Thinking of Ukraine at the SciSchmooze
Discover more from SciSchmooze
Hello again Science Fans!
It is difficult to focus on my usual writings this week given the things going on in Ukraine. A close personal friend of mine lives there and reported this afternoon that Russians had destroyed the local commercial airport and had fired upon an ambulance. They also reportedly have mined roads leading out of the area to prevent people from leaving.
I realize that this is a newsletter about science, not politics, but I can’t just ignore what is going on there. I can, however, tie some science into it.
Russia is an old hand at propaganda. This whole invasion is predicated on stuff they have made up about Ukraine. Last Sunday, the Russian news agency Tass reported that Ukrainian soldiers rode two armored personnel carriers into Russia which the Russians destroyed. They included some helmet cam footage to give veracity to the story.
Using open source tools and information, internet sleuths just needed a few hours to prove that the video was a fake. Here’s the story behind the technology used to disprove this “fake news” (I hate that term, but in this case it really applies). One might think that, given Russia’s propaganda history and their experience with cyber (in)security and hacking, they would be better at hiding their tracks!
Unfortunately, the war can’t be debunked like this.
The US and Russia partner in space, notably in the International Space Station (ISS). That partnership is now in serious jeopardy.
If you are so inclined, please do what you can to assist those in Ukraine. Search the internet with “aid for Ukraine” for examples of ways you can help.
Staying in space for a bit, this week’s Hubble Space Telescope image is stunning, showing the merger of three galaxies 681 million light years from Earth, although calling this a merger might be a little gentle.
(Edited to correct the distance.)
Back to the space station for a second, there’s this stunning image of the ISS transiting the Moon, taken by an astrophotographer near Paris, France.
In what looks a bit like a Roger Dean album cover, an Australian engineer captured an image of Comet Neowise, the aurora borealis, and the milky way from the Canadian Rockies in 2020. I’ve seen a comet, and the aurora (once, in Quebec) and the milky way, but never like this!
You may have seen news stories about using laser propulsion to speed transit from the Earth to Mars and wondered how that might work. Using conventional methods, it would take Earth astronauts about 6 months to reach Mars. That’s 6 months of exposure to solar radiation. This potential propulsion method would cut that down to 45 days! Here’s how it might work.
We don’t hear enough about pioneering women in STEM. We shouldn’t even have to include the adjective “pioneering”! Here’s the story of Nagin Cox, Tactical Mission Lead for the Perseverance Rover on Mars, which is doing such amazing exploratory work on the red planet.
As we continue to hear about the worst drought in at least 1,200 years in the western US, here’s a first person accounting of a new project that uses solar panels to produce electricity while reducing evaporation from California’s massive canals. It is called the solar-canal solution.
In the unintended consequences department, scientists attached tracking devices to five Magpies in Australia. Here’s what happens when your original objective goes haywire, but you learn something new instead. Smart birds!
Then there’s Hank the Tank. He’s a very large black bear in the Lake Tahoe area who has been blamed for a series of burglaries. Hank got a bad rap! (although he’s not entirely innocent).
One of the strange effects of COVID-19 is the loss of taste and smell in some people who contract the disease. Research now shows that the reason some suffer this loss and others don’t is genetic.
As the pandemic is winding down, at least for now, localities are dropping mask mandates and more in-person events are returning to the schedule. One of these is the Lick Observatory Summer Series. These events include lectures, concerts, and viewings through two of Lick’s massive, historic telescopes. These evenings always sell out quickly. This year’s tickets go on sale April 13. You can get tickets one week earlier by joining Friends of the Lick Observatory by March 1. Plan ahead!
Have a great week in Science, and here’s hoping our friends in Ukraine get to do the same!
Bob Siederer
Monday, 02/28/2022
The Response of Bumble Bees and their Floral Food Sources to Wildfire in California - Livestream - 02/28/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Speakers: John Mila, US Geological Survey
See link for Zoom information
Reservoir triage from space - no equipment or boreholes needed - Livestream - 02/28/2022 12:15 PM
Stanford Energy
Pieter is the CEO and co-founder of SkyGeo. He leads the overall company strategy and direction. Pieter is an entrepreneur who has held executive roles in early stage technology companies, developing new products for enterprise customers in the last 2 decades. He started his career as a geologist at Shell, worked in the Research division of IBM and subsequently as an engineer in the advanced technology group at Maxtor Corp, where he participated in the IPO. Pieter holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the Free University in Amsterdam and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
Mechanically Imaging the Chemical Bond - Livestream - 02/28/2022 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
About a half century ago, Richard Feynman noted that characterizing the microscopic structure of materials would be a lot easier if one could just look and see where the atoms were. In some ways, “seeing atoms in a molecule” is now feasible fulfilling Feynman’s suggestion.
In particular, recent advances in atomic force microscopy have mechanically rendered images of chemical bonds with an unprecedented resolution. These advances offer the possibility of imaging the subatomic structure of molecules. Still, fundamental questions remain about interpreting such images. While most features in the measured images have a close correspondence to the atomic structure of a given specimen, some cannot be so interpreted.
In order to simulate an atomic force image and address such questions, one must calculate accurate interatomic forces between the specimens and the probe as a function of the tip height. The required calculations are computationally intense as they may involve thousands of atoms for a like number of different geometries. Such calculations are traditionally outside of our capability, even with contemporary computational platforms. I will illustrate how new algorithms for simulating atomic force microscopy can address these computational hurdles and result in images that often replicate measured bond properties in subatomic detail for a variety of complex molecular species.
Speaker: James R. Cheilikowsky, University of Texas at Austin
See weblink for Zoom information
Nuclear Batteries: a New Way in Energy - Livestream - 02/28/2022 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
In the 21st century humanity faces three formidable and intertwined challenges: (i) climate change, (ii) geopolitical instability, and (iii) economic and social inequality. There is one tool that is key to the resolution of all three challenges: energy! The availability of plentiful, clean, reliable and affordable energy will power climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, will reduce competition for natural resources among the nations, and will drive new and beneficial economic activities on a global scale.
In the US there is growing bipartisan support among policymakers and energy regulators for nuclear energy to play a substantial role in addressing these challenges, in particular decarbonizing and strengthening the global energy system. There is also recognition that the traditional nuclear deployment model based on field construction of large GW-scale reactors, taking over a decade to license and build, requiring multi-billion dollar investments, and ultimately selling commodity electrons on the grid, is no longer economically sustainable. As such, considerable interest is now being placed on smaller reactors that can be deployed at a fraction of the cost and time, and can serve a variety of users beyond the electric grid. The window of opportunity for new nuclear is real but narrow, i.e., if economically viable nuclear technologies are not commercialized before the end of the decade, it is unlikely that they will be relevant to addressing the aforementioned challenges.
In this presentation I will introduce the concept of the Nuclear Battery, i.e., a standardized, factory-fabricated, road transportable, plug-and-play micro-reactor. Nuclear Batteries have the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient and safe energy for distributed heat and electricity applications in every sector of the economy. Particular attention will be given to the Nuclear Battery economic potential, which stems from bypassing the need for costly and fragile energy transmission and storage infrastructure typical of clean-energy alternatives.
See weblink for Zoom information
Speaker: Jacopo Buongiorno, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
From Impossible to Inevitable: Chile's Path to Net Zero - Livestream - 02/28/2022 04:00 PM
Stanford Energy Seminar
Chile has undergone an energy revolution that has changed the country's climate and energy policy. In 2013 large coal and hydro projects were in line, which were ultimately shelved and replaced with plentiful and economic renewable energy. In 2021, 24% of all energy in the country came from solar and wind energy. There is a consensus that Chile's net zero target will spur more growth and investment than the status quo. The talk will explore how these changes occurred, and how smart and integral regulations on air pollution, carbon pricing, and social unrest shifted the tide to a country that wants to transform its extractive economy into a renewable economy.
Speaker: Marcelo Mena, Methane Hub
See weblink for link to seminar
What Physicists Do - Livestream - 02/28/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Speaker: Elisabetta Valiante, 1QBIT
See weblink for Zoom link
How to survive wavy waters when you're a microalgae? - Livestream - 02/28/2022 04:00 PM
Stanford University
Adrien Burlacot is an algal physiologist specialized in the study of photosynthesis and bioenergetics of algal cell. Adrien is a physicist by training, he received a BS and MSc in Engineering from the Ecole polytechnique (France). He has a PhD in Plant Science from the Aix-Marseille University (France) and did a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley (USA), he joined the Carnegie Institution for Science as a Staff Associate in the fall 2021. Adrien's lab investigates how microalgal photosynthesis dynamically acclimates to fluctuations in environmental parameters like light, CO2Â or temperature. He is using and developing quantitative spectroscopic tools to understand the dynamics of photosynthesis. Adrien aims at unravelling the network of photosynthesis acclimatory genes and their bioenergetic role in the cell. He wants to use this knowledge and the new tools developed to propose new ways of harnessing photosynthesis for a more sustainable world.
Discipline-based education research has made great strides in understanding how to foster more equitable and effective education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, there still has yet to be widespread adoption of reforms in university STEM departments. Our project seeks to understand how departments can implement sustainable, large-scale changes through the creation of Departmental Action Teams (DATs). DATs are teams of faculty, students, and staff within a single STEM department working on some issue related to undergraduate education. While these changes take many forms, they are grounded in six core principles, including upholding a commitment to equity, inclusion, and justice. During this talk, I will first discuss the multifaceted nature of complex equity-focused change. I will then present an overview of the DAT model and the theoretical principles which guide our work. Finally, I will present some empirical research discussing how to meaningfully develop student-staff-faculty partnerships while implementing departmental changes.
Speaker: Gina Quan, San Jose State University
See weblink for Zoom information
WeightWatcher, an open-source diagnostic tool for analyzing Deep Neural Nets - Livestream - 02/28/2022 07:00 PM
SF Bay Association of Computing Machinery
WeightWatcher (WW): is an open-source, diagnostic tool for analyzing Deep Neural Networks (DNN), without needing access to training or even test data. It can be used to:* analyze pre/trained PyTorch, Keras, DNN models (Conv2D and Dense layers)* monitor models, and the model layers, to see if they are over-trained or over-parameterized* predict test accuracies across different models, with or without training data* detect potential problems when compressing or fine-tuning pre-trained models* layer warning labels: over-trained; under-trainedas well as several new experimental model transformations, including:* SVDSmoothing: builds a model that can be used to predict test accuracies, but only with the training data.* SVDSharpness: removes Correlation Traps, which arise from sub-optimal regularization pre-trained models.https://github.com/CalculatedContent/WeightWatcher
Register at weblink to receive connection information
Wonderfest: Secrets to the Study of Animal Behavior - 02/28/2022 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato
Many of us are captivated by the behavior of wild animals: a pride of lions fighting off a clan of hyenas, a honeybee dancing to communicate the location of food, the crazy acrobatic courtship displays of male lance-tailed manakins. What is it like to be a biologist who studies the behavior of such creatures? What are the implications for the study of human behavior? Using examples drawn from her work with rodents known as tuco-tucos, tojos, and tokoros, Dr. Eileen Lacey will describe the types of questions, concerns, and sometimes astounding solutions that field biologists employ in their quest to understand why animals do what they do.
Speaker: Dr. Eileen Lacy, UC Berkeley
This event was originally scheduled for January 31, 2022
Tuesday, 03/01/2022
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite T (GOES-T) Launch - Livestream - 03/01/2022 01:38 PM
NOAA and NASA
Be our virtual guest for the launch of GOES-T, the third satellite in NOAA’s advanced GOES-R series, the Western Hemisphere’s most advanced weather observing and environmental monitoring system.
The GOES-R program is a collaboration between NOAA and NASA. NASA manufactures and launches the satellites and NOAA funds and operates them and distributes their data to users worldwide. The GOES satellite network helps meteorologists observe and predict local weather events that affect public safety, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, fog, hurricanes, flash floods, and other severe weather. GOES-T will provide critical data for the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and the Pacific Ocean.
All resources, participation, and registration are FREE. Register to let us know that you're virtually participating!
The role of dust on Earth's climate: insights from the paleoclimate record & modern ecosystems - 03/01/2022 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Speaker: Sarah Aarons, UC San Diego
Privacy as Privilege - Livestream - 03/01/2022 04:00 PM
UC Berkeley
This talk exposes a profound and growing injustice that major technology companies have propagated through every level of the judiciary under the guise of protecting data privacy. The Supreme Court has repeatedly proclaimed: “In our judicial system, the public has a right to every [person’s] evidence.” Yet, for over a decade, Facebook, GitHub, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, and Twitter have leveraged the Stored Communications Act (SCA) - a key data privacy law for the internet - to bar criminal defendants from subpoenaing the contents of another’s online communications, even when those communications could exonerate the wrongfully accused. I will argue that all of these decisions are wrong as a matter of binding Supreme Court doctrine and just policy.
Speaker: Rebecca Wexler, Berkeley School of Law
Register at weblink to receive Zoom information
Alien Life and UFOs : The Scientific View - Livestream - 03/01/2022 07:00 PM
KIPAC Public Lectures
Video clips recently released from the military, and the observation of an object with a potentially strange trajectory around the Sun, have reignited interest in the question of UFOs and the existence of intelligent alien life. This talk will explore the current state of knowledge about the probability of life and technological civilizations existing elsewhere in the Galaxy, which has advanced greatly in the past decade due to the discovery and characterization of thousands of planets around other stars. We will then consider the recent UFO claims from a scientific perspective of ‘open-minded skepticism’ where one should take into account considerations such as our current media landscape, our knowledge of atmospheric phenomena, and whether we should expect visits from other civilizations.
Speaker: Jack Singal, University of Richmond
Register at weblink to attend online
Wednesday, 03/02/2022
Climate Futures: Beyond 02022 - 03/02/2022 07:00 PM
Cowell Theater San Francisco
Long Now continues our dialogue with the acclaimed writer Kim Stanley Robinson around COP26 and his most recent book The Ministry for the Future. Clean energy advocate & author Ramez Naam will join Robinson on stage after the talk for a further discussion.
Tackling topics from carbon quantitative easing, to political action, to planetary-level engineering, Robinson describes our current situation as "all-hands-on-deck" where every possible mitigation strategy should be tried. You can find our other talks with Kim Stanley Robinson on our YouTube channel.
Attend in person or online. Watch & share this talk on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Long Now Live.
This event was originally scheduled for Jaunary 24, 2022
Thursday, 03/03/2022
VSU Highlights Future of Earthquake Forecasting - Livestream - 03/03/2022 12:30 PM
Valdosta State University
Dr. Friedemann Freund, world-renowned scientist with the SETI Institute and the NASA Ames Research Center, discusses the future of earthquake forecasting at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, via Zoom. This event is presented free of charge by Valdosta State University’s College of Science and Mathematics and is open to the public.
During the one-hour presentation, Freund will share how his “work on the properties of crystals helped him discover a connection between crystals under stress in the Earth’s crust near faults and the early signs of developing earthquakes,” shared Dr. Pierre-Richard Cornely, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at VSU. “He is the first scientist to have made this connection.”
Cornely said earthquakes have become a serious threat to life on Earth with their increasing frequency of occurrence. On Feb. 17, for example, the United States Geological Survey reported 38 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or higher around the world.
However, after more than 100 years of research, “there is no definitive work towards an earthquake forecasting method like there is for weather,” Cornely added. Freund’s work “is unique and will transform the way the world looks at earthquake forecasting.”
Everyone is invited to listen to Freund talk about the importance of his work and his latest findings via Zoom by visiting https://bit.ly/3sHzdM8 at the event start time. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions.
Cornely joined Freund’s research on earthquake forecasting more than a decade ago, and he said he is excited to share this groundbreaking, life-saving work with the community. He hopes the conversation inspires community science enthusiasts to continue learning and supporting scientific research. He also hopes it encourages undergraduate research ideas and experiential learning opportunities for VSU’s students.
“I think it is important for our university and our faculty to be involved in nurturing and developing the next generation of scientists,” he said.
DevOps for Rapid Release Cycles, Automation, and Quality- Livestream - 03/03/2022 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Engineering Colloquium
DevOps combines software development and IT operations principles to accelerate software release cycles. Derived from the agile methodology, DevOps can complement your software development practices with a continuous feedback loop to gain new efficiencies as you plan, develop, deploy, and operate your modern applications. CI/CT/CD utilizes these agile DevOps principles to create the right software development framework for continuous integration, test, and delivery. Bringing the development and operations together enables teams to have automation in the building, testing, and deployment allowing faster release cycles and quality code.
In this presentation, we explore DevOps practices, how these principles should be applied to your development environment, and how to adapt continuous testing to ensure high quality software delivery. We will also learn how Keysight found success from its own DevOps journey and overcame the initial challenges of continuous build, integration, elasticity, and testing. We will discuss the transformative DevOps steps necessary to ensure you can implement and sustain the changes necessary to achieve continuous quality with speed. In this session, we will cover:
What are the DevOps fundamentals?What is DevSecOps?How can CI/CD enable rapid application delivery?Which DevOps best practices will ensure development success?What is the importance of continuous testing in DevOps?How can automation help to keep pace with rapid development speed?
Speaker:Susan Sloan, Keysight Technologies. Deepty Chauhan, Keysight Technologies, was originally scheduled to speak on this topic.
See weblink for Zoom information
The last decade has seen a dramatic capture of digital material for machine learning production. This data is the basis for sense-making in AI, not as classical representations of the world with individual meaning, but as mass collections: ground truth for machine abstractions and operations. OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model is trained on a corpus of 1 billion words, ImageNet contains over 14 million images, and Tencent’s ML Images contains more than 17.5 million annotated images - predominantly scraped from the internet. Training datasets shape the epistemic boundaries governing how machine learning operates, and thus are an essential part of understanding socially significant questions about AI. But when we closely investigate the benchmark training sets widely used in NLP and computer vision systems, we find complex social, political, and epistemological challenges. What happens when data is seen as an aggregate, stripped of context, meaning, and specificity? In what ways does training data limit what and how machine learning systems interpret the world? And most importantly, what forms of power do these approaches enhance and enable? In this lecture, Kate Crawford will share new work that reflects on what’s at stake in the architecture and contents of training sets, and how they are increasingly part of our urban, legal, logistical, and commercial infrastructures.
Speaker: Kate Crawford, USC Annenberg and Microsoft Research
Women in Science NightLife - 03/03/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
We’re kicking off Women’s History Month by hearing from local women in science at the helm of human health research. Ologies podcast host Alie Ward returns to lead a panel of Bay Area scientists as they discuss their latest discoveries amidst the ongoing pandemic. Among them is Izabela Mauricio Rezende, a virologist and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University studying the epidemiological and evolutive aspects of COVID-19, and UC Berkeley’s Tulika Singh, PhD, an immunologist and virologist specializing in vaccine development. We’ll also examine the scope of women-led research at the Academy, from the history of scientists at the museum to current advances in biodiversity and health. Explore interactive, specimens, and research displays from the Academy’s scientific collections, and celebrate the groundbreaking discoveries of women in science.
After Dark: See for Yourself - 03/03/2022 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. Fuel up with a cocktail and prepare to roam free through six spacious outdoor and indoor spaces. Be ready to bring fresh eyes to old favorites and uncover phenomenal new experiences.
Cell Phone Miniscope 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. Crossroads
We invite you to open your eyes to the amazing world of the ultra-tiny! Be sure to grab a miniscope kit and directions - then convert your cell phone into a portable, picture-taking miniscope using a simple plastic lens from a laser pointer. Use it to see the Exploratorium at its smallest scale, then take it home to continue exploring new environments!
Welcome to the Neighborhood 6:00 p.m. Osher Gallery 1, Microcinema
Welcome to the Neighborhood (2018, 26 min., 36 sec.) runs every half hour starting at 6:00 p.m.
This remarkable story of legendary Berkeley social activist Mable “Mama� Howard and her daughter, renowned artist Mildred Howard, illuminates the power of civic engagement while incorporating broader issues of gentrification. This documentary threads together a multiplicity of Bay Area stories centered on social and economic justice and examines the fragile nature of change over two generations.
Roving with Perseverance 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. Bechtel Gallery 3, Wattis Studio
Take a deep dive into Perseverance’s fantastic journey with these highlights from the many animations, photographs, movies, and documentation that offer insight into Persy’s journey so far. From construction and pre-launch, through the images being sent back from Mars on a regular basis, this multi-screen viewing space takes you through Persy’s life on Mars. An evocative soundscape by Wayne Grim and an immersive video by Rick Danielson set the mood.
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.
The Conservation of Coyote Ridge - Livestream - 03/03/2022 06:30 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Join Dr. Stu Weiss, a champion for the unique history and conservation significance of Coyote Ridge. Explore the connections that exist between humans, butterflies, plants, and a rare soil type. This exciting hour-long presentation will be followed by 30 minutes for questions with the audience. Learn why our local wildflower blooms are so unique and deserving of our protection! Registration required.
NightSchool: Women in Science - Livestream - 03/03/2022 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
This week on NightSchool, we’re doing things a little bit differently. Alie Ward, host of the Ologies podcast, returns to kick off our annual celebration of Women’s History Month and we’re streaming the science directly from the Academy floor. Join us as we hear from a panel of Bay Area scientists studying human health during an unprecedented pandemic.
Ages 21+
See weblink for links to YouTube and Facebook Live.
Wonderfest: Sea Life (especially whales) Q&A - Livestream - 03/03/2022 08:00 PM
Wonderfest
Marine scientist Dr. Stephen Palumbi answers our questions about whales (and other marine life) in this online encore presentation of Wonderfest's in-person February-6th event in St. Helena. With an easy-to-procure library card number, begin by watching 2021's The Loneliest Whale. [It's streaming via the FREE Kanopy service, associated with many public libraries.] The Loneliest Whale (88% "Fresh" at Rotten Tomatoes) is a cinematic quest to find "the 52-hertz whale," apparently condemned to a life of solitude by the unique frequency of its call to other whales. Time magazine's Sephanie Zacharek says that "this lonely seafaring fellow ... has become a metaphor for our need to connect and communicate with others." In contrast, Professor Palumbi has a wondefully rich life in science communication - with his students at Stanford and with the public in general. Even if you can't watch The Loneliest Whale beforehand, join Wonderfest to explore the marine world via Zoom with Prof. Palumbi.
Friday, 03/04/2022
The power of comparative planetology to decipher the mechanics of surface processes and their records - 03/04/2022 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Speaker: Matthew Lapotre, Stanford University
Science at Cal - First Fridays Oakland - 03/04/2022 05:00 PM
First Fridays Oakland Oakland
Join Science at Cal and the Lawrence Hall of Science as we put the "A" in "STEAM" at the next First Fridays, a popular art and street fair in downtown Oakland! We'll be exploring the space where science meets art through a Cal student's gallery of Black physicists and a hands-on activity led by the Lawrence Hall of Science. Featuring: Lawrence Hall of Science's Hands-On Activity. Experiment with engineering and motion as you design and test Artbots. Observe and compare how your motorized contraptions perform as you create surprising and unexpected patterns. UC Berkeley Scientist... Anasuya Lyons Student, Depts of Physics & Mathematics Artist and creator, Honoring Influential Black Physicists
First Friday: Into the Redwoods - 03/04/2022 06:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Get up close and personal with live appearances by ladybugs, newts and banana slugs and films of them with KQED’s Deep Look program. Discover the mycelium network with the film Fantastic Fungi. Experience live insects with entomologist Ralph Washington Jr., take a guided hike in the Redwood Regional Park with a naturalist and meet the volunteer groups dedicated to beautifying and restoring our parks.
See weblink for event schedule
Why do Dark Matter Halos Die Together: An Intergalactic Murder Mystery - Livestream - 03/04/2022 08:00 PM
San Mateo County Astronomical Society
Galaxies live their lives deep within massive invisible clumps of dark matter called "dark matter halos." The overwhelming gravity of dark matter halos cause their growth and evolution to control and dominate the long-term growth of the galaxies within them. This fact has been widely used to compare our largest galaxy surveys against the predictions of our cosmological models. However, this endeavor faces a long-standing theoretical problem: "dying" dark matter halos (halos whose growth has slowed to a trickle over the past few billion years) are preferentially found nearby one another. This means that large-scale environment is strongly connected to the growth and properties of dark matter halos, and likely their galaxies, too.
Speaker: Dr. Philip Mansfield, Stanford University
Saturday, 03/05/2022
Frog Docent Program - Livestream - 03/05/2022 09:00 AM
Marin Water
Spend time outdoors and become a community scientist with Marin Water’s Frog Docent Program! Help protect the foothill yellow-legged frogs, a federal and state species of special concern, by monitoring habitat conditions and educating hikers at Little Carson Falls.
Learn about the frogs in the Marin watershed by joining our online event on March 5th. To complete the training to be a volunteer docent then you must also join our meeting on March 12th. Both will be held on zoom from 9:00am to 10:30 am.
Your monitoring efforts, plus the knowledge you share with other visitors on the watershed, supports the health of Mt. Tamalpais and keeps people connected to this special environment.
Volunteers that have not previously participated in the program are required to attend two training sessions. As a returning volunteer, you can skip the first Zoom meeting if you'd like. The second training is mandatory for anyone who wants to volunteer this year. We hope that all Docents will conduct at least three observational visits this spring.
The Frog Docent Program is great for individuals, pairs, or whole families. If you are signing up as a group, please just fill out one form and include the names and ages (if under 18) of everyone in your party. Volunteers under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
To register, click here: https://forms.gle/AScj9MHGYPNA942G8
Monday, 03/07/2022
Silica Nanoparticles for Controlled Drug Delivery - Livestream - 03/07/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Speakers: Jason Grunberger, University of Utah
See link for Zoom information
Symbolic Systems Forum - Livestream - 03/07/2022 12:15 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum
Speaker: Johannes Eichstaedt, Stanford University, was originally scheduled to speak on January 31.
See weblink to register
The Unbearable Lightness of Dark Matter - Livestream - 03/07/2022 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
The nature of dark matter remains one of the biggest mysteries in our current understanding of the universe. As ongoing experiments continue to rule out large regions of phase space for higher-mass dark matter (e.g. WIMPs), new ideas for the direct detection of low mass (sub-GeV) are needed. In this talk I will discuss how quasiparticle phenomena in quantum materials are apt for the direct detection of low mass dark matter. I will describe our strategy of designing bespoke Hamiltonians in solid-state systems to maximally couple to well-motivated dark matter models, and how these can be realized in both existing and hypothetical materials. These range from ‘boring’ semiconductors such as Si and GaAs to more exotic systems like topological insulator and Vonnegut’s Ice-9. I will also discuss how a symmetry-enforced design strategy was used to explore QCD axion electrodynamics in a crystal. Finally, I will give a solid-state theorist’s perspective on the challenges in dark matter direct detection, and how many of the hurdles will require input and collaboration across physics, chemistry, materials science and engineering.
Speaker: Sinead Griffin, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
Attend in person or online
Changing Climate, Winds and Ocean Carbon Uptake - Livestream - 03/07/2022 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
Strong winds in Southern Ocean storms drive air-sea carbon and heat fluxes and these fluxes are integral to the global climate system. Evidence from a range of sources indicates that the wind speeds that drive these fluxes are increasing. We present results from an experiment using the Biogeochemical Southern Ocean State Estimate to explore the effects of a 20% increase in wind speed on the air-sea carbon fluxes over the Southern Ocean. We find that increased winds lead to significantly increased outgassing during the winter, consistent with recent biogeochemical float observations. Unfortunately, the current scatterometer constellation that remotely senses vector winds undersamples these storms and the higher winds within them, temporally as well as spatially, leading to potentially large biases in Southern Ocean wind reanalyses and the carbon and heat fluxes that derive from them.
Speaker: Joellen russell, University of Arizona
See weblink for Zoom information
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquia - Livestream - 03/07/2022 04:15 PM
UC Berkeley
Speaker: TBA
See weblink for Zoom information
Are Red Dwarf Planets Habitable? - 03/07/2022 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
The most common stars in the Universe are red dwarfs. These are small, faint, cool stars that range from one-tenth to one-half the diameter of the Sun and which have extraordinarily-long lifetimes. Recent surveys have discovered Earth-size planets around several red dwarf stars, including Proxima Centauri (the nearest star to the Sun). What might conditions be like on worlds orbiting such unusual stars, and could any of them be habitable? Have any been identified as "best candidates" to consider as abodes for life?
Speaker: Gibor Basri, UC Berkeley
Tuesday, 03/08/2022
Climate forced changes of the Antarctic Ice Sheet: Evidence, inference, and speculation - 03/08/2022 03:30 PM
Natural Science Annex Santa Cruz
Wednesday, 03/09/2022
The Secret to Talking about Climate Change: Psychology as an X Factor - Livestream - 03/09/2022 11:00 AM
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Dr. Albert Bourla: Pfizer Chairman and CEO - Livestream - 03/09/2022 12:30 PM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
Ask the Scientist - Vittoria Roncalli - 03/09/2022 02:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Copepods through a molecular lens - Livestream - 03/09/2022 03:40 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
March LASER Event - Livestream - 03/09/2022 06:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous
Dark Star: The Invisible Universe of Brown Dwarfs - Livestream - 03/09/2022 07:00 PM
Silicon Valley Astronomy Series
Thursday, 03/10/2022
A Duck That Behaves Like a Cuckoo: Obligate Brood Parasitism in the Black-headed Duck of Argentina - Livestream - 03/10/2022 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
NightLife - 03/10/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: Math Art - 03/10/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
The Reality of Reality TV - Livestream - 03/10/2022 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
Friday, 03/11/2022
Insights into the effect of fault interactions on high-frequency earthquake radiation - 03/11/2022 12:00 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Digital Opportunity for All - 03/11/2022 12:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Saturday, 03/12/2022
First Dive Into the World of Fungi - Livestream - 03/12/2022 10:00 AM
Audubon Canyon Ranch
Language Development Across Communities and Cultures - 03/12/2022 11:00 AM
Genetics and Plant Biology Building Berkeley
Monday, 03/14/2022
Pi (Ï€) Day - 03/14/2022 11:00 AM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Location, Recent History, and Natural History, are Key to Determining Impacts of 2021 Heatwave on Rocky Intertidal Communities - Livestream - 03/14/2022 12:00 PM
Sonoma State Biology Colloquium
Ultrafast Electron Dynamics in Polar Liquids and Crystals - Livestream - 03/14/2022 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
Webb Space Telescope and the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) - Livestream - 03/14/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
UC Berkeley Physics Colloquia - Livestream - 03/14/2022 04:15 PM
UC Berkeley