirrors, shapes, and colors, and your ordinary surroundings are cast in a light that seems nothing short of extraordinary.
Shift the lens, just a bit. A whole new spectrum leaps to life as patterns project themselves in mesmerizing constellations. As everything refracts and revolves around us, we reflect on how the world is - and, more importantly, what it could become.
At TEDxBerkeley 2022, we invite you to bring novel perspectives to light and reimagine the most pressing issues of our time. How can artificial intelligence invert the way we see the world? What happens when we reimagine sustainability? From grassroots activism to equitable health and everything in between, we will explore society's greatest challenges and shape solutions through new lenses. Just as a kaleidoscope transforms simple beads and mirrors into something beautiful, we will combine each unique perspective into a mosaic of innovative thought.
A Life in Chemistry Shaped by Diseases and Medicine In Sub-Saharan Africa - 04/09/2022 11:00 AM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
Speaker: Richmond Sarpong is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley where he and his group specialize in synthetic organic chemistry. Richmond became interested in chemistry after seeing, firsthand, the effectiveness of the drug ivermectin in combating river blindness during his childhood in Ghana, West Africa. Richmond described his influences and inspirations in a TEDxBerkeley talk in 2015 (Face of Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa -
). Richmond completed his undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN and his graduate work was carried out with Prof. Martin Semmelhack at Princeton. He conducted postdoctoral studies at Caltech with Prof. Brian Stoltz.
Urban Hikes: San Bruno Mountain - 04/09/2022 12:00 PM
Shaping San Francisco
Special hike through Buckeye Canyon and dense oak forests with spectacular views, led by mountain protector David Schooley! LIMITED ATTENDANCE!
RSVP required: shaping@foundsf.org to obtain specific location information.
Monday, 04/11/2022
Being with Bears - Livestream - 04/11/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Speakers: Meghan Walla-Murphy, Santa Rosa Junior College
See link for Zoom information
Finding Solace in the Soil: The Archaeology of the Amache Gardens and Gardeners - Livestream - 04/11/2022 12:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden
During World War II, Americans of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes and placed into confinement camps throughout the western US. This presentation overviews the methods and results of six seasons of landscape archaeology at one of those sites - Amache - located in southeastern Colorado. The site contains an incredibly well-preserved record of how the people incarcerated there transformed a hostile landscape through strategy and skill. By integrating a program of historical research, community engagement, and intensive garden archaeology, the University of Denver Amache project is expanding the view of what incarceree gardens are, how they were created, and their import, both to those who made them and us today.
Speaker: Dr. Bonnie Clark, University of Denver
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Electronic correlations and topology across Tc in a magnetic Weyl semimetal - Livestream - 04/11/2022 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Co3Sn2S2 is a magnetic Weyl semimetal below its Curie temperature (Tc) of 177K. I will discuss our recent spatial and temperature-dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) studies in this system. Across Tc, we observe signatures of a topological phase transition, but also observe changes in bulk bands which are inconsistent with a simple lifting of exchange interactions, suggesting enhanced electronic correlations in the regime without long-range magnetic order. I will also discuss spatial-dependent microARPES data which quantify the characteristic differences between Sn- and S- terminated surfaces.
Speaker: Inna Vishik, UC Davis
Attend in person or online. See weblink for Zoom information.
What Physicists Do - Livestream - 04/11/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Speaker: Chance Hawkins, alluxa Optical Filters and Thin-Film Coatings
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Stanford Energy Seminar: Siva Gunda - Livestream - 04/11/2022 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
Commissioner Siva Gunda is serving his first term on the California Energy Commission.
Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Gunda in February 2021 to serve as the Energy Commission's public member. Gunda was later appointed to Vice Chair in September 2021. He is the lead commissioner on energy assessments.
Gunda served as manager of the Demand Analysis Office and deputy director for the Energy Commission's Energy Assessments Division. The division forecasts and assesses energy demands and supplies.
Before joining the Energy Commission, he served in a variety of capacities at the Energy Efficiency Institute at the University of California, Davis, including as the director of research, where he directed the institute's operations and research portfolio.
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquia - 04/11/2022 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Speaker: Raffaella Margutti, UC Berkeley
Glimmers of Hope: Paths Forward on Climate Change - Livestream - 04/11/2022 07:30 PM
Stanford University
As we approach the 52nd celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, it is an opportune time to take stock of our collective progress towards addressing human-induced global warming. Fortunately we understand better than ever the causes and consequences of recent climate change, and we are amid a world-wide dawn of renewable energy. In this talk, we summarize the most recent assessments of our global environment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. These assessments provide strong evidence and ample justification for accelerating a comprehensive transition to carbon-neutral or carbon-free power. Due to delays in starting this transition, the world may also need to weigh more drastic measures to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. The measures include geoengineering to cool the planet as well as carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere and oceans. We discuss some of the major upsides and downsides to these contingency plans, and we conclude with basic research underway at Berkeley Lab on new methods to remove carbon dioxide from the climate system.
Speaker: William Collins, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
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Wonderfest Science Envoys are early-career researchers with special communication skills and aspirations. Following short talks on provocative modern science topics, these two Science Envoys will answer questions with insight and enthusiasm:
UC Berkeley zoologist Erin Person on What's the Point? Animal Behavior and the Value of Niche Science - We share our planet with many strange and wonderful animals. As David Attenborough has taught us, their ways of life can be fascinating. But beyond satisfying our curiosity, studying animals can teach us about evolution, ecosystems, and even ourselves.Stanford statistician Ben Seiler on Understanding Machine Learning - Computers automate important decisions across our society. Unfortunately, we cannot always understand how and why complex algorithms and statistical models are making these decisions! How can we make such machine learning more transparent and interpretable?
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Tuesday, 04/12/2022
How Beavers Mitigate the Impacts of Climate Chance - Livestream - 04/12/2022 10:00 AM
Audubon Canyon Ranch
Prospects for estimating Transient Climate Response to Greenhouse Gases using the Fluctuation Dissipation Theorem - Livestream - 04/12/2022 03:30 PM
Stanford University
Mary Roach: Packing for Mars for Kids - Livestream - 04/12/2022 06:00 PM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Wednesday, 04/13/2022
Bioengineered Synthetic Hydrogels for Regenerative Medicine - Livestream - 04/13/2022 03:00 PM
Bechtel Engineering Center Sibley Auditorium Berkeley
Abalone, the remarkable history and uncertain future of California's iconic shellfish - Livestream - 04/13/2022 03:40 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
An Apollo 13 Astronaut Shares His Story - Livestream - 04/13/2022 04:00 PM
Smithsonian Magazine
Thursday, 04/14/2022
Fire and Flood: A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present - Livestream - 04/14/2022 03:00 PM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Motus - A Worldwide Collaboration to Track Bird Migration - Livestream - 04/14/2022 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
NightLife x San Francisco Conservatory of Music - 04/14/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: Trees - 04/14/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Top Tourist Sights in the Solar System - Livestream - 04/14/2022 07:00 PM
Ferguson Observatory
The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History - Livestream - 04/14/2022 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Saturday, 04/16/2022
13th Annual California Cognitive Science Conference - 04/16/2022 09:00 AM
Hearst Memorial Mining Building Berkeley
#NoToPlastic Community Clean-Ups - 04/16/2022 09:45 AM
Oakland Zoo Oakland
18th Annual Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour - Online - 04/16/2022 10:00 AM
Bringing Back the Natives
Family Nature Walks - Baylands Nature Preserve - 04/16/2022 10:00 AM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
Investigating Space: Inside the SpaceX Launch - 04/16/2022 01:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Starship Reality-Check: The Science of Deep Space Travel - 04/16/2022 07:30 PM
Cushing Memorial ('Mountain') Amphitheater Mill Valley
Sunday, 04/17/2022
18th Annual Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour - Online - 04/17/2022 10:00 AM
Bringing Back the Natives
Monday, 04/18/2022
Sonoma State University Biology Colloquium - Livestream - 04/18/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Kitaev materials and time-dependent Majorana mean-field theory - Livestream - 04/18/2022 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
How have galaxies grown over the last 10 billion years? - Livestream - 04/18/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
BUDDI-MaNGA: a statistical spectroscopic survey of galaxy bulges and discs - Livestream - 04/18/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
A Dean's Life - 04/18/2022 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Stanford Energy Seminar: Matt Svrcek - Livestream - 04/18/2022 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar