SciSchmoozing in Orange & Black
Happy Halloween, y’all.
Take a look at the above illustration. To me it resembles a monstrous lupine head, jaws wide, confronting a screaming person with arms held straight. In reality, it was lava flowing down the side of Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands last week. Here’s a truly scary thought: Dinosaur sex. ¿How about avian dinosaurs reproducing without sex? Enjoy this video that is both creepy and fun. ¿Would you want to be decapitated and your head put on a different body? ¿Can you sleep at night knowing a rock could come crashing through your bedroom ceiling or an asteroid smashing into Earth? Please do not remember this video the next time you swim in the ocean. ¿How would you like maggots munching on you? Dr. Tania Lombrozo published her take on Halloween and culture when she was still at U.C. Berkeley. (She also gave a SkepTalk for the Bay Area Skeptics back then.) ¿But what about the candy? Nothing good (except the joy of indulgence). As i said, “Happy Halloween.”
The number of electric cars, busses, and trucks on the roads is increasing geometrically. New electric aircraft are being demonstrated, seemingly every month, but none of those aircraft can carry more than a half dozen people. ¿What about replacing airliners that hold a hundred people; or two hundred? In the short term, the airline industry is toying with biofuels. [[There was a distortion near the end of that video. We heard, “...by 2028, every flight from SEATAC will be powered by sustainable aviation fuel.” In fact their goal is that every aircraft fueled at SEATAC will be supplied with at least a 10% blend of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).]] The percentage of SAF in jet fuel will certainly rise, and investors are looking for better raw materials. Even seaweed may have a role. Although the use of biofuels produces just as much CO2; their advantage is in using carbon-sequestering plants rather than fossil fuels. Further into the future, the airline industry is considering hydrogen as a fuel. Today, however, hydrogen fuel is mostly “gray.” Hopefully hydrogen supplies will increasingly become more green.
Now for Out Of This World News:
“Orbital Reef” was announced last week. It’s a collaboration of Blue Origin, NASA, Boeing, Sierra Space, Redwire, Genesis, and Arizona State University among other colleges. I’m a bit surprised that Peet’s Coffee isn’t one of the collaborators. Maybe later.
¿Could there be planets in other galaxies? Well, of course. ¿Could we detect a planet in another galaxy? As unlikely as that seems, apparently it’s been done. Astronomer sleuths studying data from the Chandra X-Ray Orbiting Observatory (launched 22 years ago) found what appears to be the transit of a planet in front of an X-ray binary system in the Whirlpool Galaxy. That’s pretty freaking amazing!
In 1967, Jocelyn Bell made a discovery in astronomy so important that Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle were awarded the Nobel Prize. (???)
My picks for the week:
Your choice: Either online or in person
The COVID Labyrinth: Where Are We In It and How Do We Escape? - 3pm Monday, Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, $5
Online
New Views of our Solar System from the James Webb Space Telescope - Noon Tuesday
The drought cascade: Linking changes in climate extremes to changes in watershed function - Noon Wednesday
Humans and Alcohol: The Archaeology of a Deeply Entangled Relationship - 7pm Thursday
Movie: The Falconer - 7pm Friday
The Secret Lives of Sponges: Understanding Ancient Animals at Their Own Pace - 7pm Saturday
In Person
After Dark: Discover Wonder - 6pm-10pm Thursday, explOratorium, San Francisco, $, Mask required
Nightlife - 6pm-10pm Thursday, Cal Academy of Science, San Francisco, $, Proof of vaccination or negative test required
Fall 2021 King Tides Program - 2pm-3:30pm Saturday, Eco Center, Palo Alto
SkeptiCal 2021 was a week ago and was pretty durn good, i’d say. It was strictly online with audience participation, has been recorded, and you can gain access to the many recordings with a ticket from the SkeptiCal Conference website. (Or you can wait until mid 2022 when the recordings will be released to the general public.)
The pillow commemorating Inspiration4 was won by Angela H. Her guess of 522 was closest to the randomly-selected 568.
This week’s Contest Prize is a 10cm (4”) diameter cloth patch commemorating Inspiration4 and its beneficiary, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Send an email to david.almandsmith@gmail.com (only one) before noon Friday with an integer between zero and 1,000. We will then use a random number generator to select the target number.
Here’s a puzzle: A helicopter is trailing a long heavy rope as it flies along. ¿What shape does the rope assume? Again - as per usual - my answer was wrong.
Make the coming week one of exploration, learning, communication, and enjoyment - - and not too much candy.
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“When the spooks have a midnight jamboree/They break it up with fiendish glee/The ghosts are bad but the one that’s cursed/Is the headless horseman; he’s the worst.”
From "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving (1783 - 1859)
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 11/01/2021
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 11/01/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Mia de los Reyes
Addressing the “Multiverse Problem” via Big Team Science - Livestream - 11/01/2021 12:15 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum
In this talk, Nicholas Coles will discuss the “Multiverse Problem”: the idea that the many decision points that researchers reach in the pursuit of knowledge have multiplicative consequences for the conclusions that they make. Nicholas will discuss how this Multiverse Problem can constrain the generalizability of some research endeavors - and he will provide an overview of how this problem is being addressed by a global research consortium called the Psychological Science Accelerator.
Speaker: Nicholas Coles, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom information
The COVID Labyrinth: Where Are We In It and How Do We Escape? - 11/01/2021 03:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Join us for a medical panel discussion about where we are in the COVID pandemic. What progress has been made? What failures have contributed most to making recovery so complicated? How do we, and should we, accelerate the vaccination programs in other countries? Do we have a realistic exit strategy? Or will we be living with COVID for the foreseeable future? And does that mean that the distrust in medical authorities and governments that the pandemic has exacerbated will prove to be a socially intractable problem for decades to come?
The 11th Annual Lundberg Institute Lecture will once again deal with the major medical issue of our time, asking the questions that need to be answered if we are to find our way forward successfully. Join us in person in San Francisco, or by livestream, to ask your questions too.
Panel: Dr. Leana Wen, George Washington University; Dr. George Lundberg, Northwestern University; Dr. Susan Levenstein, Primary Care Internist; George Hammond, Author, Moderator
Attend in person or online
Magnetism and morphology in the interstellar medium - Livestream - 11/01/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
The interstellar medium is the "stuff between the stars" in galaxies: the dynamic, turbulent environment out of which new stars are born. Understanding the processes that govern star formation and galactic evolution are areas of active research, and open questions abound. Particularly mysterious is the role of the interstellar magnetic field. Galaxies like our own Milky Way are threaded by magnetic fields, and their effect on interstellar processes is not well understood. In this talk we will explore some recent progress in this field, with a particular focus on how the morphology of interstellar gas and dust encodes information about interstellar magnetism.
Speaker: Susan Clark, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom information
Building Traversable Wormholes (In Theory) - Livestream - 11/01/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Einstein's Theory of General Relativity tells us that gravity is geometry, in the form of the curvature of spacetime. But what spacetime shapes are allowed in this theory? Traversable wormholes -- tunnels through spacetime that observers can pass through -- have long been relegated to the realm of science fiction. In this talk, we will aim to understand why they were once thought to be difficult to build, and how recent developments in quantum gravity have shown us how to bypass these obstacles, and construct traversable wormholes (without invoking novel physics). Along the way, we will touch on the relation to holographic systems and quantum teleportation.
Speaker: Dr. Brianna Grado - White
CITRIS People and Robots Seminar - 11/01/2021 04:00 PM
CITRIS People and Robots
Speaker: Philip Paré, Purdue University
See weblink for Zoom information
Stanford Energy Seminar: Tenley Dalstrom - Livestream - 11/01/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
New Energy Nexus is an international non-profit that supports clean-energy entrepreneurs with funds, accelerators, and networks. It strives towards an abundant world with a 100% clean energy economy for 100% of the population in the shortest time possible. Crucial to making this lasting change is uplifting communities around the globe who have been and continue to be left behind by the failed paradigm of a fossil-fuel economy. To do this, New Energy Nexus funds, connects and grows diverse new energy entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide. This seminar will discuss the work of launching & growing startups with these goals in mind.
Speaker: Tenley Dalstrom, New Energy Nexus
See weblink for online link
Slam Dependent Surface Lipoproteins of Gram-Negative Bacteria: Protectors and Foragers in Harsh Environments - Livestream - 11/01/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford University
As a biochemist and microbiologist, the overarching goal of my research program is to understanding the molecular basis of bacterial pathogenesis with the view of discovering new targets for antibiotics or vaccines. Antibiotic resistance is a major health care issue as the widespread use of antimicrobials over the years has resulted in a dramatic increase in bacterial drug resistance including the emergence of superbugs such as multi-drug resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.
Research in the Moraes lab focuses on the structural and functional characterization of surface proteins particularly those that are involved in immune evasion, protein and ion translocation across bacterial membranes. Members of the Moraes Lab dissect the components of the translocation pathways and examine their interactions in molecular detail. Biochemical tools such as X-ray Crystallography and Cryo-Electron Microscopy provide us with atomic resolution 3D-models of proteins, while Surface Plasmon Resonance, Isothermal Titration Calorimetry, Bio-layer Interferometry, Microscale Thermophoresis and other biochemical/biophysical techniques are used to validate models that describe their mechanism of action. Our research investigates various receptors and transport functions that are essential for pathogenic bacteria to survive and proliferate, thus providing the foundation for developing novel antimicrobial therapeutics including vaccines and novel antibiotics.
Speaker: Trevor Moraes, Stanford University
Tuesday, 11/02/2021
Modern Approaches To Anomaly Detection - Livestream - 11/02/2021 11:50 AM
Magnimind Academy
Identifying anomalous observations has important business impacts across all industries. None more than in the world of fraud detection where some observations are intentionally trying to hide, which is different than most rare event problems that exist in modeling. This talk will highlight some modern approaches to anomaly detection - local outlier factors, isolation forests, and classifier adjusted density estimation (CADE). All of these techniques have foundations in places that were not originally anomaly detection. Local outlier factors are derived from k-nearest neighbors. Isolation forests have their foundation in tree based algorithms. CADE was originally designed as an improvement / variation on kernel density estimation. However, all of these have been shown to have great abilities to find anomalous observations in a data set.
Agenda:
11:45 am - 11:55 am Arrival, socializing and Opening
11:55 am - 1:00 pm Aric LaBarr, "Modern Approaches To Anomaly Detection"
1:00 pm - 1:10 pm Q&A
Speaker: Aric LaBarr, Institute for Advanced Analytics
Zoom linkWebinar ID: 867 3842 9463
New Views of our Solar System from the James Webb Space Telescope - 11/02/2021 12:00 PM
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
Join Dr Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist from the University of Leicester, as he reveals the incredible potential of the James Webb Space Telescope for exploring the diverse environments across our Solar System. Webb will explore worlds both near and far, using its unprecedented infrared capabilities to open the door to new discoveries - from the distant, cold Ice Giants and Kuiper Belt, to the potentially-habitable satellites of the Gas Giants, to the swirling storms of Jupiter and Saturn. Dr Fletcher will discuss the challenges of observing big, bright, rotating planets with a space telescope, explore connections to ongoing spacecraft missions, and reveal the exciting prospects for a new era of planet exploration.
Speaker: Dr. Leigh Fletcher, University of Leicester
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Galaxies on the Edge: Properties of Galaxies on the Edge of Distant Superclusters - Livestream - 11/02/2021 12:00 PM
Cal-Bridge Physics & Astronomy Series
The NASA Cosmic Origins program asks "How did we get here?" and "How did galaxies evolve from the very first systems to the types we observe". In this talk, we'll explore these questions by focusing on galaxies and their environments. We'll start by defining galaxy types and discussing where they're found in the universe. Next, we'll discuss the ways in which they change as they fall through the edges of their host superclusters into dense cluster cores. Finally, I'll show some recently results from the Canada France Hawaii Telescope that show galaxies lighting up (i.e. with increased levels of starbursting activity) as they fall toward the deep gravitational potentials of the cluster core. I will also discuss the Granville Academy, a week-long set of diversity education workshops for astronomy graduates hosted by Yale and Cal Poly, SLO.
Speaker: Louise Edwards, Cal Poly, San Juis Obispo
Low Temperature Properties of Glasses - Livestream - 11/02/2021 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
A wide variety of amorphous materials exhibit similar behavior in their low temperature thermal properties regardless of their chemical composition. Examples include a linear specific heat and a T2 thermal conductivity. These features have been attributed to tunneling two level systems (TLS). However, the standard TLS model has not been able to explain the universally small value of phonon scattering reflected in thermal conductivity, ultrasonic attenuation, internal friction, and the change in sound velocity. For example, the mean free path of phonons in amorphous SiO2 is about 60 microns at 0.5 K. Why do phonons go so far? We present an answer based on aspects of the standard model that have either been ignored or not fully appreciated. We find good agreement between experiment and theory for a variety of individual glasses.
Speaker: Jerve Carruzzo and Clare Yu, UC Irvine
See weblink for Zoom information
Whole Earth Seminar = Extrinsic Tracers in Hydrology - 11/02/2021 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Speaker: Jean E. Moran, CSU East Bay
Carving up the Roof of the World: Causes and Effects of Environmental Change in the Himalayas - Livestream - 11/02/2021 06:00 PM
Stanford University
The greater Himalaya mountain range, known as the “roof of the world,” plays a central role in the environmental wellbeing of Asia and the world. It is the source of a system of rivers that sustain fertile food-producing land - and therefore populations - across the continent. But the recent race to develop infrastructure in the region, including hydropower dams, endangers the ecosystems that flourish around these rivers, and the populations that depend on them. This panel discussion will explore the causes and effects of those environmental changes. What is driving the competitive infrastructure development in India and China? How does this affect the hydrology and ecology of Asia’s major river systems? And how will these changes affect populations, and in turn state policy, in the many downstream countries?
Speakers: Ruth Gamble, historian; Santosh Nepal, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Register at webink to receive Zoom information
Wednesday, 11/03/2021
Taming Fruit: From Fruit Forests and Oases to Orchards - Livestream - 11/03/2021 11:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden
Join us for this very special book talk with author Bernd Brunner as he takes us through his fascinating new book Taming Fruit: From Fruit Forests & Oases to Orchards. Early orchards may have been oases dotted with date trees, where desert nomads stopped to rest. In the Amazon, Indigenous tribes maintained mosaic gardens centuries before colonization. Fruit cultivation developed over thousands of years in various parts of the globe. As populations expanded, fruit trees sprang from the lush gardens of the wealthy and monasteries to fields and roadsides, changing landscapes as they fed the hungry. The story of fruit cultivation is a story of how humans have shaped and bent nature according to our desires for millennia.
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
The drought cascade: Linking changes in climate extremes to changes in watershed function - Livestream - 11/03/2021 12:00 PM
CITRIS Research Exchange
Climate models project that changes in patterns of temperature and precipitation delivery will be ubiquitous, but how those changes cascade through watersheds is less certain. Indeed, the widespread disconnect between changes in extreme precipitation and extreme streamflow contrasts with model projections and underlies what has been referred to as a “grand challenge” of hydrology. Using CHOSEN (Comprehensive Hydrologic Observatory Sensor Network), we conducted a data-driven analysis of multidimensional hydrologic and climatic extremes. We found that drought and warming likely explain many of the observed changes in streamflow extreme but that wetter extremes arise from more complex phenomena. The talk concludes with a summary of some of the remaining “grand challenges” for understanding drought’s cascading effects on California’s ecosystems.
Speaker: Laurel Larsen, UC Berkeley
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
Thursday, 11/04/2021
Understanding the ghost particle - Livestream - 11/04/2021 10:00 AM
Oxford University
Prof Daniela Bortoletto - Head of Particle Physics, Oxford University, will host this lecture, and moderate the Q&A session after the talks.
Speakers will be:
Prof David WarkProf Steven Biller
At this event, these three senior members of our department will look at the incredible contribution to neutrino research the sub-department of Particle Physics* has made in the past 50 years, and will also share with us what is in store for the future of particle physics at Oxford.
See weblink to register and receive connection information
Weekday Morning Walk at Pillar Point Bluff - 11/04/2021 10:00 AM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for an afternoon Hike at Pillar Point Bluff just north of Half Moon Bay! You will be guided by a POST representative who will share details about the area’s interesting natural history, from the coastal scrub habitat to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve that hosts tide pools and breeding grounds for harbor seals.
The walk is moderate at about 2.5 miles round trip with around 300 feet of gradual elevation gain.
In 2004, POST stepped in to fund protection of the bluff, restore it to ecological health, and construct a 1.6-mile section of the California Coastal Trail that now runs across it. Today, all 161 acres of the bluff are fully protected in perpetuity - a process that took four transactions, 11 years of work, and an array of visionaries, landowners and donors, both public and private.
Register at weblink to attend.
Preventing the Next Health Crisis - Livestream - 11/04/2021 10:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Within months of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, public health systems in the United States (and around the world) were stretched to the brink of destruction. The virus infected millions, killed hundreds of thousands, and effectively made the country stand still. Nineteen months later, the pandemic continues. Yet America was already in poor health before COVID-19 appeared. The country's failure to address many issues - marginalization and socioeconomic inequality among them - left the United States vulnerable to COVID-19 and the ensuing global health crisis it became.
Sandro Galea's new book, The Contagion Next Time, describes the foundational forces shaping health in our society and how we can strengthen them to prevent the next outbreak from becoming a pandemic. Had the country tackled these challenges 20 years ago, after the outbreak of SARS, perhaps COVID-19 could have been quickly contained. Instead, we allowed our systems to deteriorate. Galea, as he did in his previous book, Well, challenges all of us to tackle the deep-rooted obstacles preventing us from becoming a truly vibrant and equitable nation, and reminds us at this critical time that a country's health is a public good worth protecting as much as the country's physical infrastructure.
Speaker: Dr. Sandro Galea, Boston University; Mark Zitter, The Zetema Project, Moderator
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 11/04/2021 12:40 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Jorge Moreno, Cal Poly Pomona
After Dark: Discover Wonder - 11/04/2021 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. Be ready to bring fresh eyes to old favorites and uncover phenomenal new experiences. And join Exploratorium Osher Fellows Gregg Castro and Kanyon Sayers-Roods in an interactive dialog about their work, cultures, and experiences as natives of the Bay Area.
Just for Tonight
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!
Ask a Native With Gregg Castro and Kanyon Sayers-Roods 7:30 p.m. Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum
While the legacy of colonization in California has long erased the stories of native communities, Ohlone peoples continue to live and thrive in the Bay Area. Contained in their experiences is deep knowledge, culture, and connection to land. How can we build new connections and relationships grounded in honesty? How can we “honor truth in history”? And how can we build our understanding without romanticizing native cultures? Join Gregg Castro and Kanyon Sayers-Roods in this dynamic conversation crafted for those seeking to engage directly with local California indigenous activists about their experiences and cultures, and to learn about the many surviving and thriving communities of native peoples in the Bay Area
Nightlife - 11/04/2021 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+.
Micromitigation: Fighting Air Pollution with Activated Carbon - Livestream - 11/04/2021 07:00 PM
Counter Culture Labs
We would like to invite new members to join Counter Culture Labs' Micromitigation Meetup alternate Thursdays. We will be discussing ways to deploy existing adsorption technology using commodity granulated activated carbon for the mitigation of air pollution.
We welcome those interested in both the environmental justice and technical engineering aspects of air quality.Please sign up by joining the Counter Culture Labs' Meetup group, then RSVPing for the event. Weblink provided after signup.
NightSchool: LightSchool - Livestream - 11/04/2021 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Ever wondered what makes certain plants and animals glow in the dark? Join a panel of bioluminescence experts for a deep dive into the inner workings of nature’s glow, including what it can teach us about our relationship with beneficial bacteria, the surprising evolutionary clues it unlocks, and how it has inspired artists and scientists alike.
Although many marine organisms are bioluminescent, not all produce light the same way: some species make their own light, whereas more than 500 species of fish and squid rely on a special symbiotic relationship with luminous bacteria to fuel their glow. Join the Academy’s very own Dr. Alison Gould as she shares all about bioluminescent symbioses and what they can teach us about our own relationship with beneficial bacteria.Unlock a new lens through which to view nature aglow with artist Iyvone Khoo, an artist specializing in bioluminescence-related projects. Khoo will give an artist’s perspective on the natural phenomenon, and share the process and challenges of observing bioluminescent plankton to create their art installation Infinity Cube. Although bioluminescence seems like a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, bioluminescent systems independently evolved over 90 times! Join UCSB doctoral candidate Emily Lau as she explains the diversity of bioluminescent systems and what they can teach us about convergent evolution, plus details on the biochemical basis of bioluminescence systems and how luminous organisms might acquire molecules to produce light.
See weblink to watch on YouTube or Facebook.
Attitudes about alcohol exhibit a striking degree of ambivalence. On one hand, drinking alcohol is a broadly accepted and very popular activity around the world. Yet, alcohol has also acquired a bad reputation as a dangerous substance. Some governments and religions have even tried to ban it altogether. Archaeological evidence shows that the human relationship with alcohol has a very deep antiquity and the biological adaptation that enables humans to metabolize alcohol goes back at least 10 to 12 million years.
This lecture presents an anthropological framework for understanding the social and cultural significance of alcohol and examines the archaeological evidence for drinking in the past, with particular attention to the nature and consequences of the wine trade in the ancient Mediterranean.
Speaker: Michael Dietler, University of Chicago
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Friday, 11/05/2021
Bay Area Chemistry Symposium - Livestream - 11/05/2021 08:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society
The Bay Area Chemistry Symposium provides a unique opportunity to connect local students and academics with scientists from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, covering themes of synthesis and design in medicinal, process, and computational chemistry. The one-day symposium will feature keynote addresses given by Gilead, Genentech, and Novartis as well as leading professors from the area and showcase research talks from graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and industrial chemists. A poster session will also take place with presentations representing research conducted in both academic and industry laboratories. This symposium, co-chaired by Richmond Sarpong, Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, and Kevin Allan, Director of Drug Substance Development & Manufacturing at Eidos Therapeutics, promises to be an exciting and influential community building event for synthetic, medicinal, and computational chemists across the Bay Area.
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics Seminar - 11/05/2021 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Stefania Soldini, University of Liverpool
Polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) are an emerging class of materials in which nanoscale fillers are dispersed within a polymer. PNCs have attracted considerable interest as base materials for next generation food packaging, medical devices, and other consumer product applications. To better understand the potential for humans to be exposed to engineered nanomaterials from PNCs, there is a need to understand the quantity and form of dispersed nanofillers that may transfer into nearby environments, including foods, during product lifecycles. Relationships between nanofiller structure/composition, host polymer properties, environmental chemistry, and the fate of nanomaterials dispersed in plastics especially need to be better understood. This talk will present FDA’s most recent efforts to study potential human exposure to engineered nanomaterials from model packaging materials incorporating nanotechnology. Topics presented include: fabrication and characterization of PNCs, chemical analysis of foods and beverages for transferred nanomaterials during simulated storage conditions, mass transport physics within polymers, and nanoparticle transformation phenomena in relevant environments. The impact of this research will be discussed within the broader context of FDA’s mission to protect and promote public health.
Speaker: Tim Duncan, Federal Drug Administration
See weblink for Zoom information
'The Falconer' - An Online Film Screening - 11/05/2021 07:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a special free online screening of “The Falconer”in honor of the Fall Raptor Migration Season! The event is free but registration is required. Guests who register for the event will receive a viewing link and password to access the film anytime between 7pm Friday, November 5 through midnight on Wednesday, November 10th.
The Falconer is a documentary feature that captures beauty and hope in the story of master falconer Rodney Stotts on his mission to build a bird sanctuary and provide access to nature for his stressed community. Under his organization Rodney’s Raptors, Mr. Stotts creates interactive and educational programming, allowing adults and children of all ages to experience the excitement that comes from holding a live bird of prey.
This is a story of second chances: for injured birds of prey, for an abandoned plot of land, for a group of teenagers who have dropped out of high school, and for Rodney himself. The Falconer weaves Rodney’s present-day mission with the story of his past, both of which are deeply rooted in issues of social and environmental injustice, and consistently orient the viewer to his worldview: nature heals.
Saturday, 11/06/2021
Fall 2021 King Tides Program - 11/06/2021 02:00 PM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
Each year, the King Tides come to the Palo Alto Baylands (and much of the California Coast!). Join us in a fun, interactive learning experience which will teach you about what a King Tides is, and why they are so exciting. All ages are welcome - activities will be accessible and enjoyable for kids and adults alike.
See weblink for important location information.
Registration required
The Secret Lives of Sponges: Understanding Ancient Animals at Their Own Pace - Livestream - 11/06/2021 07:00 PM
Greater Farallones Association
Deep sea researcher Dr. Amanda Kahn of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and San Jose State University will share her latest findings on the secret lives of sponges at. Vast reefs and gardens of sponges form the foundation of unique communities in the deep ocean. Learn how sponges move without muscles and create bridges between animal food webs and the microbial realm!
RECEPTION 7-7:30 PM
MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS SPONGE COCKTAILS HOME-HOSTED OPEN BAR
LECTURE 7:30 PM - AMANDA KAHN, PhD
FREE EVENT! Surprise gift with optional registration
Recommended for ages 16+
Details and registration: https://farallones.org/events/soirees/
Sunday, 11/07/2021
Sustainable Herbs and The Business of Botanicals with Ann Armbrecht - Livestream - 11/07/2021 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden
Join author and anthropologist Ann Armbrecht as she speaks about her work following medicinal plants to the source, documenting the stories of the people and places behind finished herbal products. She will talk about why it is important to know where the herbs you use come from, outline responsible sourcing practices both for wild crafted and cultivated herbs, and share ideas about how we can all make a difference in encouraging the botanical industry to be a better steward of the human and ecological communities where medicinal plants are sourced.
Register at weblink
Monday, 11/08/2021
A new look into cuprate superconductors using high-precision photoemission spectroscopy - Livestream - 11/08/2021 10:00 AM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Over the past three decades, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy has contributed extensively to our understanding of the cuprate high-temperature superconductors. Nevertheless, there are key questions awaiting to be addressed through measurements with new levels of precision and control. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts in tackling the following two questions, whether there is a quantum critical point under the superconducting dome, and what is the nature of the superconducting phase transition.
Speaker: Sudi Chen, UC Berkeley
See weblink for Zoom link
Modeling and Simulation Tools for Industrial and Societal Research Applications: Digital Twins and Genome-based Machine-learning - Livestream - 11/08/2021 11:00 AM
Berkeley Institute for Data Science
Speaker: Tarek Zohdi, UC Berkeley
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 11/08/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Chad Bustard
The Asymmetry of Anti-Quarks in the Proton - Livestream - 11/08/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
What is really inside a proton? The fundamental building blocks of the proton, quarks and gluons, have been known for decades. However, we still have an incomplete understanding of how these particles and their dynamics give rise to the quantum bound state of the proton and its physical properties, such as for example its spin and mass. The two “up” and one “down” quarks that comprise the proton in the simplest picture account only for a few percent of the proton mass, the bulk of which is in the form of quark and gluon kinetic and potential energy from the strong force. An essential feature of this force, as described by quantum chromodynamics, is its ability to create quark-antiquark pairs through quantum fluctuation inside the proton that exist only for a very short time. In this picture of quark-antiquark creation by the strong force, the probability distributions as a function of momentum for the presence of “up” and “down” antiquarks should be nearly identical, since their masses are quite similar and small compared to the mass of the proton. However, our recent results from the Fermilab E906/SeaQuest experiment at the Main Injector show evidence that they are very different, with more abundant “down” antimatter quarks than “up” antimatter quarks over a wide range of momentum fraction of the parent proton. These results revive interest in several proposed mechanisms as the origin of this antiquark asymmetry in the proton and point to the future measurements at the follow-up E1039/SpinQuest experiment with polarized proton/neutron targets that can distinguish between these mechanisms. Furthermore, the recent new initiative to search for Dark Sector physics with moderate upgrade to the SeaQuest/SpinQuest spectrometer will also be discussed briefly at the end.
Speaker: Dr. Ming Xiong Liu, Los Alamos National Laboratory
CITRIS People and Robots Seminar - 11/08/2021 04:00 PM
CITRIS People and Robots
Speaker: Shuran Song, Columbia University
See weblink for Zoom information
Substantial astronomical observations have established that approximately 25% of the energy density of the universe is composed of cold non-baryonic dark matter, whose detection and characterization could be key to improving our understanding of the laws of physics. Over the past three decades, physicists have largely focused on searching for dark matter within the 10 GeV-1 TeV range (WIMPs), unfortunately without success. Over the past decade, the theoretical physics community has developed a variety of viable dark matter models with mass in the range of 10meV-1GeV and now the race is on to develop the detector technology and search this nearly completely unexplored parameter space. In this talk, we’ll discuss the experimental requirements when searching for dark matter throughout themass range. We’ll also discuss recent R&D breakthroughs in athermal phonon sensor technology that will enable the newly funded DOE experiments SPICE and HeRALD, as well as the SuperCDMS experiment to search for dark matter in this range.
Speaker: Matt Pyle, UC Berkeley
See weblink for connection information
Tuesday, 11/09/2021
Temperature-Driven Disease Outbreaks Impact Oyster Aquaculture in Tomales Bay - Livestream - 11/09/2021 10:00 AM
Audubon Canyon Ranch
Weekday Morning Hike at Rancho Cañada del Oro - 11/09/2021 10:00 AM
Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Flat Bands in Flatlands - Livestream - 11/09/2021 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Whole Earth Seminar - 11/09/2021 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Large-scale Spatial Network Models for modeling disease and information passing for people experiencing homelessness in metropolitan areas - Virtual - 11/09/2021 04:00 PM
Berkeley Institute for Data Science
Ask Me Anything (AMA): on Machine Learning - Livestream - 11/09/2021 06:00 PM
SF Bay Association of Computing Machinery
Why Mobility is Destiny - 11/09/2021 07:00 PM
Long Now Foundation San Francisco
Wednesday, 11/10/2021
Ask the Scientist - Corynn Knapp - 11/10/2021 02:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Communication in Conservation: Building Bridges, Active Learning, and Flexing Creativity - Canceled - 11/10/2021 03:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
The Global Future of Electrified Mobility - Livestream - 11/10/2021 04:30 PM
Acterra
Big Life African Wildlife Protection - Livestream - 11/10/2021 06:00 PM
Oakland Zoo
November LASER Event - Livestream - 11/10/2021 06:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous
Thursday, 11/11/2021
Nightlife: Neon - 11/11/2021 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: See For Yourself - 11/11/2021 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Machineries of Doubt: Climate, Cigarettes & Confusion - Livestream - 11/11/2021 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Friday, 11/12/2021
Global Morphometrics of Barchan Dunes on Mars Revealed by Artificial Intelligence - 11/12/2021 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Saturday, 11/13/2021
A Career Journey in the field of Environmental Toxicology - Livestream - 11/13/2021 10:30 AM
California Section American Chemical Society
Raptor Fest - 11/13/2021 12:00 PM
Rancho San Vicente Open Space Preserve San Jose
Sunday, 11/14/2021
Afternoon Walk at Pillar Point Bluff - 11/14/2021 02:30 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Monday, 11/15/2021
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 11/15/2021 02:00 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
What Physicists Do - Livestream - 11/15/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University