biology

Human minds love to discover patterns, to find intuitive explanations, and, most of all, to be certain. Yet our world is complicated and filled with randomness. Statistical thinking provides us with practical tools for making sense of an uncertain world. It can lead us to make surprising conclusions from the data of everyday life. And it also teaches us useful humility in the face of uncertainty.

Our speaker, Dr. Jacob Bien, is Professor of Statistics at the University of Southern California. He is also a founding member of Wonderfest's Board of Directors.

As poet Carl Sandburg observed: "The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches, and then moves on." What is the nature of The City's renowned Karl the Fog? Do those super-fine droplets consist of more than just water? Why does our beloved(?) Karl creep over the Bay Area so often, and will that creeping continue in light of climate change?

Our speaker, Alicia Torregrosa, knows Karl inside and out. As Program Officer at the U.S. Geological Survey, Alicia is a physical scientist who led the USGS Pacific Coastal Fog Project, yielding an international and interdisciplinary expansion of coastal fog research.

What can we do, today, to improve muscle strength and, accordingly, to increase healthy longevity, i.e., healthspan? It starts by understanding the science of strength and of muscle function, and then appreciating how muscle changes with aging. Ultimately, we find that healthspan increases with simple and effective evidence-based strategies for improving muscle health and function.

Our speaker, Dr. Greg Tranah, PhD, is Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UC San Francisco, and Scientific Director of Biobanking at Sutter Health.

Do spiders deserve much better press? Modern media tend to portray spiders as eight-legged, multi-eyed terrors. With deeper exposure, and open minds, can we come to see the beauty and benefits of our arachnid aquaintances? UC Berkeley scientist Trinity Walls thinks so. Her life-long journey — from curious child to rigorous researcher — reveals spider science to be an avenue of creative self-expression that offers rich insights into nature and society.

Our speaker, arachnologist Trinity Walls, is a PhD candidate in UC Berkeley's Laboratory of Animal Communication and Behavior. She is also a Wonderfest Science Envoy!

Do non-human animals possess a sense of fairness? In particular, do non-human individuals react negatively when they get fewer resources than others? New evidence suggests that the sense of fairness is a human-unique adaptation to our cooperative lifestyles, typically developing in children by age 8. Further, a new theory suggests that, maybe surprisingly, fairness is not about resources, but about social respect.

Our speaker, Dr. Jan Engelmann, is Assistant Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley. He runs Cal's Social Origins Lab, dedicated to the study of human cognition and behavior from an evolutionary perspective.