Ukrainian Sunflowers & the SciSchmooze
Hello again, faithful follower of science,
It’s been a stressful week for the world. I made a small donation to UNICEF. I trust you are also doing what’s right.
Now for science:
CLIMATE CHANGE
The United Nations report, “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” was released last week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It’s pretty grim. The Washington Post listed five key takeaways:
A certain amount of suffering is inevitable, though adaptation can help
Every incremental increase in temperature will lead to dramatically more disease, death and frequent, costly disasters
Climate change is battering the places and populations least able to adapt, and that is all but certain to continue
Global warming is wreaking havoc on plants and wildlife
For many locations on Earth, the capacity for adaptation is already significantly limited, even as it becomes more critical
Very little research was possible on Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier this year since sea ice prevented scientists from getting up front and personal. If the grounding regions continue to erode, Thwaites will raise sea levels over 60cm in under a century.
Most of you were alive in 2002. Since that time, enough ice has melted from Greenland to cover the United States in half a meter of water.
The extreme flooding in Australia last week might very well be attributable to climate change.
Large scale conversion of sunlight into electric power here in California requires balancing land value with with the value of producing electricity. A tactic is being considered here in California: cover our canals with solar panels.
The catalytic converter in your car reduces nitrous oxides to nitrogen and oxidizes carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons. ¿But what about your gas stove, water heater, and home furnace? Just as catalytic converters were mandated for cars, the future could bring the requirement for catalytic converters in your home - should you stay with gas appliances.
Sustaining nuclear fusion for 5 seconds in UK tokamak is called a “major breakthrough” in the quest for clean fusion energy. Also, AI was used to control the shape and position of hydrogen plasma in a Swiss tokamak, and it did better than previous methods. Both of these results suggest that fusion power plants may be only 30 years in the future - which they have been since the 1950’s. But maybe this time . . .
There has been an interesting technical spillover from fusion efforts that - according to investors - will allow geothermal power anywhere on our planet. This is the ‘gyrotron’, a Russian invention that is used to create and inject plasmas into tokamak and stellarator fusion reactors. A company claims they can build a gyrotron that will ‘drill’ a hole 20 km deep by vaporizing rock. That’s deeper than the deepest hole ever drilled before. I’m not holding my breath. By the way, the “Swifty” heat gun shown fracturing rock in that last link, was made by a company founded here in the Bay Area by two young women. [At least they are “young” from my perspective.]
OUR COSMIC NEIGHBORHOOD
The Barringer meteor crater i visited a couple of months ago has a sibling that is a fair amount larger and about the same age. An impact crater has just been verified in China. The Yilan crater is less obvious than the Barringer crater since half of its wall is missing. You can find it on Google Maps and on Bing.
China’s Yutu-2 Moon rover found marbles in its meanderings! They look like pearls to me, but moon oysters are not all that likely.
The Mars Curiosity Rover has been finding “diagenetic crystal clusters” as it peruses the vicinity of Mt. Sharp. I suspect that any day now somebody with a 3D printer will be offering replicas on eBay.
As you may know, NASA’s other Mars rover, Perseverance, periodically poops out capsules of rock and soil samples that hopefully will be returned to Earth in the Mars Sample Return project that is under developed.
When physicists contemplate the Big Bang, they wrap their heads around the geometric notion that every location is equivalent to every other location. I.e. it is possible, even likely, the universe has no unique center and no edge. Now step back a few centuries to 1440 CE when Nicholas of Cusa, a mathematician and astronomer, wrote, "Thus the fabric of the world (machina mundi) will apparently (quasi) have its center everywhere and circumference nowhere." Sorry, but my head doesn’t wrap that way.
¿What will the James Webb Space Telescope reveal? So far it has revealed that some scientists hope it may find signs of life on one or more exoplanets. Currently, astronomical ophthalmologists are “coarse phasing” Webb’s 18 mirrors.
*click*
NASA: "Better or worse?"
Webb: "Better."
*click*
NASA: "Better or worse?”
Webb: "A little better, I think."
*click*
NASA: "How about now?"
Webb: "Ummm..."
NASA: "What is the farthest galaxy you can see?"
[My thanks to Michael Hurd]
Robert won the second 8-inch JWST model. This time the prize is a 3-centimeter mirror pin from Cepheid Studio (France) of JWST’s 18 mirror segments. Just send an email to david.almandsmith@gmail.com (only one) before noon Friday with an integer between zero and 1,000. We will then use a random number generator to select the target number and mail the kit to the person who chose the closest number.
PSEUDOSCIENCE
The Museum of the Future opened on 2/22/22 in Dubai. Super impressive architecture and artistic exhibits -- but one of their presentations proclaims: “Immerse yourself in vibrations that rebalance electromagnetic fields and restore our natural rhythms.”
The lawsuit brought by the Center For Inquiry against CVS and Walmart has been chugging slowly along. CFI is representing us - the consumers - for the stores’ promoting and selling homeopathic ‘drugs’ as real medicine.
Dr. Luc Montagnier won the Nobel prize in 1983 for discovering the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). However, he subsequently suffered from Nobelitis, a common disease of Nobel laureates where they adopt pseudoscientific beliefs. Not only did Dr. Montagnier accept that water had a memory, but he ‘demonstrated’ that water’s memory could be teleported.
A quack medical treatment of 400 years ago caught my attention this week: Paracelsus and others created potions for healing wounds that were not applied to the person, but rather to the weapon that caused the wound and/or the dressing after it was removed. They came under the rubric of “Powder of Sympathy.” That sorta makes homeopathy sound sensible in comparison.
PICKS OF THE WEEK
Are Red Dwarf Planets Habitable? - 7:30 PM Monday, Cal Academy of Sciences, SF, $
Climate forced changes of the Antarctic Ice Sheet - 3:30 PM Tuesday, Santa Cruz
The Reality of Reality TV - 7:30 PM Thursday, Livestream
Saturday Cinema: Artis Mathematicae - 1 PM Saturday, ExpOratorium, SF, $
Afternoon Hike at Mindego Hill - 3 - 6 PM Sunday, Los Altos
Also, save the dates, July 16 & 17 for SkeptiCal 2022
ODDS & ENDS
¿What vertebrate uses a suction cup to stick to rocks, and is covered in teeth?
¿What is this 5G mobile phone stuff? For that matter, what are all those Gs?
¿Why sex? There are plenty of advantages to parthenogenesis but many creatures that reproduce alone sometimes do endulge in sex with another. An interesting hypothesis is that meiosis may assist in gene repair. Maybe.
Bacterial osteomyelitis is a bummer, especially if you weigh 230kg.
Aromatherapy lavender and chamomile room spray from Better Homes & Gardens “enhances the space for a stress free, relaxing, and re-energizing experience” until it kills you.
I cannot but feel empathetic towards the Russian conscripts - and their families - who thought they were only going on training maneuvers.
Stay well,
Dave Almandsmith
Bay Area Skeptics
“It’s elementary planetary hygiene to clean the world of these nuclear weapons.”
--Carl Sagan (1934 - 1966)
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
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
AI-based Language Analyses for Science, Public Health and Public Policy - Livestream - 03/07/2022 12:15 PM
Stanford Symbolic Systems Forum
The content shared on social media is the largest data set on human thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in history. We use Natural Language Processing and machine learning to leverage this data for social good and psychological science. I will demonstrate how Facebook data can be used to predict depression of patients before it appears in their medical records, and how Twitter can predict the heart disease of communities better than standard risk factors. Finally, if we have time, I will talk about our new work to equip transformer-based language models with personality. Across these studies, I show that large-scale language analyses with AI can augment clinical practice, guide prevention, and inform public policy.
Speaker: Johannes Eichstaedt, Stanford University, was originally scheduled to speak on January 31.
See weblink to register
Women in Astronomy - Livestream - 03/07/2022 01:00 PM
SETI Institute
In the field of astronomy research, women have made some of the greatest contributions, even when access to the discipline was restricted. For example, a century ago women were enlisted to organize the data collected by new telescopes. It was these women, who were often condemned to only the most repetitive and boring work, who first understood the true makeup of the stars and how to gauge whether the universe was changing its size. In celebration of International Women’s Day and to champion fuller access to education and careers for woman scientists, Sabine Heinz meets Seth Shostak to talk about celebrated women in astronomy.
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 insulators 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
TORC2-Ypk1 signaling in yeast maintains plasma membrane homeostasis - Livestream - 03/07/2022 04:00 PM
Stanford University
Speaker: Jeremy Thorner, UC Berkeley, emeritus.
Examining Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry with DUNE - Livestream - 03/07/2022 04:15 PM
UC Berkeley
Following the Big Bang, the universe was created in equal parts matter and antimatter. Yet, we live in a matter dominated universe today. Leptonic charge conjugation - parity (CP) violation provides a possible rationale to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry we observe. Accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments are uniquely well-suited to examine CP violation in the lepton sector. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation program designed to determine the value of δ CP within the context of standard three-flavor mixing described by the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) neutrino mixing matrix. A performant near detector is required to realize DUNE neutrino oscillation sensitivities. I will introduce the DUNE Near Detector, focusing on the atypical design necessitated by the unprecedented neutrino beam intensity. I will discuss critical experimental challenges and highlight novel instrumentation, namely low-power custom ASICs with mixed-signal large-format PCB anodes for unambiguous 3D charge readout. Recent results from the analysis of cosmic rays in a ton-scale prototype detector will be discussed.
Speaker: Brooke Russell, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
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
Speaker: Nicholas Golledge, Antarctic Research Center, Victoria University of Wellington
Dynamic Nuclear Polarization to Enhance the Detection of Wet Interfaces and Interaction - 03/08/2022 04:00 PM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Visualizing molecular interactions and materials interfaces, previously "invisible", fundamentally transform our ability to discover new solutions and ask new questions. I will present my group’s approach to teasing out and amplifying signals from nuclei and electrons, to use spins as reporters and to use many-spin coupled spin dynamics as filters and amplifier to detect chemical interfaces and molecular assembly that traditionally evade observations. Specifically, the study of local features at the nanometer and sub-nanometer scale is made possible using strategically placed electron spin probes, and through orders of magnitudes in NMR signal enhancements achieved by polarization transfer from electron spin probes to the surrounding nuclear spins, relying on processes broadly termed dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). I will present novel concepts, tools and hardware that advance DNP-amplified nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and discuss its applications for the study of dynamics, structure and thermodynamics of interfacial water at biomolecular and materials surfaces, and of emerging molecular assemblies in aqueous solutions.
Speaker: Songi Han, UC Santa Barbara
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
Communicating about climate change can be a rollercoaster, let’s face it. We know we need to be addressing it, and urgently, and yet the topic can be fraught, triggering and evoke strong reactions for people. As researchers, scientists, educators and concerned citizens, how can we apply best practices for engaging people on climate change threats? We will hear from Dr. Rene Lertzman, founder of the new initiative Project InsideOut, and advisor/consultant to organizations around the world working to address climate and ecological crises. Rene will walk us through some of the tools and resources she’s developed over the years, and help us apply psychological insights for effective communications.
Register at weblink
Dr. Albert Bourla: Pfizer Chairman and CEO - Livestream - 03/09/2022 12:30 PM
Commonwealth Club - Online Event
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, one truth continues to be proven time and time again: the vaccine is saving lives, and to Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, it was the product of one of the most incredible private sector achievements in history. Mobilizing the corporation amid some of the most strenuous conditions experienced in modern times, he had a front row seat to see the years-long process of developing a vaccine played out in nine months in a riveting story of innovation, determination and ingenuity.
Dr. Albert Bourla is chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc., and was named the top pharmaceutical CEO in America by Institutional Investor in 2020. A Greek immigrant, former veterinarian and child of Holocaust survivors, Dr. Bourla became the head of Pfizer in 2019 and transformed the corporation just before it was put to the test by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his book Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible, Dr. Bourla describes how the corporation met the unimaginable challenges and pressures to rapidly develop a vaccine using the core values of courage, excellence, equity and joy. Detailing the leadership strategies and innovations he used to guide Pfizer in making unprecedentedly rapid scientific breakthroughs, Dr. Bourla describes the epic journey of their “moonshot.” Facing political, economic and social crises, he explains it wasn’t luck but methodical preparation, strong leadership and a clear vision that brought the vaccine forward, and shares the lessons in management and leadership that he learned.
Join us as Dr. Bourla recounts the unimaginable adversity facing the developers of one of the most impactful medical inventions in recent history, and the ingenuity and wisdom that led them to success.
With Raj Mathai, NBC Bay Area, moderator
Ask the Scientist - Vittoria Roncalli - 03/09/2022 02:30 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
How do scientists go from OMG to PhD? How do they turn their passion for science into their profession? What advice do they have for future scientists?
If you are a 5th-12th grade student, undergraduate, teacher or parent, join us to ask these questions and more in a Q&A session with our weekly Seminar speakers on Wednesdays from 2:30 - 3 PM.
Parents must give permission for children under 18 to participate.
Speaker: Vittoria Roncalli.
I am a research scientist at Stazione Zoologica A. Dohrn in Naples (Italy). My research focuses on zooplankters ecophysiology, in particular copepods. With my research I bridge the field of ecology and molecular biology (e.g. transcriptomics) to investigate the organismal plasticity in response to signals and stressors in the marine environment. In the last years, I have been fascinated by a developmental process known as diapause used by organisms to enter a state of “suspend animation” that ensures survival during adverse periods. My goal is to understand the genetic mechanisms that control this process in copepods.
Copepods through a molecular lens - Livestream - 03/09/2022 03:40 PM
Estuary & Ocean Science Center
Diapause is a type of dormancy used in arthropods to enter a state of “suspended animation” that, with a delay of development, allow organisms to overcome periods of unfavorable conditions. The sub-arctic calanoid copepod Neocalanus flemingeri has been a good model for studying diapause: dormancy is obligatory and post-embryonic and once the females wake up they only have to complete the reproductive program. Using transcriptomic, we characterized the precisely orchestrated sequence of the transcriptional changes associated with the wake up of the “sleeping beauty” that starts within an hour of an effective termination stimulus. In addition, we also discover that dormancy is not only a strategy used in adults. N. flemingeri early nauplii can enter a dormant state when experiencing starvation and reactivate their development when food become available again.
Speaker: Vittoria Roncalli, Stazione Zoologica A Dohrn
See weblink for Zoom registration
March LASER Event - Livestream - 03/09/2022 06:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous
Speakers: Summer Praetorius (USGS Geologist) on "The Heliocene"
Ewa Domanska (Stanford Univ & Adam Mickiewicz Univ) on "Prefigurative Art and Micro-Utopias"
Lily Xiying Yang (Virtual Reality Artist) on "Land of Illusions - Creativity and Activism in the Metaverse"
Dark Star: The Invisible Universe of Brown Dwarfs - Livestream - 03/09/2022 07:00 PM
Silicon Valley Astronomy Series
Normal stars, like our Sun, shine because they undergo nuclear fusion, turning hydrogen into helium and converting matter into radiation. But what if a star wasn't able to fuse? What would such a "dud" look like? These were purely theoretical question until the 1990s, when the first examples of non-fusing stars, or brown dwarfs, were discovered. Today, many thousands of such objects are known, spanning a wide range of temperatures and masses, and they occupy a unique niche of at the intersection of stars and exoplanets. In this presentation, Prof. Burgasser will introduce the science of brown dwarfs, discuss how they were and continue to be discovered, highlight some of their exceptional properties, and describe how this (mostly) invisible population may provide clues to the early formation and evolutionary history of the Milky Way.
Adam Burgasser is a professor of Physics at UC San Diego, and an astrophysicist who studies the coldest stars, brown dwarfs, and extrasolar planets
Click on the weblink to watch this, and previous Silicon Valley Astronomy lectures.
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
The Black-headed Duck is a duck with the lifestyle of a cuckoo or a cowbird - they never raise their own offspring but depend entirely on other species to do so. This species is unique among the hundred species of professional brood parasitic birds in that their precocial chicks fend for themselves after hatching, so the parasites rely on their hosts only for incubation. This suggested that we might see a different type of relationship between the brood parasite and the host species they parasitize. UC Santa Cruz professor Dr. Bruce Lyon will discuss the results of a four-year study of Black-headed Ducks in wetlands near Buenos Aires. His team investigated ecological and evolutionary aspects of their biology, including patterns of host use, the factors that influence the ducks reproductive success, and the implications for conservation of the ducks. The study wetlands, habitat that looks similar to North American wetlands, host an incredible diversity of breeding birds (60 species!). Bruce will highlight some of this avian diversity with a feast of images and natural history vignettes, considering both the similarities and the differences between these Argentina wetlands and their North American counterparts.
Speaker: Bruce Lyon, UC Santa Cruz
Register at weblink to attend
NightLife - 03/10/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Calling all creatures of the night: explore the nocturnal side of the Academy at NightLife and see what's revealed. With live DJs, outdoor bars, ambiance lighting, and nearly 40,000 live animals (including familiar faces like Claude the alligator with albinism), the night is sure to be wild.
Step inside the iconic Shake House earthquake simulator and our four-story rainforest, where you can explore the Amazon’s treetops surrounded by free-flying birds and butterflies.
Venture into our latest aquarium exhibit Venom to encounter live venomous animals and learn the power of venom to both harm and heal.
Visit the BigPicture exhibit in the Piazza to marvel at the most recent winners of the BigPicture Natural Photography competition.
Bask in the glow of one of the largest living coral reef displays in the world: our 212,000-gallon Philippine Coral Reef tank.
Take in the interstellar views from the Living Roof, then grab a bite from the Academy Cafe and head to the West Garden outdoor bar to drink and dine under the stars.
After Dark: Math Art - 03/10/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Got math problems? We’ve got solutions! Mathematics, as a fundamental language to describe the world, is as integral to the engineering of buildings as it is to beauty. Discover various aesthetic expressions hidden in fractions, digits, and equations. From the transcendence of pi to the psychedelia of fractals, we’ll highlight visual art, music, and geometric curiosities based on creative mathematical exploration.
PubScience: Plant-Based Protein - Plant Biology and the Quest for Sustainable Foods - 03/10/2022 06:30 PM
Ocean View Brew Works Albany
Speaker: Daniel Wescot, Climax Foods
The Reality of Reality TV - Livestream - 03/10/2022 07:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
“Voted off the island”. “Will you accept this rose?” “You’re fired!” “Sashay away!” Reality TV has permeated American culture, and spread internationally as well. But what do we know about the behind-the-scenes world of reality TV? Yau-Man Chan was a fan favorite on two rounds of Survivor, and will tell what really goes on behind, and sometimes in front of, the cameras. How much is real and how much is staged?
Speaker: Yau-Man Chan, UC Berkeley, retired
The human immune system is complex - so complex and dynamic that it can actually adapt to a changing environment; i.e., it can evolve. Accordingly, we call the immune system a complex adaptive system. Within biology, species are complex adaptive systems whose environmental fitness tends to improve over time; species evolve. Sometimes, a species population divides, and each part evolves in isolation. Genetic mismatches may then arise that make hybrid creatures sterile and prevent re-mixing of the two populations. Similar processes operate in other complex adaptive systems, where isolation leads to crucial mismatches - in biological systems (such as the immune system and the brain) and in cultural systems (such as language and technology). Understanding cultural mismatches, in particular, may have large-scale consequences: informing humanity’s attempt to mitigate xenophobia.
Speaker: David Queller, Washington University
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
Speaker: Shanna Chu, Brown University
Digital Opportunity for All - 03/11/2022 12:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Information technology has fundamentally changed the daily lives of Americans - crunching years of data in seconds and automating seemingly infinitely complex tasks. Yet, as congressman Ro Khanna warns, technological progress has great power to either hurt or heal the country - creating division and furthering inequality if left unchecked, or creating opportunity and healing fractures if carefully directed. It is by keeping an eye on the least fortunate while channeling digital innovation, he argues, that we can create positive change.
In his latest book, Dignity in the Digital Age, congressman Khanna explains how democratic access to technology can strengthen every sector of the economy, create more inclusive communities and mend a fractured country. Using “progressive capitalism” to create jobs and opportunities for all Americans, especially the least fortunate, he gives a blueprint of how to direct the future of the tech industry to be a powerful agent for positive change.
Congressman Ro Khanna has represented California's Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2016 and serves as chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment. Before his time in Congress, he served as the deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Commerce in the Obama administration and has taught economics and law at Stanford University. In the House of Representatives, Rep. Khanna has been a leading voice for tech equality, climate change accountability and the social responsibility of corporations.
Join us, as Rep. Khanna explains how the digital revolution got us to where we are now - and explains where it can take us from here at this critical time in American history.
Speaker: Ro Khanna, with Raj Mathai, NBC Bay Area, Moderator
Attend in person or online
Saturday, 03/12/2022
First Dive Into the World of Fungi - Livestream - 03/12/2022 10:00 AM
Audubon Canyon Ranch
Mushroom enthusiast and research associate Christian Schwarz will take us on a guided tour of this vast branch of the Tree of Life, highlighting the breathtaking range of scale, ecologies, and morphologies of these mysterious organisms.
Speaker: Christian Schwarz, author
Language Development Across Communities and Cultures - 03/12/2022 11:00 AM
Genetics and Plant Biology Building Berkeley
In this talk, Dr. Mahesh Srinivasan will present recent work from his lab that challenges two broad claims within the field of developmental science: First, that there are “optimal” methods for speaking to one"‘s child; and second, that parents from lower socioeconomic-status backgrounds sometimes lack knowledge of these methods, thus warranting parenting training. He will begin by presenting studies that address whether the experience of poverty itself - above and beyond factors like parenting knowledge - may suppress parents’ speech to their children. His findings suggest that financial scarcity may impact how anybody would speak to their child, motivating the need for policies that address systemic inequities. Then, he will discuss research which assesses children’s ability to learn from overheard speech (ambient speech that is not directed to a child), which is a main form of children’s early experience with language in many communities around the world. His findings suggest that children can learn from overheard speech, and may not need to be spoken to often in order to learn words on a “normal” timeline. He will discuss the theoretical and practical implications of his findings.
Featuring Dr. Mahesh Srinivasan, Associate Professor, Psychology, UC Berkeley
Saturday Cinema: Artis Mathematicae - 03/12/2022 01:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Watch a screening of John Sims’ math art video work, Artis Mathematicae (2022, 22 min.), followed by a Q&A. The work explores a visual and poetic language of fractals, pi, and the square root of love.
John Sims is a Detroit native, Sarasota-based conceptual artist, writer, and activist who creates art and curatorial projects spanning the areas of installation, performance, text, music, film, and large-scale activism. His work is informed by mathematics, design, the politics of white supremacy, sacred symbols/anniversaries, and poetic/political text.
Sunday, 03/13/2022
Afternoon Hike at Mindego Hill - 03/13/2022 03:00 PM
Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve Los Altos
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful 5-mile hike from the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve to the top of the POST-protected Mindego Hill. You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about how we protected this beautiful property featuring panoramic views of redwood ridges and undulating hillsides.
The hike is strenuous at about 5 miles round trip with about 1,000 feet of elevation gain, so be prepared for a workout! Athletic wear and sturdy shoes are recommended! If you’d like to bring your own hiking poles, you’re more than welcome.
Protected by POST and recently opened to the public by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Mindego Hill is an excellent example of how POST works with various partners to protect some of the most threatened lands in our area.
Monday, 03/14/2022
Pi Day - 03/14/2022 11:00 AM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Join the 35th annual celebration of our own homegrown holiday! March 14th (3/14) commemorates the irrational, transcendent, and never ending ratio that helps describe circles of all sizes. Watch math artist John Sims showcase his handmade Pi Quilt and perform spoken word poems and original music based on pi. Explore math inspired activities and presentations, then join our pi parade and eat a free piece of pie. Come for the STEAM and stay for the slice!
Pi Day festivities begin at 11:00 a.m. and go until 3:00 p.m.
Storytime Science: March Mathness With Vivian Altmann 11:00 a.m. Bechtel Gallery 3, Classroom 1606
Join us for a special math-inspired edition of Storytime Science! Enjoy a math-themed storybook read-aloud for children and their grown-ups. The Exploratorium's own Vivian Altmann will read The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat and Mo Willems. After the story, take math into the third dimension by crafting paper plate Bucky balls, greeting card boxes, and pinwheel shapes.
Pi Day Celebration With John Sims Join for free online via Facebook or YouTube or at the Exploratorium 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. Bechtel Gallery 3, Phyllis C. Wattis Studio
No matter how you slice it, you don’t want to miss Pi Day. Math artist John Sims will perform work from his music project 31415: The Pi Collection and showcase his Pi Quilt. Afterward, our expert educators share pi’s mathematical history and activities you can try at the museum and at home.
Pi Procession 1:59 p.m. Plaza
Grab your digit and get in line for the annual Pi Procession! A high-spirited crowd parades through the museum and circles the Pi Shrine 3.14 times, waving the digits of pi and singing a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” to Einstein. All participants will enjoy a free slice of pie following the parade.
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
Speakers: Melissa Miner, UC Santa Cruz
See link for Zoom information
Modeling the Circumgalactic Medium - 03/14/2022 12:10 PM
Campbell Hall, Rm 131 A Berkeley
Speaker: Yakov Faerman, University of Washington
Ultrafast Electron Dynamics in Polar Liquids and Crystals - Livestream - 03/14/2022 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
Electron transfer and charge transport are most elementary processes in liquid and solid condensed matter. Both femtosecond spectroscopy and structure-resolving x-ray methods give insight in electron dynamics at atomic length and time scales. This talk focuses on many-body dynamics of free electrons in water and alcohols, and on soft-mode excitations in polar crystals.
The electric dipole moment of water molecules gives rise to a strong local electric field in the liquid which fluctuates in a time range from tens of femtoseconds to several picoseconds. The fluctuating field induces spontaneous tunneling ionization of water molecules which can be made irreversible by imposing an external directed terahertz (THz) field on the liquid [1]. Time-resolved nonlinear THz spectroscopy [2] allows for mapping charge separation, transport, and localization of the released electron on a few-picosecond time scale. The highly polarizable localized electrons modify the THz dielectric function of water, a manifestation of a highly nonlinear response. The solvated electrons exhibit pronounced polaronic properties, due to many-body Coulomb interactions with a large number of solvent molecules [3].
Soft-mode excitations of polar and/or ionic crystals display a hybrid character with coupled nuclear and electronic motions. Femtosecond x-ray powder diffraction allows for following such correlated dynamics at the atomic level by providing momentary atom positions and charge density distributions [4]. In cubic boron nitride, transverse acoustic two-phonon excitations in the electronic ground state induce a step-like increase of diffracted x-ray intensity, opposite to a Debye-Waller behavior [5]. Transient charge density maps reveal distinctly different length scales of nuclear and electronic displacements and a spatial transfer of valence charge from the interstitial region onto boron and nitrogen atoms. Such findings will be discussed in comparison to other prototypical materials.
Speaker: Thomas Elsaesser, Max-Born-Institute
Webb Space Telescope and the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) - Livestream - 03/14/2022 04:00 PM
What Physicists Do - Sonoma State University
Speaker: Tim Rawl, European Space Agency
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CITRIS People and Robots Seminar - Livestream - 03/14/2022 04:00 PM
CITRIS People and Robots
Speaker: Henny Admoni, UC Berkeley
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UC Berkeley Physics Colloquia - Livestream - 03/14/2022 04:15 PM
UC Berkeley
Speaker: L. Mahadevan, Harvard University
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Folds, cuts and isometries: art and science - 03/14/2022 04:15 PM
Physics North Berkeley
For millennia, origami and kirigami artists have used folds and cuts to create beautiful shapes from a simple sheet of paper. I will describe our recent scientific attempts to catch up with these remarkably imaginative arts phrased as inverse problems in physical geometry that aim to control the shape and rigidity of a thin surface. Using discrete operations that vary the number, size, orientation and coordination of folds and cuts, I will show how to create piecewise isometric kirigami and origami tessellations and control their local and global morphology and mechanical response, mixing experimental, computational and theoretical approaches.
Speaker: L. Mahadevan, Harvard University
Tuesday, 03/15/2022
Weekday Morning Hike at Rancho Canada del Oro - 03/15/2022 10:00 AM
Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space Preserve Morgan hill
Empowering Organic Synthesis: From Unique Methods to Complex Natural Products - 03/15/2022 11:00 AM
Latimer Hall Berkeley
Mycological Society of San Francisco General Meeting - Thea Chesney - Livestream - 03/15/2022 07:00 PM
Mycological Society of San Francisco
Wednesday, 03/16/2022
Preparing Nature for a Changing Climate - Livestream - 03/16/2022 04:00 PM
Acterra
The Emissions that You Purchase: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint - 03/16/2022 07:00 PM
City of Sunnyvale
Travels into Astronomical History with the Antique Telescope Society - Livestream - 03/16/2022 07:00 PM
San Francisco Amateur Astronomers
Nerd Nite SF #123: Fishing, Literary Culture, & Carnivores! - 03/16/2022 08:00 PM
Rickshaw Stop San Francisco
Thursday, 03/17/2022
Walk on the Cowell-Purisima Trail - 03/17/2022 10:00 AM
Cowell Purisima Coastal Trailhead Half Moon Bay
Science at Cal - The science of Meat and Dairy Alternatives - Livestream - 03/17/2022 12:00 PM
Science @ Cal
Internet of Things: Sources of Security Issues and Possible Solutions - Livestream - 03/17/2022 04:00 PM
Sonoma State Engineering Colloquium
Enhancing Human Cognition - Livestream - 03/17/2022 05:00 PM
Cafe Scientifique Silicon Valley
NightLife: Of Land and Sea - 03/17/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: Wondrous Fungus - 03/17/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
Connecting Ecotourism and Conservation - Livestream - 03/17/2022 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Audubon Society
The Plants and Animals of Bay Area Oak Woodlands - Livestream - 03/17/2022 07:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
NightSchool: Underwater Forests - Livestream - 03/17/2022 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Friday, 03/18/2022
Data & Life in the Metaverse - 03/18/2022 12:30 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Berkeley
Polymerizations in Pickering Emulsions as a Route to Hybrid Materials - 03/18/2022 02:00 PM
LeConte Hall, Rm 4 Berkeley
Artificial Gamer: Film Screening and Panel on the Battle of AI vs. Humans in Esports - 03/18/2022 07:00 PM
Computer History Museum Mountain View
Axions - Livestream - 03/18/2022 07:30 PM
Tri-Valley Stargazers
Saturday, 03/19/2022
#NoToPlastic Community Clean-Ups - 03/19/2022 09:45 AM
Oakland Zoo Oakland
Tri-Valley Innovation Fair - 03/19/2022 10:00 AM
Alameda County Fairgrounds Pleasanton
Family Nature Walks - Baylands Nature Preserve - 03/19/2022 10:00 AM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
Investigating Space: Stellar Scientists - 03/19/2022 11:00 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Monday, 03/21/2022
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar - Livestream - 03/21/2022 02:30 PM
UC Berkeley Condensed Matter Physics Seminar