Light Up the NightCelebrate downtown San José's newest public art installations created for SJ2026 with an illuminating evening featuring artists Brooke Einbender and Esteban Garcia Bravo. Presented in partnership with the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, the event highlights the power of light, color, and creativity to transform public spaces and ...
Where: San JoseCost: Free
Saturday, 08/15/26
Salt Marsh WalkJoin us for a leisurely walk along the La Riviere Trail of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Fremont. You'll learn about the ways that salt marshes benefit wetland ecosystems and us!Meet at the Visitor Center. Bring warm layers, sun protection, sturdy walking shoes, and binoculars ...
Where: FremontCost: Free
Lick Observatory After Hours - SOLD OUTTake a walk through the Eastside of the Lick Observatory, culminating in a visit to the iconic Shane Telescope. After a journey through time with a history lecture, we’ll transition to a night of star gazing. Experience the cosmos firsthand through our expert-led portable telescope stations.Our behind-the-scenes After Hours Tour ...
Where: Mt. HamiltonCost: $81.88
Twilight Marsh WalkExperience the salt marsh at twilight on an easy stroll along refuge trails (about 0.6 miles). You will learn about the habitats at the refuge, the wildlife it protects, why the refuge was established and why it is just as important for us. This program is led by USFWS volunteer ...
Where: FremontCost: Free
Sunday, 08/16/26
Junior Rangers at the Refuge: Wonders of a WatershedLove learning about new habitats? Curious about wildlife? Our Junior Rangers at the Refuge program is perfect for your family! Join us each month as we explore the Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge through fun, educational activities.This month, we'll explore how we're connected to the Refuge through our ...
Where: AlvisoCost: Free
Lick Observatory After Hours - SOLD OUTTake a walk through the Eastside of the Lick Observatory, culminating in a visit to the iconic Shane Telescope. After a journey through time with a history lecture, we’ll transition to a night of star gazing. Experience the cosmos firsthand through our expert-led portable telescope stations.Our behind-the-scenes After Hours Tour ...
Emperor penguins breed through the dark Antarctic winter on sea ice, in one of Earth’s most extreme environments, making them difficult to monitor yet invaluable as indicators of Southern Ocean health. Our program follows penguins across their lives and vast ocean areas by combining long-term field observations with electronic tagging, ...
Gladstone’s Steven Finkbeiner shares how Gladstone’s AI-powered microscope is racing to cure neurodegenerative disease.Imagine a scientist that never sleeps, runs thousands of experiments at once, and learns from every success and failure in real-time. It’s not a person??"it’s a microscope. Scientist Steven Finkbeiner, M.D., Ph.D., of San Francisco’s Gladstone Institutes, ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22 General, $5 Online, Students Free
Popping the Science Bubble: Wastewater viruses & plant sunscreenThis month's presentations will be:Tracking viruses in wastewater: Some are more vulnerable to soaps and detergents than others - Allie Nguyen, Environmental Engineering, UC BerkeleyMy research lies at the intersection of environmental water microbiology and public health. I am currently involved in multiple projects. One project focuses on wastewater-based epidemiology, ...
Naturalist Steven Stolper will speak about tropical ecology and share personal experiences with birds and animals that he encountered on a recent exciting adventure to Costa Rica. He will also talk about the tree research that brought him to the tropics for this particular trip, and how this important scientific ...
Abortion is a critical health care issue that demands informed discourse and action, yet the conversation is often reduced to slogans rather than substance. This talk explores the complexities of abortion through a social science lens, giving listeners the tools to understand the lived realities of people accessing abortion services.Dr. ...
Where: San JoseCost: $27
Nerd Nite SF #163: Caving 101, Gin & Tonics & Terawatt Wire Explosions Hey. What are YOU up to this summer? Taken any trips lately? You’ve come to the right place for some travel advice. If you’re feeling the heat, why not enjoy the cool cozy confines of a cave? If you’re ready to see the world, why not follow in the surprisingly ...
Like thoroughly scientific alchemists, nuclear chemists work to create elements that don’t exist naturally on Earth. These new super-heavy atoms could be long-lived, residing on proton-packed islands of stability off the far end of the periodic table. What new elements have most recently been added to the periodic table? How ...
Deep-ocean predators depend on patchy prey resources embedded within a poorly understood physical environment, making it difficult to determine how oceanographic variability structures prey fields and shapes predator behavior at bathypelagic depths. Using goose-beaked whales in the Southern California Bight as a case study, I will synthesize recent work combining ...
The Ethics of Making Babies: Genetic Selection and Gene EditingIt may sound like science fiction, but reproduction has entered a complex new reality. It is now possible to select IVF embryos based on genetic predictions for diseases and other traits. And the same gene-editing technology that allows scientists to treat patients with sickle cell disease could one day make ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $15 General, $9 online
The Mystical & Bountiful Farallon IslandsThe archipelago of small islands known as the Farallon Islands (or, Farallones) sit about 30 miles west of San Francisco. Rugged and remote despite their proximity to The City, the islands have a storied history dating to the early 19th century and beyond that included seal hunters, commercial egg collectors, ...
Local astronomers talking about stars, planets, and the universe at your neighborhood bar. No PhD required.Tickets here.Speakers: Jean Somalwar (Stanford/UC Berkeley) ??" If You Give a Black Hole a CookieandSteve Croft (SETI) ??" Can Artificial Intelligence Discover Extraterrestrial Intelligence?Somalwar is a joint MultiRAPTOR Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley and Kavli ...
As software delivery accelerates, traditional testing approaches struggle to keep pace with Agile and DevOps environments. Modern systems demand more than automated test cases - they require a shift toward quality engineering practices that embed reliability, scalability, and continuous feedback into every stage of development.This talk explores how test automation ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Thursday, 08/20/26
Baylands ExplorationsJoin expert EV docents for an exploration of the science and nature of the Palo Alto Baylands. What makes this habitat so special? How do the plants and animals survive the salty conditions? Why is it so different at different times of day or times of the year? How can ...
Where: Palo AltoCost: Free
After Dark: ExtraterrestrialIs anyone out there? Decode cosmic signals, imagine alien life, and dive into other possibilities offworld.Ages 18+
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95
NightLifeThursdays hit different at NightLife. The museum comes alive after hours-wilder, more curious, and full of exciting creatures. Grab your friends, grab a handcrafted drink, and let yourself wander into whatever weird or wonderful corner calls you.Plus, you can:Step inside our four-story Osher Rainforest, where you can explore the Amazon’s ...
The hardest space-science missions are, at their core, measurement problems. ESA’s LISA gravitational-wave observatory was formally adopted in January 2024, with industrial construction under prime contractor OHB System AG underway since mid-2025, and launch targeted for the mid-to-late 2030s on the Ariane 6 launcher. LISA must resolve picometer-scale changes in ...
Where: Mountain ViewCost: Free
Feathers of the Forests - LivestreamTune into the soundscape of Bay Area forests and discover the birds that bring coastal redwoods and oak woodlands to life.These landscapes are alive with birds, even when they’re out of sight. From towering redwood forests to rolling oak woodlands, native and resident birds help shape healthy ecosystems, and their ...
Where: Cost: Free
Open Question: Extraterrestrial - Is there Life in Outer Space?As we learn more about exoplanets and other worlds, experts expect that we will soon discover life beyond Earth, an exciting (and perhaps concerning) prospect. But how do we define intelligent life? And how does our imagination prepare us for the potential discovery - and its impact on the world ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95
Raptors in the Concrete JungleYou’ve heard the gossip; you’ve seen the headlines. In recent years, Bay Area Bald Eagles built nests in a school yard in Milpitas, in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, and on an Alameda golf course. Peregrine Falcons have called UC Berkeley’s Campanile Tower home along with other buildings and bridges ...
Across cultures and eras, human societies have organized gender in wildly different ways. Some recognized three, four, or even more genders long before Western medicine ever entered the conversation. In this lecture, Alex Lindsay, a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at the University of San Francisco, traces how colonization flattened ...
