Dear SciSchmoozers,
A 6.1 earthquake topped off my birthday this month in Oaxaca, Mexico (and abruptly terminated a huge outdoor rock concert). Since the quake was located 108 kilometers below the terrain, there was almost no damage - except to nerves.
The Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 was a 6.9 magnitude event. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 was a 7.9 magnitude event. Because the magnitude scale is logarithmic, the San Francisco quake was 10 times “bigger” than the Loma Prieta event. In terms of energy, however, the San Francisco quake released over 30 times the energy of the 1989 quake.
¿Is our Bay Area threatened by another 7.9 quake? Well, yes, but not for a while. The geological plates separated by the San Andreas fault have not yet crept far enough past each other for a 7.9 shaker. There’s only a 2% chance of a 7.9 before 2050 on the San Francisco portion of the San Andreas. The Hayward fault is a different story; there’s a 32% chance of a 6.7 or higher temblor on the Hayward fault sometime in the next 13 years.
Thursday is International ShakeOut Day which is intended to prepare us for strong earthquakes.
Here’s a series of brief videos on how to best ride out an earthquake wherever you are. Register to participate in International ShakeOut Day. (I’m registered.)
TECHNOLOGY
The Turlock Irrigation District is covering over 3 kilometers of canals with solar panels. If this pilot project achieves its goals of reducing algae growth, reducing water evaporation, and safely producing energy, it could lead to thousands of kilometers of solar-panel-covered canals in California.
Roughly half of Kenya’s electric power comes from geothermal wells - and the percentage is growing. Furthermore, Kenya is assisting other African countries to install geothermal and lessen their dependence on fossil fuels.
Finland is preparing a storage area 450 meters below ground for used nuclear fuel rods. The United States was preparing a similar but larger repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada but funding was withdrawn 12 years ago due to NIMBY voices.
SPACE
As pristine material from asteroid Bennu is being studied (lots of carbon and water), a mission to asteroid Psyche launched last week. The spacecraft will reach Psyche in 2029.
Eventually, optical telescopes and radio telescopes will be installed on our Moon’s far side. To test radio telescope technology in the harsh lunar environment, a spacecraft is slated to land on the far side of the Moon in 2025. It is the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night, or LuSEE-Night.
The Kessler Syndrome is a scenario where a high velocity collision between two satellites results in debris that spreads out and collides with other satellites creating yet more debris and eventually it becomes unsafe to launch any new spacecraft whatsoever. Ah, but technology creates safeguards. At present there are about 9,000 operational satellites in orbit and another 40,000 are planned; each has little thrusters controlled from the ground so they can avoid colliding with each other. Sounds good? But what if a coronal mass ejection disables satellites?
RAFFLE
Michelle won the book, Doppelganger, since her guess was closest to the random number generator’s 160. This week’s prize is a JWST T-shirt. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with an integer between 0 and 1,000.
PSEUDOSCIENCE
The McGill University Office for Science and Society published a short list of What’s trending in the world of pseudoscience. ¿Is it true that rose essential oil can harmonize the human body’s frequency and can treat underlying medical conditions? The answer is probed in this short video.
If you have a few minutes for a comedic take on conspiracy culture, i recommend watching “Imminent Arrival.”
My Picks of the Week (put reminders on your mobile phone)
– The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 - Monday Noon, S.F., $
– The Kitchen Mycologist: Surprises, flops, tips - Tuesday 7PM, S.F.
– Snowy Owls of the Northeast - Livestream Wednesday 5:30PM
– NerdNite SF - The Halloween Nerdtacular - Thursday 8PM, S.F., $
– Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Challenges - Friday 3:10PM, UC Berkeley
– Bat Fest 2023 - Saturday 4-9PM, Morgan Hill, $
– Drop-In: Charleston Slough Observation Deck - Sunday 9-11:30AM, Palo Alto
DEMOGRAPHY
About 20 years ago, the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) announced that “Large Families No Longer Necessary – Small Families No Longer a Sin.” The State of Utah - with two-thirds of the population identifying as Mormon - now leads the United State in its decline in birth rates; a full 36% decrease from 2007 to 2022. There are now four states with a higher birth rate.
Because of COVID and an overall decrease in birth rate, the U.S. population dropped by 1.4 million from 2009 to 2022 - in spite of documented and undocumented immigration.
ANTHROPOLOGY
Homo sapiens emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago, so it was surprising that an example of carpentry dates to over 450,000 years ago. Boards were fashioned from logs and then shaped to fit together; possibly to build a shelter. ¿The earliest Airbnb?
NERDY VIDEOS
Cell-Cultivated Meat - The Right Chemistry - Joe Schwarcz - 5 mins
EV battery manufacturing: China vs U.S. - Wall Street Journal - 8 mins
Scotland’s floating wind farm - Equinor - 9 mins
Mathematical prediction of Black Holes - Dr. Becky – Becky Smethurst – 11 mins
Redox Flow Batteries - Just Have a Think - Dave Borlace - 12 mins
Lunar Radio Telescope? - PBS SpaceTime - Matt O’Dowd - 15 mins
Do chatbots understand what they say? - Sabine Hossenfelder - 22 mins
Looking Deep Into Milky Way's Center with JWST - Fraser Cain - 34 mins
Thank you for joining us this week. Stay curious,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."
– Stephen Hawking (1942 - 2018) English theoretical physicist
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 10/16/2023
Western Pond Turtles: Habits and Habitats - 10/16/2023 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speakers: Lynette Lyon, CEO, The Lyon Ranch and Rebecca Kopel, Sonoma State University Biology Graduate Student
The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 - 10/16/2023 12:00 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep. For approximately one minute, shockwaves buckled streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, crushed hundreds of residents to death and trapped many alive. For the next three days, fires ignited and nearly destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West.
Join us in-person as Matthew Davenport describes the massive devastation and combines history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history.
Speaker: Matthew Davenport, author; Julia Flynn Siler, moderator
Phonon thermal conductivity in ferroelectric materials: the case for “polarization caloritronics” - 10/16/2023 02:30 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
What is the nature of the thermal fluctuations of polarization in ferroelectric materials, the equivalent of magnons in ferromagnetic materials? In displacement ferroelectrics they are phonons involving the atoms that carry Born effective charges; these describe the electrical polarization induced by the displacement of individual atomic sublattices. These phonons are highly anharmonic and can be acoustic as well as optical phonons. A recent theoretical paper 1 called them “ferrons” for short. We show experimentally how the lattice thermal conductivity, the thermal diffusivity and the sound velocity of lead zirconium titanate (PZT) are affected by an external electric field (a 2% effect at 2MV/m). We develop an elementary but predictive theory based on the piezoelectric coefficients and the Grüneisen parameters that describes these effects quantitatively and without adjustable parameters. 2 We the apply the theory to the relaxor ferroelectric lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT, 33%) where a much larger (6% at 0.4MV/m) effect of the opposite sign is predicted and indeed observed. Since these results show that propagating phonons are affected by the electric field, it is reasonable to wonder whether a flux of polarization could accompany the flux of heat, like a spin flux accompanies a heat flux in the spin-Seebeck effect. This allowed Bauer and co-workers to write Onsager relations 1 for mixed polarization/heat conduction, thus defining “polarization caloritronic (Seebeck, Peltier)” coefficients. We will discuss future experiments that might put these in evidence, because if a polarization flux were to exist, it could open new applications 3 in heat control, energy conversion, THz generation and phonon-based logic.
If time allows, we will also describe how magnetic fields affect the lattice thermal conductivity of diamagnetic InSb, again by influencing phonon anharmonicity. 4 This effects can exceed 10% and is explained quantitatively without adjustable parameters.
Speaker: Joseph Heremans, Ohio State University
Synthetic biology for sustainability - 10/16/2023 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
Synthetic biology is one of the most promising fields of research for the 21st century. It offers powerful ways to build the global economy, manufacture sustainable materials, and address climate change. However, current access to biotechnology breakthroughs is unequal, largely due to bottlenecks in infrastructure and education. Here, I describe our efforts to re-think the way we engineer biology using cell-free systems to address these bottlenecks. In one example, we show the ability to accelerate the production of carbon-negative platform chemicals. In another, we integrate cell-free systems with AI to engineer new to nature biosynthetic pathways for above ground carbon capture. Looking forward, advances in engineering tools and new knowledge underpinning the fundamental science of living matter will ensure that biochemical engineering helps solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.
Speaker: Michael Jewett, Stanford University
Social dynamics in swarming bacterial colonies - 10/16/2023 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Dr. Karine Gibbs studies the social behaviors of tiny organisms. Her team asks how bacteria recognize one another, engage in collective behaviors such as territory formation, and cause disease. They use molecular biology, biochemistry, and live-cell imaging to examine shapeshifting, fast-moving residents of humans and animals. Dr. Gibbs (A.B., Harvard University; Ph.D., Stanford University) is an Associate Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She received a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering. Dr. Gibbs enjoys running and bicycling as well as the conversations that can arise.
Speaker: Karine Gibbs, UC Berkeley
Room: Auditorium
Scalable Quantum Nanophotonics: From Nanofabrication to Quantum Circuit Mapping - 10/16/2023 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Dr. Radulaski explores light and matter interaction at the nanoscale for applications in quantum and classical informationprocessing hardware. Photonic systems are the leading candidates for creating reliable sources of quantum information and other important tools for quantum computing. Recent advances in photonic technology have important applications in building quantum networks, quantum circuits, and quantum simulations.
Speaker: Dr. Marina Radulaski, UC Davis
Scouting for light new physics - 10/16/2023 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
The two most common ways particle physicists are searching for the existence of new forces or new degrees of freedom are either by producing heavy new particles directly, using collisions at the highest achievable energies, or by measuring precisely processes that are very rare. In the colloquium I will review the third possibility that is coming more and more to the fore: if we are lucky enough that light new particles can be produced in the very rare processes, this will open a window to physics at very small scales. Using intuition from condensed matter and atomic physics systems I will explain why in this case there is a parametrically enhanced sensitivity, and review experimental efforts under way to search for such particles.
Speaker: Jure Zupan, University of Cincinnati
US Energy Diplomacy in a More Challenging World - 10/16/2023 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
The US State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) develops and executes US international energy policy through diplomatic and programmatic engagement that promotes a low-emissions future, energy security for the United States and our allies and partners, and economic prosperity through sustainable, affordable, and reliable energy access. In a conversation with the Hoover Institution’s Adm. James O. Ellis, Jr., USN (Ret.), Assistant Secretary Pyatt - a career diplomat formerly serving as US ambassador to Ukraine, as ambassador to Greece, and with other senior postings to missions in Europe, India, Hong Kong, and Pakistan - will describe the role that US energy resources, technologies, and markets play in supporting US national diplomatic priorities around the world. This includes in Europe and in Central Asia after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, among treaty allies and partners in the shifting Indo-Pacific, and across the Global South where energy is key enabler of economic development.
The Joy of Science - Livestream - 10/16/2023 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
It's a challenge to make the best decisions in a world that is unpredictable and full of contradictions. Help is now available in the form of advice from quantum physicist Jim Al-Khalili, who shares 8 lessons from the heart of science that he says can help people get the most out of life.
As he writes in The Joy of Science, Al-Khalili invites people to engage with the world as scientists have been trained to do. The scientific method has served mankind well in its quest to see things as they really are. Underpinning the scientific method are core principles that can be deployed outside of the laboratory too, in our own lives. Knowing the nature of truth and uncertainty, the role of doubt, the pros and cons of simplification, the value of guarding against bias, the importance of evidence-based thinking and more - Al-Khalili says these are all deeply relevant to everyday lives.
Speaker: Jim Al-Khalili is distinguished professor of theoretical physics at the University of Surrey and is one of Britain’s best-known science communicators. His other books include The World According to Physics, Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed, and Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology. Moderated by Kishore Hari, Science correspondent for Tested.com.
Editor's Note: This was originally planned as an in-person hybrid event. It will now only be available online, and prices have been adjusted.
Tuesday, 10/17/2023
Understanding Food Loss and Waste - 10/17/2023 12:00 PM
Acterra
Food that is lost or wasted on its journey from farm to fork creates the potent greenhouse gas methane and results in lost environmental resources, energy, and economic productivity. Reducing food loss and waste (in the U.S., the goal is to cut food waste by 50% by 2030) represents a very important opportunity to combat the climate crisis while improving food security. Join us for a virtual presentation by Dr. Lisa K. Johnson and Selena Mao followed by moderated discussion including time for audience questions.
Speakers: Lisa K. Johnson, North Carolina State University and Selena Mao, ReFED; Nicole Angiel, Actera, Moderator
Firetech: Using technology to address our wildfire crisis - Livestream - 10/17/2023 12:30 PM
Stanford University
Extreme wildfire has become a global crisis - affecting lives, property, air quality, economies and ecosystems. What role can technology and startups play in helping address it? Bill Clerico is the founder and managing partner at Convective Capital, a wildfire-focused venture capital firm and will share his perspectives on the market and opportunities therein.
See weblink for stream information.
Quantum error correction: a window to complex quantum states and dynamics - 10/17/2023 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Quantum error correction was invented as a graceful answer to how quantum computing would be feasible despite continuous noises from environment. It was soon realized that gauge theories had been a quantum error correcting code in disguise. This perspective has influenced designs of quantum fault-tolerant protocols. On the other hand, the language of quantum error correction has transformed how we learn many-body physics, especially in the subject of topological phases. In this talk, I will review elements of this ongoing cross-fertilization, including emergence of topological field theories in 2+1d, fracton physics in 3+1d, and Floquet dynamics and codes.
Speaker: Jeongwan Haah, Microsoft
The Kitchen Mycologist: The delicious surprises, the unfortunate flops, the great tips, and the ultimate lessons I learned - 10/17/2023 07:00 PM
Mycological Society of San Francisco San Francisco
Speaker: Eugenia Bone is an internationally known food and nature writer. Her work has appeared in many anthologies, magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, The National Lampoon, Saveur, Gourmet, BBC Science, and The Wall Street Journal, where she is a frequent book reviewer.
Attend in person or online.
Astronomy on Tap Tucson #92: Revealing the Hidden - Livestream - 10/17/2023 07:30 PM
Astronomy on Tap
Unveiling the Missing Universe with Arizona’s Own Space Telescope
Speaker: Carlos Vargas
The Search for Stealth Ocean Worlds
Speaker: Adeene Denton
On tap this month, we have Steward Observatory professor Carlos Vargas and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory postdoc Adeene Denton! Carlos will tell us all about the University of Arizona’s very own view of the invisible universe and Adeene will talk about hunting for sneaky ocean worlds! We’ll also be hearing all about the latest Astronomy in the News from Dr. Jackie Champagne and Dr. Danny Krolikowski, so please join us to learn about the latest and greatest in the astronomical world.
Wednesday, 10/18/2023
Mote Aquarium’s Aquaculture Laboratory & Latest Inclusion Efforts - Livestream - 10/18/2023 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Amanda Hodo began her career as an animal care specialist nearly 9 years ago at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, and is currently serving in a hybrid role as Aquarium Biologist III/Diversity and Inclusion Advisor to the President & CEO.
As an Aquarium Biologist III at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, Amanda provides care for several aquarium exhibits and co-manages the Fish and Invertebrate Department’s intern program. She oversees Mote’s “Aquarium Conservation Laboratory”, a multi-species aquaculture laboratory on display for the public, that breeds fish and invertebrates for display, maintenance, research, and conservation. The lab’s main breeding efforts are with Neon Gobies (Elacatinus oceanops) and Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata boggessi). Both are useful Atlantic cleaners that eat parasites and dead skin cells off of other fish. In this talk, I introduce the ACL space, discuss the species historically bred in the ACL, and highlight the maintenance animal aquaculture contributions that Mote makes to an important coral rescue and conservation network, The AZA-Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project.
As Mote’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisor to the President & CEO, Amanda is passionate about encouraging young people of color to pursue careers in marine science and serves as a mentor in a variety of settings. In this talk, I will also discuss how I am building upon Mote’s current initiatives and models to increase participation and retention of underrepresented minorities in both marine research and aquarium science.
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
The John and Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series at Bodega Marine Laboratory - 10/18/2023 12:00 PM
Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute
Join us for the John & Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series, featuring speakers from within the marine sciences community and beyond.
Please register to join us on Zoom.
Biotic interactions among nearshore marine species under global change - 10/18/2023 03:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center Tiburon
Speaker: Michele Repetto, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Energy and Resources Group Colloquium - 10/18/2023 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Researchers, community members and advocates have called upon decision-makers to address the structural causes leading to the double jeopardy of co-occurring exposures to environmental and social “stressogens” that shape the origins and persistence of health disparities. This talk will delve into the scientific evidence, as well as research translation and policy engagement strategies for how to advance environmental justice in policy and regulatory decision-making.
Speaker: Rachel Morello-Frosch, UC Berkeley
AI Orchestration: Symphony for a New World - 10/18/2023 05:00 PM
swissnex San Francisco San Francisco
Back in 2015, BootstrapLabs was among the first VCs to track how AI would impact people, corporations and society, and to develop an investment thesis focused on Applied AI in verticals such as the Future of Work, Mobility, Health, Digital & Financial Infrastructure, and Climate & Energy.
We have witnessed firsthand the AI hype cycle, the bust, and tracked the adoption curve. We have been one of the most discerning AI investors over the past 7 years and have built an unrivaled portfolio of 28 AI-first startups that have raised over $1Bn in follow-on funding and are fast becoming category leaders.
The progress made by the industry in the last 7 years has been nothing short of phenomenal, but we are still at the inception phase of this transformative technology.
ChatGPT and other LLMs have captured the imagination of mainstreet and the media, but as often is the case in Silicon Valley, the most disruptive technology and applications are happening behind garage doors, away from the bright lights.
Come join us for an afternoon filled with thought-provoking conversation on what’s next with AI, explore how this next wave will further transform the way we live, work, and function as a society, and network with fellow members of our community to learn, share, and invent the future together.
Host, Moderator & Keynote Speaker: Benjamin Levy, Co-Founder & General Partner, BootstrapLabs
Panelists: TBA
See weblink for agenda
Snowy Owls of the Northeast - Livestream - 10/18/2023 05:30 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
Join us to hear about the journey of Snowy Owls from the Arctic to the shores of Cape Cod each winter. Stephanie will discuss their life cycle and behavior as well as local research findings that detail why they choose to spend their winters in New England. She'll touch upon what it was like to rehabilitate a Snowy Owl that was brought to Wild Care in January of 2022, and how we can all contribute to the safety and survival of these incredible creatures.
Speaker: Stephanie Ellis, Wild Care
Register at weblink
Science Uncorked: Monitoring, Restoring, and Engaging with Different Types of Communities - 10/18/2023 06:00 PM
Gourmet au Bay Bodega Bay
Pairing delicious wines with delicious ideas, this series features talks by scientists from UC Davis' Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute and Bodega Marine Laboratory
Speaker: Meghan Zulian
The UFO Movie They Don't Want You to See (2023) - Livestream - 10/18/2023 06:30 PM
SETI Institute
In an age when misinformation, alternative facts, and conspiracy theories have become mainstream, UFOs have risen to become one of the most-talked about pop culture phenomena. With all of this noise, how can we expect anyone to know how much of this is true? What is in our skies? What do we know, and how do we know it? And most importantly: Are we being visited? Science does have most of these answers, and we're working on answering the rest of them. Featuring experts in cosmology, physics, and image analysis, The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See will lay out for you exactly what we know and how we know it.
http://theufo.movie
Immediately following the film, there will be a brief Q&A with filmmaker, Brian Dunning, so be sure to stick around for that!
Birding Under the Influence - Livestream - 10/18/2023 07:00 PM
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
A North American Big Year―a continent-spanning adventure in which a birder attempts to see as many species as possible in twelve months―is a massive undertaking under any circumstances. But doing it on a bike while maintaining sobriety? That’s next level. We are privileged to have Dorian as our speaker this month as he shares highlights from remarkable journey, a truly inspiring story. Birding Under the Influence will be released early November and is currently available for preorder here.
An avid birder since childhood, Dorian Anderson abandoned his hobby at age 15, focusing instead on a demanding scientific career while simultaneously struggling with substance abuse. He earned a degree in molecular and cellular biology from Stanford, conducted predoctoral research in molecular embryology at Harvard, and earned his doctorate in Developmental Genetics and Molecular Cell Biology at New York University. While working as a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dorian decided to leave the academic rat race and focused on the next phase of his life, returning to birding. In 2014, he embarked on his Biking for Birds project, the first North American Big Year completed entirely by bicycle. During this incredible journey, he biked 17,830 miles (28,500 km) and observed 618 bird species while raising funds for bird habitat conservation. Since his cycling Big Year, he has transitioned to a professional life as a birding guide, writer, and public speaker.
Register at weblink
Thursday, 10/19/2023
Nanotechnology: Tiny Science with a Big Impact - Livestream - 10/19/2023 12:00 PM
Midday Science Cafe @ UC Berkeley
Did you know that October 9th was National Nano Day? To celebrate the exploration of this miniscule world that holds immense potential for our future, this month’s Midday Science Cafe delves into the fascinating realm of nanoscience, where matter is studied at the mind-boggling nanoscale, a dimension one thousand times smaller than a human hair’s width. First, we’ll hear from Dr. Grigory Tikhomirov, who is developing a new nanotechnology based on molecular programming with DNA by combining the strengths of traditional engineering and bottom-up biomolecular assembly. Next, we’ll hear from Dr. Emma Vargo, who is designing self-assembling composite packaging materials that can be used, and then disassembled and reassembled without extra processing steps, making recycling much easier.
Register at weblink
Bits & Watts in Motion: Our Much Better Electricity Future - 10/19/2023 01:30 PM
Environment & Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
Our past 150 years of experience with communication technology holds key lessons for how electricity technology could transform in the coming decades. With communications there were many decades of relative stasis in telephone technology before the transformation of the fundamental mechanism of our communication with the introduction (and wild success) of Internet technology. While physical and application layers continue to evolve, the core of IP technology has not needed to. For electricity, we have had relative stasis since the late 19th century, which raises the question of if, and when. we might see a comparable transformation.
There are many cross-references between the two systems, spanning from fundamentals like bits/watts to more global attributes such as whether control and data planes are separate or unified. There is also the central difference that data packets are all different but electrons are all the same.
This talk reviews this content and makes the case that only one mechanism for electricity can occupy the role that the Internet Protocol does for communication. That mechanism is price/quantity, supplemented by capacity management. This talk will cover how we should understand the insights from history and how apply them to technology and policy related to the electricity grid.
Speaker: Bruce Nordman, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Room: 101
Attend in person or online (see weblink for connection)
Warm-Start Reinforcement Learning: From Function Approximation Error to Sub-Optimality Gap - 10/19/2023 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
Conventional reinforcement learning (RL) techniques face the formidable challenge of high sample complexity and intensive computation load, which hinders RL's applicability in real-world tasks. To tackle this challenge, Warm-Start RL is emerging as a promising new paradigm, with the basic idea being to accelerate online learning by starting with an initial policy trained offline. Indeed, owing to the knowledge transfer from an initial policy, Warm-Start RL has been successfully applied in AlphaZero and ChatGPT, demonstrating its great potential to speed up online learning. Despite these remarkable successes, a fundamental understanding of Warm-Start RL is lacking. The primary objective of this study is to quantify the impact of function approximation errors on the sub-optimality gap for Warm-Start RL. We consider the widely used "Actor-Critic" method for RL. Our findings reveal that a 'good' warm-start policy (obtained by offline training) may be insufficient, and bias reduction in online learning also plays an essential role to lower the suboptimality gap.
Speaker: Junshan Zhang, UC Davis
Attend in person or online here. Passcode: 2009A
Zombies? Or the Workings of a Federal Science Agency? The National Wildlife Health Center - Livestream - 10/19/2023 06:00 PM
US Geological Survey Public Lecture Series
By Hon Ip, USGS Diagnostic Virologist
As an introduction to how we investigate the causes of diseases in wildlife, we will use zombies to illustrate how disease is portrayed in the movies and how we would we investigate zombieism as an infectious disease. Learn about the different specialists who work at he NWHC - including specialists in chemistry, microbiology, parasitology, and more.Learn about the different diseases studied, including White Nose Syndrome, West Nile Virus, and Avian Influenza.
See weblink to connect to the talk.
Scales and Tails: Reptiles and Amphibians of the Bay Area - Livestream - 10/19/2023 07:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Throughout our open spaces and urban areas, the Bay Area is home to many diverse reptiles and amphibians. From slippery serpents to charming croakers, prepare to learn about creatures that crawl, slither and hop their way through the Bay.
Santa Cruz Black Salamander (Aneides niger). Photo by Brandon Kong.
We’ve invited special guest BiologyBrandon, a graduate student biologist and researcher at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to help shed light on these elusive creatures. From sun-soaked summers to the rainiest of winters, discover how these critters adapt and thrive throughout the seasons. Our speaker will take us on tour through the scales and tails that call our region home. Additionally, prepare to learn the art of responsible wildlife watching Whether you’re a reptile rookie or an amphibian aficionado, you’ll leave this event with the knowledge and tools to explore our wild neighbors responsibly.
Nerd Nite SF: # 137 The Halloween Nerdtacular! - 10/19/2023 08:00 PM
Rickshaw Stop San Francisco
Kick off spooky season with a nerdy twist at our Halloween special! Featured will be a talk on the real Gray’s Anatomy, tarot readings by Nerd Nite alum Ben Grandis, a pumpkin decorating contest (with prizes!), music by dj andjelly, and our friends in nerdom, the SF Public Library crew. Just added: a special presentation on adaptive fashion with Tracy Vollbrecht! There will be something for everyone, in true Nerd Nite fashion! (pun intended)
The Real Gray’s Anatomy Was So Much Worse by Patrick KellyThe medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy, got its name from the most famous medical textbook of all time - Gray’s Anatomy. And the story of the book’s creation has the same level of drama and life-or-death action as the show… but with much less hooking up in the on-call room, and much more smallpox. In this talk, you’ll learn how medical education has changed over time, the controversial career of Henry Gray, and how to procure a cadaver. At least in 1850s London.
Adaptive Fashion by Tracy Vollbrecht
Friday, 10/20/2023
Using biochemistry to understand human circadian timekeeping and develop new therapeutic approaches - 10/20/2023 12:00 PM
ChEM-H/Neuroscience Building, James Lin and Nisa Leung Seminar Room (E153) Stanford
Speaker: Carrie Partch, UC Santa Cruz
Attend in person, or click here to attend online.
Coupled modeling of earthquake and fault-zone fluid transport: fault-valve instability - 10/20/2023 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: So Ozawa
Global Insights to Anticipate and Address Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Challenges - Rescheduled - 10/20/2023 03:10 PM
South Hall Berkeley
Editor's Note: This event has been rescheduled for October 27, 2023
Saturday, 10/21/2023
Wellness Walk - 10/21/2023 09:00 AM
Cooley Landing Education Center East Palo AltoJoin us for an informative and reflective stroll through wetlands
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust, Climate Resilient Communities, and Grassroots Ecology at Cooley Landing for a fun walk along the Bay Trail! The walk will be approximately 2 miles along the flat, paved trail to the Ravenswood lookout. We will be learning about the history and ecology of the site along the way, and reflecting on our own personal connection with our watershed through a grounding breathing exercise and reflective prompt. We will also have snacks at the lookout! This event will be hosted in English and Spanish.
Visit Grassroots Ecology’s Cooley Landing page to learn more about the ecosystem and accessibility considerations.
Register at weblink
Clinical Lycanthropy: The Werewolves Among Us - Livestream - 10/21/2023 10:30 AM
Bay Area Skeptics
Join us as psychologist Brian A. Sharpless discusses unusual psychological conditions described in his new book, Monsters on the Couch: The Real Psychological Disorders Behind Your Favorite Horror Movies. We’ll delve into Clinical Lycanthropy, a psychiatric syndrome within which the patient has the delusional belief of turning into a wolf, and Clinical Zoanthropy, a broader category of delusional belief in turning into an animal. (Hollywood has dramatized werewolf stories many times, but were-gerbils remain “stories untold.”) What are these real-life disorders, how do they compare with myth and popular culture, and what treatments are available?
Family Nature Walks - Foothills Nature Preserve - 10/21/2023 11:00 AM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos
Environmental Volunteers’ Family Nature Walks program is designed to help students and their families get to know our local open space areas. Small family 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.
Families/groups are welcome to sign up for as many as they like. The nature walks are intended for children aged 6 to 11, and we ask that each group is accompanied by an adult.
If registration is full, get on the waitlist! If the waitlist is large enough, additional groups can be created if EV Nature Walk leaders are available.
Intended for ages 6 - 11, plus adult supervision.
This walk was originally scheduled on September 9.
Bat Fest 2023 - 10/21/2023 04:00 PM
Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
It's our biggest and most exciting event of the year - Bat Fest! Join Saved By Nature for an evening festival celebrating local animals of the night, with live bats, owls, and other creatures. It's a fun time under the stars! With a special guest speaker, food trucks, live music, festival games, arts and crafts, mini-pumpkin patch, REI lounge and community partner organization booths. Be sure to bring blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy popcorn, cotton candy and your favorite drink while watching a movie under the night sky.
Enter the silent auction for a guided fly fishing trip, a 3-night stay in a cabin, and artwork by local artists. Purchase raffle tickets for camping gear, equipment and gift cards from REI, Los Gatos Bird Watchers, Bass Pro Shop, Cabela's and more!!
See weblink for event schedule
City Public Star Party - 10/21/2023 06:00 PM
City Star Parties - Point Lobos San Francisco
Come join the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers for an evening of stargazing at Land’s End! We meet at the USS San Francisco Memorial at El Camino del Mar parking lot
Telescopes will be set up to show you the craters and mountains of the Moon, planets, bright and colorful double stars, and deep sky objects including star clusters and nebulas!
SFAA members with telescopes are encouraged to attend and share their views of the stars with the general public.
Dress warmly. Rain, heavy fog and overcast skies cancel. Check the SFAA website for a cancellation notice before leaving for the star party.
Editor's Note: This event's time has changed since we first listed it. It will now begin at 6:00 PM.
Jazz Under the Stars - 10/21/2023 07:00 PM
College of San Mateo Bldg 36 San Mateo
Jazz Under the Stars is a FREE monthly public stargazing event! Occurring on the Saturday nearest the 1st quarter moon (check our Events Page), join us 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 four 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 8’ schmidt-cassegrain is for our deep sky needs. It can peer deep into globular clusters, and nebulae! 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. Occasionally we even have the chance to image galaxies! Don't miss out, join us at our next Jazz Under the Stars!!
Weather dependent, check the weblink before attending.
Sunday, 10/22/2023
Drop-in at the Charleston Slough Observation Deck - 10/22/2023 09:00 AM
Charleston Slough Observation Deck Palo Alto
Visit our birding station at the Charleston Slough observation deck, where our volunteers will help you identify ducks, shorebirds, and more. No need to sign up - come by anytime we’re there! This event is wheelchair accessible.
Hike at Windy Hill - 10/22/2023 09:00 AM
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve Portola Valley
Join POST on a guided hike on one of the first open spaces we protected as an organization! A POST Representative will share a few words about POST’s decades of conservation success before hiking groups leave to explore a strenuous but rewarding 7 mile hike with 1,500 feet of elevation gain.
Windy Hill was the first land protection project POST ever completed. Today, it’s an ideal spot for flying kites, walking dogs, mountain biking and horseback riding. The grassy ridge top of this popular 1,312-acre open space preserve is clearly visible from many spots along the Peninsula and is an ideal property to highlight POST’s work to expand the extensive recreational trail networks in our region.
All attendees must RSVP via Eventbrite. More detailed information regarding parking and meet-up locations will be sent out to all attendees prior to the event.
Register at weblink
Resilient Forest Series - 10/22/2023 10:00 AM
The West Mill at Green Valley Farm + Mill Sebastopol
Join Forestree Collective, Regenerative Forest Solutions and Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program for this series highlighting forest health practices, ecological stewardship, regional milling infrastructure, prescribed burning, and more.
Each series date will engage participants in stewardship strategies employed at Green Valley Farm + Mill for improving the forest and watershed, a demo and information about Forestree Collective's small-diameter milling infrastructure and Regenerative Forest Solutions' biomass campus project. Staff from Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program will share about the prescribed burn they accomplished alongside Green Valley Farm + Mill and will share resources for those wanting to bring good fire back to the land.
Our day will be broken into two portions: 1) from 10:00 am - 12:30 pm; 2) Afternoon Session: Forest stewardship work from 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm. A waiver and survey will be sent out to all participants prior to the workshop date.
At the end of each workshop, attendees will be offered a locally cultivated blue elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp cerulea) start to take home as well as a recently published guide produced by Fire Forward.
Monday, 10/23/2023
Tethering of H3K9me2 Chromatin to the Nuclear Periphery in Mammals - 10/23/2023 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Harold Marin, Ph.D. Candidate, UC San Francisco
Physics Condensed Matter Seminar - 10/23/2023 02:30 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Mike Manfra
Mitigating climate and air pollution from the electricity and transportation sectors in the United States - 10/23/2023 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
In this talk, I will cover a few recent papers and projects that focus on the measurement of emissions and the costs, benefits, and opportunities associated with a transition to sustainable, deeply decarbonized, and equitable energy systems is needed in the United States. For example, in [1], we show that with an increasing interconnected system that encompasses variable energy sources and complex markets, the emissions embedded in electricity generation and consumption are becoming more difficult to estimate. Using flow tracing and consumption-based accounting, we have characterized the health damages from exposure to PM2.5 from electricity imports and find that that 8% of our estimated premature deaths from electricity consumption in the United States are due to electricity imports. In [2] we assess the consequences of vehicle electrification across the country as a function of where vehicles are charged, and which types of plants are meeting that electricity demand, and in [3] we present a data-driven, realistic model of charging demand that captures the diverse charging behaviors of future adopters in the US Western Interconnection. We find that peak net electricity demand increases by up to 25% with forecast adoption and by 50% in a stress test with full electrification. In ongoing work, we develop tools and analysis that identify the most cost-effective strategies for retirement and replacements of existing electricity generation capacity, which can help guide state and federal decision-makers deep decarbonization plans.
Speaker: Inês M.L. Azevedo, Stanford University
Attend in person or via Zoom (see weblink)
UC Observatory STARS Program - 10/23/2023 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Speaker: Dr. Anne Metevier, UC Santa Cruz
Mechanistic basis for amphibian resilience to climate change and disease - 10/23/2023 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Ana V. Longo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Before starting this tenure-track position, Ana was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Maryland and Smithsonian Institution from 2015 to 2018. She received her PhD in 2015 from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. Ana has degrees in Biology (MS and BS) from University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras. Ana has taught courses in the topics of disease ecology and evolution, introductory biology, microbiome analyses, herpetology, and undergraduate field immersion experiences. Ana’s research interests are to identify and quantify the ecological and evolutionary processes that allow hosts to interact with their pathogens, parasites, and symbionts. Her interest in herpetology started as an effort to understand the role of fungal pathogens in global amphibian declines. Ana has built a research program primarily focused on identifying the determinants of disease defenses in tropical amphibians persisting with seasonal infections of the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Her work on Puerto Rican direct-developing frogs combines field and experimental studies, providing mechanistic insights on how aquatic pathogens infect terrestrial species. In addition to her work in Puerto Rico, Ana has studied other amphibian systems in North America, México, Panamá, Brazil, and Chile.
Speaker: Ana Longo, University of Florida
Room: Auditorium
A vector spin glass made of atoms and photons - 10/23/2023 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Spin glasses are canonical examples of complex matter. Although much about their structure remains uncertain, they inform the description of a wide array of complex phenomena, ranging from magnetic ordering in metals with impurities to aspects of evolution, protein folding, climate models, combinatorial optimization, and artificial intelligence. Advancing experimental insight into their structure requires repeatable control over microscopic degrees of freedom. I will present how we achieved this at the atomic level using a quantum optical system comprised of ultracold gases of atoms coupled via photons resonating within a confocal cavity. This realizes an unusual form of transverse-field vector spin glass with all-to-all connectivity. The controllability provided by this new spin-glass system may enable the study of spin glass physics in novel regimes, with application to quantum associative memory.
Speaker: Benjamin Lev, Stanford University
Building Enduring Companies for Planetary Health - 10/23/2023 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
Climatetech refers to companies trying to reverse climate change using technology. We explore the key factors that drive long term success for companies that wish to make a positive impact on climate change and how startups can incorporate these learnings into their strategic plans. By using the physics of business, sectors with venture returns vs other asset classes can be elucidated.
Speaker: Arvind Gupta, Author
How to Build Personalization into LLM Recommendations - 10/23/2023 07:00 PM
Hacker Dojo Mountain View
We enable Large Language Models (LLM) with personalization capability. This is not specific to the LLM (Open AI's ChatGPT, Athropic's Claude, Meta's Llama 2, Googles,...)
Today, LLMs are not good at personalization and providing recommendations. They may advise physicians and financial advisors to "ask professionals" in their respective fields for help, even having user information available. When answering questions for software professionals, the LLM may need to deliver in-depth answers with code or algorithms, whereas for professionals in other fields would need definitions and main concepts.
The intent of this project is to make LLMs provide answers tailored to the needs of a specific user, taking into account available information about that individual. To do that, we need to generalize available documents about a person. Based on the needs of the application and with the permission of the individual being served, information used could include: their LinkedIn profile, visited web pages, investment history extracted from tax documents, and health forms (while maintaining the privacy of this person). We rely on meta-learning techniques to design an LLM prompt to produce a personalization prompt to obtain suitable relevant information. Such a “meta-prompt” is produced by a generalization operation applied to available documents for the user. These documents need to be de-identified so that they are sufficient for personalization, on one hand, and will maintain user privacy on the other hand.
A personalization profile is built from the link provided by the user.
Then, given a user question, this system will use the LLM to generate a set of queries. The URLs from search results are stored internally in a self.urls. A check is performed for any new URLs that haven't been processed yet (not in self.url_database). Only these new URLs are loaded, transformed, and added to the vector store. The vector store is queried for relevant documents based on the questions generated by the LLM. Only unique documents are returned as the final result.
This project build is in https://github.com/bgalitsky/LLM-personalization
Attend in person or online
Speaker: Boris Galitsky
Tuesday, 10/24/2023
The Quantum Age: From Bell Pairs to Quantum Computers - 10/24/2023 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Wonderfest: Pills for Aging - 10/24/2023 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Antarctica and South Georgia: Birds, Beasts and Bold Adventure - Livestream - 10/24/2023 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
Wednesday, 10/25/2023
Restoration of kelp forest habitat in Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary - Livestream - 10/25/2023 11:00 AM
Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute
Independent Community-rooted AI Research - 10/25/2023 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Environmental and Energy Economics Seminar - 10/25/2023 12:10 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Paths to climate resilience through groundwater chemistry and environmental justice - 10/25/2023 03:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center Tiburon
Energy and Resources Group Colloquium - 10/25/2023 04:00 PM
Giannini Hall Berkeley
Zombiology - Livestream - 10/25/2023 06:00 PM
The Leakey Foundation
Curved Spaces - Geometry from the Inside - 10/25/2023 07:00 PM
Castro Valley Library Castro Valley
Archaeology and Ecological Crisis: Lessons in Sustainability from the Past - 10/25/2023 07:30 PM
Marin Science Seminar San Rafael
Thursday, 10/26/2023
Degrowth for a New Generation - Livestream - 10/26/2023 10:00 AM
Post Carbon Institute
Development of an Open Data Platform for the Global South - 10/26/2023 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Virtual Halloween Event: Learning Through Death - Livestream - 10/26/2023 12:00 PM
Marine Mammal Center
NightLife on Elm Street - 10/26/2023 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Life as a Space Weather Analyst - Livestream - 10/26/2023 06:00 PM
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
After Dark: Thrills and Chills - 10/26/2023 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Friday, 10/27/2023
Granular Mechanics Across Time and Length Scales: Insights from In-Situ X-ray Measurements - 10/27/2023 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
High-stakes decisions from low-quality data: AI decision-making for planetary health - Livestream - 10/27/2023 01:00 PM
Berkeley Institute for Data Science
Global Insights to Anticipate and Address Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Challenges - 10/27/2023 03:10 PM
South Hall Berkeley
Saturday, 10/28/2023
Science Saturday: Spooky Science Saturday - 10/28/2023 10:00 AM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Stewardship Saturday: Being Sea Otter Savvy in Morro Bay - 10/28/2023 10:00 AM
Morro Rock Morro Bay
Family Nature Walks - Foothills Nature Preserve - Rescheduled - 10/28/2023 11:00 AM
Foothills Nature Preserve Los Altos
Exploring the Sky Through Astrophotography: From Cities to the Darkest Skies - 10/28/2023 07:30 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
A Wealth of Other Worlds: Planets through the Eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope - 10/28/2023 07:30 PM
East Bay Astronomical Society Oakland
Sunday, 10/29/2023
Morning Hike at Rancho Cañada del Oro - 10/29/2023 09:30 AM
Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Animal Day - 10/29/2023 10:00 AM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley
Monday, 10/30/2023
Biofilm Benefactors: Unveiling the Role of Biofilms in Subsurface and Plant Rhizosphere Microbial Communities - 10/30/2023 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Physics Condensed Matter Seminar - 10/30/2023 02:30 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Fate, form, and the organizing role of the supracellular nexus - 10/30/2023 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
N ~ 1: Alone In The Milky Way - 10/30/2023 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Bay Area Bats - 10/30/2023 05:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden Berkeley
The Warped Side of Our Universe - 10/30/2023 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Experimental proof that nonlocal quantum entanglement is real - 10/30/2023 05:30 PM
International House Berkeley
AI + Humanity - 10/30/2023 07:00 PM
Computer History Museum Mountain View