Classical Concert
2023-09-03 08:00 - 17:00, 2023-09-10 07:00 - 08:00, 2023-09-17 07:00 - 08:00, 2023-09-24 07:00 - 08:00, 2023-10-01 07:00 - 08:00, 2023-10-08 07:00 - 08:00, 2023-10-15 07:00 - 08:00, 2023-10-22 07:00 - 08:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Lighthouse Café

BB: Generative AI - Promise or Peril?
2023-09-09 10:00 - 11:00 | The Lighthouse Café
Beragon’s Bistro: GENERATIVE AI – PROMISE OR PERIL?
The next step in the evolution of artificial intelligence technologies called Generative AI has certainly generated a lot of discussion.

In this first Bistro of the 2023-2034 season, let us together explore some of the following topics:
—What can Generative AI software technologies do?
—What technologies does it borrow from or improve upon that make it innovative?
—What does Generative AI require to accomplish its work?
—What types of outputs can Generative AI create?
—How are these outputs currently used and what are some of their potentials?
—How might it benefit certain type of businesses?
—Why might there be so much hype about this technology? Have there been past examples where this happened?
—What are some of the speculations about its potential social impacts?
Join us for what promises to be an exciting conversation!
References:
IBM. (April 2023). What is Generative AI?
NVIDIA. What is Generative AI?

World Suicide Prevention Day
2023-09-09 21:00 - 22:00 | SC East Meeting Spot
World Suicide Prevention Day
In observation of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th, we invite you to discuss your experiences/stories where you, or someone you love, has been confronted with the tragedy of suicide.
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Maternity Hospital: A Metaphor for Human Fertilization
2023-09-16 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Maternity Hospital: An Metaphor for human fertilization from gametogenesis through implantation
A presentation by Phil Youngblood, PH.D

I remember a video the teacher showed in biology class back when I was in secondary school in the 1960s in which an army of wiggly sperm swam at high speed in some kind of race, through the bends and divisions of cavernous tunnels, seeming to know the way, until the vast majority of them surprised and attacked a defenseless egg cell. I was surprised to find this same video on YouTube the other month (albeit with freshened graphics and a hint in the narration of what else might be going on).

What goes on during human fertilization has proved difficult to study because of bioethics, namely the possibility of endangering a pregnancy. What scientists have discovered however has led to a paradigm shift away from this male-dominated view of fertilization, at least among the scientifically literate population. Yet, talking about how the human body works from about the lungs down to the knees is still not something you do in ‘polite’ company in many cultures, even among educated people, and not even among intimate partners in more misogynistic cultures. So, like so many subjects about which our first and last factual exposure to them occurred when we were teenagers, old-fashioned and incorrect views about human fertilization persist in the general population, at least until something goes wrong ‘down there.’

‘Maternity Hospital’ is a way that I have devised to discuss the fascinating details of human fertilization without the use of graphic illustrations or descriptions. In fact, the video about the sperm racing to attack the egg is as close to resembling what the physical environment looks like as I will get. The rest of the explanation is through use of metaphors about an environment that most of us have experienced sometime in our lives, in-person or in media, that of what happens in various rooms in a hospital and interactions among people with different roles within those rooms. A hospital run entirely by woman, by the way.
Come join me to discover how much you know, or have not yet learned, about the intricate and fascinating way in which gametes are created, how they meet, and how the egg is made ready to create a new human. NOTE: Gametogenesis will be covered lightly as a separate presentation following this one will go into the details of that initial part of the human fertilization process.

International Equal Pay Day
2023-09-16 21:00 - 22:00 | SC East Meeting Spot
International Equal Pay Day
Join us as we discuss situations of Equal pay on our respective countries! How has your country improved over the years, does it still have room for improvement?

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Fly Me to the Moon!
2023-09-23 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Fly Me to the Moon!

There is a lot of activity going on out there beyond Earth orbit! And now the race is on again to land softly on the Moon and this time to stay for a while.
A quick quiz (answers during the presentation):
(1) How many spacecraft are in orbit around the Moon or active on its surface right now?
(2) How many lunar missions are planned over the next five years worldwide?
(3) How many nations have tried a soft landing on the Moon? What are their intentions?
Come join representatives of The Science Circle’s Moon Base Group for this update on ‘Space Race 2.0′ that will include a brief summary of past lunar missions to create a background for a discussion about the flurry of activity in just the last year, and the real planning that is known to be underway by national, commercial, and other agencies in the next five years or so.
The Moon Base Group will also update what we have learned and done in the first months of the Project, including our dynamically evolving purpose and objectives, our members’ personal (anonymized) objectives for the project, the physical builds you can visit, and where we think we are going from here. You are still invited to join us as we explore this important next phase of human exploration as part of a celebration of The Science Circle’s 15th Anniversary.
If there is time, we will also touch on what is happening beyond the Moon, because the Moon is viewed by many as a ‘steppingstone’ to missions beyond it. Did you know, for example, that there have been 50 missions by eight nations sent to Mars spanning over five decades, and that there may be up to 18 spacecraft currently in orbit (seven active), plus five active missions on the surface?

AI in Medical Diagnosis
2023-09-23 21:00 - 22:00 | Auditorium
AI in Medical Diagnosis
In 2021, I had the privilege of delivering a presentation on computer vision at the Science Circle. During the presentation, I explored the dominant role of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in image-oriented tasks like classification, segmentation, and analysis. I also delved into practical applications within histopathology, showcasing how AI aids in diagnosing diseases using microscopic tissue images. The emergence of the attention mechanism, the foundation of technologies including ChatGPT, has profoundly impacted computer vision. This rapid introduction of novel techniques has opened new opportunities in the field of medical image diagnosis with AI. In this presentation, I will delve into these exciting developments, including data fusion across different imaging modalities, image captioning and diagnostic explainability.

A presentation by Karthik Prathaban.

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Mathematics Club
2023-09-28 16:00 - 17:00 | Maths Club
For this 4PM Thursday 28.September 2023 meeting of Maths Club of Science Circle, we will take a deep dive into “The Painter’s Dilemma”, based on Gabriel’s Horn (La Trompette de Gabriel) which has FINITE VOLUME but INFINITE SURFACE AREA, as studied by Evangelista Torricelli in 1641. The relationship of this unbounded structure to the harmonic series and the concept of volume of rotation underlying Gabriel’s Horn will be discussed. Finally, we will consider the existence of 3-dimensional structures that are finite and bounded in volume, yet of infinite surface area. One of these can be constructed using fractal geometry, and the other I developed while on holiday.

XYZWs of Sex Determination
2023-09-30 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
In mammals, birds and some reptiles, sex is determined by sex-specific chromosomes. In mammals, the sex-determining chromosomes are called X and Y, and only males have both. In birds and reptiles, these chromosomes are called Z and W, and only females have both. How are these related to one another and to the rest of the genome? Do the X chromosomes of all mammals have similar genes? Do all birds have similar Z chromosomes? Are the Z chromosomes of birds and reptiles genetically similar? How do all of these chromosome participate in sex determination? Come and find out some of what we do and don’t know about these interesting questions.
By Dr. Mary Anne Clark

World Tourism Day
2023-09-30 21:00 - 22:00 | SC East Meeting Spot
World Tourism Day
WORLD TOURISM DAAAY! Come and discuss with us, what countries have you been to, what did you do there, did you experience culture shock, what are your recommendations to fellow globe trotters?

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Mathematics Club
2023-10-05 16:00 - 17:00, 2023-10-12 16:00 - 17:00, 2023-10-19 16:00 - 17:00, 2023-10-26 16:00 - 17:00 | Maths Club

Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse
2023-10-07 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
“Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse”
by Phil Youngblood, PhD
AI is very much in the news these days. We have been talking about in the Science Circle. Same thing with the Metaverse. I was at the VWEC Expert Series last Friday and the topic was the Metaverse.

Why so much interest in these computer technologies? What really is artificial intelligence and the metaverse?
I think it is time to look at these perfectly logical ‘next steps’ in computer technology from a historical and scientific perspective.
Here are some of the topics that I think will be helpful to review or explore:
—Why did we invent and use computers? What can they do and what are they incapable of doing?
—What is the ‘hype cycle’ (coined by Gartner Inc.) and how does it pertain to this subject?
—Why do think of some of ways that computers operate as being intelligent?
—How have telecommunication technologies developed over the last two centuries?
—Is the metaverse here already? What would it take to make the concept of the metaverse real?
—What is the difference between Web3 and Web 3.0 with regards to the metaverse?
—What is the relationship between artificial intelligence and the metaverse?

Come join us and learn about these fascinating emerging technologies while sharing what you know and think and have heard about them!

World Teachers Day
2023-10-07 21:00 - 22:00 | SC East Meeting Spot
World Teachers Day
In honor of World teachers day, we invite you to discuss with us your favorite teachers, who changed your life, inspired, or showed you that education can be fun?

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Beragons Bistro: Science Crackpots
2023-10-14 10:00 - 11:00 | The Lighthouse Café
Many science communicators must cope with push back from people who don’t know what they are talking about but who think they are experts. Additionally, this phenomenon is often seen with YouTube commenters and the like who claim they know why physics is all wrong and how they fixed the standard model. It is occasionally also seen with prominent scientists who go off the rails into crackpottery. What is a crackpot? We will look at some examples and try to identify what makes a person a crackpot, why they are a problem for science communications, and strategies for coping.
A discussion led by Matt Burr

Mental Health Day
2023-10-14 21:00 - 22:00 | SC East Meeting Spot
Mental Health Day
Today we will talk about our own battles with mental health, feel free to share your experiences and how you got through them.

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Observe the Moon Week
2023-10-21 06:00 - 2023-10-28 00:00 | The Science Circle region
OBSERVE THE MOON WEEK (21-28 October 2023)
Do you remember how The Science Circle ( https://www.sciencecircle.org/ ) celebrated International Observe the Moon Night ( https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/ ) last year? We had presentations about the Moon and our relationship with it throughout history, live images from Kass’s telescope in Switzerland, a planetarium show, and a scheduled tour of the International Space Museum.
This year we decided to celebrate in two ways. One is a presentation for Science Circle EAST participants about this event (see https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/observe-the-moon-night/ for details). The other is a display in Second Life on Science Circle Island (see https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/72/129/30 ) explaining the phenomena of solar and lunar eclipses, during which the Earth’s Moon plays a pivotal part.
>> This is a week-long event, open to visitors from Saturday, 21 October, through Saturday, 28 October 2023.
The eclipse display is on a platform on the water between the Amphitheater where SC WEST presentations are held at 10am SLT Saturday and the underwater site where SC EAST holds its events at 9pm SLT Saturdays. You can walk to it on bridges from either the Moon Base Group site or the peninsula where other exhibits on SC Island are located.
Educational posters in the display provide information about International Observe the Moon Night, The Science Circle non-profit organization, the Moon Base Group (our year-long celebration of our 15th Anniversary), and an explanation about eclipses, including the following:
—What is an eclipse? They are fairly common events in our solar system, if you consider all events, not only those seen from Earth.
—What is a lunar or solar eclipse? This is usually what we think of when we hear ‘eclipse’. How do they occur?
—Total, annular, and partial eclipses. What you see from a location on Earth depends on where you are in the Moon’s shadow. How does that work?
—Total vs. annular eclipses. The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical, which affects how big the Moon appears in the sky compared with the Sun. Why is that?
—Why are solar and lunar eclipses so rare? The tilt of the Moon’s orbit around Earth compared with Earth’s orbit around the Sun plays a major factor in creating eclipses seen from Earth. Why is that?
—Why is a total solar eclipse so rare? A total eclipse requires another condition on top of seeing an eclipse. What is that? Why are we fortunate on Earth to witness such as event?
—Will there always be total eclipses? The answer to that question may surprise you! Come visit the eclipse display to learn what it is!

Artificial Intelligence in Medical Image Diagnosis
2023-10-21 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
In 2021, I had the privilege of delivering a presentation on computer vision at the Science Circle. During the presentation, I explored the dominant role of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in image-oriented tasks like classification, segmentation, and analysis. I also delved into practical applications within histopathology, showcasing how AI aids in diagnosing diseases using microscopic tissue images. The emergence of the attention mechanism, the foundation of technologies including ChatGPT, has profoundly impacted computer vision. This rapid introduction of novel techniques has opened new opportunities in the field of medical image diagnosis with AI. In this presentation, I will delve into these exciting developments, including data fusion across different imaging modalities, image captioning and diagnostic explainability.
A presentation by Karthik Prathaban

Observe the Moon Night
2023-10-21 21:00 - 22:00 | SC East Meeting Spot
Observe the Moon Night

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Hope on the Horizon
2023-10-28 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Hope on the Horizon

TOPIC: As worldwide disasters and destruction may confound us in a sea of despair, a sea-wise scan of the horizon spots some islands of hope ahead. Along with the epochal shifts of today, we all also share common bonds that tie us to the unlimited possibilities in technologies, economics, education, and shared abundance. Let’s look beyond today’s disorienting headlines into the solutions already at hand — and yet ahead in decades to come — as experts in media, technology, academia, science, business, and society shed rays of hope.

BIO: Dr. Steven R. Van Hook has designed and taught communication and culture classes for universities in the USA and abroad for 25 years, including one of the first hybrid virtual courses for UCSB in 2000. He is President of Educare Research, a nonprofit program advancing international education and technologies. He’s been a newspaper columnist, radio reporter, TV news anchor, and podcast host. He was a television producer and bureau chief in Moscow, USSR from 1989-91; and for three years directed public education media programs in Ukraine through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He served as a trainer and officer for organizations including VISTA, Head Start, and the US Coast Guard. He has a PhD specializing in transcultural learning, and is published in scholarly journals including UNESCO’s Prospects, and by SAGE. He has presented on virtual world education to administrators and groups at UCLA, UCSB, VWBPE, VWEC, The Science Circle, and elsewhere. Research website
A presentation by Dr. Steven Van Hook

United Nations day
2023-10-28 21:00 - 22:00 | SC East Meeting Spot
United Nations day
Today’s discussion is about the United Nations, what are your feelings regarding it, do you think it’s a good/bad idea? How can it be improved?

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