Science

Science

Science@Cal is proud to present a series of free public science lectures on the third Saturday of every month. These talks are given by renowned UC Berkeley scientists and aimed at general audiences. Talks take place on the UC Berkeley campus at 11 am. Doors open thirty minutes before the talk and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Each talk is planned to last an hour, plus time for at least a few questions at the end.

Most of us have strong opinions about what those words mean, but scratch the surface and it becomes clear that "smart" and "dumb" are slippery, subjective constructs. What seems smart to one person may strike another as naive, arrogant, or shortsighted. Worse still, our own perception of what's smart can shift over time. Yesterday's clever decision can look like today's regrettable blunder.

Generative artificial intelligence can now counterfeit reality at an industrial scale. Deepfakesphotographs, videos and audio tracks that use AI to create convincing but entirely fabricated representations of people or eventsaren't just an Internet content problem; they are a social-order problem. The power of AI to create words and images that seem real but aren't threatens society, critical thinking and civilizational stability.

Some say the reason most manhole covers are round is that a circle cannot fall through a smaller circular hole. Which of these other two-dimensional shapes cannot fall through a hole that is the same shape but slightly smaller? Shapes 1, 2 and 3 can all fall through their own holes. Shape 4 cannot. Challenge problem: Can you find another shape that cannot fall through a slightly smaller hole of the same shape?

Scientists have unveiled the most detailed map of the brain ever created. The fascinating chart represents almost 10 million neurons, 26 billion synapses and 86 interconnected brain regions. It was created with Fugaku, Japan's ultra-fast supercomputer, which is capable of quadrillions of calculations per second. Scientists will use their digital copy to answer questions about what happens in a disease, how brain waves shape mental focus and how seizures spread in the brain.

Around 38 percent of websites that were on the Internet in 2013 are gone now. Half of Wikipedia pages reference dead links. Information seems to be disappearing all around us, and that's nothing new. Over geological time, information loss is the norm, not the exception. Yet according to physics, information is never destroyed. In principle, a burned book is just as readable as the originalif you analyze the ashes of the fire, the smoke and the flames to re-create the incinerated words.

It's a question David Ewalt, Scientific American's editor in chief, was tasked with tackling long ago, where he was forced to look at memory, human connection and technology in a way that asked deeper questions about how we preserve information in the digital age and what it means to come into contact with our past selves. Hi, David. David Ewalt: Hi, it's nice to join you.

Roxbury puddingstone, the mottled rock quarried nearby and used for much of the old church masonry in Boston, formed 600 million years ago in violent submarine landslides off the coast of a barren volcanic microcontinent that rifted off Africa. This is so long ago thatin the course of the perpetual wander of continentsthe whole thing happened somewhere near the south pole.

First off, birds really like sitting on elevated lines, whether those are power lines, telecommunication wires or cable lines. The high wires provide an excellent vantage point for surveying the area, giving them a bird's eye view of the territory. From there, they can look around for food and watch out for predators. The lines are also a convenient spot for taking a rest and as there are other birds on the line, a chance to converse.

The Leonid meteor shower is peaking this week, potentially bringing hundreds of long-tailed meteors with it. This annual fall display is an excellent opportunity to spot fireballs in the night sky. Meteor showers are the beautiful result of Earth moving through the trail of debris streaming from comets and asteroids as they make their own way around the sun. As these chunks of space rock enter our atmosphere, they burn up as shooting stars. And if they land, they become meteorites.

During a downright bizarre conversation, Marcus says: 'I think there is still very good evidence that suggests the world is flat.' When asked by another housemate for said evidence, he replies: 'Well if you actually look at the horizon, it's a straight line.' Marcus then claims all pictures from space are 'obviously' fake made by AI and that humans have never been to the moon.

Get out and walk! I mean, maybe not through the outback, but if you're in any of the cities, walk. I do that wherever I go. And I love to just go off and explore without knowing where I'm going, without a map or any preconceived ideas. I think it's the best way to discover a place, and it has the great virtue that if you turn a corner say in Sydney and there's suddenly the Harbour Bridge, you feel as if you've discovered it.

The term gamification, which means applying game design principles in other contexts, became a buzzword about 15 years ago, mainly driven by companies offering to gamify business processes. The approach aims to leverage game mechanics to increase engagement and motivation ("Get on the leader board!" "Gain power-ups!" "Level up your character!"), so it naturally became popular in education. Multiple studies show that incorporating game elements into learning tasks can boost results.

When ultra-runners prepare for races that span hundreds of miles and last for days, they are not only challenging their determination and physical power. They are also exploring how far human physiology can be pushed. In a study published October 20 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, researchers reported that even elite endurance athletes cannot consistently exceed an average "metabolic ceiling" equal to 2.5 times their basal metabolic rate (BMR) in daily energy use.