How Do You Find a Bug in a Billion-Transistor Chip?Modern System-on-Chip (SoC) designs contain billions of transistors and integrate processors, memory controllers, high-speed interfaces, security engines, and many other complex components. With this level of complexity, how do engineers find a tiny design bug before the chip is manufactured? This presentation introduces the fascinating world of Design Verification (DV) ...
First Friday Nights at CuriOdysseySwing into the weekend with science, animals, music, food trucks, and fun! On the first Friday of every month, parents and kids celebrate together at CuriOdyssey.Dance to some of your favorite hits, while enjoying animal presentations and science activities. Activities and programs are different each time, so make it a ...
Where: San MateoCost:
Bats AliveJoin us for Bats Alive, an evening exploration into the fascinating world of bats! Hosted by Dr. Dave Johnston, this special YSI event offers an opportunity to learn more about these incredible animals, including the Mexican free-tailed bat. After the presentation, join us for a guided nighttime hike using flashlights ...
Where: Los GatosCost: $10 General, $5 Members
Ultraviolet Attraction: Moths at the RefugeJoin us for a presentation that will cover some of the typical moths of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in San Jose. The presentation will also include info about moths and other insects' attraction to light, particularly ultraviolet light. We will have a few lights up ...
One of the most accessible, fascinating, and brighter planets in the night sky for amateur astronomers to view is Saturn. And Saturn was the destination of one of NASA’s most memorable space voyages: the Cassini mission. Cassini was one of the most ambitious efforts ever mounted in planetary exploration. Cassini ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Saturday, 10/03/26
Science in the Park 2026Science in the Park is a biennial event hosted by Supervisor Elisa Márquez and created by the late Supervisor Richard Valle. It is an opportunity for the community to learn more about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math), the environment, and health, while having fun and supporting the school districts ...
Where: HaywardCost: Free
Science@Stockmen’s Park - Engineering in ActionLaunch a rocket, build a structure, explore circuits, and see student-built robots in action! Join Quest Science Center for a free morning of discovery with more than 20 hands-on activities at Stockmen’s Park in downtown Livermore.Meet local scientists and engineers, try your hand at laparoscopic surgery, explore forces and motion, ...
Where: LivermoreCost: Free
Wax and Suds: Candle and Soap Making ClassJoin us at Emma Prusch for a fun and creative candle and soap making class! The class will begin with a 10-minute guided tour of our Native Plant Garden, where participants will learn about some of the aromatic native plants that they can add to their candle or soap. Then, ...
Where: San JoseCost: $38 SJ residents, $42 non-residents
First Saturday Tours are a wonderful way to introduce yourself to the Arboretum or to deepen your knowledge of the Arboretum’s plant collections. Each tour is a little different depending on the time of year, the interests of the tour guide, and the people who join in. For example, you ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free with admission
A Slow Walk Through WavecrestUnlike a typical hike focused on reaching the destination, this experience invites us to slow down and notice the natural world around us. Together, we’ll explore the landscape through guided observation activities, quiet reflection, and opportunities to appreciate birds, wildflowers, coastal views, and the small details that are often missed ...
Where: Half Moon BayCost: Free
Starry Nights Star PartyJoin the San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) and Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (OSA) for an unforgettable night of exploring the night sky. Our knowledgeable docents, members of SJAA, will be your guides to providing valuable insights into the wonders of our universe. The viewing site features darker skies ...
Where: Morgan HillCost: Free (registration required at weblink)
Sunday, 10/04/26
Emma's Little FarmersEver wondered what it would be like to be a farmer at Emma Prusch? Join us for Emma's Little Farmers! Participants will experience the joys of rural life as they engage in hands-on activities and immersive experiences at Emma Farm Park. Kids will explore various aspects of farming, from planting ...
Where: San JoseCost: $49 San Jose Residents, $53 non-residents
Solar ObservingIt’s there for us year round, lighting our days and providing energy for our lives, so maybe it’s time to give it a closer look. Join SJAA for amazing and detailed views of the Sun, and be assured that we’ll be using special telescopes that will keep your eyeballs perfectly ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Monday, 10/05/26
Building Intelligence Around Limited Human Attention: Our Research Trajectory Toward Attention-Aware Agentic SystemHuman attention has become an increasingly scarce resource in everyday digital life. People are constantly exposed to notifications, messages, news updates, social media content, and AI-generated information, all competing for limited attentional capacity. In this talk, I will share our research trajectory around human attention, highlighting how attention has served ...
Dr. Kornberg’s research has addressed four major biological issues. His discovery and characterization of E. coli DNA polymerase III established the enzymatic mechanism of DNA polymerization in chromosomal replication. His lab’s cloning and genetic characterization of the Drosophila engrailed, cubitus interruptus and hedgehog genes established the molecular genetic basis of ...
Nanoscale materials exhibit fascinating light-matter interactions: in twisted multilayers, bound electron-hole pairs called excitons are trapped by the moiré superlattice potential and in metallic nanoparticles collective charge density oscillations called localized surface plasmons give rise to enormous light absorption cross-sections which can be harnessed in optoelectronic devices. In my talk, ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
From the early days of SLAC to the near future- A very personal viewI will describe my early experiences at SLAC, beginning in the late 60’s with the electron-proton scattering program which discovered point-like structure in the nucleon. I will then move to the beginnings of SPEAR and the November Revolution and a few of the almost concurrent discoveries. I will then shift ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
The private life of lipids: small chemical changes that shape cell membranesOur lab investigates how - and why - cells control the composition of their lipid membranes. In this talk, I will focus on our efforts to uncover how lipid composition is controlled in intracellular membranes and describe emerging biophysical models to explain its chemical diversity in cells. I will first ...
Join us for this special edition of the What Physicists Do series, where we will hear from Sonoma State physicists and astronomers. In these talks, we will hear about their individual journeys through physics and astronomy. Additionally, they will teach us about some of the exciting phenomena in their subfields ...
Nature has provided many hints that our best current theoretical models of the universe are missing important constituents. These undiscovered constituents could include exotic ultralight bosons such as axions. Many well-motivated theories predict that such fields interact with the intrinsic spins of ordinary particles, producing extremely feeble torques that might ...
The United States needs to build generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure to meet growing electricity demand. However, there is a lack of decision tools and frameworks to inform investment decisions for energy technologies amid policy, technological, and other contextual uncertainties. Prof. Azevedo will present results from several ongoing analyses that ...
The cells of our body follow a strict rulebook: they copy their DNA and divide in a highly controlled manner. However, both the placenta and cancer cells defy this rulebook. To build the placenta, early stem cells break this rule through a unique process called endoreplication. Instead of dividing, they ...
Mars is an exciting frontier, with opportunities to discover what might exist within its sedimentary layers and surface landforms. Comparative studies of red rocks on Earth have provided important clues for interpreting the geology on Mars. Small terrestrial concretions (cemented mineral masses) compared with “blueberries” found on the red planet, ...
Marsh Hike at Coyote PointStep into the baylands and explore the vibrant marsh ecosystem right outside our doors. Join CuriOdyssey educators for a guided hike through Coyote Point’s wetlands, where we’ll look for native plants, local wildlife, and signs of seasonal change.We will gather at CuriOdyssey before heading out to the marsh together. Participants ...
Despite significant progress on quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes, building qLDPC processors that are high-rate, high-throughput, hardware-friendly, and fast-to-decode remains a challenge. We introduce mitten codes, a family of qLDPC processor codes of encoding rate 20% and check weight 9, based on non-abelian groups. Their non-abelian structure evades distance bounds ...
Designing for Physical AI: From Innovation Lab to Factory FloorRobots and machines operating in the real world still have to be programmed from scratch for every task, or trained on massive volumes of video and simulation data, only to fail the moment reality shifts.Inait, founded by neuroscientist Prof. Henry Markram, takes a fundamentally different approach. Its fast-learning AI gives ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Who's Going Rogue: AI Agents, Safety & AccountabilityAI agents are taking actions developers did not anticipate. But humans set the goals, tools, permissions, and environments they operate in.KALW welcomes NPR's emerging technologies reporter, NeEddra James, for Who’s Going Rogue? a community conversation that brings together researchers working on AI agents, safety, and accountability. Together, they'll unpack ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $10 - $20 Donation Suggested
Just for fun (and for bragging rights), how many science facts lie within your grasp, and within the grasp of a few friends? That beautiful word science originates from the Latin word scientia, meaning “knowledge,” so it covers a lot of ground! This particular bit of information - involving the etymology of ...
Marine ecosystems are changing due to climate-driven deoxygenation, yet community responses to these shifts remain poorly resolved. Next-generation DNA sequencing allows us to explore metazoan ecosystem composition from water column samples. Using environmental DNA (eDNA), I analyzed metazoan communities above, within and below the anoxic zones in the Eastern Tropical ...
Where: Moss LandingCost: Free
Modeling Tumor ImmunosurveillanceWhile cancer immunotherapy has provided unprecedented clinical outcomes in certain settings, only a subset of patients benefit. We are exploring the hypothesis that changes in physical properties, in particular viscoelasticity, of solid tumors alters immune cell phenotype and function. Using biomaterials that allow independent control over key variables, we find ...
UC Berkeley Cell and Molecular Biology Lecture - CANCELEDRoger Y. Stanier Memorial LectureSpeaker: Ned (Edward) Ruby, California Institute of TechnologyThis seminar is no longer listed on UC Berkeley's calendar. We assume it has been canceled.
More than 50 years after the Clean Air Act, Americans breathe far cleaner air, yet people of color and overburdened communities still breathe more pollution than everyone else. Why does unequal air persist while overall air quality improves? Drawing on recent results from hyperlocal field measurements and model simulations, I ...
AI alignment rests on a simple model of human decision-making: people are noisily rational agents maximizing fixed rewards that exist in the environment. This talk examines that model from both sides: minds and machines. In humans, choices follow resource-rational heuristics rather than optimal policies, and pursuing even an arbitrarily assigned ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Food Sense: What to Eat and WhyWhat should we eat - and why is the answer still so complicated?Join us for a compelling conversation at the intersection of science, food and health as we explore the evolving landscape of nutrition through the lens of Dr. Christopher Gardner’s forthcoming book, Food Sense: What to Eat and Why. ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22 General, discount for Members
For thousands of years, we’ve wondered if the Earth is unique, or if there are other Earths out there to find. In just the last 30 years, we’ve progressed from merely wondering if planets exist around other stars to knowing that almost every star we see has planets. Ambitious planet ...
The answer does not begin with the mouth, or even the brain, but with a seemingly unrelated change in how our ancestors walked through the world. This talk traces the evolutionary journey that restructured the human respiratory system to make speech possible in the first place.Dr. Nkemdi Agwaramgbo, an internal ...
Cycads, Wild Black Peppers, and Amazonian roots: the role of plant specialized chemistry at three different scalesSpecialized metabolites play critical roles in plant evolution and ecology, yet most of what we know about this rich and diverse organic arsenal comes from foliar tissues and local scales. As chemical ecology is being transformed by higher-resolution instrumentation and novel machine-learning approaches for data processing and analysis, scientists have ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
SETI Live: A New Crater on the MoonA new crater on the Moon is helping scientists understand what happens when an object strikes the lunar surface??"and how far the impact's effects can reach.The Moon's surface is covered in regolith, a layer of loose rock, dust, and debris shaped by billions of years of impacts. By studying a ...
Where: Cost: Free
The High-Redshift Frontier of Galaxy Formation TheoryJWST observations have revealed many surprises at early cosmic times. The unexpectedly high abundance of bright galaxies, massive black holes, and dense star clusters, along with the existence of enigmatic Little Red Dots and detection of heavy elements in the most distant systems observed to date, has pushed astrophysicists to ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Weird New MexicoThere’s no getting around it: New Mexico is weird. Roswell gets all the attention, but there are far stranger things lurking around its mesas and remote deserts. No one knows this better than SI Research Fellow and Skeptical Inquirer Deputy Editor Benjamin Radford, whose books Mysterious New Mexico and the ...
For every human being on the planet, there are roughly 1.4 billion individual insects. But aside from the odd pesky mosquito or charming bumble bee, how often do we humans really consider them? According to entomologist Barrett Klein, it ought to be more often! Throughout history, insects have markedly shaped ...
Where: Cost: Free
After Dark: Unplug and PlayYour monthly invitation to hang out and try something new??"play science trivia, find your community, and connect deeply.
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95 General, Free for members
NightLife: Buggin' OutSmall but mighty. Take a closer look at how insects help keep our world buzzing, blooming, and thriving.
Where: San FranciscoCost: $26 General
Blazing the path to a fusion future The demonstration of energy gain by nuclear fusion in the laboratory and its industrial utilization as an unlimited energy source has been a grand challenge for physicists and engineers for 70 years. This vision has shifted closer to reality after the successful demonstration of multi-megajoule energy yield from deuterium-tritium plasmas ...
Where: Menlo ParkCost: Free
Skeptics in a Real PubEnjoy an evening of socializing and feasting with fellow Bay Area science-forward folk in an Irish Pub on the Peninsula with great food. < Menu >Join us! This is a free event brought to you by Bay Area Skeptics. All are welcome.
Where: MillbraeCost: Free
The San Francisco Bay State of the Birds - LivestreamLearn how the SF Bay State of the Birds (www.sfbaystateofthebirds.org) tracks bird trends as a sign of habitat health. Because birds tend to be sensitive to habitat changes and respond quickly, they are great indicators of overall habitat health. The SF Bay State of the Birds website reveals timely insights ...
Where: Cost: Free
Hammer Presents National Geographic Live: CHASING MONARCHSFifty years after the startling discovery that monarch butterflies spend winters in the forests of Mexico, photographer and National Geographic Explorer Jaime Rojo reveals this winged wonder of the insect world in new ways with never-before-seen visuals. Tag along with conservationists and citizen scientists who are helping this species avoid ...
It’s hard to open a social media site these days without hearing about “peptides.” Although many known drugs are peptides (like insulin or thyroid), this term typically refers to a set of experimental compounds purporting to do everything from healing injuries to increasing longevity. Recent actions by the FDA’s Pharmacy ...
