Smartphone Seismology; Histamine Neurology – May 27
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:
• UC Berkeley seismologist Savvas Marcou on Smartphones Map Ground Shaking in Our Neighborhoods — California is earthquake country. Everyone would love to know how much shaking the next temblor will deliver to their neighborhood. Fortunately, the humble smartphone, available in everyone’s pockets, can record and map ground shaking patterns in unprecedented resolution, and may transform how we think about the next big earthquake.
• Stanford neuroscientist Ashley Moses on Rethinking Histamine: From Molecule to Motivation — Though primarily known for its role in allergies, histamine influences cognition, mood, and sleep, as well. In fact, this understudied molecule is indispensable for brain health. By studying histamine’s role in motivated behaviors, we can uncover groundbreaking insights into neurological problems like depression, Parkinson’s Disease, and stress disorders.
This interactive science presentation, free and unticketed, is produced by Wonderfest in partnership with Marin Science Seminar.
Collaborators:
Marin Science Seminar [https://marinscienceseminar.com]
AI Memorization?; Cat Ecology – May 13
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:
• Stanford computer scientist Nicole Meister on Has ChatGPT Memorized the Internet? — Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, have recently gained widespread popularity. Trained on vast amounts of internet data, these AI models raise important questions about the nature of their responses: are they truly synthesized or simply memorized? Researchers can statistically evaluate this claim to reveal test set contamination in LLMs.
• UC Berkeley ecologist Tyus Williams on Unraveling the Ecology of Domestic Cats — What if one of our greatest companions is potentially one of our greatest threats? When free to roam, domestic cats can severely disrupt wildlife communities. However, understanding cats’ behavior and how they’re influenced by their surroundings can allow us to develop better conservation strategies.
This interactive science presentation, free and unticketed, is produced by Wonderfest in partnership with Marin Science Seminar.
Collaborators:
Marin Science Seminar [https://marinscienceseminar.com]
Kilonova Metals; Frog Secrets – Apr 29
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:
• UC Berkeley astrophysicist Daniel Brethauer on Astronomically Rocking Out to Heavy Metals — The gold in jewelry, the uranium in a nuclear power plant, the caesium in atomic clocks: what do these all have in common? It turns out they were likely forged in the fires of a cosmic explosion known as a kilonova. These extremely energetic events reveal the origins of the periodic table’s heaviest elements.
• Stanford biologist Jenni Serrano Rojas on Unraveling Frogs’ Secrets for Conservation — Biotelemetry tools are revolutionizing our study of animals, from the largest to the tiniest species. They reveal hidden animal interactions, critical living spaces, and essential resources. In poison frogs, in particular, biotelemetry affords insights that inform conservation strategies and help the species to respond to global change.
This interactive science presentation, free and unticketed, is produced by Wonderfest in partnership with Marin Science Seminar.
Collaborators:
Marin Science Seminar [https://marinscienceseminar.com]
Tiny Galaxies; Eye Movements – Apr 15
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:
• Stanford astrophysicist Viraj Manwadkar on Tiny Galaxies and Big Cosmic Mysteries — The very smallest galaxies shed light on fundamental questions in physics and astronomy: They play an intriguing role in the formation of cosmic ecosystems, and they even inform our attempt to understand dark matter, the utterly mysterious stuff that constitutes 80% of the material universe.
• UC Berkeley neuroscientist Stephanie Reeves on The Horizontal Saccade Bias — Humans make eye movements to explore the visual environment. One type of involuntary eye movement, termed a saccade, occurs 2-3 times per second and is one of the fastest movements that the human body can make. New research challenges previous assumptions about how and why saccades arise.
This interactive science presentation, free and unticketed, is produced by Wonderfest in partnership with Marin Science Seminar.
Collaborators:
Marin Science Seminar [https://marinscienceseminar.com]
Other Humans – Apr 1
We are members of the genus Homo, distinguished from other primates as bipedal great apes. So far, we have found fossil evidence for several other members of our genus, i.e., several other humans. How does a fossil gain entry into this exclusive club? How many members are there? What do we currently know about these possible relatives — and why aren’t they alive, today, walking upright among us?
Our speaker is biological anthropologist Julie Hui, Adjunct Professor at the College of Marin. Julie was — and is — a Wonderfest Science Envoy who takes science outreach seriously.
Julie Hui
Wonder of Mushrooms – Mar 30
Over 20,000(!) species of mushroom-forming fungi support the health and diversity of multiple ecosystems. Technically, what are mushrooms? How do they live, and what are some of the myriad ways they disperse, reproduce, and (even) communicate? Perhaps most important, how can we use mushrooms to help feed humanity and heal the biosphere?
Our speaker is Dr. Dennis Desjardin, Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University, and Director Emeritus of SFSU’s Thiers Herbarium. As the author of California Mushrooms and Chief Mycologist for Tempera Organics, Inc., Dr. Desjardin is known as the “Mushroom Guru of the West Coast.” This event is co-presented by Wonderfest and the San Francisco Public Library.
Dr. Dennis Desjardin
Collaborators:
San Francisco Public Library [https://sfpl.org/events/2025/03/30/presentation-wonder-mushrooms]
Anthropocene Alarm; Partisan Contagion – Mar 18
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:
• UC Berkeley biologist Kristy Mualim on Genetic Biodiversity Loss in the Anthropocene — In the Anthropocene, the age of planet-wide human impact, activities like habitat destruction, pollution, and resource overuse cause rapid loss of genetic diversity. This loss makes it harder for plants and animals to adapt to changes in the environment, putting entire species at risk of extinction. Protecting genetic diversity is crucial for keeping ecosystems healthy, and for ensuring the survival of life on Earth.
• UC Berkeley demographer Chris Soria on Partisan Differences in the Spread of Disease — Political partisanship significantly influences how different groups respond to public health guidance, affecting their adherence to protective measures against infectious diseases. Understanding partisan-based disparities in acceptance of scientific evidence helps us to predict the population-wide spread of diseases, and to improve public health outcomes.
This interactive science presentation, free and unticketed, is produced by Wonderfest in partnership with Marin Science Seminar.
Stand Up for Science – Mar 7
Science is for everyone, and benefits everyone. But American science is in deep trouble. In a podcast entitled Cuts to Science Funding and Why They Matter, physicist and author Sean Carroll thunders that recent presidential executive orders constitute “an absolutely devastating blow to the way science gets done in the United States.” On Friday afternoon, March 7th, Wonderfest joins thousands of the thoughtful to Stand Up for Science at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza. Please join us!
Stand Up for Science is a grassroots organization led by five early-career scientists — along with many volunteers (like us) — who work to protect the American science enterprise.
Stand Up for Science
Map: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/LzyxmyVHZXSe9Zem6]
Collaborators:
Stand Up for Science [https://standupforscience2025.org]
Life in a Breath – Mar 3
Earth’s air teems with invisible life. Each of us inhales roughly 100 gallons of air per hour, and the possible peril is, alas, anything but palpable: from gaseous pollutants to weaponized pathogens. The study of life in the atmosphere, aerobiology, is a particularly challenging subject. For example, scientists needed two years to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus. Wonderfest joins the Commonwealth Club online to present science writer Carl Zimmer in discussion of his latest book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. The conversation will likely be breathtaking.
Carl Zimmer is the author of fifteen books about science, and his “Origins” column (on life’s diversity) appears regularly in the New York Times. Of Zimmer’s preceding book, Life’s Edge (2021), Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna wrote, “Carl Zimmer shows what a great suspense novel science can be. … Prepare to be enthralled.”
Use the "Tickets" link (below) to access the Commonwealth Club's event webpage. During online ticket purchase, use discount code WonderfestPromo for a ticket price reduction of $10, making this entire Carl Zimmer online experience FREE.
Collaborators:
The Commonwealth Club of California
Black Holes; Kelp Forests – Feb 24
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:
• UC Berkeley astrophysicist Natasha Abrams on Black Holes: Discovering the Invisible — Black holes are among the most extreme objects in the universe. They push the boundaries of our knowledge, holding many unsolved mysteries. This talk will explore black holes from “small” to enormous, including how to detect these invisible marvels. In the process, we will probe the very frontiers of astrophysics.
• Stanford marine biologist Will Johnson on The Structure of Kelp Forests — Kelp forests constitute one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, and they’re hidden right beneath the waves of our coastline. To research how these ecosystems function, we need to study what lives there. Come learn how scientific diving and modern genetics are helping us unravel the complex structure of kelp forests.
This interactive science presentation, free and unticketed, is produced by Wonderfest in partnership with Marin Science Seminar.
Collaborators:
Marin Science Seminar [https://marinscienceseminar.com]
Sleep-Deprived Emotions – Jan 28
Insufficient sleep dramatically changes how we feel and think, about ourselves and about others. Even a single night of sleep loss elevates levels of anxiety, depression, and asocial behavior in healthy adults. If sleep loss is chronic, this association can develop into a clinical mental disorder. Since 40% of adults in the US suffer from chronic insufficient sleep, researchers need — and are finding — a better understanding of the interaction between sleep and socio-emotional well-being.
Our speaker is sleep expert Eti Ben-Simon, PhD, Research Scientist at The Center for Human Sleep Science, UC Berkeley.
Dr. Eti Ben-Simon
Strong Aging – Jan 25
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. He is also Senior Scientist at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute.
Dr. Greg Tranah
Collaborators:
Berkeley Public Library [www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org]
Life’s Information – Jan 14
All known lifeforms rely on the same molecular mechanism to translate information carried by DNA and RNA into proteins. This translation is accomplished by an incredibly complex system involving many dozens of very large and precisely interacting molecules. All viruses, bacteria, plants, and animals ultimately inherited this common molecular machinery from our Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). But all of this — and much more — had to evolve prior to LUCA. Without this translation machinery, the “genetic code” isn’t information about anything! So, origins-of-life theories can’t just assume that DNA and RNA intrinsically have information. Even the most widely accepted “RNA-World” origin-of-life theory begs the question: What is the origin of life’s information?
Our speaker, Dr. Terrence Deacon, is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. He is the author of two particularly influential books: The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain and Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter.
Dr. Terrence Deacon
Overcoming Vision’s Limits – Dec 10
It’s a classic question of color perception: Is my red the same as your red? Using special optical systems that bypass normal visual processes in the eye (optical blur, eye movements), researchers are able to send sensory information to the human brain that it has never experienced before. The BIG question is: If you give novel sensory experiences to the adult brain, will it invent new subjective perceptions to attribute to them?!
Our speaker is neuroscientist Austin Roorda, Professor of Vision Science and Optometry at UC Berkeley. Dr. Roorda’s lab at Cal explores how human brains convert two-dimensional images on the retina into such a rich perceptual experience.
Dr. Austin Roorda
Hacking Gerrymandering – Nov 26
In principle, we all love to hate political gerrymandering. But how can we learn to deal with it, to manage it, ... to hack it? In the past decade, mathematicians and computer scientists have developed inventive and revealing tools to find all kinds of gerrymanders: from the pretty-but-partisan, to the hidden firewall. Join us to explore some ugly maps and some beautiful ideas about how to hack gerrymandering.
Our speaker, mathematician Dr. Ellen Veomett, is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of San Francisco. She helped design the nationally-acclaimed GEO metric to analyze redistricting maps created since the 2020 census.
Dr. Ellen Veomett
This event is free and unticketed ... and valuable. But what value does it have for YOU? Accordingly, please use the space below to support Wonderfest in its nonprofit mission to share the scientific outlook.
Inverse Darwinism – Nov 12
Darwin’s theory of natural selection sheds light on nearly every aspect of evolutionary biology. However, it does not address the source of varying structures and functions that are subsequently culled or preserved by natural selection. Advances in cellular and molecular biology are now bringing these generative processes to light. Such technical advances hint at processes that are complementary to natural selection (but on which natural selection depends) that can be called Inverse Darwinism — and that are changing our understanding of evolution.
Our speaker, Dr. Terrence Deacon, is Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. He is the author of two particularly influential books: The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain and Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter.
Dr. Terrence Deacon
This event is free and unticketed ... and valuable. But what value does it have for YOU? Accordingly, please use the space below to support Wonderfest in its nonprofit mission to share the scientific outlook.
Nightmare on Main Street – Nov 2
Is it merely fun to play with the idea of ghosts, or do ghosts truly exist? Naturally, evidence of non-corporeal spirits is hard to come by. Where should we look? Perhaps the ghostly haunt of choice is an abandoned winery in beautiful Napa Valley! Isn’t that where many spirits would be dying to go?
Soon after All Hallows’ Eve 2024, Wonderfest joins Cameo Cinema for Nightmare on Main Street: Ghosts of Napa Valley. And, immediately following the 90-minute screening of Ghosts of Napa Valley, Dr. Eugenie Scott will help us address the ghost question — and why it is that scary stories are found all over the world among diverse cultures.
Dr. Genie Scott is a physical anthropologist with potent credentials in scientific skepticism. She is the President of the Bay Area Skeptics, and a founding Boardmember of Wonderfest. Dr. Scott has earned high praise as a science communicator, including the Public Welfare Medal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Eugenie Scott
Your $10 movie ticket (via the link below) includes Ghosts of Napa Valley seating PLUS spirited insights from Dr. Scott.
Collaborators:
Cameo Cinema [https://www.cameocinema.com/movie/ghosts-of-napa-valley]
Color Me Curious – Oct 29
Mathematicians have spent decades wrestling with questions about coloring. Here’s one famous example: how many colors do mapmakers need to ensure that no two adjacent regions have the same color? Mathematicians struggled with that for over 100 years! In this colorful presentation, we’ll share these coloring problems, the exciting breakthroughs, and the problems which still need to be solved today.
Our speaker is Dr. Cornelia Van Cott, Professor of Mathematics (and department chair) at the University of San Francisco. As a geometric topologist, she studies knots, surfaces, and … the occasional just-colorful-enough map.
Dr. Cornelia Van Cott
This event is free and unticketed ... and valuable. But what value do such science events have for you and for society at large? Accordingly, please consider a donation to nonprofit Wonderfest via the Eventbrite box, below.
Turtle Rescue – Oct 18
Ancient and unhurried, long-lived and majestic, turtles — some individuals living longer than 200 years — have a lineage that stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs. In literary terms, turtles are “the perfect conduits for meditations on aging, disability, and chosen family,” according to Scientific American. Such meditations suffuse the book Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell. Author Sy Montgomery and illustrator Matt Patterson join BookShop West Portal, the Turtle Survival Alliance, and Wonderfest for this special book event.
Sy Montgomery is the author of 16 non-fiction nature titles, including The Soul of an Octopus, a National Book Award finalist. She has been honored with a Sibert Medal, three honorary degrees, and two Science Book and Film Prizes from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Map: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/mzLmbZSs1rwf492c8]
Advance event registration is required (link below), and such registration is FREE for Wondernauts with promo code WONDERTURTLE. Simply add "General Admission for 1 (NO BOOK)" to your cart. [Book purchase and author signing are still available at the event.] During "CheckOut," within "Order Details," apply WONDERTURTLE as a "coupon" to transform the ordinary admission fee from $20 to $0.
Collaborators:
BookShop West Portal [https://bookshopwestportal.com]
Universe of Universes? – Oct 1
Despite implications of the prefix “uni,” many scientists now think that there might be more than a single universe! Our universe may be just one example in a far larger “multiverse,” but an unusually complex one that is conducive to the existence of life. Come learn — and inquire — about the relevant lines of reasoning and their profound implications.
Our speaker, Dr. Alex Filippenko, is one of Earth’s most highly cited astronomers. He was the only person to serve on both teams that simultaneously discovered the Nobel-worthy accelerating expansion of the universe. Alex earned Wonderfest’s Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization, and he was voted UC Berkeley’s “Best Professor” a record nine times!
Dr. Alex Filippenko
This event is free and unticketed ... and valuable. But what value do such science events have for you and for society at large? Accordingly, please consider a donation to nonprofit Wonderfest via the Eventbrite box, below.