Hello again science fans,
Aloha hou e ka poʻe ʻepekema,
SPACE
Comets are fickle. They can delight with their brightness, or they can disappoint with their fading. The above long-exposure photo was taken last week in the Southern Hemisphere, but we northern folk will likely be able to see the comet starting Thursday just after sunset on the western horizon. Binoculars will help. If all goes well, it will be visible through the end of the month.
When light from a supernova - usually in a nearby galaxy - reaches Earth, astronomers around the world know about it within a few hours - thanks to the Internet. That’s not soon enough! Astronomers would rather have their best instruments pointed at the doomed star just as it goes supernova. That means being able to predict when it is going to explode - preferably within a few weeks. That predictive ability is ready to be tested. [I’ve often viewed Betelgeuse while hoping i would get to see it explode. The best estimates predict it will go supernova 1.5 million years from now. Dang.]
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is being sent to gather data about Jupiter’s moon, Europa. When it reaches there in about five years, instruments on Europa Clipper will look for signs of life. The first launch window for the Europa Clipper is Thursday morning at 9:31 AM PDT
RAFFLE
We are offering a coffee mug disguised as a 450ml laboratory beaker displaying the chemical structure of caffeine. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, Ron guessed closest to the randomly generated 485 to win a tabletop Stirling engine.
ENVIRONMENT / CLIMATE
Another hurricane, named Milton, is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and is predicted to slam into the St. Petersburg / Tampa area Wednesday evening. Over 10,000 government employees, Guardsmen, and troops are still working to repair roads and restore infrastructure as well as bring food, water, and clothing to those affected by Hurricane Helene. Over two hundred people lost their lives and the count continues to rise.
Great Britain closed its last coal-fired power plant last week, ending England’s 140 years of burning coal for power. It is the first of the G7 countries to wean itself away from coal. (The other G7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.) The U.S. has about 200 operational coal-fired power plants but they are rapidly being replaced. The most polluting coal-fired power plant was the San Juan Generating Station located on the Navajo Nation. It was demolished last August. Here is a video compilation of 21 power plants being demolished; all but three were coal-fired.
One early evening in September when the outside air temperature neared 40°C (103°F) the power company shut off Ada Garcia’s home air conditioner. Ada barely noticed since her house was already cool and well-insulated. By agreeing to cede control of her house thermostat to the power company, she gets a discount on her electric bill. The power company was juggling local energy sources - wind, solar, storage battery farms, home storage batteries, natural gas - to meet electricity demand by its customers, but it was maxed out. By shutting down hundreds of home air conditioners, it avoided a black-out without buying power from Texas’ grid at an hour when prices were high. This strategy goes by the name of Virtual Power Plant, or VPP. Here is an excellent video describing the VPP concept.
¿Should we let power companies build big solar farms or should we put solar panels on our roofs? The answer is both. If every roof were covered with solar panels, that would only provide 40% of the country’s needs. Therefore, power companies need other sources to meet demand. If you have the option of putting solar on your roof (in the Bay Area), it will likely pay for itself in under 10 years. Carmen and i thoroughly appreciate fueling her Kia EV, my Zero motorcycle, and the e-bikes — for free.
The above chart shows that 5.6% of U.S. power generation comes from solar and that 15 other countries have exceeded that percentage.
MY PICKS of the WEEK (Hint: save dates & times to your mobile phone)
A lot going on this week. I recommend you browse the entire calendar.
Microproteins: Dark Matter of the Proteome - Mon 4pm, Stanford
Geography of Hope: Changing the World with GIS - Tues 7pm, Mountain View
Religions and Extraterrestrial Life - Livestream Wed 7pm
Eclipses: Influence on Animals & Humans - Livestream Thur 6:30pm
An Earthquake Crawl of the East Bay - Sat, meet 11am in Fremont; return 3:30
Estuary & Ocean Science Center Marine Lab Open House - Sun 11am - 3pm
TECHNOLOGY
When Kaiser Permanente worked to build a ‘forever’ storage for documents, i stressed that - to be safe - the documents need to be re-recorded every two decades because most media physically age and playback technology changes. Consider 8-track tapes. Some folk at the University of Southampton just recorded the billions of base pairs of the human genome within a penny-sized piece of crystal that is expected to last billions of years. It resides inside an Austrian mountain with other items in the Memory of Man Archive.
The price of lithium shot up four years ago due to demand for use in car batteries and power station storage. The price is coming back down as more lithium deposits are discovered and mined.
As refining methods improve, lithium prices will likely reach a record low. One such refining improvement employs a chemically-selective sieve to extract lithium from brine.
Helium is a critical resource and a new concentration of helium has been discovered under Minnesota. However, once helium escapes into the atmosphere from balloons, heliarc welding, airships, rocket propellant tanks, MRI machines, manufacturing, etc., etc., it is gone. Unrecoverable. Although it is the second most abundant element in the universe, it simply disperses into outer space. The helium we use was created as a radioactive product through millions of years. The deposit in Minnesota is estimated to have accumulated over a period of 1.1 billion years. Once we use up the helium we have discovered - in oil deposits, natural gas, and permeable rock - we will need to wait millions of years before helium will again be sufficiently abundant to be useful.
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
Impact of a Keystone Species - The Future with Hannah Fry - 2 mins
Coating the Vera Rubin 8.4m Mirror - NOIRLab Astro - 2 mins
What We Should Know About Alcohol - Cup o’ Joe - Joe Schwaarcz - 4 mins
Brinicle / Brine Icicle / Ice Stalactite / Briner Cold - BBC Earth - 4 mins
A Truly Half Empty Glass - What If? - Randall Munroe - 4 mins
Vredefort Crater - SciShow - Caitlin Hofmeister - 5.5 mins
Gradations of Consciousness - Sabine Hossenfelder - 6 mins
Virtual Power Plants - Just Have a Think - David Borlace - 10 mins
Tipping Points for the Better - Simon Clark - 15 mins
Origin & Mathematics of QR Codes - Veritasium - Derek Muller - 35 mins
Engineering the Future: Solar - 52 mins
Have a marvelous week — while stretching your sphere of empathy to encompass yet more,
Dave, Bay Area Skeptics
The Big Bang gave us hydrogen and helium. We couldn't make people out of hydrogen and helium, so we're made out of exploding stars.
— John C. Mather (1946 - ) American astrophysicist & Nobel Laureate
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 10/07/2024
Understanding and Responding to the Current Mpox Outbreak - Liveestream - 10/07/2024 08:00 AM
Stanford University
The recent, rapid spread of the new clade 1B strain of mpox (formerly called monkeypox) in Central Africa has prompted the second Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) since the global outbreak of mpox in 2022. Learn the latest about the current epidemic in this panel conversation with experts representing a variety of perspectives. In a conversation hosted by the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health and moderated by Abraar Karan, MD, Stanford infectious diseases fellow, expert panelists will discuss the various strains of mpox currently causing outbreaks; epidemiological drivers of the various clades; strategies for containment; vaccine equity; and implications for the U.S. response. CIGH Director Michele Barry will provide provide an introduction.
Register at weblink to attend
Naturalized Honey Bees in the Americas: A 7-year Research Project at the Galbreath Wildlands Preserve - 10/07/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Michael Thiele, Apis Arborea
Software-Defined Power Electronics in EV Charging and Battery Management Systems - 10/07/2024 12:30 PM
Green Earth Sciences Building Stanford
This talk examines the role of soft-switching inverters in electric vehicle (EV) charging and battery management systems (BMS), focusing on technological advancements and their impact. The integration of variable frequency critical soft-switching (VF-CSS) with wide-bandgap semiconductors, optimized AC filters, and real-time control enables the production of stable sine wave output voltages and currents. These inverters are stackable, allowing for the development of reconfigurable and partially redundant software-defined power converters suitable for both onboard and offboard EV charging. VF-CSS effectively reduces leakage currents and supports transformerless charger designs, which are cost-effective and facilitate vehicle-to-everything (V2X) services.
The talk also explores the use of power electronics for lithium-ion battery (LIB) diagnostics and management. LIB degradation is typically assessed at three levels: mechanisms, modes, and metrics. Recent advancements in diagnostics and prognostics are driven by machine learning (ML), which offers a detailed multi-level perspective on LIB degradation. The pulse injection aided machine learning (PIAML) technique is highlighted for its ability to improve diagnostic accuracy without requiring specialized sensors or electronics. This technique matches or surpasses existing methods, offering a practical approach to optimizing lithium-ion system management. By extending battery life and reducing costs, the PIAML framework supports effective battery management and aligns with contemporary battery pack designs and requirements.
Speaker: Matthias Preindl, Columbia University
A local automaton for the 2D toric code - 10/07/2024 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
We construct a local decoder for the 2D toric code using ideas from the hierarchical classical cellular automata of Tsirelson and G'acs. Such a decoder is realized as a circuit of strictly local quantum channels that preserves the logical subspace of the toric code for exponential time in the presence of (below threshold) circuit-level noise without the need for non-local classical computation or communication. Our 2D construction is not translation invariant in spacetime, but can be made time-translation invariant in 3D.
Speaker: Margarita Davydova, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Wave-like dark matter: A sea-change - 10/07/2024 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
Dark matter is a feebly interacting particle that is thought to compose 85% of the matter content of the Universe. One potential candidate for the dark matter is the axion, a particle so light it exhibits wave-like behavior. At SLAC, we search for axions using ultra-low noise radios immersed in strong magnetic fields. Under these conditions, the axion is expected to create an electromagnetic signal that can read out using sufficiently low noise amplifiers. Recent advancements in the field of quantum information science have enabled the technology to enhance and measure such a weak signal. I will discuss recent progress made by the DMRadio and ADMX collaborations and the role of SLAC in the future of axion searches.
Speaker: Chelsea Bartram, SLAC
Attend in person or online (see weblink for Zoom information)
Note location change
Cryo-EM of proton pumps in the mammalian brain - 10/07/2024 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Intercellular communication in the nervous system occurs through the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft between neurons. In the presynaptic neuron, the proton pumping vesicular- or vacuolar-type ATPase (V-ATPase) powers neurotransmitter loading into synaptic vesicles (SVs), with the V1 complex dissociating from the membrane region of the enzyme before exocytosis. We are using cryo-EM to understand the mechanism V-ATPase in synaptic vesicle loading, including the reversible dissociation and developing methods to image the enzyme in its native context.
Speaker: John Rubenstein, University of Toronto
Dark Matter of the Human Proteome - 10/07/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Speaker: Sarah Slavoff, Yale University
Room: Auditorium
What Physicists Do - Student Research Talks - 10/07/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Four Sonoma State Physics students will present short talks based on their summer research projects on topics including: ATLAS, the largest general purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, using quantum sensing to search for direct detection of Dark Matter, and exploring Conformal Field Theory.
Speakers: Madison Ambriz, Bahareh Adami Ardestani, Merlin Goddard, and Aaron Russell, Sonoma State University
What do black holes get up to when they are on their own? - 10/07/2024 04:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
What do black holes get up to when they are on their own? This talk will describe the evolution of a universe containing only a single black hole, starting with classical physics figured out in the 1960s and continuing to dynamics that requires a fully quantum theory of gravity and that we only now have enough control to successfully tackle.
Speaker: Geoff Penington, UC Berkeley
Unraveling the Mysteries of the Sun's Atmosphere - 10/07/2024 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
The Sun, our nearest star, is more than just a blazing ball of fire. Its atmosphere, hotter than its already scorching surface, presents a puzzle that has intrigued scientists for years. How does the Sun's magnetic field heat its chromosphere to 10,000 degrees - and its corona to more than a million degrees? This enigma holds significant implications for Earth, as the Sun's corona hosts powerful explosions and eruptions that can trigger space weather events affecting our technology-dependent society. From mesmerizing auroras to disruptions in communication systems and satellite operations, the Sun's activity touches our daily lives in unexpected ways.
This talk will delve into the recent strides made in understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics. Thanks to breakthrough observations from space-based telescopes such as NASA's IRIS and SDO, coupled with advancements in supercomputing, we are gaining deeper insights into the mechanisms driving solar heating. Moreover, we will explore the upcoming frontier in solar research, with future observatories including NASA's MUlti-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) mission poised to revolutionize our understanding of the Sun's behavior and its impact on our planet and beyond.
Speaker: Bard De Pontieu, Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory
Tuesday, 10/08/2024
Oppenheimer - From Berkeley to Trinity via Manhattan - 10/08/2024 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Robert Oppenheimer successfully directed the Manhattan Project that led to the creation of the world’s first nuclear weapons. However, two other Berkeley faculty members played crucial roles in this development. Ernest Lawrence’s invention of the cyclotron enabled Glenn Seaborg to discover plutonium and led to the development of uranium isotopic enrichment. In this talk I will describe this work and our group’s investigations to authenticate the first sample of plutonium that was large enough to be weighed and to determine the explosive yield of the "Gadget" through studies of trinitite.
Speaker: Eric Norman, UC Berkeley
The role of heterogenous bedrock in shaping topography and freshwater biodiversity of eastern North America - 10/08/2024 12:00 PM
Braun (Geology) Corner (Bldg 320), Rm 220 Stanford
The mountain ranges of the central and southern United States have long been considered enigmatic, both for their sustained topographic relief and exceptional levels of freshwater biodiversity. In my talk, I will propose that the erosion through heterogeneous bedrock is an important mechanism for explaining the topography and freshwater biodiversity of these post-orogenic landscapes. As ancient geologic structures are exhumed through erosion, rocks with different chemical and physical properties are exposed at the surface of the landscape. This process does not only influence landscape dynamics, but also generates opportunities for speciation in freshwater fishes.
Speaker: Maya Stokes, Stanford University
Attend in person or on Zoom (See weblink)
Einstein without Tears - 6 week course - 10/08/2024 12:30 PM
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
This non-technical, non-mathematical introduction to some of the most awe-inspiring ideas from the work of Albert Einstein is designed for people with little or no science background. If you’ve been intrigued by Einstein (who was Time magazine’s “Person of the Century” in 1999), but have been scared away by thoughts of pages filled with equations, this is the class for you! We’ll explain everything with analogies, clear photos and diagrams, and touches of humor
You will come away from this course with a new appreciation of the physical world and its behavior under extreme conditions. You’ll also see why Einstein’s theories continue to fascinate both scientists and science fiction fans today. Our goal is to give a concise overview of Einstein’s ideas, and show how modern science (especially astronomy) has now confirmed the bizarre predictions of his theories.
Along the way you will come to understand such weird notions as: why there is no such thing as a universal “now;” how space itself can bend and warp; that there are at least two ways to do realistic time travel; how giant black holes can form in space (we'll explain just what those are); and - in the latest triumph for Einstein - the existence of gravity waves (whose discovery got the Nobel prize a few years ago.)
Click here to read more about the course and register
Instructor: Andrew Fraknoi retired as Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College in 2017.
Three easy steps to register:
Sign in or create a free account at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/account/signin.aspxJoin the Institute at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx?catId=14 (a modest fee)Register for the class at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx?C=1177&pc=138&mc=0&sc=0
Supporting the Health and Wellbeing of Healthcare Workers - 10/08/2024 12:40 PM
Berkeley Way West Berkeley
Speaker: Aoife McDermitt, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
Scale-dependent Elastic Constants in Mutilated Sheets and Shells - Rescheduled - 10/08/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
This event has been rescheduled for November 19, 2024. See our listing for Dmitir Basov on this date instead.
Shedding nano-light on quantum materials - 10/08/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Optical spectroscopies have contributed immensely to the present understanding of metals, semiconductors and superconductors. Unfortunately, optics encounters problems when it comes to “seeing” effects at length scales below the diffraction limit of light and also with probing physics outside of the light cone. Both capabilities are highly desirable for the exploration of new quantum materials. Over the last decade or so, our group has deployed scanning-probe optical methods that have extended tera-Hertz, infrared and optical experiments to the nano-scale and beyond the light cone. In this talk, I will discuss recent examples of the progress we have made in understanding the electronic phenomena in atomically layered van der Waals materials, all empowered by deeply subdiffractional nano-light.
Speaker: Dmitri Basov, Columbia University
UC Berkeley Physical Chemistry Seminar - 10/08/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Speaker: Matteo Mitrano, Harvard University
The AI Touch: Harnessing AI to Enrich Patient Care - Livestream - 10/08/2024 05:30 PM
Stanford University
This presentation will explore the integration of emerging AI into healthcare to provide personalized, empathetic care. We will highlight current and future AI prospects and how healthcare professionals can effectively collaborate with AI while maintaining a patient-centered approach.
Speaker: Yaa Kumah-Crystal
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Open Night & Networking Event | Assembling Intelligence: Hybrid Strategies for AI, Art, and Design - 10/08/2024 06:00 PM
swissnex San Francisco San Francisco
Join us for an Open Night of Assembling Intelligence: Hybrid Strategies for AI, Art, and Design, as we partner with San Francisco Tech Week.
The Geography of Hope: Using GIS to Change the World - 10/08/2024 07:00 PM
Computer History Museum Mountain View
From Prague to Berkeley to Nairobi to Kyiv, location data is being collected and analyzed through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to map a better future. It's a powerful tool that can be applied to environmental conservation, healthcare, law enforcement, and educational innovation.
Join us as Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and former National Audubon Society CEO David Yarnold discusses his groundbreaking book, The Geography of Hope: Real-Life Stories of Optimists Mapping a Better World.
Don't miss inspiring stories of individuals and organizations leveraging tech to create positive change.
What You'll Experience
A fireside chat with David Yarnold, exploring themes from his new book.Real-life stories from around the world of people using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to improve their communities.Plus, an opportunity for a Q&A with the author and a book signing.
Wednesday, 10/09/2024
Retrieval Systems for Structured Data: the critical missing piece for grounding LLM-driven query interfaces in factual data - 10/09/2024 12:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Whether analytical questions are answered by querying relational databases or in dialog with the latest Large Language Model (LLM): a key component for ensuring trustworthy answers is the retrieval of relevant data to answer the question at hand. In this talk, we will discuss how retrieval systems for structured data are key in grounding LLM-driven query interfaces in factual and domain-specific data stored in relational databases and data lakes. We present insights surfaced with our novel TARGET benchmark for analyzing Table Retrieval for Generative Tasks such as Question Answering and Text-to-SQL. For example, with TARGET, we find that the popular BM25 retrieval algorithm is not as robust for retrieval over structured data as over text documents. Our analysis also points out that systems using LLM-based embeddings can perform well but suffer from variations across tasks and datasets of varying difficulties, highlighting the need for more research in this direction. We conclude with early insights into a lightweight multi-table retrieval method which reduces the semantic gap between queries and tables for retrieval.
Speaker: Madelon Hulsebos, researcher
Register to attend in person, or see weblink for connection information online
Under pressure: Gaining insight into magmatic plumbing systems using Raman Spectroscopy and Open-Source codes - 10/09/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Penny Wieser, UC Berkeley
Seeing without labels: Applied AI at the National Library of Sweden - 10/09/2024 02:30 PM
Hohbach Hall, Room 122 Stanford
While the digital archives of memory institutions have expanded exponentially in recent years, much of this material remains inaccessible. With the advent of mass digitization programs and the ever-increasing flow of incoming born digital material, the range and extent of digital heritage collections has grown enormously over the past two decades. However, due to a constellation of factors - from copyright restrictions and data protection regulation to outdated technical systems - it can often prove surprisingly difficult for researchers and the wider public to access and make use of these collections. Digitally collected does not simply equate to digitally available.
How can AI be used to improve this accessibility? This talk presents the work of KBLab, data lab at the National Library of Sweden (KB), in applying AI models trained at the library as a means of enhancing accessibility to the library’s digital collections. In the first part, we explain how and why KBLab has established itself as a key actor in the training of new Swedish AI models based on the library’s collections. In the second part, we offer a case study showing how these models can be applied to making parts of the collections currently lacking metadata searchable for researchers and users at large. More precisely, we present an example of how multimodal AI can be applied as the basis for an image search system to search and analyze large image collections, based upon the following demo: https://lab.kb.se/bildsok/. We conclude with some broader reflections on the possibilities and challenges of establishing an AI-based infrastructure, including the potential for new organizational configurations to aid further exploration about the role of AI at the library.
KBLab is a national infrastructure for digital research at the National Library of Sweden. Read more about our development projects within AI and data science on our blog.
Speakers: Love Börjeson, KBLab and Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research; Chris Haffenden, KBLab and Uppsala University
Bodega Marine Lab Seminar - Livestream - 10/09/2024 03:00 PM
Bodega Marine Laboratory
Speaker: Dan Okamoto, UC Berkeley
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Illuminating the Dark Matter of the Genome - 10/09/2024 03:00 PM
Li Ka Shing Center Berkeley
Dr. Michael T. McManus’s research career is distinguished by a strong emphasis on technology and innovation, particularly in gene function analysis in health and disease. His lab uses systematic and synthetic approaches to develop new tools and methodologies for studying gene regulation. Since joining UCSF, Dr. McManus has led a productive lab focused on gene regulation and function, using both cultured cells and mouse models. He has been affiliated with the Innovative Genomics Institute, the Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Diabetes Center, the Eli & Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Postdevelopmental State: Situating the Project of Economic Democracy in Contemporary South Korea - 10/09/2024 03:30 PM
McCone Hall Berkeley
Over the last 25 years, South Korea has witnessed growing inequality through non-standard employment, mushrooming real estate prices, and the growth of its super-conglomerates. That this expansion has taken place amid declining rates of economic growth and turbulent political events marks a departure from Korea’s past recognition as a high growth 'developmental state.' This presentation insists that to understand the challenges associated with this transformation what is needed is nothing less than a revision of the very standpoint of developmental state research itself, a revision with lessons that extend to geographical political economy as well. To do so, it foregrounds the progressive project of ‘economic democratization’ to shift inquiry from elite bureaucracies and rapid GDP growth to the dynamics of historical blocs and the contours of socio-economic inequality. I examine how despite the embrace of this project by successive liberal administrations, and appropriation by moderate conservatives, it has met with frustration. The causes of such, I argue, can be seen through three interlinked phenomena: a narrowing vision of what constitutes economic democracy, the ambiguous space accorded to workers within it, and a problematic 'politics of personality' that has been used to pursue legitimacy in lieu of effective alliance-building and substantive policy change.
Speaker: Jamie Doucette, University of Manchester
Producing Geologic Hydrogen: a Niche or of Strategic Relevance in the Energy Transition? - 10/09/2024 04:30 PM
Stanford University Energy Seminar Stanford
Hydrogen is projected to play a significant role in the future energy mix, with the IEA forecasting an increase of almost an order of magnitude compared to hydrogen consumption today. This increase is driven by the possible dual use of hydrogen: to provide a clean or green high energy density vector as well as a clean “chemical building block” towards more circular sustainable chemical manufacturing industries. Current technology to produce large volumes of green hydrogen are challenged mainly because of the large infrastructure needed but also perhaps fundamentally in the higher cost to produce relative to other known (thermo-chemical) routes. However, also other known techniques towards clean hydrogen face significant (cost) challenges as well as emission challenges which may significantly limit their applicability in a net-zero world. The possibility of producing hydrogen generated in situ from iron-rich rocks in the subsurface while not new, may help provide diversity in decarbonization path ways creating more optionality in businesses and economic models to enable scale up of the Energy Transition. However, most geologically based generation mechanisms are relatively slow relative to the reactivity of hydrogen in the subsurface or to its high diffusive nature. In this talk I will outline that large hydrogen reservoirs analogous to hydrocarbon reservoirs are therefore less likely to exist or easily accessible. However, I will argue that hydrogen flow optimization and stimulation of natural geological processes are much less outlandish than is perhaps currently believed - indeed drawing on analogous insights with the early days of shale gas production. While hydrogen geology is distinctly different (and its engineering is much less developed) I will outline perhaps unexpected synergies with other subsurface resource production processes that in my view give every indication that a new and very rich field of geoscience and engineering can be developed relatively quickly towards responsible and sustainable production of geologic hydrogen. I will discuss some new recent insights and ideas to radically increase production rates in a sustainable way, which would bring the prospect of fundamentally changing the landscape for a carbon-constrained energy future. However, this will need new science and engineering to be developed in particular the thermodynamics of deep onshore hydrogen generation processes which would also help seemingly unrelated other, emerging earth-resource extraction businesses currently being experimented. Indeed, a new field of zero-carbon and interdisciplinary “hydrogen” geoscience and engineering may be opening up!
Speaker: Dirk Smit, Shell (retired)
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Profound and Staggering: The Impact on Religion of the Potential Discovery of Life Around Other Stars - Livestream - 10/09/2024 07:00 PM
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series
Astronomers have now discovered thousands of planets in orbit around other stars. Dr. Weintraub will discuss those discoveries, and predict the progress astronomers are likely to make in their more detailed studies of these planets over the next fifty years. Then he will consider the consequences of those potential discoveries for Roman Catholicism, Mainline Protestantism, Christian Creationism, Seventh Day Adventism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism -- for all of which the discovery of a planet with life on it may be profound. The 20th century visionary Buckminster Fuller said, “Sometimes I think we’re alone. Sometimes I think we’re not. In either case, the thought is staggering.”
This presentation is built on the ideas published in Weintraub’s book Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It? (2014) -- in which he interviewed leaders of all these faiths.
Dr. David A. Weintraub is Professor of Astronomy Emeritus at Vanderbilt University.
Click here to watch the lecture
We Love Our Wetlands! The Future of the San Francisco Estuary - 10/09/2024 07:30 PM
Marin Science Seminar San Rafael
San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) scientists will talk about their work protecting and restoring the estuary’s vital tidal marsh habitats including China Camp. We’ll explore how these ecosystems help combat sea-level rise and support the diverse wildlife that calls the Bay Area home. Learn about the science and strategies behind our restoration projects and discover how you can play a part in preserving the natural beauty and resilience of our coastal environments.
Speaker: Julie Gonzalez, SF Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
Thursday, 10/10/2024
Coastal Walk at Cowell-Purisima Trail - 10/10/2024 10:00 AM
Cowell Ranch Beach Access Parking Lot Half Moon Bay
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful walk along the Cowell-Purisima trail that POST helped create by protecting adjacent farmland. While it may be foggy, we hope to catch gorgeous views of the ocean, nearby farmland, and glimpses of harbor seals, pelicans, hawks, rabbits, and whales during the winter season.
You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about POST’s work with farmers on the coast, and to create recreational opportunities along one of the most scenic stretches of our state’s coastline!
This walk is moderate at about 4.5 miles round trip with about 400 feet of gradual elevation gain. It is mostly flat throughout, however, it is quite a long walk.
Register at weblink
Silicon Valley leaders Symposium - 10/10/2024 12:00 PM
Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium San Jose
Speaker: Channon Kennedy, Morgan Square
UC Berkeley Integrative Biology Seminar - 10/10/2024 12:30 PM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
Speaker: Edmond Brodie, University of Virginia
Cognitive Challenges in Modern Grids - 10/10/2024 01:30 PM
Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2) Stanford
Alexandra “Sascha” von Meier is a Senior Advisor for the Electric Grid program at the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE), UC Berkeley. Her research centers on power distribution systems, the use of high-precision synchronized measurements, and the integration of distributed and intermittent generation. Current projects explore new control strategies for distributed resources based on phasor measurements, and the design of multi-customer microgrids. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley and a Faculty Scientist in the Grid Integration Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Sascha is the author of the textbook “Electric Power Systems: A Conceptual Introduction.” Until 2011, she was a Professor of Energy Management & Design in the Department of Environmental Studies and Planning at Sonoma State University, where she taught a curriculum revolving around energy efficiency, renewable resources, and green building. Her past research includes studies of cultural factors in technology adoption, operation of nuclear power plants, and management of nuclear materials.
Attend in person or online (see weblink)
Failed WD Supernovae - 10/10/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Speaker: J J Hermes, Boston University
Plan C - Rethinking Corporate Climate Commitments - Livestream - 10/10/2024 04:00 PM
Stanford University
For the past 15 years, companies have been seen as central to addressing climate change, given their emissions and level of accountability to civil society and the public. However, the current system of greenhouse gas inventories and related interventions - particularly for indirect emissions (Scope 3) - has proven inefficient, as many companies lack the resources and expertise to meaningfully address these impacts. Despite significant corporate spending on current net zero targets, global emissions continue to rise. This seminar will explore a proposal known as “Plan C,” an alternative approach meant to simplify corporate goal setting and action while also increasing impact. Plan C envisions a system where companies contribute to centralized funds or platforms focused on high-impact climate interventions. These funds, accountable for measurable outcomes, would streamline the allocation of resources and expertise to a more targeted suite of activities, offering an efficient way to maximize the private sector's contribution to reducing global emissions though voluntary action.
Speaker: Peter Freed, consulant
See weblink for streaming information
After Dark: Life Cycle - 10/10/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Celebrate the journey of life at After Dark through stunning artworks and performances. Prepare to be mesmerized by Elderflora, Majel Connery’s powerful song cycle about a tree’s existence from seedling to log, contrasting and comparing it to a human’s life cycle. Then engage with the awesome natural phenomena all around you through our 700+ interactive exhibits, including chicken embryos in development and scavenger bugs that feed on carcasses.
NightLife - 10/10/2024 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 60,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude, our alligator with albinism), the night is sure to be wild.
Step inside the iconic Shake House and our four-story Osher Rainforest, where you can explore the Amazon’s treetops surrounded by free-flying birds and butterflies.
Venture into our aquarium exhibit Venom to encounter live venomous animals and learn the power of venom to both harm and heal.
Bask in the glow of one of the largest living indoor coral reef displays in the world: our 212,000-gallon Philippine Coral Reef habitat.
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.
Ages 21 +
Daytime Darkness: How Total Eclipses Influence Changes in Animals - and Humans - Livestream - 10/10/2024 06:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Because a total solar eclipse occurs in any given location only about once every 375 years, experiencing an eclipse is a once-in-a-lifetime event for most of us, and even more so for most other animals. There is surprisingly little published about the effects of eclipses on people and other animals. But the US was lucky enough to experience two transcontinental total solar eclipses in relatively rapid succession in 2017 and in April of 2024. In 2017, my team studied animal reactions to this bizarre event, and we expanded that work for the 2024 eclipse during which we had hundreds of participatory scientists along its path making observations not only of how animals responded to the eclipse but how the eclipse itself, and participating in this research, influenced their own feelings of awe and affinity toward science. Thus, we have an amazing opportunity to discuss a phenomenon that we now know to be literally awesome!
Speaker: Adam Hartstone-Rose, North Carolina State University
See weblink for connection information
Raptor Quest: Chasing America's Raptors - Livestream - 10/10/2024 07:00 PM
Marin Audubon Socitey
Scott Harris will be discussing his book “Raptor Quest: Chasing America’s Raptors”, which documents his 17-month adventure tracking 53 raptor species across 34 states in the US, from the common (Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons) to the rare (Bat Falcon, Steller’s Sea Eagle and Eurasian Eagle Owl). He will share photographs and stories of the many species he encountered; and relate stories of the places and various individuals he met along the way, including adventures, mid-adventures, successes and failures.
Speaker: Scott Harris, Author and Photographer
Register at website to receive link to the event.
Primordial Pathway: A Legacy of Ancient Life on Earth - 10/10/2024 07:00 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Public Lecture Series Menlo Park
It is a mystery how the earliest organisms on earth evolved the means to thrive, grow and reproduce under the sparse conditions of the young planet. Primordial earth had little oxygen and in the deep seas, no available light. One theory proposes that life evolved near undersea vents, taking energy from gasses bubbling up from earth's interior. There is a known metabolic pathway - called the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway - that works in an oxygen-poor environment to transform hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide to usable energy and cellular building blocks. Genetic evidence suggests that this pathway originated in Earth’s earliest eras. Today, billions of years later, this pathway is still used by bacteria and archaea across environments and ecosystems, including in our own digestive tracts. Its biochemistry is complex and bizarre, but over the past hundred years, its mechanisms have been clarified piece by piece, each step making use of new technologies. Today, we are learning more about the Wood-Ljungdahl reactions using X-rays from synchrotrons such as those generated by the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC. This lecture will describe the development of our knowledge of this ancient pathway and the way that modern tools illuminate this chemical messenger from the dawn of life.
Speaker: Macon Abernathy, SLAC
Register to watch in person in the Kavli Auditorium, or watch the lecture live on our YouTube page.
Friday, 10/11/2024
Is The European Green Deal at a Crossroads? - 10/11/2024 11:00 AM
Philosophy Hall Berkeley
As the European Union grapples with balancing economic growth and environmental sustainability, the European Green Deal faces critical challenges and opportunities in the coming years. The political guidelines for 2024-29 set forth by the President of the European Commission will shape the future of sustainable competitiveness in Europe, potentially redefining the continent’s economic landscape. This lecture will explore how these guidelines aim to reconcile ambitious climate targets with the pressing need to maintain Europe’s global competitiveness in an increasingly multipolar world. We’ll examine the potential impacts of proposed policies on key industries, innovation ecosystems, and international trade relationships, as the EU strives to lead in green technologies while protecting its economic interests. Join us to dissect the intricate balance between environmental protection and economic resilience and discover whether the European Green Deal is indeed at a crossroads or poised for a transformative leap forward.
Speaker: Agata Kotkowska, European Commission
Geophysics and Planetary Physics Seminar - 10/11/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Anne Voigdtlander
Generative AI and Digital Literacies: Affordances and Constraints for Language Learning - Livestream - 10/11/2024 03:00 PM
Dwinelle Hall Berkeley
Given the rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI (GenAI) platforms that create texts, images, and videos from big data, this talk discusses how these technologies offer various affordances and constraints for language learning, while also presenting potential pitfalls. It recognizes how the use of such tools is circumscribed by various inequalities: the unequal recognition of low-resource and high-resource languages, the differences between free and premium platform versions, and between mobile and laptop access. Drawing on studies of how secondary school and university students use these tools for informal language learning, it demonstrates how learners can develop contrasting dispositions towards GenAI, and how the designs of GenAI platforms can also steer learners towards particular digital practices. Recognizing how GenAI interactions are contextual and situated, shaped by devices, platforms and evolving cultures-of-use, this talk outlines how a digital literacies approach to integrating GenAI in the language classroom can help learners construct effective prompts, validate generated texts, and synthesize information, and encourage teachers to think about the implications of these platforms for genre-based pedagogy, translation, and writing assessment. By fostering critical digital literacy, learners and teachers can engage with GenAI to achieve various intentions in ways that are agentive, equitable and inclusive.
Speaker: Ron Darvin, University of British Columbia
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
High Turnover Frequency Earth-Abundant Metal Catalysis - 10/11/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Our laboratory has focused on the development of ligand platforms that support substrate coordination and activation at low-valent first row transition metals. This interest has allowed for the preparation of a manganese catalyst that mediates carbonyl hydrosilylation with turnover frequencies of up to 4,900 min-1 in the absence of solvent. Although this compound is inactive for alkene reduction, mechanistic insight guided the development of a second catalyst that has been found to cure silicones in the presence of polymethylhydrosiloxane, a reaction that typically requires the use of platinum catalysts. These observations led us to study the dehydrocoupling of silanes and amines, an approach to Si-N bond formation that offers hydrogen as a value-added byproduct. This methodology is a sustainable alternative to traditional aminosilane synthesis, which utilizes corrosive chlorosilanes and generates one equivalent of ammonium salt waste for each Si-N bond that is formed. We recently discovered that our well-defined manganese hydride catalyst is capable of coupling silane (SiH4) to primary and secondary amines to generate atomic layer deposition precursors for silicon nitride. This catalyst has more recently been found to dehydrocouple ammonia with silanes to generate perhydropolysilazane and organic polysilazanes, reagents that are used to protect semiconductor and automobile surfaces, respectively. The coupling of silanes with diamines has also allowed for the preparation of crosslinked preceramic materials. Notably, Si-N dehydrocoupling activities of greater than 100 s-1 have been observed for two different Earth-abundant metal catalysts developed at Arizona State University, and our efforts to optimize alkene, alkyne, and nitrile hydrofunctionalization turnover will be summarized.
Speaker: Ryan Trovitch, Arizona State University
Sonoma State Public Astronomy Viewing Nights - 10/11/2024 07:30 PM
Sonoma State University Public Astronomy Rohnert Park
Check weblink before attending to see if the event is happening, or canceled due to weather.
Saturday, 10/12/2024
Hike at Windy Hill - 10/12/2024 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.
Register at weblink
Gem & Mineral Show - 10/12/2024 10:00 AM
Redwood City Community Activities Building Redwood City
Joint annual Gem & Mineral Show hosted by Peninsula Gem & Geology Society and Sequoia Gem & Mineral Society.
There will be display cases of our clubs' lapidary classes, field trips, jewelry and member interests. Dealers will be selling hand crafted jewelry, gemstones, fossils, mineral specimens, collectible rocks for home display and other items.
All children get a free ticket for the Treasure Wheel for a free prize. Saturday visitors may return Sunday for free with receipt.
Family Nature Adventures: Night Prowl: Secrets of Local Owls - 10/12/2024 10:30 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Join the Fun at Family Nature Adventures!
Get ready for an exciting journey into Chabot’s surrounding redwood forest every 2nd Saturday of the month! Each adventure brings a fresh theme, from the fascinating world of insects to the majestic forest animals and towering trees.
Night Prowl: Discover the Secrets of Local Owls!
Join us for an exciting exploration into the mysterious world of owls! In this hands-on workshop designed for children, we’ll delve into the fascinating lives of our local owls, learning about their habits, calls, and even getting a chance to dissect owl pellets. After the workshop, grab your binoculars for a guided walk in the forest to spot these majestic creatures in their natural habitat!
What to Expect:
Interactive Workshops: Dive deep with hands-on activities and scientific tools!
Yummy Snacks: Enjoy a tasty treat to keep your energy up!
Nature Walks: Discover the forest’s secrets on a guided stroll!
Don’t miss out on this unforgettable family experience - adventure awaits!
Intended for families with children ages 3 - 8
Now includes admission to the Center
An Earthquake Crawl of the East Bay - 10/12/2024 11:00 AM
Arroyo Agua Caliente Park Playground Fremont
Come hang out with geologist Steve Newton as we explore the East Bay’s earthquake history on a fun and informative crawl!
We’ll start our earthquake tour in Fremont, and carpool up the East Bay driving/stopping/driving to see and have explained to us the planet’s greatest hits, so to speak. How have earthquakes shaped the East Bay, and how can we recognize the effects of these powerful natural forces on our topography?
Bring a lunch for our lunch stop, probably near Lake Elizabeth in Fremont. After our survey of the evidence for and effects of earthquakes, we’ll return to our starting point in Fremont. Learn about what geology has done and may have in store for us, and have fun with your fellow skeptics.
Leader: Steve Newton, College of Marin
Science on Tap: Impacts of Nuclear Testing - 10/12/2024 06:00 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove
Nuclear testing has had long-lasting and serious impacts on our environmental and human communities, shifting, distorting, and creating new and often difficult landscapes, needs, and stories. Join us for an impactful night discussing the impacts nuclear testing has had on communities both near and far with experts in the fields of human and environmental impacts.
City Public Star Party - RESCHEDULED - 10/12/2024 07:00 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Editor's Note: This event has been rescheduled for October, 19, 2024.
Jazz Under the Stars - 10/12/2024 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 in building 36 on the 4th floor observatory for a night of smooth jazz, bright stars, and a lot of fun! We play our jazz from CSM's own KCSM 91.1. Founded in 1964, KCSM has grown to become one of the top 35 most listened to non-commercial stations in the US. With their help, the Astronomy department at CSM opens its observatory doors and balcony, for a night of science and fun! We operate for public viewing 8” dobsonian telescopes, prefect for viewing the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. We also have a 140mm refractor, with which we view the craters on the moon. Finally, our 11’ schmidt-cassegrain is for our deep sky needs. It can peer deep into globular clusters, and nebulae. Occasionally we even have the chance to image galaxies on our 20" telescope. Our astronomers will also be available for questions and conversation, which you wouldn’t get anywhere else! Feel free to ask us your questions about the cosmos. Don't miss out, join us at our next Jazz Under the Stars!
*Weather in the bay area is notoriously hard to predict, and often the sources we use don't get it correct. Before leaving you home, be sure to check this webpage. If we are to cancel it will be posted here at least a few hours before the start of the event.*
Sunday, 10/13/2024
Family Hike - 10/13/2024 10:00 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Explore the lush redwood forest that surrounds Chabot, hike off some steam then have a sit-down and snack with your family and new friends you’ve just made. Expert Chabot staff lead these fun, informative, easy to moderate hikes and can answer your questions about plants and animals we live among in our vibrant Bay Area bioregion.
Gem & Mineral Show - 10/13/2024 10:00 AM
Redwood City Community Activities Building Redwood City
Joint annual Gem & Mineral Show hosted by Peninsula Gem & Geology Society andSequoia Gem & Mineral Society.
There will be display cases of our clubs' lapidary classes, field trips, jewelry and member interests. Dealers will be selling hand crafted jewelry, gemstones, fossils, mineral specimens, collectible rocks for home display and other items.
All children get a free ticket for the Treasure Wheel for a free prize. Saturday visitors may return Sunday for free with receipt.
free parking
Estuary & Ocean Science Center Marine Lab Open House - 10/13/2024 11:00 AM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center Tiburon
Join us to celebrate the EOS Center's annual Marine Lab Open House, a day of discovery. We invite you to experience science in action at San Francisco State University's Estuary & Ocean Science Center at the Romberg Tiburon Campus, the only marine lab on the San Francisco Bay.
Meet San Francisco Bay critters at our touch tanks and exhibits.Chat with local marine scientists.Listen to the sounds of CA coastal whales and dolphins.See how we partner with nature to reduce climate change impacts.Grab a bite at the food truck or the Hog Island oyster bar.
Register at weblink
Monday, 10/14/2024
Paths of Light: Core Microscopes - 10/14/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Speaker: Kari Herrington, UC San Francisco
Magnon sound waves - 10/14/2024 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Strong interactions between particles can lead to emergent collective excitations. In the solid state, these phenomena have been extensively established in electronic systems, but are also expected to occur for gases of neutral particles like spin waves (magnons) in a magnet. In a regime where magnons are strongly interacting, they can form a propagating density oscillation - in analogy to hydrodynamic sound waves in water - with characteristic low-frequency signatures. While such a mode has been predicted in theory, particularly for spin isotropic magnets like Van der Waals CrCl3, its signatures have yet to be observed experimentally. In this talk, I will discuss the development of techniques for probing collective magnon dynamics in nanoscale CrCl3 samples down to the atomically-thin limit, utilizing the quantum coherence of nearby Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. This technique has allowed us to find evidence for viscous damping of a magnon sound mode in the ferromagnetic phase of atomically-thin CrCl3. By integrating NV detection with microwave drive to the material, we establish direct spectroscopic evidence for these propagating magnon sound waves. I will discuss the extent to which the phenomena observed here could generalize to other magnetic materials.
Speaker: Nikola Maksimovic, Harvard University
The Second Kind of Impossible: The Quixotic Search for Natural Quasicrystals - 10/14/2024 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
Quasicrystals are exotic materials with symmetries once thought to be impossible for matter. This talk will describe the decades-long adventures searching for them in nature and other exotic environments that continues to this day, resulting in one of the stranger scientific stories you will ever hear.
Speaker: Paul Steinhardt, Princeton University
Attend in person or online (see weblink for Zoom information)
Mapping the inner world of cells - 10/14/2024 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Cellular processes are orchestrated by many biomolecules in a spatially and temporally coordinated manner within a tiny volume. To uncover the underlying organizational principles and their functional relevance, we take microscopy visualization as the primary approach to systematically map their spatial localization, temporal dynamics, and activity profiles. By combining small tags engineered from split fluorescence proteins and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing, we have enabled the creation of the OpenCell library: > 1300 human cell lines with endogenously tagged proteins for both microscopy visualization and biochemical analysis. We have further developed the deep-learning framework to connect cellular images of proteins to their amino acid sequences.
Speaker: Bo Huang, UC San Francisco
One Path to an Astronomy Outreach Career - 10/14/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Dr. Lauren Corlies, Public Education Manager at Lick observatory will present a talk about navigating a career path in Astronomy Outreach, as well as identifying the skills and experiences that have helped along the way.
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquia - 10/14/2024 04:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Speaker: Eric Hudson, UC Los Angeles
Tuesday, 10/15/2024
Reimagining Ancient Reactions for the 21st Century - 10/15/2024 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
The Emerging Detailed Theory of Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions - 10/15/2024 03:30 PM
Hewlett Teaching Center Stanford
Controlling the Structure and Function of Ion-Containing Materials - 10/15/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
The Health of Our Oceans - 10/15/2024 05:00 PM
PARC Forum Palo Alto
40 years of Discovery: New Species, New Insights, New Directions - 10/15/2024 07:30 PM
Mycological Society of San Francisco San Francisco
Wednesday, 10/16/2024
Bay Area Planetary Science Conference - 10/16/2024 09:00 AM
SETI Institute: SETI Talks Mountain View
A Tapestry of Deep-Sea Biodiversity: From Woodfall Oases and Sediment Mosaics to Oil Spill Legacies - Livestream - 10/16/2024 11:00 AM
Monteray Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Whole Earth Seminar - 10/16/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Engineering plant form and function to produce the foods of the future - 10/16/2024 12:10 PM
Barker Hall, Rm 101 Berkeley
UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Colloquium - 10/16/2024 02:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
Participatory science for nearshore management solutions: how prioritizing people over data leads to novel and more equitable research - Livestream - 10/16/2024 03:00 PM
Bodega Marine Laboratory
How to Secure Critical Minerals for the Energy Transition? - 10/16/2024 04:30 PM
Shriram Center Stanford
Who Owns the Night Sky - 10/16/2024 07:00 PM
San Francisco Amateur Astronomers San Francisco
Thursday, 10/17/2024
Lunch Break Science - Livestream - 10/17/2024 11:00 AM
The Leakey Foundation
Invertebrate Pirates: Mechanism and Evolution of a Stolen Defense - 10/17/2024 12:30 PM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
UC Berkeley Astronomy Colloquium - 10/17/2024 03:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
Impact of AlphaFold on Cell Biology - 10/17/2024 03:30 PM
Genetics and Plant Biology Building Berkeley
Designing a Bandpass Filter with Network Synthesis - 10/17/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Dept. of Engineering Science Rohnert Park
Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles and a Just Future - 10/17/2024 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
After Dark: Decision Time - 10/17/2024 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Generative AI & The Future of Innovation - 10/17/2024 06:00 PM
Perkins Coie San Francisco
NightLife: Hella '89 - 10/17/2024 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Beavers in the Bay: How Nature’s Engineers Benefit Our Ecosystems - Livestream - 10/17/2024 07:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
How the East Bay Got Its Regional Parks - Livestream - 10/17/2024 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
Friday, 10/18/2024
Land x Good Fire: Trione-Annadel - 10/18/2024 09:00 AM
Trione-Annadel State Park Santa Rosa
Maker Faire Bay Area - 10/18/2024 10:00 AM
Mare Island Naval Shipyard Mare Island
Illuminating Circadian Circuits - 10/18/2024 12:00 PM
Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge Stanford
Geophysics and Planetary Physics Seminar - 10/18/2024 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Emerging Aviation Technology: Autonomy - 10/18/2024 03:00 PM
Sutardja Dai Hall Berkeley
UC Berkeley Inorganic Chemistry Seminar - 10/18/2024 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Wonderfest: Turtle Rescue, Enlarged - 10/18/2024 07:00 PM
United Irish Cultural Center San Francisco
Saturday, 10/19/2024
Maker Faire Bay Area - 10/19/2024 10:00 AM
Mare Island Naval Shipyard Mare Island
Birding at Alum Rock - 10/19/2024 10:30 AM
Alum Rock Park San Jose
Electric Home Tour 2024 - 10/19/2024 11:00 AM
Varies
City Public Star Party - 10/19/2024 07:00 PM
City Star Parties - Tunnel Tops Park San Francisco
Sunday, 10/20/2024
Land x Good Fire: Northwest Sonoma County - 10/20/2024 10:00 AM
The School for Inclement Weather Sonoma County
Maker Faire Bay Area - 10/20/2024 10:00 AM
Mare Island Naval Shipyard Mare Island
Monday, 10/21/2024
Global Encryption Day Conference - 10/21/2024 09:00 AM
Google Community Space San Francisco
Effects of Thermal History and Biogeographic Location on the Heat Shock Response of Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) - 10/21/2024 12:00 PM
Sonoma State University - Biology Colloquium Rohnert Park
Discovering Cognitive Structure using Large-Scale Social Data and Artificial Intelligence - 10/21/2024 12:30 PM
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg 460) Stanford
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Seminar - 10/21/2024 02:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley
nEXO and the quest for neutrino-less double beta decay - 10/21/2024 03:30 PM
Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Colloquium Series Menlo Park
UC Berkeley Structural & Quantitative Biology Seminar - 10/21/2024 04:00 PM
Stanley Hall Berkeley
Dietary Target Therapy and Oxidative Death - 10/21/2024 04:00 PM
James H. Clark Center (Bldg 340) Stanford
Dark Matter Searches Using Gravitational Wave Detectors - 10/21/2024 04:00 PM
Sonoma State University - What Physicists Do Rohnert Park
Spinning Black Holes in Binaries - 10/21/2024 04:30 PM
Physics North Berkeley