If you are awed by volcanoes near as much as i, check out this live feed or this live feed of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands. (More interesting in daylight but more awesome at night.) Or view it from the perspective of a (suicidal) drone. Chunks of lava are being blasted over 300 meters high. The island has over 50 distinct cinder cones from previous Strombolian eruptions.
In June of 2019, i mentioned evidence that Sodom and Gomorrah might have been destroyed by a Tunguska-like meteor ‘airburst.’ Further research has just been published and the conclusions are gruesome. Not only were those cities (Tall el-Hammam & Tall Nimrin) obliterated, the airburst also brought down the walls of not-too-distant Jericho. The blast was so powerful and hot that it dismembered people and charred their fragmented bones. Ceramics and bricks shattered and melted. Bits of carbon were heated and compressed into nanodiamonds. The fertile landscape burned. Salt from water in the dead sea settled on the land, poisoning the soil. A fertile region that supported 50,000 people was abandoned until 600 years of rain finally leached enough salt out of the soil to again allow crops to grow and livestock to graze. Wow.
The authors compared that airburst to the Chelyabinsk event in 2013 (estimated 20m diameter meteor weighing 10,000 tonnes yielding a 440 kiloton blast) and to the Tunguska event in 1908 (estimated 50m diameter meteor weighing 150,000 tonnes yielding a 12 megaton blast). The authors concluded the event in 1650 BCE was greater still. I find it interesting that survivors of the 1908 event and survivors of the 1650 BCE event both ascribed the blasts to gods punishing wickedness.
This video takes a deep dive into the difficulties of dealing with climate change.
¿Remember the Kessler Syndrome? Space debris apparently explains the recent breakup of a Chinese satellite.
Among countries with more than 50 million people, only Brazil, Italy, and Colombia have lost a higher percentage of their population to COVID-19 than has the United States. COVID fatalities in the U.S. now exceed 700,000 persons. A professor in the U.C. San Francisco Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics expects that every person on this planet will be exposed to COVID-19.
¿Have you prepared for the next big one?
Another California oil spill is killing seabirds and fouling beaches. If captured while still healthy, many oiled birds can be cleaned and released to the wild - thanks to International Bird Rescue in Fairfield (and to yours truly when i was David Smith).
Last Wednesday, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service moved 23 plant and animal species from the ‘endangered list’ to the ‘extinct list.’
If you’ve been paying attention, i’ve presented nothing but unsettling phenomena: volcanoes, meteors, climate change, Kessler Syndrome, COVID, earthquakes, oil spills, and extinctions. Yes, nothing is certain except - as the maxim goes - death and taxes. Here is a doctor’s advice on living with uncertainty.
I’m so sorry about last month’s contest to win a model of SpaceshipTwo & WhiteKnightTwo since i neglected to include my email address: david.almandsmith@gmail.com. It was finally won by Andrew M. The random number was 582 and he guessed 669. This time we’re offering a pillow commemorating Inspiration4 and its beneficiary, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It’s puffy and would be 45cm (18”) square if you took out the batting. Send me an email (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. The person who came closest wins the pillow.
My picks for the week:
Livestream:
The COVID-19 Pandemic and What Comes Next - Tuesday 12:30 - 1:30pm
Local Decisions, Regional Impacts: Informing Sea-Level Rise Adaptation - Tuesday 5 - 6pm, $
What Happened in the Big Bang? - Wednesday 12:30 - 2pm, $
Bird-friendly Chocolate - Thursday 5 - 6pm, $
In Person:
After Dark: Extraterrestrials - Thursday 6 - 10pm, explOratorium, San Francisco $
Nightlife - Thursday 6 - 10pm, Cal Academy of Sciences, San Francisco $
A Saildrone made in Alameda took video and data during a wild ride through Hurricane Sam a few days ago. And if that didn’t cause you motion sickness, try this static image!
¿Remember Nicolas Flamel from the Harry Potter stories? He was a real person!
Sho-Ka-Kola, Coca-Cola, Benzedrine, the 1936 Olympics, and World War II.
¿How strong is 20 tesla? (We are talking about magnetic field strength, not electric cars.) A refrigerator magnet creates about 5/1000 of a tesla. A neodymium magnet creates about 1.25 tesla. The LHC superconducting magnets at CERN create about 8 tesla. The record for a sustained magnetic field is 20 tesla, and this has great potential.
I hope you found this missive informative and entertaining. We always appreciate your feedback.
Be adventurous this week; also expand your sphere of empathy - if only a little bit,
Dave Almandsmith
Bay Area Skeptics
“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
- Alan Turing (1912 - 1954) Mathematician
Monday, 10/04/2021
Dashed Dreams: The Tokyo Olympics, Sex Testing and Biology - Livestream - 10/04/2021 09:30 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Leading up to the recent Tokyo Olympics. athletes Annet Negesa of Uganda and Maximila Imali of Kenya both had their Olympic dreams crushed because of rules set by the track and field global governing body, World Athletics. They are just two - of many - elite women athletes who have been told their natural testosterone levels, if not lowered through medication or surgery, disqualify them from competition at the highest levels of sport.
Join us for an in-depth conversation about intersex biology and the history of sex testing in women’s athletics ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Speaker: Eliza Anyangwe, CNN Gender Inequality Project; Michelle Meow and John Zipperer, Common Wealth Club, Co-Hosts
Chemically tuning the exotic ground states of pyrochlore magnets - Livestream - 10/04/2021 10:00 AM
UC Berkeley
Pyrochlore lattices, which are found in two important classes of materials -- the A2B2X7 pyrochlore family and the AB2X4 spinel family -- are the quintessential 3-dimensional frustrated lattice architecture. Pyrochlore magnets are renowned for their exotic magnetic ground states, ranging from classical spin ice to quantum spin liquid. While historically rare-earth titanium oxides (B = Ti, X = O) have played the starring role in this field, the past decade has seen material's synthesis breakthroughs that have lead to new families of oxide pyrochlores (B = Ge, Pt) as well as the emergence of fluoride (X = F) and chalcogenide (X = S, Se) pyrochlore lattice materials. In this talk I will describe how chemical substitutions can modify the single ion spin anisotropy due to crystal electric field effects, stabilize new magnetic atom combinations, or dramatically alter the exchange pathways and thereby lead to new magnetic ground states.
Speaker: Alannah Hallas, University of British Columbia
See weblink for Zoom information
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 10/04/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Michael Pajkos
Innovation, Conservation and Repurposing in Root Cell Type Development - Livestream - 10/04/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford University
Siobhan Brady received her PhD at the University of Toronto in 2005, and was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University from 2005 - 2008. In 2009 she began an Assistant Professor position and became Professor in 2020 at the University of California, Davis in the Department of Plant Biology and in the Genome Center. In 2016 she was named as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Research Scholar. Research in the Brady lab focuses on the global regulation of gene expression and its contribution to root morphology and development in Arabidopsis thaliana, Solanum species, Sorghum bicolor and maize. The Brady lab is also committed to developing publicly available data and resources for the community and to the mentoring of scientists from diverse and under-represented backgrounds.
See weblink for Zoom link
The molecules and materials for tomorrow, today - 10/04/2021 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
The challenges we face in the 21st century require, in many cases, accelerated molecular and materials discovery. In this talk, I will discuss the research in my group towards the realization of "self-driving laboratories", which have the goal of accelerating the long materials discovery timescales by an order of magnitude. These AI-driven experimental workflows are composed of different integrated aspects. In particular, we have integrated high-throughput virtual screening, machine learning, software-controlled automated synthesis and characterization into a single platform.
Speaker: Alán Aspuru-Guzik, University of Toronto
A Journey from String Theory to Oceanography - Livestream - 10/04/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
While string theory and physical oceanography are quite distant branches of physics, both describe vast, unintuitive structures that (may) govern the conditions of our daily lives. I have recently transitioned from a Ph.D. studying the geometry of extra dimentions in string theory to a postdoctoral position studying the ocean's role in the Indian monsoon. In this talk, I will give an overview of some recent work in both fields and discuss the process of conceptual discovery that acts as a common thread.
Speaker: Dr. Alex Kinsella, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
We have developed an electronic method to screen cells for their phenotypic profile, which we call Node-Pore Sensing (NPS). NPS involves using a four-terminal measurement to measure the modulated current pulse caused by a cell transiting a microfluidic channel that has been segmented by a series of inserted nodes. Previously, we showed that when segments between the nodes are functionalized with different antibodies corresponding to distinct cell-surface antigens, immunophenotyping can be achieved. In this talk, I will show how we have significantly advanced NPS by simply inserting between two nodes a straight “contraction” channel through which cells can squeeze. “Mechano-NPS”, as we now call our method, can simultaneously measure a cell’s size, resistance to deformation, transverse deformation, and ability to recover from deformation. When the contraction channel is sinusoidal in shape, resulting in cells being periodically squeezed, mechano-NPS can also measure the viscoelastic properties of cells. I will describe how we have used mechano-NPS to distinguish chronological age groups and breast-cancer risk groups of primary human mammary epithelial cells and identify drug-resistant acute promyelocytic leukemia cells - all based on mechanical properties. I will also describe the development of the next-generation NPS platform which utilizes advanced signal processing algorithms - Barker and Gold codes - directly encoded in the NPS channels to thus achieve multiplexing.
Speaker: Lydia Sohn, UC Berkeley
See weblink for connection information
Tuesday, 10/05/2021
The COVID-19 Pandemic and What Comes Next - Livestream - 10/05/2021 12:30 PM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has been one of the most visible commentators on the public health crisis. His insights and writings have helped shaped some of the country's understanding of the public health impacts of the pandemic since early in 2020. As the country continues to battle the pandemic - especially the emergent delta variant of the coronavirus - Gottlieb will visit the Club for the first time to discuss his new book, Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic.
Gottlieb's new book outlines how the United States must prepare for future pandemics by learning from the mistakes made handling the COVID-19 outbreak, which has caused one of the greatest public health tragedies in American history. Gottlieb outlines his efforts in the early 2000s to develop a “Pandemic Influenza Plan” to ready the United States for the threat of a global pandemic, and how short the country came up when it was time to mount an effective response to the novel coronavirus. Further, Gottlieb identifies the early reasons why the United States was so underprepared for the pandemic, from failing to enlist the private sector in large-scale manufacturing of testing supplies and medical equipment to resolutely sticking to the narrative that COVID would go away on its own.
As the United States heads into a critically important fall and winter that will determine whether we will finally end the pandemic, Gottlieb's book comes at a critical time. Please join us for a timely talk with a true expert on the pandemic about what we have learned so far, and what we must do to succeed in the months and years ahead.
Speaker: Scott Gottlieb, Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner
Cultural Practices of Conservation in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains - Livestream - 10/05/2021 01:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden
How can ecological conservation be a democratic process? And how can it also generate livelihoods? Félix de Rosen will describe his research in Morocco on models of conservation that benefit people and the environment. From sustainable harvesting strategies, to community-run nurseries and women's cooperatives, these Cultural Practices of Conservation offer a model in which conservation and human welfare go hand in hand. He will describe the work of the Global Diversity Foundation and the Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihood Association, the two organizations which hosted him and who work to promote cultural practices of conservation practices. Of course, along the way, he will share photos of the amazing plants he encountered along the way, from wild thyme to resin spurge, and the date palm. Félix de Rosen is a 2020 graduate of UC Berkeley's Master of Landscape Architecture program.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Study on Topological Spin Textures utilizing Full-Field Soft X-ray Microscopy - Livestream - 10/05/2021 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Magnetic skyrmions are topologically stable spin textures, which have attracted massive interests not only due to their fascinating features for understanding the fundamental physics of nanospin behavior but also their potentials in a wealth of technological applications for high efficient storage/memory and computing devices [1]. In the research of skyrmions, direct observation of skyrmions and their static and dynamic behaviors has been strongly encouraged since it provides a powerful insight into the underlying physics of nanospin phenomena and essential information for their applications. We have tackled numerous scientific questions for skyrmions based on direct imaging them utilizing a full-field soft X-ray transmission microscope at Advanced Light Source (XM-1, BL6.1.2). In this talk, I will discuss some critical issues on magnetic skyrmions addressed in our research: effective creating room temperature (RT) skyrmions [2, 3], controlling configuration [4] and motion [2, 5] of skyrmions, topological stability of skyrmions [6].
Speaker: Mi-Young Im, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
See weblink for Zoom information
Whole Earth Seminar - Why does the Earth stay habitable? - 10/05/2021 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Speaker: Philip Pogge Von Standmann, University of Mainz
Weaving together theoretical physics, machine learning and neuroscience: a tale of neurons, atoms and photons - Livestream - 10/05/2021 04:30 PM
Stanford University
We are witnessing an exciting interplay between physics, computation and neurobiology that spans in multiple directions. In one direction we can use the power of complex systems analysis, developed in theoretical physics and applied mathematics, to elucidate design principles governing how neural networks, both biological and artificial, can learn and function. In another direction, we can exploit novel physics to instantiate and analyze new kinds of quantum neuromorphic computers built using atomic spins and photons. We will give several vignettes in both directions, including: (1) deriving the detailed structure of the primate retina from first principles by developing optimal neural networks for processing natural movies, (2) using dynamic mean field theory to understand and optimize the training of deep neural networks used in machine learning, (3) understanding the geometry and dynamics of high dimensional optimization in the classical limit of a dissipative many-body quantum optimizer comprised of interacting photons.
Speaker: Surya Ganguli, Stanford University
See weblink for Zoom instructions
Local Decisions, Regional Impacts: Informing Sea-Level Rise Adaptation - Livestream - 10/05/2021 05:00 PM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR)
By the year 2100, the sea level around the Bay Area is projected to rise by nearly seven feet. New research from the Stanford Natural Capital Project illustrates that traditional methods to keep flooding out of a community, such as sea wall construction, can actually do more harm than good by inundating other parts of the Bay Area, causing ecological destruction and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. As a result, it is increasingly important for communities to work together, rather than individually, in their approaches to this looming threat. What other options are there to protect the Bay Area as a whole? Join the authors of that report to learn how nontraditional-based approaches to combating sea-level rise, like strategic flooding plans, can divert floods to overflow zones that absorb increased water and avoid damage to communities.
Speakers:
Anne Guerry / Stanford Natural Capital ProjectRobert Griffin / Stanford Natural Capital ProjectKatie Arkema / Stanford Natural Capital ProjectLaura Feinstein / SPUR
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Wednesday, 10/06/2021
What Happened in the Big Bang? - Livestream - 10/06/2021 12:30 AM
Speakeasy Science
One of the greatest discoveries of the last century is that our universe is evolving and expanding, born almost 14 billion years ago in a fiery event we call the Big Bang. But just what happened in the early life of the cosmos? Here we will step through the major events, from a time where science currently struggles for answers, through the formation of matter and atoms, and into the dark ages, from where the first stars and galaxies emerged. We'll highlight the scientific understanding of what we know, and ponder what we don't, exploring what might be next for our understanding of the universe.
Whilst discussing the physics of the early universe, this event will be maths-free, with the goal of demonstrating what science knows, and what it doesn't know, about the Big Bang. The event is suited for those that have wondered about where our present universe came from, and the question of just how we know. The event will consist of a presentation followed by questions and answers, and all participants are encouraged to bring their questions about the universe.
Speaker: Geraint Lewis
Lessons from Concurrent Pandemics of COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS - 10/06/2021 11:00 AM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Join us for an important intergenerational conversation with LGBTQ Asians and Pacific Islanders and their allies. Our panelists will share QTAPI stories and experiences of the dual pandemics of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19; their histories as Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States; their past and current roles in community organizing and the political process; as well as other issues that are part of the current cultural and political shifts and relevant to the experiences of QTAPI individuals.
Also available online.
Speakers: Ignatius Bau, former member President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS; Cecilia Chung, Health Commissioner, San Francisco; Vince Crisostomo, San Francisco AIDS Foundation; Michelle Meow, Moderator
Doing Inclusive Design: From GenderMag to InclusiveMag - Livestream - 10/06/2021 12:00 PM
CITRIS Research Exchange
How can technology professionals assess whether their technology supports diverse users? And if they find problems, how can they fix them? Although there are empirical processes that can be used to find “inclusivity bugs” piecemeal, what is also needed is a systematic method to assess technology’s support for diverse populations. To fill this gap, we developed GenderMag, a method for finding and fixing “gender inclusivity bugs” - gender biases in technology interfaces and workflows. We then introduced InclusiveMag, which can be used to generate systematic inclusiveness methods for other dimensions of diversity. In this talk, we explain how GenderMag works, present the latest GenderMag results, and then introduce InclusiveMag and our early experiences with it. We conclude with actionable steps for industry and university professionals.
Speaker: Margaret Burnett, Oregon State University
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
Winds of Change: Technical Progress and Learning in Wind Power - Livestream - 10/06/2021 12:00 PM
Environmental and Energy Economics
Speaker: Rich Sweeney, Boston College
See weblink for Zoom information
CCSNet: A deep learning modeling suite for CO2 storage - Livestream - 10/06/2021 12:00 PM
Stanford University
Numerical simulation is an essential tool for many applications involving subsurface flow and transport, yet often suffers from computational challenges due to the multi-physics nature, highly non-linear governing equations, inherent parameter uncertainties, and the need for high spatial resolutions to capture multi-scale heterogeneity. We developed CCSNet, a general-purpose deep-learning modeling suite that can act as an alternative to conventional numerical simulators for carbon capture and storage (CCS) problems where CO2 is injected into saline aquifers in 2d-radial systems. CCSNet consists of a sequence of deep learning models producing all the outputs that a numerical simulator typically provides, including saturation distributions, pressure buildup, dry-out, fluid densities, mass balance, solubility trapping, and sweep efficiency. The results are 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than conventional numerical simulators. As an application of CCSNet illustrating the value of its high computational efficiency, we developed rigorous estimation techniques for the sweep efficiency and solubility trapping.
Speaker: Gege Wen, Stanford University
See weblink to register
Genetic engineering of plants is at the core of sustainability efforts, natural product synthesis, and agricultural crop engineering. The plant cell wall is a barrier that limits the ease and throughput with which exogenous biomolecules can be delivered to plants.
See weblink for Zoom information
October LASER Event - Livestream - 10/06/2021 06:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous
David Kirby (Cal Poly) on "The Nature of Diegetic Prototypes and their Social Impact"
Jessie Liu (UC Berkeley), David Moses (UCSF) & Sean Metzger (UCSF) on Speech Neuroprosthesis
Alysson Muotri (Director of the Stem Cell Program Institute for Genomic Medicine, UC San Diego) on "Applications of human brain organoids"
Register at weblink to receive connection information.
BAY LEXICON: A Field Guide to San Francisco’s Shoreline - 10/06/2021 06:00 PM
Citylights Foundation
As human populations inhabiting cities have grown dramatically, we have lost the ability to understand and even to see the natural world around us. We lack the vocabulary to describe our surroundings, and this lack of understanding limits our ability as citizens to contribute to political decisions about the landscape of cities, especially at the edges where land meets water.
Bay Lexicon, a field guide to San Francisco’s shoreline, is a case study in establishing a working language for hybrid landscapes. Centered on a walk along the edge of the iconic San Francisco Bay, it documents, deciphers, and classifies the places and phenomena a person encounters and the forces, histories, and interactions that underlie what is visible. In a unique synthesis of text and drawing, Jane Wolff applies analytical and representational tools based in design and documentary work to findings from the fields of geography, environmental and cultural history, public policy, urban ecology, and landscape studies. As our cities face increasing pressure caused by climate change, we will need to reimagine them in terms that do justice to their complexity. Bay Lexicon’s methods for building landscape literacy are meant for translation, adaptation, and use far beyond San Francisco Bay.
Preregistration required
Thursday, 10/07/2021
Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World - Livestream - 10/07/2021 10:00 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs our brains must do. Our hearing is always on. We can't close our ears the way we close our eyes. And yet we are quite adept at ignoring sounds that are unimportant. Nina Kraus explores what is going on in our brains when we hear a word, a chord, a meow, or a screech, and examines the partnership of sound and brain, showing how the processing of sound drives many of the brain's core functions. Our hearing brain interacts with what we know, with our emotions, with how we think, with our movements, and with all our other senses. Auditory neurons make calculations at one-thousandth of a second. Hearing is the fastest of our senses.
Sound also plays an unrecognized role in both healthy and hurting brains. Kraus explores the power of music for healing as well as the destructive power of noise on the nervous system. She traces what happens in the brain when we speak another language, have a language disorder, experience rhythm, listen to birdsong, or suffer a concussion.
Join us as Kraus explores how our deep engagement with sound leaves a fundamental imprint on who we are.
Speaker: Nina Kraus, Northwestern University, Author; George Hammond, Author, Moderator
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 10/07/2021 12:40 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Diana Powell, UC Santa Cruz
SETI Live: Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe: Exoplanets and Dark Matter - Livestream - 10/07/2021 03:00 PM
SETI Institute
Jessie Christiansen is an astrophysicist who searches for, characterizes and catalogues planets orbiting other stars - exoplanets. She’s currently working on TESS to find the nearest planetary systems to Earth that may be studied with the next generation of ground- and space-based telescopes. Sophia Gad-Nasr is working on her PhD in cosmology and astroparticle theory and phenomenology. Her research focuses on dark matter - specifically Self-Interacting Dark Matter, a type of dark matter that experiences collisions, making galaxies cosmic particle colliders. Join @aussieastronomer and @astroparticle girl in conversation about their work and what inspired them to discover space and understand our Universe.
See weblink for YouTube and Facebook links.
Bird-friendly Chocolate - 10/07/2021 05:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
Do you love chocolate and are also passionate about bird conservation? Join Sharol-Nelson Embry at this virtual event to learn about bird friendly chocolate harvesting practices such as agroforestry, wild harvesting, and shade growing and how they connect to some cool bird species. In addition, Sharol is creating special bird-themed chocolate-tasting kits available on her Online Chocolate company's website (www.cocoacase.com) and will donate 10% of sales of these kits to SFBBO!
Speaker: Sharol-Nelson Embry, East Bay Regional Park District, retired
Nightlife - 10/07/2021 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+.
After Dark: Extraterrestrials - 10/07/2021 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
The truth is out there! Observation, science, and a healthy dose of skepticism can show it to us. In June of 2021, the Pentagon released a report confirming that there have been objects of unknown origins observed flying above the Earth. While there is no evidence to support alien technology, there are still plenty of fascinating objects in our atmosphere and beyond to be discovered and explored. Launch into the unknown, with your eyes on the skies, as we learn about some of the fantastic and curious objects in outer space.
Micromitigation: Fighting Air Pollution with Activated Carbon - Livestream - 10/07/2021 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.
AI 2041 - 10/07/2021 07:00 PM
Computer History Museum Mountain View
How will artificial intelligence change our world within twenty years? Leading AI expert Kai-Fu Lee and novelist Chen Qiufan joined forces to create ten science fiction stories that show how AI might shape our lives.
All set in 2041, the stories span the globe, including:
In San Francisco, a new industry, “job reallocation,” arises to serve displaced workers and calls into question the nature of what work might be in the AI future.In Tokyo, a music fan is swept up in an immersive form of celebrity worship with her idol’s “ghost” brought back to life through AI and VR.In Munich, a rogue quantum computer scientist imperils the world with his revenge plot with AI-enabled autonomous weapons.
This set of stories brings to life how AI might revolutionize education through human-machine symbiosis, create new forms of communication and entertainment, challenge the organizing principles of our economic and social order, and bring new risks in the form of autonomous weapons and smart technology.
Join us as Kai-Fu Less draws from his newest book, AI 2041: Ten Visions For Our Future, to make predictions and share insights into our collective future --and how humankind remains the author of its destiny.
NightSchool: Resilient Forests - Livestream - 10/07/2021 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Fire is essential to forest life - hear from experts tending fires and ensuring a more resilient California.
See weblink for links to YouTube and Facebook to watch.
Friday, 10/08/2021
The Case of the Disappearing Dynamo: Constraining the decline of the Moon’s magnetic field through experimental analyses of Apollo samples - 10/08/2021 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Beck Strauss, NASA
Sunset Science - 10/08/2021 06:30 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Enjoy a warm summer evening of activities and stargazing on Chabot’s stunning Observation Deck! Learn about stellar concepts and preview our new offerings with special demonstrations, hands-on challenges and more. When the Sun goes down, the stars come out for exploring the cosmos through historic telescopes.
Saturday, 10/09/2021
Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 10/09/2021 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center
Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck!
Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be available for an open forum for all of your most pressing astronomy questions.
Monday, 10/11/2021
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 10/11/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Speaker: Wenrui Xu
Quantum Sensors for Direct Detection of Sub-GeV Dark Matter - Livestream - 10/11/2021 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
Over the last 20 years, searches for dark matter above the proton mass have advanced significantly across direct and indirect searches, but sub-GeV dark matter has until recently been comparatively unprobed. In this talk, I will discuss the state of the Sub-GeV direct detection field, and prospects for applying quantum measurement techniques to lowering mass thresholds for new searches with event thresholds at the eV-scale. I will then discuss the outlook for the field in the next 5-10 years, in the context of synergy with ongoing research in materials science and quantum information science. The goal over the next decade is to run background-free dark matter searches at gram-year exposures with meV-scale thresholds, an exciting challenge that requires a broad range of expertise, and comes with enormous scientific discovery potential.
See weblink for Zoom link.
The genetic basis of complex traits: from understanding to engineering - Livestream - 10/11/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford University
Hunter Fraser studies the evolution of complex traits by developing new experimental and computational methods.
His work brings together quantitative genetics, genomics, epigenetics, and evolutionary biology to achieve a deeper understanding of how genetic variation shapes the phenotypic diversity of life. His main focus is on the evolution of gene expression, which is the primary fuel for natural selection. His long-term goal is to be able to introduce complex traits into new species via genome editing.
See weblink for Zoom link
Energy Seminar: Andrew Ponec, Antora Energy - Livestream - 10/11/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
Inexpensive, long-duration energy storage is necessary to enable the widespread deployment of renewable energy sources like wind and solar, but existing technologies fall short. To meet this need, Antora Energy is combining high-temperature thermal energy storage with novel, high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic energy conversion. When excess electricity is available - for example, at mid-day in electric power systems with high solar penetration - a resistive element is used to heat an inexpensive thermal storage medium contained in a large, insulated tank. When power is needed, photovoltaic cells are exposed to the thermal radiation emanating from an emitter in contact with the hot storage medium, generating electricity. This inexpensive, long-duration energy storage technology will enable global adoption of renewable energy, and thus help eliminate gigatons of CO2 emissions annually.
See weblink for Zoom link.
What Physicists Do - Livestream - 10/11/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Speaker: Dr Teddy Parker, RAND
Earth Science Week - The Incredible Sun - Livestream - 10/11/2021 04:00 PM
Humbold State University Natural History Museum
Celebrate Earth Science Week with the HSU Natural History Museum (NHM) through a live virtual after school program. These 75 mins. sessions are geared towards children 8-12 years old. The weekly program includes a student packet including copies of materials and samples to use during the program and for independent activities at home. For more information or to enroll online go to natmus.humboldt.edu.
Tuesday, 10/12/2021
Which Comes First, Overeating or Obesity? Carbohydrates, Insulin and Metabolic Health - Livestream - 10/12/2021 09:30 AM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Fall Birds of the East Bay Hills - Livestream - 10/12/2021 01:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden
Fluctuating superconductivity on a partially flat band - Livestream - 10/12/2021 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Whole Earth Seminar - 10/12/2021 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Earth Science Week - Stars and Galaxies - Livestream - 10/12/2021 04:00 PM
Humbold State University Natural History Museum
Wednesday, 10/13/2021
CITRIS Research Exchange - Livestream - 10/13/2021 12:00 PM
CITRIS Research Exchange
Earth Science Week - Forces of Water - Livestream - 10/13/2021 04:00 PM
Humbold State University Natural History Museum
Mass Mobility, Fleets, and Innovation: Panel Discussion - Livestream - 10/13/2021 04:30 PM
Acterra
October LASER - A fireside chat on COVID-19 and the Virusphere - Livestream - 10/13/2021 06:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous
The Impacts of Wildfires on Health - Livestream - 10/13/2021 06:30 PM
San Mateo Public Library
Why Mobility is Destiny - 10/13/2021 07:00 PM
Long Now Foundation San Francisco
Thursday, 10/14/2021
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 10/14/2021 12:40 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Earth Science Week - Remarkable Rocks - Livestream - 10/14/2021 04:00 PM
Humbold State University Natural History Museum
Efforts to Protect Breeding Burrowing Owls in our Region - Livestream - 10/14/2021 05:30 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
NightLife: Big Picture - 10/14/2021 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: Creature Feature - 10/14/2021 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Bay Area Bats - Livestream - 10/14/2021 07:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Virtual Stargazing - The Solar System - 10/14/2021 07:00 PM
UC Riverside
Friday, 10/15/2021
Earthquake cycle and segmentation on oceanic transform faults - 10/15/2021 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Laser-Based Phase Contrast in Transmission Electron Microscopy - 10/15/2021 02:00 PM
Tan Hall Berkeley
Earth Science Week - Fossil Clues - Livestream - 10/15/2021 04:00 PM
Humbold State University Natural History Museum
Saturday, 10/16/2021
Past, Present, and Future Indigenous Land Stewardship in the Tolay Valley - Livestream - 10/16/2021 10:00 AM
Audubon Canyon Ranch
Earth Science Week - The Life and Times of Dinosaurs - Livestream - 10/16/2021 10:00 AM
Humbold State University Natural History Museum
Galactic Archaeology: Galaxy Assembly with Globular Star Clusters - Livestream - 10/16/2021 07:30 PM
Mount Tamalpias Astronomy Lectures
International Observe The Moon Night Virtual Telescope Viewing - Livestream - 10/16/2021 09:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center
Sunday, 10/17/2021
The Pumpkin: Botany and Crafts - Livestream - 10/17/2021 10:30 AM
UC Botanical Garden
You Are What You Eat: Investigating Diet and Vulnerability in Bottlenose Dolphins - Livestream - 10/17/2021 01:30 PM
Seymour Science Center
Late Afternoon Hike at Mindego Hill - 10/17/2021 04:30 PM
Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve Los Altos
Monday, 10/18/2021
Dynamics of Topological Defects in Active Nematics - Livestream - 10/18/2021 10:00 AM
UC Berkeley
UC Berkley Theoretical Astrophysics Center Seminar - 10/18/2021 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 Berkeley
Pursuing Blue Skies for the Golden State - Livestream - 10/18/2021 12:30 PM
SF Planning + Urban Research Assoc. (SPUR)
Stanford Energy Seminar - Carla J. Peterman - Livestream - 10/18/2021 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
Spectroscopic characterization of bioaerosols - Livestream - 10/18/2021 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquia - Livestream - 10/18/2021 04:15 PM
UC Berkeley