2021 Archive

Now that nearly 40 million people have had DNA tests, we’ve reached a tipping point. Virtually all Americans are affected — tested or not — and millions have been impacted by significant revelations in their immediate families. Libby Copeland’s new book, The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are, explores the science, the ethics, and the cultural transformations that this intimate self-knowledge allows.

Libby Copeland has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, and New York magazine, among other media. During this Berkeley Public Library event, she will be interviewed by Madison Lehmer, graduate student in UC Berkeley’s department of Cell and Molecular Biology.

Libby Copeland

Black holes are among the most remarkable predictions of Einstein’s theory of gravity: so much material is compressed into such a small volume that nothing, not even light, can escape. Black holes have also captured the public imagination, and are commonly featured in popular culture, from Star Trek to Hollywood movies. In Spring 2019, the multinational Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) released the first real (non-Hollywood!) picture of gas around a black hole and the “shadow” cast as that gas swirls in. How did the EHT do it, and what have its combined observations taught us about black holes?

Our speaker, Eliot Quataert, is Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysical Science at Princeton University. He has received numerous national awards for his research including a Simons Investigator award and the American Astronomical Society’s Warner Prize. Dr. Quataert is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences AND of the National Academy of Sciences.

Eliot Quataert

If appearance and essence were the same thing, there would be no need for science. – Michio Kaku

As science grows, physicists get closer to understanding the deepest mysteries of matter and energy, space and time. Once these modern-day “natural philosophers” can successfully combine theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, all known forces in the universe may be described by a single equation. Physicist Michio Kaku describes this epic journey of uniting fundamental theories in his new book The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything.

Michio Kaku is Professor of Physics at The City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center. He shares physics insights with film, TV, radio, and online audiences, and he has written more than 70 technical articles and ten popular books. This Commonwealth Club presentation will feature Dr. Kaku in conversation with Kara Platoni, Science Editor at Wired.com.

What does freedom look like to you? To theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, freedom is (in part) thinking about “problems like dark matter and dark energy without worrying about cops killing Black people,” and freedom is “everyone having a chance to look at the dark night sky, wonder about it, and know it.” In her new book, The Disordered Cosmos, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein shares a deep love of physics — including the physics of melanin in skin, the nature of cosmic dark matter, and what may lie beyond the nearly-all-encompassing Standard Model of Particle Physics. Publisher’s Weekly calls The Disordered Cosmos “a resonant paean to the beauties of the cosmos and a persuasive appeal for solutions to injustices in science.”

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Core Faculty in Women’s Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Live-stream this Commonwealth Club interview — at no cost — with discount code WONDERFEST21.

Chandra Prescod-Weinstein

UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna is “The Code Breaker” in historian Walter Isaacson’s new book. Doudna and colleagues created the phenomenal CRISPR gene editing tool, with unparalleld promise (and peril) to transform life on Earth. In humans, CRISPR facilitates DNA decoding — and engineering — that can make us less susceptible to viruses, promote muscle growth, enhance IQ, etc. (That’s a potent et cetera !)

Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize for her CRISPR research. Earlier, in 2017, she earned Wonderfest’s Carl Sagan Prize for her science outreach. In The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, Walter Isaacson extends and deepens Doudna’s “reach” with a compelling account of her truly revolutionary discovery.

Wonderfest joins The Commonwealth Club in presenting historian & biographer Walter Isaacson, in conversation with Kishore Hari. Isaacson has written 11 books including biographies of Leonardo, Einstein, and Jobs. He has been the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, the Chair and CEO of CNN, and the editor of Time magazine.

Hailing frequencies open! Woman in Motion (2019) tells the inspiring story of Nichelle Nichols, recipient of NASA’s Public Service Award and portrayer of Lt. Uhura, Communications Officer for the glorious starship Enterprise (2019 + 2.5 centuries). Movie Nation’s Roger Moore says that this compelling documentary “underscores Nichols’ undeniable contribution to broadening NASA’s horizons and drumming up interest in STEM education among minority students all over America.” Moore also describes the film as “warm, sentimental, and delightful … transcending its natural ‘Star Trek’ fan appeal.” Alongside the movie, in a livestream video that starts at 8pm PST, we’ll enjoy the insights of another woman in motion: planetary scientist Erin Redwing will describe her own “search for new (solar system) life” through research at the University of California.

Erin Redwing is a 4th-year PhD student in Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley. She has done research at Keck and Lick observatories, and has aided exploration at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Goddard Space Flight Center. Erin is also a Wonderfest Science Envoy.

Erin Redwing, UC Berkeley

At least since physicist Irwin Schrödinger published “What Is Life?” (1944), the popular imagination has struggled alongside scientific exploration to recognize what is alive, and what isn’t. The question hangs over some of society’s most charged conflicts — whether a fertilized egg is a living person, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead. We even wonder if we can create life in the lab, and we certainly hope our billion-dollar interplanetary probes know how to look for it in space. This is the subject of Carl Zimmer’s brand new book, Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive.

Wonderfest joins The Commonwealth Club in presenting science writer Carl Zimmer, in conversation with CalMatter’s Rachel Becker. Zimmer has written 14 books (including two biology textbooks), numerous essays (for The New York Times, Discover, National Geographic, and more), and he is an adjunct professor in Yale University’s Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry.

Around the world, people recognize that E=mc^2 oozes cosmic insight. But what does this "most famous equation" really say? What are energy and mass? And what makes the speed of light, c, so important? [Hint: mass, moving at speed c, doesn't turn into energy!] Using little more than common experience and middle-school math, Einstein's "special relativity" gem can come to life — with surprising insights into the nature of reality.

Speaker Tucker Hiatt, founding director of Wonderfest, has taught physics for a looong time. In 2006, he won the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence, and, from 2008 to 2014, he was a Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Chemistry Department.

Tucker Hiatt

Around the world, people recognize that E=mc^2 oozes cosmic insight. But what does this “most famous equation” really say? What are energy and mass? And what makes the speed of light, c, so important? [Hint: mass, moving at speed c, doesn’t turn into energy!] Using little more than common experience and middle-school math, Einstein’s “special relativity” gem can come to life — with surprising insights into the nature of reality.

Speaker Tucker Hiatt, founding director of Wonderfest, has taught physics for a looong time. In 2006, he won the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence, and, from 2008 to 2014, he was a Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Chemistry Department.

Wonderfest Science Envoys are early-career researchers with special communication skills and aspirations. Following short talks on provocative modern science topics, these two Science Envoys will answer questions with insight and enthusiasm:

Wonderfest Science Envoys are early-career researchers with special communication skills and aspirations. Following short talks on provocative modern science topics, these two Science Envoys will answer questions with insight and enthusiasm: