Hello again, follower of science and reason,
Over 50,000 people in the Bay Area speak Persian at home. The Persian holiday of Eid al-Ghadir is the time for being kind to people in need, making donations, and giving gifts to one another. (Sorta like Christmas) It fell on June 14th this year during the bombings.
Simply standing on a sidewalk holding a sign with hundreds of others lifted all of our spirits. I had to laugh when a smiling teenage girl rode by showing thumbs-up while her grim-faced mother driving the car gave us a thumbs-down. Returning home, we felt a collective failure: our inability to reverse cuts to research [medicine, climate, physics, chemistry, etc.] and cuts to services [food stamps, HIV/AIDS treatments, suicide prevention, special & early education, juvenile justice programs, disease tracking, etc.]. We felt dread with the erosion of due process, legal safeguards, and respect for ‘others.’ We felt deeply disappointed that many of our country’s agencies are now run by people with a dearth of expertise and with world views so different from our own. But standing on sidewalks - holding signs demonstrated to our neighbors - and to the world that we do not approve.
SPACE
Earth’s North Pole pointed maximally toward the Sun on Friday: The Summer Solstice. ¡Summer is here!
The first pictures from the amazing Vera C. Rubin Telescope will be posted online beginning Monday morning. For a link, see “Things To Do This Week” below.
Whenever there’s a solar eclipse, scientists use the occasion to study the Sun’s corona. The European Space Agency, ESA, decided to put two satellites in Earth orbit where one would ‘eclipse’ the Sun while the other took photos. Result: Eclipse on Demand.
Honda Motors, Japan, just demonstrated their reusable “Hopper” rocket. It resembles a ‘baby’ SpaceX Falcon 9. Watch it climb to 270m and gently return to the launch pad.
The Chicxulub asteroid that ended the reign of the dinosaurs could have been as much as 15km in diameter. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the size of a recently discovered comet, UN271, is estimated to be 140km in diameter with over 800 times the mass of Chicxulub. Although the huge comet is racing farther into the Solar System at 35,000 kph, it won’t come any closer than Saturn to us. Good thing.
RAFFLE
We are offering this 325ml mug displaying the structure of the caffeine molecule. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, Kevin won a metal JWST model kit. Of the 23 contestants, his guess of 901 was closest to the randomly-generated 934.
ARCHAEOLOGY
The Denisovans now have a face. Until now, the only verified Denisovan fossils were teeth, bone fragments, and a couple of jaw bones. However, a skull was dug up in the 1930s during a construction project in China and was hidden away until the family donated it to a university in 2018. DNA and protein analyses reveal the skull was that of a Denisovan.
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK – My Picks
Great week for me!
Telescope: I wear a JWST lapel pin.
Whales: I had a course in marine mammals.
Ecology: A.B. in Ecological Sciences.
Misinformation: Member of the Bay Area Skeptics.
Lizards: A memorable catch was a pair of Granite Night Lizards.
Nature Walk: Most weeks.
Jazz: Has always helped me through tough times.
Vera C. Rubin Telescope First Light Livestream Monday 8am
32 Years of Observing North Pacific Blue Whales: What Their Body Conditions Tell Us Livestream Tuesday 7pm, $
Courtrooms & Cocktails: What Ecology Can Teach You about Keeping a Moral Compass Livestream Wednesday 3pm
Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation Livestream Thursday 4pm
After Dark: Pride Month: Queer Science Thursday 6 - 10pm, ExplOratorium, S.F., $
California Lizards & Where to Find Them Friday 6pm, Pacific Grove, $
Foothills Family Nature Walk Saturday 11am, Los Altos
Music of the Spheres - The History of the Cosmos (and our understanding of it) Saturday 7:30 - 11pm, Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, $
Jazz Under the Stars Saturday 9 - 11pm, College of San Mateo
BIOLOGY / ETHOLOGY
The psychedelic drug psilocybin (shown above) is being studied for its potential use in helping people with certain mental disorders. One of the studies revealed that the drug wipes out the normal communications network between different parts of the brain, a system known as the DMN - Default Mode Network. Simultaneously, the experimental subjects report a loss of their sense of self. This has implications both for understanding brain function and for the drug’s effectiveness in assisting with some forms of mental disorders, such as depression.
This meter-long squid had never before been seen alive before Schmidt Ocean Institute scientists sent an ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) down 2,100m below the surface in Antarctic waters.
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
3D Tour around Constellation Taurus - Space Telescope Science Inst. - 1.5 mins
A Dinosaur’s Last Meal - Curtin University, Australia - 2 mins
Airdropping Dead Mice - Cup O’ Joe - Joe Schwarcz - 3 mins
Monkton Amphibian Crossing - Vermont Transportation - Chris Slesar - 4.5 mins
4 Starlink Satellites Fall Each Day, Creating Problems - Sabine Hossenfelder - 6 mins
The Northern Hairy Wood Ant - U.K. National Trust - 7 mins
¿Is Our Universe inside a Black Hole? - Star Talk - Neil deGrasse Tyson - 7.5 mins
Nobel Prize for Incorrect Results - Dr. Becky - Becky Smethurst - 8.5 mins
Dragon Man Skull is Denisovan - History with Kayleigh - Kayleigh During - 11 mins
Platypuses Aren’t Weird, We Are - SciShow - Stefan Chin - 14 mins
Nudibranchs - Real Science - 19 mins
Neptunium - Tales from the Periodic Table - Ron Hipschmann - 35 mins
Seeking to Understand Whales - PBS NOVA - David Attenborough - 50 mins
Chin up and have a good week,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery."
— From “Parable of the Talents” by Octavia Butler (1947 - 2006) American author
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 06/23/2025
Every Day, Computers are Making People Easier to Use - 06/23/2025 10:00 AM
UC Berkeley Extension Berkeley
Summer Shorts are one-time events open to OLLI @Berkeley members and non-members. Each Short features acclaimed speakers discussing issues impacting the state of our country, Constitution, and shared humanity.
David Temkin is the editor-in-chief of In Formation, a magazine focused on what tech is doing to us. He’s been a software engineer at Apple, a privacy leader at Google, and has co-founded three tech startups. Originally launched during the dot-com era, In Formation has always and solely been about serious and satirical critiques of tech culture. The magazine is being relaunched in 2025.
Contributing editor Paulina Borsook has been immersed in Silicon Valley culture since the mid-1980s. She is best known for her essay “How the Internet ruined San Francisco” and for her book Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech.
Doors open at 9:30
See weblink for additional details
Tuesday, 06/24/2025
The Biology of Behavior: The Science of Desire and Faith - 06/24/2025 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
The prevailing scientific view of the fundamental nature of homosexuality has undergone a significant evolution in the last several decades. Where once the scientific and medical establishment maintained an unqualified belief that homosexuality was a form of psychological deviance, today a solid majority of psychiatrists and psychologists themselves believe that biological factors (genes, brain, prenatal chemistry) also play an important role.
Dr Dean Hamer’s research for the first time examined at a molecular level how our sexual identities are rooted in our biology. He has gone on to study the role that biology plays in our faith. In his works and books, Dr. Hamer reveals that inclination toward religious faith is in part due to our genes and may even offer an evolutionary advantage by reducing stress, preventing disease, and extending life. We will discuss these and other works that bring in the role of culture, such as transgender identities in Polynesia.
Dean Hamer is an American geneticist, author, and filmmaker and the among the first scientists to demonstrate a linkage between genes and sexual orientation.
Speaker: Dean Hamer, Geneticist, Author, Filmmaker; Kalidip, Commonwealth Club of CA
Member discounts up to 50%
An Evening with Jennifer Pahlka - 06/24/2025 06:00 PM
Manny's San Francisco
Abundance is a reform movement to build a better government. Jen Pahlka is one of its leading lights. Drawing from her experience as founder of Code for America and co-founder of the United States Digital Service and her current work with agencies and Congress as a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center in DC, where she now lives, Jen will share what she's learned about institutional dysfunction and how a reform movement at the local, state, and federal level can help modernize our government for the 21st century.
Her book - Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better - will be available for purchase.
Wonderfest: Heartstrings and Brainwaves: Decoding the Science of Love - 06/24/2025 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Love may not “make the world go ’round,” but it surely makes the ride more joyous. The outward displays of love are familiar and simple: a reassuring touch, a passionate kiss, a bedtime story told to a drowsy child. But what is going on inside the brains of people in a loving relationship? Surprisingly, neuroscience can now inform us about the bonds of affection, and how, over each lifetime, love acts to sustain our body and even prolong our life.
Wonderfest’s speaker is psychologist Thomas B. Lewis, M.D, Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco and Asst. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF. Dr. Lewis is co-author of A General Theory of Love.
32 Years of Observing North Pacific Blue Whales - what their body conditions tell us - livestream - 06/24/2025 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
We turn our attention to the leviathans of our seas, of our planet, the blue whale. In this talk, marine mammal biologist and recipient of our chapter's recent research grant, Jessie Meyer, will share his study results. As a measure of health, body condition has been increasingly used to assess the impacts of environmental and physiological change on marine mammals. This study expanded a previous analysis of blue whale body condition in the Eastern North Pacific (ENP) using images collected by Cascadia Research Collective (CRC) over a total of 21 years between 1991 and 2023. In all, 4,188 images of 1,319 individuals were grouped by year, decade, region, and season to investigate potential differences in body condition. Please join us for ground-breaking knowledge and insight into these wondrous animals who command our respect and caring.
Speaker: Jessie Meyer, marine biologist
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Wednesday, 06/25/2025
The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Astronomy 1: The Telescope and Multiwavelength Astronomy - 06/25/2025 10:00 AM
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Join the ASP's Brian Kruse, Director, Teacher Learning Center and Formal Education for a series of workshops on the Nuts and Bolts of teaching astronomy.
In this two-hour workshop, join experienced teachers who have taught astronomy to cover the “nuts and bolts'' of what a telescope is and how it works. The workshop will also provide a refresher on the electromagnetic spectrum and its use in investigating astronomical phenomena. Explore the different kinds of telescopes and how they provide a window on the Universe in every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. This workshop is perfect for those teaching astronomy for the first time this fall, as well as experienced teachers who are interested in discovering new resources and connecting with peers.
Participants will gain the following through participation in the workshop:
Classroom-tested resources and activities that facilitate student-centered learning.Strategies for engaging learners.Access to astronomy education experts who will facilitate the workshop.A certificate of completion for participating in 2 clock hours of professional development.Upon completion of the entire series of 4 workshops, participants can earn semester graduate units from the University of the Pacific for an additional fee.
June LASER Event - Livestream - 06/25/2025 12:00 PM
Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous Christina Hiromi Hobbs (Stanford Arts) on "Collective Histories of the Asian American Women Artists Association" Kurt Behrendt (Art Historian) on "The Mandalic Aesthetic" Maya Man (Internet Artist) on "Chance Encounters: Internet Art, Algorithms, and Authenticity"
Click here to register or here.
Courtrooms & Cocktails: What Ecology can teach you about keeping a moral compass - Livestream - 06/25/2025 03:00 PM
Bodega Marine Laboratory
Join us for the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory Seminar Series, featuring speakers from within the marine sciences community and beyond.
Speaker: Heidi S. W. Weiskel, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Thursday, 06/26/2025
SETI LIVE: LaserSETI Update - 06/26/2025 02:30 PM
SETI Institute
On Exhibit in London and a New Station in Puerto Rico A major new exhibition at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?, runs from May 17, 2025, to January 4, 2026, and will feature a complete LaserSETI instrument on display. The exhibit explores one of humanity’s most profound questions: Are we alone in the universe? The exhibition brings together cutting-edge science, captivating artifacts, and the latest research in astrobiology, exoplanets, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. LaserSETI represents a new frontier in SETI, using a global network of instruments to continuously scan the night sky for brief laser pulses - potential signs of technology from beyond Earth. The first two sites were in California, at the Ferguson Observatory in Sonoma County, and on Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii. Last year, a third site went online in Sonora, Arizona; now, a new station is being installed in Puerto Rico. Join Simon Steel (Deputy Director, Carl Sagan Center) and planetary astronomer Franck Marchis (plus special guests) to talk about the London exhibition, the new observatories, and what this all means in the search for life beyond Earth.
WATCH ON FACEBOOK!WATCH ON YOUTUBE!
Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation - Livestream - 06/26/2025 04:00 PM
Skeptical Inquirer
Much like a viral contagion, misinformation can spread rapidly from one mind to another. Moreover, once lodged in memory, falsehoods are difficult to correct. Inoculation theory offers a natural basis for developing a psychological “vaccine” against the spread of fake news and misinformation. Is it possible to pre-emptively “immunize” millions of people against disinformation by pre-exposing them to severely weakened doses of the techniques that underlie its production?
Speaker: Sander Van Der Loden, University of Cambridge
Register at weblink
After Dark: Pride: Queer Science - 06/26/2025 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Celebrate Pride Month at the Exploratorium! The soulful Tory and the Teasers return for a gripping performance that will have you grooving on the floor. Learn about the fascinating history of the 606 Social Club, a secret society for queer and trans naturalists. Explore the variety of forms family can take, and do a creative activity with the Explainers to highlight and celebrate you in your own skin. Get crafty, have fun, and connect with your community at After Dark.
Ages 18+
PRIDE NightLife - 06/26/2025 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Celebrate love, equality, and the rainbow spectrum of self-expression at NightLife's annual PRIDE event.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: connections and complexity - Livestream - 06/26/2025 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
In this talk, Aaron Kaiman will discuss the connections that created and define the Delta from its formation to its ecology and, biodiversity. The talk will also explore some of the ecological and social complexities the Delta embraces and faces.
Friday, 06/27/2025
California Lizards & Where to Find Them - 06/27/2025 06:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Join us for a special night learning about the wonderful world of lizards with Dr. Emily Taylor! Dr. Taylor will be telling stories from her latest book: California Lizards and Where to Find Them and answering audience questions. This is a talk for learners of all ages and small refreshments will be provided.
Storms Fast and Slow: How Planets Form and Evolve - SOLD OUT - 06/27/2025 07:30 PM
Lick Observatory Mt. Hamilton
There are more planets in the Milky Way than there are stars. But how does some dust and gas around a newborn star turn into a system of planets, and what does this process leave behind? We'll explore these questions by looking at both our Solar System and the hundreds of planets forming around nearby stars, thinking about some of the mind-bending physics involved and what it would all look like if we could see it for ourselves
Speaker: Jeff Jennings, Flatiron Institute
Saturday, 06/28/2025
Stewardship Saturday: Organizing Oysters - 06/28/2025 10:00 AM
REAP Climate Center Alameda
This free program for high school students features rotating events along our 600-mile range exploring various realms of conservation.
Join Wild Oyster Project and The Marine Mammal Center as we learn more about some of our favorite filter feeders! Through this event you will have the opportunity to support the work Wild Oyster Project undertakes to bring native oysters back to San Francisco Bay through moving recycled shells and painting collection buckets used by restaurants. You will also have the opportunity to learn more about how oysters help clean the Bay, and what that means for our marine mammals that use the Bay water! We hope by the end of this event you will have a deeper understanding of the value and importance of oysters and will have some goals for next steps to take on your conservation journey.
Foothills Family Nature Walk - 06/28/2025 11:00 AM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos
Environmental Volunteers’ Family Nature Walks program is designed to help community members get to know our local open space areas. Small groups will be guided by a knowledgeable environmental educator during an exploration of a local open space. These small groups will be introduced to fun nature-based activities, and a chance to learn more about the plants and animals all around us. Join us for some fun, outdoor learning!
Each group will have a maximum limit of 12 participants. Meet at the Boronda Lake Dock.
Families/groups are welcome to sign up for as many as they like. The nature walks are intended for all ages 6 and up, but children must be accompanied by an adult.
Register at weblink
Music of the Spheres - The History of the Cosmos (and our understanding of it) - 06/28/2025 07:30 PM
Lick Observatory Mt. Hamilton
There is strong evidence that our Universe is roughly 13.8 billion years old, that it has expanded and evolved from the Big Bang to today, forming in the process stars, galaxies, and a rich network of larger-scale structures. I will review the history of our universe and its composition, including dark matter and dark energy. With the lens of an observational astrophysicist, I will discuss some of the major observations that led us to this picture and how current and future experiments will enable us to further our understanding of the cosmos.
Performer: White Album Ensemble Chamber Orchestra
Speaker: Tesla Jeltema, UC Santa Cruz
Limit 4 per customer.
Jazz Under the Stars - 06/28/2025 09:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Jazz Under the Stars is a FREE monthly public stargazing event! Usually occurring on the Saturday nearest the 1st quarter moon (check our Events Page), join us in Building 36 on the 4th floor observatory for a night of smooth jazz, bright stars, and a lot of fun! We play our jazz from CSM's own KCSM 91.1. Founded in 1964, KCSM has grown to become one of the top 35 most listened to non-commercial stations in the US. With their help, the Astronomy department at CSM opens its observatory doors and balcony, for a night of science and fun! We operate for public viewing 8” dobsonian telescopes, prefect for viewing the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. We also have a 140mm refractor, with which we view the craters on the moon. Finally, our 11’ schmidt-cassegrain is for our deep sky needs. It can peer deep into globular clusters, and nebulae. Occasionally we even have the chance to image galaxies on our 20" telescope. Our astronomers will also be available for questions and conversation, which you wouldn’t get anywhere else! Feel free to ask us your questions about the cosmos. Don't miss out, join us at our next Jazz Under the Stars!
*Weather in the bay area is notoriously hard to predict, and often the sources we use don't get it correct. Before leaving you home, be sure to check this webpage. If we are to cancel it will be posted here at least a few hours before the start of the event.*
Monday, 06/30/2025
Virtual Movie Screening of SALLY, a National Geographic Documentary Film - 06/30/2025 08:00 PM
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Tuesday, 07/01/2025
The First Glimpses Into the Deepest Cosmic Mysteries - 07/01/2025 07:00 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Wednesday, 07/02/2025
July LASER Event - 07/02/2025 07:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous Stanford
Thursday, 07/03/2025
SETI Live: Dreams of Biogenesis: A Conversation with Artist Jennifer Willet - 07/03/2025 02:30 PM
SETI Institute
NightLife - 07/03/2025 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: Boom - 07/03/2025 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Saturday, 07/05/2025
First Saturday: Free Tour of the Santa Cruz Arboretum - 07/05/2025 11:00 AM
Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden Santa Cruz
City Public Star Party - 07/05/2025 08:45 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Sunday, 07/06/2025
Independent Artists Fair - 07/06/2025 10:00 AM
The Crucible Oakland