Hi Fellow Supporters of Science and Reason,
Did you feel it? It happened at 0833 (PDT) this morning. March 20 also marks another woefully misnamed holiday this year, first declared by the UN in 2012. The “aim” is good but seems so far distant in these times. March 22-25 are more days that hopefully will be uplifting. Spring seems like the most hopeful of seasons to me. If you are interested in a larger picture of what the various aspects of climate change look like, I suggest that you search around the Climate Truths Deep Dive a new series of deeper reads from multiple perspectives. Do you think climate change is anything less than at least one of the top challenges facing us?
One of the really interesting things to me these days is how people come to think they know something really well. We all do it, but how often to we actually question what we think we know or check the source of our belief? Here’s an article that opens the door to that question… Journalists tend to understate — not exaggerate — scientific findings So how do you get the info to inform your views, understanding and decisions? How do you validate it and why do you trust it?
So with the question of trust in sources here are a couple of sources for you to consider this week...
Wonderfest: CODA + Audiology Mon 5:00, St. Helena (It’s bit out of way for most readers but I hope some can make it. Let Tucker know that he needs to share with more of us!)
Wildfire-induced Air Pollution Assessment & Mitigation Symposium - Livestream Wed 9 to 4:15
After Dark: Conversations About Landscape Thu 7:30 Doors at 6:00
Hoofing it in the West: Conservation Challenges and Solutions for Migratory Game - Livestream Thu 6:00
If you know me at all, you either think I don’t like kids, or know I have a small soft spot for them. Every once in awhile I get a chance to “engage” with some really cool kids while I’m on duty as a docent at the CalAcademy, and it is damn near magic! So even though it isn’t really about science, I hope you’ll take some time and watch this documentary… The Making of Preschool Poets think about getting kids to think about science. The Psychology of Messiness & Creativity “Our single greatest defense against scientific ignorance is education, and early in the life of every scientist, the child's first interest was sparked by a teacher.”
Things aren’t always what they seem. When you look out over Monterey Bay you might not think that it is so strange under the surface. One of the things that NASA seems to do is “over engineer” their amazing machines. I’m sure that other agencies get frustrated when something that was intended for a relatively short life keeps on going. The latest example of that, as far as I know, is Ingenuity. It has now completed 21 flights and is still going strong!
To the larger question of science and basic science research… The scientists I know are incredibly creative. John Cleese has a short statement on creativity that I think speaks to science as well. (Here’s the long version.) Research never really stops. It just leads to more research by more curious people. Sometimes we think or hope that the end of some is near but often there is a need for more after some think it’s been figured out. For instance… While we hope the worst is over you should probably keep your mask near by.
With that said, I hope that you have a great week learning new and cool things about how this amazing universe works.
herb masters
“Now in the 21st century, the boundaries separating chemistry, physics, and medicine have become blurred, and as happened during the Renaissance, scientists are following their curiosities even when they run beyond the formal limits of their training.”
“There is an anti-science by the far right. We have to be careful that the far left doesn't balance this with a naive approach of promising what we can't deliver. I mean, science is neutral; it's not politically conservative or liberal.” Peter Agre
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 03/21/2022
Tuesday, 03/22/2022
Ask Me Anything (AMA): A session with Bjoern Schuller - Livestream - 03/22/2022 12:00 PM
SF Bay Association of Computing Machinery
Prof. Björn W. Schuller, World Economic Forum honoree, will be answering the questions on Artificial Emotional Intelligence (AEI), Affective Computing, Digital Health and more.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Wonderfest: CODA + Audiology - 03/22/2022 05:00 PM
Cameo Cinema St. Helena
Wonderfest joins St. Helena's Cameo Cinema to present Q&A with Dr. Melanie Gilbert immediately following a special screening of 2021's CODA (95% "Fresh" at Rotten Tomatoes). Peter Travers of ABC News calls CODA (children of deaf adults) "an emotional powerhouse ... one of the year's best." This Science on Screen event promises to be a lively journey deep into sound and silence - exploring the adaptive power of the brain and the impact technological advances can have on individuals with hearing loss.
Beneath the Surface: The Impact of Captivity on Cetaceans - Livestream - 03/22/2022 07:00 PM
American Cetacean Society
Join ACS San Francisco Bay Chapter for an enlightening talk by Naomi Rose, Ph. D, Marine Mammal Scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute. Dr. Rose is an expert on the impact of cetaceans in captivity. She is co-author of The Case Against Marine Mammals in Captivity, now in its 5th edition, and works on behalf of marine mammals at the Animal Welfare Institute. In this talk, she will discuss the impact of captive conditions on cetacean welfare.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Floating Upstream: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand - 03/22/2022 07:00 PM
Long Now Foundation San Francisco
Join us for an illuminating evening with journalist John Markoff in conversation with Long Now's Co-founder Stewart Brand and Executive Director Alexander Rose around Markoff's new biography of Brand.
Journalist John Markoff writes about technology, society and the key figures who shaped Silicon Valley and the personal computer revolution. Along the way, his stories and reporting intersected with Stewart Brand's paths numerous times and in surprising ways.
And now Markoff has distilled Brand's formative rise from the Merry Pranksters and the Whole Earth Catalog, to the marriage of environmental consciousness and hacker capitalism into his newest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand. The book will be available to purchase at the in-person talk, and sales will benefit BookShop West Portal.
John Markoff writes for the New York Times, has covered Silicon Valley since 1977, wrote the first account of the World Wide Web in 1993, and broke the story of Google’s self driving car in 2010. He is the author of What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry and Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots, amongst others. His new biography of Stewart Brand is Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand, which will be released on March 22, 02022.
Attend in person or for free online
Wednesday, 03/23/2022
Wildfire-induced Air Pollution Assessment & Mitigation Symposium - Livestream - 03/23/2022 09:00 AM
CITRIS at UC Berkeley
Wildfires are becoming an existential threat to the well-being of the U.S. population, with wildfire-induced air pollution as one of the most severe contributors to economic and life losses. This symposium will report on recent research advancements in the assessment and mitigation of wildfire effects on human health, with presentations by accomplished researchers from a multidisciplinary team supported by the University of California Office of the President, through the UCOP Lab Fees program. This applied research has the ultimate goal to support the state of California and the U.S. federal government in their science-informed decision-making processes to reduce the negative impacts produced by wildfire-induced air pollution.
See weblink for list of speakers
Teach & Learn in “The Great Tech Story” - Livestream - 03/23/2022 04:00 PM
Computer History Museum
Join CHM Director of Education Kate McGregor to explore and discuss “The Great Tech Story,” the Computer History Museum’s new world in Minecraft: Education Edition. The Great Tech Story will inspire and empower your students, ages 8-18, to become informed technology citizens.
This workshop will support educators to facilitate rich learning opportunities for their students. Educators will hear tips and suggestions for student engagement and have the opportunity to learn more about the world and discuss teaching approaches and learning outcomes with others, including guiding and supporting students to complete the end-of-game build challenge.
Within the Minecraft: Education Edition World, students will navigate a virtual museum exhibit and engage with computing artifacts like a 2000-year-old scientific calculator, the Apollo lunar lander, and a self-driving car. They’ll meet historic figures and computing pioneers as well as a diverse group of tech users, engineers, and young entrepreneurs. And, students will teleport to learning experiences on concepts in hardware and software, innovation, ethics in tech, and technology in daily life.
Petrified Wood - Livestream - 03/23/2022 07:00 PM
Peninsula Gem & Geology Society
Speaker: Doug Gottschlich, Sequoia Gem and Mineral Society
See weblink for instructions on obtaining Zoom access
SETI Talks: Mysterious Radio Signals in the Milky Way - Livestream - 03/23/2022 07:00 PM
SETI Institute
At the end of 2021, a group of astronomers detected unusual signals from deep in the heart of the Milky Way. More recently, another group happened upon a celestial object releasing giant bursts of energy, unlike anything ever seen before. These mysterious signals, which seem natural, were discovered using recently built radio astronomy facilities, such as the Murchison Widefield Array telescope and the ASKAP radio telescope, both in Australia.
These objects are unique so far, and radio astronomers around the world are looking back in their data to see if there have been similar detections in other parts of the galaxy. Are these rare one-off events or a vast new population we never noticed before?
It’s still unclear what truly are, but it’s inevitable that within the next decade, with the arrival of the transcontinental Square Kilometer Array (SKA), more of them may be found and help astronomers to solve mysteries like their origin.
To discuss these discoveries, we invited two researchers: Tara Murphy, professor at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney, and Natasha Hurley-Walker, head of the extragalactic radio astronomy group at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, both are involved in the recent publication of these mysterious and transient signals.
Both researchers will describe the instrument used for these remarkable discoveries, some hypotheses on the nature of those signals and discuss the golden future of radio astronomy. Of course, we will discuss whether we can reject an artificial origin for those signals. Are we sure that those are not simply advanced civilizations trying to communicate with us?
Thursday, 03/24/2022
The Origins and Early Evolution of Leaves - Livestream - 03/24/2022 01:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden
As our "Year of Leaves" continues, the UC Botanical Garden is pleased to host Dr. Jeffrey Benca, Research Associate at the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture and Horticulturist for Amazon’s Horticulture Program in Seattle, Washington, to take us into the deep past, when leaves originated and reshaped terrestrial ecosystems.
Register at weblink to receive connection information
After Dark: Conversations About Landscape - 03/24/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Spark your curiosity at After Dark! As the sun sets, we’ll hit the rainbow lights, turn the music up, and open our doors, inviting you to take your imagination out to play. Tonight, join us for a conversation with San Francisco Department of Environment Director Debbie Raphael to learn about the City of San Francisco's new Climate Action Plan, and how her approach to “asking questions and questioning answers” has moved the city forward.
Conservations About Landscape is staged in the Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery, which explores environmental change in the Bay Area and beyond.
Crafting a Climate Action Plan A Conversation With Debbie Raphael 7:30 p.m. Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6
In this era of uncertainty for people and the planet, what is the City of San Francisco's plan to address climate change? Who gets to decide, and how? In a dynamic and complex system, what are the pathways to change? What does Albert Einstein have to do with solving problems of environmental governance?
Join us in conversation with San Francisco Department of Environment Director Debbie Raphael to learn about the City of San Francisco's new Climate Action Plan, and how her approach to “asking questions and questioning answers” has moved the city forward. Debbie will be in conversation with Emma Greenbaum, Program Manager for the Exploratorium's environment initiatives.
Debbie Raphael believes that cities can take bold action to address environmental harm. A scientist by training and public servant by profession, she has spent most of her career working in government to ensure that everyone has an equal right to a safe and healthy environment. Named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in climate policy, Debbie is a frequent keynote speaker at international climate conferences and a national spokeswoman on environmental issues.
DJ Sake-One From Hip Hop for Change 6:30 - 7:45 and 8:15 - 9:30 p.m. Bechtel Gallery 3
Get ready to dance your way through the night as a DJ from Hip Hop for Change sets the vibe and keeps the party moving all night! Born and raised in the culture of hip-hop, DJ Sake-One joins us tonight. He has been looking for the perfect beat since 1989, kickin’ up dust and making 5,000-person venues feel like neighborhood house parties, from San Francisco to New York City to Atlanta to London and beyond. He’s the Frisco native and Bay legend responsible for both the infamous PST party and his current Art of Storytelling Outkast tribute party.
Hip Hop for Change is an Oakland-based nonprofit that uses grassroots activism to educate people about socioeconomic injustices and advocate solutions through hip-hop culture.
Tinkering School Mars Mission Q&A 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Bechtel Gallery 3
Tinkering School (TS), a San Francisco - based educational program dedicated to youth-centered making and tinkering, created Tinkering School Mars Mission as an Earth-bound program that maintains the accuracy and challenges of real Mars rover operations. Inspired by (but not associated with) NASA’s Mars missions, the TS team, composed of young people ages 14-20, collaborated to build an educational hands-on experience operating rovers in a simulated Martian lava tube. Join members of the team to learn more about their mission and prototypes and to test drive the newest generation of their rovers.
Nightlife - 03/24/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Calling all creatures of the night: explore the nocturnal side of the Academy at NightLife and see what's revealed. With live DJs, outdoor bars, ambiance lighting, and nearly 40,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude the alligator with albinism), the night is sure to be wild.
Step inside the iconic Shake House earthquake simulator and our four-story rainforest, where you can explore the Amazon’s treetops surrounded by free-flying birds and butterflies.
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 Café and head to the West Garden outdoor bar to drink and dine under the stars.
Hoofing it in the West: Conservation Challenges and Solutions for Migratory Game - Livestream - 03/24/2022 06:00 PM
US Geological Survey Public Lecture Series Across the western US, GPS collaring studies are leading to new discoveries of long-distance migration in mule deer, elk and pronghorn. These seasonal movements are becoming more difficult as the West continues to grow. Learn how new research and mapping approaches providing a road map for conservation efforts to sustain long distance migrations amid changing landscapes.
Speaker: Matthew Kauffman, USGS Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
See weblink to join the lecture
Friday, 03/25/2022
Leveraging Science Driven Research with Entrepreneurial Vim - Key Gaps & Essential Toolkit - Livestream - 03/25/2022 12:00 PM
California Section American Chemical Society
In scientific academic careers, the growth of technical skills is considered to be the focal point for success by many young researchers. While these skills are the pillars of research from a scientific standpoint, many loopholes are left unaddressed in a bid to boost the career among competitive ranks. The crucial aspect which is often overlooked is linked to the development of soft skills. Skills such as are not only essential to secure the stand-out leadership roles but also shape the transition into the corporate world which many scientists aspire to achieve. The sphere of soft skills encompasses the right decision-making insight, rational analytical approach, interpersonal communication, foresight, leadership and management caliber. These are also defined in the form of personal branding skills for building professional platform. The purpose of this lecture is to showcase the elevator-toolkit for professional trading in science. The presentation will be followed by Q & A.
Speaker: Noeen Malik, Stanford School of Medicine
Saturday, 03/26/2022
Science Saturdays - Endangered Monterey - 03/26/2022 10:00 AM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
See weblink for description.
Urban Hikes: Fort Funston to Stern Grove - 03/26/2022 12:00 PM
Shaping San Francisco
The old coastal railway that traversed the former military base, Lake Merced, The Duel and California slavery, Fleishhacker Pool, Trocadero Resort, Laguna de los puercos, and more!
RSVP required
In Town Star Party - 03/26/2022 08:15 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) is restarting our long running In Town Star Party (ITSP) events after Covid19 hiatus of two years.
Events are to be held at the parking lot of our headquarters, Houge Park San Jose. We are initially limiting telescope observing to electronically assisted observing. Please refrain from bringing in your own telescopes. Event duration is 1.5hrs. We plan to have an introduction to night sky of the day followed by the observing session.
See weblink for additional information and safety precautions.
Monday, 03/28/2022
Captive Rearing of an Endangered Seastar: Fortuitous Findings and Future Prospects - Livestream - 03/28/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Speakers: Jason Hodin, University of Washington
See link for Zoom information
A New Mechanism for the Joule Heating of Moons and Planets - Livestream - 03/28/2022 12:15 PM
Stanford University
Two forms of joule heating of celestial bodies (and, in particular, planetary satellites) have received particular attention: unipolar-generator heating with currents running between the primary and secondary, and magnetic induction heating due to the primary’s time-varying field. Neither appears to cause significant dissipation in the contemporary solar system. But these discussions have overlooked heating derived from the spatial variation of the primary’s field across the interior of the secondary. This leads to Lorentz-force-driven currents around paths entirely internal to the secondary, with resulting ohmic heating. I will describe three ways to drive such currents, and show that the first of these operates even for a spin-locked secondary whose orbit has zero eccentricity, in strong contrast to tidal dissipation. Jupiter’s moon Io today could dissipate about 600 GW (more than its likely radiogenic heating) by this mechanism. Had Io ever been at 3 Jovian radii instead of its current 5.9, it could have been dissipating 15,000 GW. This mechanism could drive inward orbital migration of secondaries, in this solar system or others. I will close my talk with a brief description of theoretical and experimental work regarding some surprising implications of Earth’s apparent rotation through the axially symmetric components (with respect to its rotation axis) of its own magnetic field.
Speaker: Christopher Chyba, Princeton University
See weblink for Zoom information
Spectroscopic evidence for unconventional superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene - 03/28/2022 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
A question regarding the superconducting state in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) remains whether the pairing mechanism is that of a conventional superconductor or the unconventional cases such like high-Tc superconductors, although various features of the superconducting phase have been reported in transport measurements. Tunneling measurement, otherwise, provides key information for understanding superconducting nature by studying Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitation spectra. In this talk, we report the unconventional spectroscopic features of the superconducting gap of the MATBG by using density-tuned scanning tunneling spectroscopy combined with Andreev reflection spectroscopy. We show that the tunnelling spectra below the transition temperature Tc are inconsistent with those of a conventional s-wave superconductor, but rather resemble those of a nodal superconductor with an anisotropic pairing mechanism.
Speaker: Myungchul Oh
Attend in person or online here
What Physicists Do - Livestream - 03/28/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Speaker: Aman Gill and Demitri Call, University of Nevada
See weblink for Zoom link
CITRIS People and Robots Seminar - Livestream - 03/28/2022 04:00 PM
CITRIS People and Robots
Speaker: Satrajit Chatterjee, Google AI
See weblink for Zoom information
The inertial fusion community have been working towards ignition for decades, since the idea of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) was first proposed by Nuckolls, et al., in 1972. On August 8, 2021, the Lawson criterion for ignition was finally demonstrated in the laboratory on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Northern California. The experiment, N210808, produced a fusion yield of 1.35 MJ from 1.9 MJ of laser energy and appears to have crossed the tipping-point of thermodynamic instability according to several ignition metrics. The “indirect” ICF approach at NIF described in this talk uses a hohlraum radiation cavity to heat and ablate the outside of a capsule that contains Deuterium-Tritium (DT) fusion fuel. This ablation causes the fuel to accelerate inward (implode) at high velocities doing work on a central lower density “hot spot” of DT fuel, increasing the temperature and density of the hot spot to the extreme conditions required for fusion. This presentation discusses the development of a platform that increased the hot-spot energy and hot-spot pressure, to achieve record ICF performance.
Speaker: Annie Kritcher, Lawrence Livermore National Lab
See weblink for Zoom information
Wonderfest: The Science of Happiness - 03/28/2022 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
What does it mean to be happy, and what can one do to be happier? Scientific research is yielding a heartwarming picture: Happiness is linked to feelings and behaviors that are prosocial - that contribute to a greater good. Happy people routinely report having strong, supportive social connections; they find common humanity with others, and assume trust and good intent. Despite popular assumptions about competitiveness, self-reliance, and self-interest, evidence indicates that dedicated psychological systems (for nurturance, affiliation, and shared joy) incline humans toward cooperation and generosity. Increasing happiness, it seems, hinges largely on prioritizing interpersonal belonging and genuine kindness - both towards ourselves and other people.
Speaker: Emiliana Simon-Thomas, UC Berkeley
Tuesday, 03/29/2022
Wednesday, 03/30/2022
Socioecological Approaches to Marine Resource Management in Small-Scale Fisheries - Livestream - 03/30/2022 03:40 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Preparing Nature for a Changing Climate - Rescheduled - 03/30/2022 04:00 PM
Acterra
Science on Tap - That's a moray: Untangling the mysterious lives of California moray eels - 03/30/2022 07:00 PM
Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz
Thursday, 03/31/2022
Hardcore Natural History: Planning for Climate Resilience in Monterey County - 03/31/2022 06:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
NightLife: Black Ecosystem - 03/31/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Watching the Grass Grow - For Over a Decade - Livestream - 03/31/2022 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
Stewart Brand and Silicon Valley’s Soul - 03/31/2022 07:00 PM
Computer History Museum Mountain View
Friday, 04/01/2022
First Friday: Mind Tricks - 04/01/2022 06:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Extraterrestrial Life and Where to Find it - Livestream - 04/01/2022 08:00 PM
San Mateo County Astronomical Society
Monday, 04/04/2022
The Physiological Impacts of Changing Snow Cover on a Montane Leaf Beetle - Livestream - 04/04/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Symbolic Systems Forum - Livestream - 04/04/2022 12:15 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar - Livestream - 04/04/2022 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Making a $10B Investment Deliver - Livestream - 04/04/2022 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
What Physicists Do - Livestream - 04/04/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
The Search for Living Worlds Beyond the Solar System - 04/04/2022 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco