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UPDATE: This week in science: 9/29 - 10/5
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Science lectures and events in the San Francisco Bay area this week. Topics include physics for future presidents, black-hole wars, a debate on stem-cell research, mathematical modeling of humans, the Earth without humans, and long-term green planning.
UPDATE: I've added an appearance by Paul Erlich, author of "The Population Bomb," at Kepler's in Menlo Park, Wednesday evening.
Headlines first, followed by the details.
Tuesday, September 30, 4:00 PM
Physics for Future Presidents
Physics Professor Richard A. Muller
Warren William Chupp Distinguished Lecture
UC Berkeley, Barrows Hall, Lipman Room
Map & Directions
Wednesday, October 1, 7:00 pm
The Black Hole Wars: My Battle with Stephen Hawking
Physicist Leonard Susskind of Stanford University
A Presentation of the Silicon Valley Lecture Series
Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280, in Los Altos Hills
Map & Directions
Wednesday October 01, 7:30 p.m
The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment - Discussion and book signing
Paul R. Ehrlich, Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University
Kepler's, Menlo Park
Thursday, Oct. 2, 5:30–7:30 PM
Stem Cell Research: The Promise and the Debate
Deepak Srivastava, MD
Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD
Gladstone Institutes
Robert Mahley Auditorium
1650 Owens Street, Mission Bay, San Francisco
Thursday, Oct. 2, 5:30 PM
The Mathematical Modeling of Humanity
Stephen Baker, Senior Technology Writer, BusinessWeek; Author, The Numerati
Commonwealth Club Gold Room, 595 Market St, San Francisco
Thursday, Oct 2, 8:00 PM
The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St, San Francisco
Friday, October 3, 7:30PM
Green Planning at Nation Scale
Huey Johnson
Long Now Foundation
Cowell Theatre in Fort Mason Center
Directions
Details: text from source.
Tuesday, September 30, 4:00 PM
Physics for Future Presidents
Physics Professor Richard A. Muller
Warren William Chupp Distinguished Lecture
UC Berkeley, Barrows Hall, Lipman Room
Map & Directions
UC Berkeley Physics Professor Richard A. Muller will share his unique perspectives on our complex world and the significant issues we face from nuclear and biochemical weapons to the impact of the global climate crisis.
Professor Muller is known for his energetic style and his ability to communicate the complexities of science to broad audiences. Tthis lecture, based on his newly released book, is sure to challenge and enlighten, providing an unflinching look at what we all need to know.
Reception: 4:00 p.m., Lecture: 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 1, 7:00 pm
The Black Hole Wars: My Battle with Stephen Hawking
Physicist Leonard Susskind of Stanford University
A Presentation of the Silicon Valley Lecture Series
Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280, in Los Altos Hills
Map & Directions
Physicist Leonard Susskind of Stanford University, will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on "The Black Hole Wars: My Battle with Stephen Hawking" as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College.
Black holes, the collapsed remnants of the largest stars, provide a remarkable laboratory where the frontier concepts of our understanding of nature are tested at their extreme limits. For more than two decades, Professor Susskind and a Dutch colleague have had a running battle with Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University about the implications of black hole theory for our understanding of reality -- a battle that he has described in his well-reviewed book The Black Hole Wars.
In this popular talk, without mathematics, Dr. Susskind tells the story of these wars, explains the ideas that underlie the conflict, and recounts how he got Hawking to retract some of his claims. What's at stake is nothing less than our understanding of space, time, matter and information!
Leonard Susskind is Felix Bloch Professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University and the author of two popular books and many articles on recent developments in science and their meaning. He teaches a popular "continuing studies" course at Stanford on modern physics and has won the American Institute of Physics science writing prize for an article explaining black holes. His research focuses on particle physics, quantum theory, and the nature of gravity. He has a rare knack for explaining the most advanced scientific ideas in everyday terms.
No background in science will be required for this talk. Seating is first come, first served.
co-sponsored by:
NASA Ames Research Center
The Foothill College Astronomy Program
The SETI Institute
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
This talk kicks of the 2008-2009 series of Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures. A unit of credit (Astronomy 36.01) is available from Foothill College for those who attend all six Wednesday evening lectures and write a short paper on an astronomy topic of their choice. You may register in advance or get the paperwork at the Oct. 1 lecture by coming a little bit early.
This event is free and open to the public. Parking on campus costs $2
Call the series hotline at 650-949-7888 for more information and driving directions.
Wednesday October 01, 7:30 p.m
The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment - Discussion and book signing
Paul R. Ehrlich, Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University
Kepler's, Menlo Park
Earlier this year, the World Bank issued an ominous warning – record-high food prices are pushing more than 100 million people deeper into abject poverty and malnutrition. Food riots have raged in several countries, governments have been deposed, and battles over scarce food and water are on the rise.
The year may be 2008, but this scenario sounds like it was taken straight from the pages of Paul Ehrlich’s seminal book – The Population Bomb. In short, today’s headlines sound an awful lot as though the population bomb Paul warned us of exactly 40 years ago is now exploding.
In The Dominant Animal, Paul joins with his wife, Anne H. Ehrlich to examine this growing crisis – from its roots in human evolution to the failure of modern governments to respond. It is a powerful examination of how the humans today are creating the world of humans of tomorrow—and what it will take for our civilization to survive.
Paul R. Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies and professor of biological sciences at Stanford University. The author of Human Natures, The Population Bomb, and many other books, as well as hundreds of papers, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of numerous international honors, including the Crafoord Prize, an explicit substitute for the Nobel Prize in fields of science in which the latter is not given.
Thursday, Oct. 2, 5:30–7:30 PM
Stem Cell Research: The Promise and the Debate
Deepak Srivastava, MD
Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD
Gladstone Institutes
Robert Mahley Auditorium
1650 Owens Street, Mission Bay, San Francisco
Musical performance by Dr Nolan Gasser
In the year since Gladstone investigator Shinya Yamanaka discovered how to reprogram adult skin cells into embryonic-like induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, researchers throughout the world have used his technique to make exciting progress toward understanding and curing the critical diseases of our time. In this exclusive presentation, Dr. Yamanaka and Deepak Srivastava, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, will bring you up-to-date with what has been achieved so far with iPS technology and will discuss how human pluripotent stem cell research is critical to realize the promise of stem cell technology in the treatment of human disease.
The program will also feature a special musical performance by noted composer and pianist Dr. Nolan Gasser, illuminating some common bonds between the worlds of music and science.
5:30 Registration 6:00 Lecture and Question-and-Answer Session 7:00 Reception
To RSVP or for more information, please call Daniel Leonardich at 415.734.2087 or email him at sci4life@gladstone.ucsf.edu
Science for Life lectures are free with open seating. Parking is available across the street in the UCSF Rutter Community Center Garage.
Thursday, Oct. 2, 5:30 PM
The Mathematical Modeling of Humanity
Stephen Baker, Senior Technology Writer, BusinessWeek; Author, The Numerati
Commonwealth Club Gold Room, 595 Market St, San Francisco
The details of our lives, from web surfing to cell phone calls to credit card usage, are piling up in vast databases. People who know how to mine and interpret such data - the numerati - are building predictive models of us as workers, shoppers, voters, patients and potential terrorists. Baker discusses the implications and describes the choices we face about privacy, safety and education
Cost: $8 members, $15 non-members
Thursday, Oct 2, 8:00 PM
The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St, San Francisco
What would the earth look like if humans suddenly disappeared? Nationally acclaimed journalist Alan Weisman explores the possibility of a future in which New York City subways fill with water within days and weeds retake the buckled streets of our modern world. In his controversial book, Weisman envisions a human-free Earth thousands of years into the future - a world that looks a lot like Eden.
"Writers from Carson to Al Gore have invoked the threat of environmental collpase in an effort to persuade us to change our carefree ways. [Weisman has] similar intentions but a more devilish sense of entertainment values." - The New York Times
Friday, October 3, 7:30PM
Green Planning at Nation Scale
Huey Johnson
Long Now Foundation
Cowell Theatre in Fort Mason Center
Directions
"You cannot manage elements of the environment individually, one by one, or all your best efforts will unravel," says Johnson. Government planning is needed, and it must match the pace and scale of the environment itself. He instigated that kind of planning when he was California's Secretary of Resources in the 1980s, and he is inspired by the exemplary Green Plans of the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore. In this talk, as in his work with nations worldwide, he spells out the current best practices for serious, long-term Green Planning.
Trained as a biologist, an avid hunter and fisherman, Huey Johnson is president of the Resource Renewal Institute, based in Fort Mason. After serving as head of The Nature Conservancy he founded Trust for Public Land in San Francisco in 1972. While Secretary of Resources from 1976 to 1982 he created a hundred-year plan for California's natural resources called "Investing for Prosperity," which set in motion lasting programs of restoration for the state's rivers, forests, and wetlands, and also promoted energy conservation and renewable energy. In 2001 he received the Sasakawa Environment Prize from the United Nations.
Doors open 7:00pm, talk at 7:30pm lasting ~1.5 hours
Have an event you want listed here? Send email to: Science.Examiner@gmail.com
