Classical Concert
2024-04-28 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-05-05 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-05-12 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-05-19 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-05-26 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-06-02 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-06-09 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-06-16 07:00 - 08:00 (America/Los_Angeles) and 1 more date | The Lighthouse Café

Moon Base meeting
2024-04-29 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-05-06 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-05-13 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-05-20 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-05-27 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-06-03 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-06-10 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-06-17 10:00 - 11:00 and 1 more date | Moon base

Mathematics Club
2024-05-02 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-09 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-23 16:00 - 17:00 | Maths Club

Humans in Space, Part I
2024-05-04 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
After a decades-long hiatus, humans are once again focused on returning to the Moon, and we are seriously considering voyages to worlds beyond it for the first time. This is the first of a two-part series on how we got into space decades ago and our more recent efforts to push beyond the confines of the Earth.
Dreams of going into space date back thousands of years, at least to the Greek’s mythological tale of Icarus. It was not until Isaac Newton’s publications on space mechanics that we started to comprehend what it might take to get into space. The imagination of Jules Verne in the late 1800s inspired Wernher von Braun’s rocket programs in the 1930s-1940s, which succeeded in first reaching space. His follow-up work for the United States in the 1950s-1960s, and that of those who emulated him in the Soviet Union, achieved the means to send animals and then humans into Earth’s orbit, and to finally landing humans on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.
The initial ‘Space Race’ gave way to more domestic agendas for crewed missions. Hundreds of flights were dedicated to building and then supplying Earth-orbiting space stations, and astronauts from many countries got their first trip into space aboard either Soviet/Russian Soyuz or U.S. Space Transportation System (STS, aka Space Shuttle) flights.
The most fascinating part of these efforts to put humans in space is not the details of the missions themselves, but the very real human side associated with these efforts that were often not revealed until years later. Come join us at The Science Circle to learn about why and how we decided to go into space and what happened when we did.
By Phil Youngblood

Humans in Space, Part II
2024-05-11 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
After a decades-long hiatus, humans are once again focused on returning to the Moon, and we are seriously considering voyages to worlds beyond it for the first time. This is the first of a two-part series on how we got into space decades ago and our more recent efforts to push beyond the confines of the Earth.
In the last few decades, both national and commercial entities have developed plans to go to the Moon, and beyond. A de facto Space Race 2 has begun, but this time there is a more diverse set of ‘players’ and they have a more diverse set of reasons for going there.
China determined to became the third nation in space as early as the late 1960s. Their quest was suspended in the 1970s but revived in 1992, resulting in the first crewed mission in 2003. China has continued efforts alone since then, resulting in a crewed space station currently in Earth’s orbit. Recent uncrewed missions to the Moon are part of a program with the goal to land humans near the lunar South Pole and to build a base there within the next decade, and then to push on to Mars.
In the 2000s, the United States at first planned a solo return to the Moon, but that plan was scrapped in favor of the Artemis Accord, a collaboration of many countries and commercial entities. In addition to successful uncrewed missions, including craft orbiting the Moon today, the uncrewed Artemis I launched in December 2023 and safely returned to Earth in a rehearsal for the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972 that was originally scheduled for late 2024 but has now been pushed back to at least September 2025. Artemis 3 in intended to be a crewed landing on the Moon. A joint lunar space station called Gateway is also in the design stage.
The most fascinating part of these efforts to put humans in space is not the details of the missions themselves, but the very real human side associated with them. Come join us at The Science Circle to learn about why and how we have decided to go back to the Moon and beyond and all of what is involved in doing so.
By Phil Youngblood

Mathematics Club
2024-05-16 16:00 - 17:00 | Maths Club
The ANGLE BONE’S CONNECTED TO THE MATRIX BONE…

A note about our next WALK DOWN A LOGIC CHAIN OF CONNECTEDNESS:
For Mathematics Club of Science Circle at 4 PM PDT on Thursday 16.May 2024 in the Maths Dojo, we are going to continue our EXPLORATION of the ANATOMY of MATHEMATICS, beginning with deriving a formula for the SUM OF ANGLES for trigonometric functions, SIN and COS. With this very useful result, we can look at 2×2 matrices that cause PURE ROTATION in the plane when multiplied by a 2×1 column matrix as a matrix representation of a planar vector. We will also apply the SUM OF ANGLES formulae to show how even this calls out for the invention of the pure IMAGINARY NUMBER, i (in which”i” ^2 = – 1) which extends the REAL NUMBERS to the field of COMPLEX NUMBERS. We will see how de Moivre’s theorem from 1707 emerges:
for any complex number with a given angle α, de Moivre’s theorem relates that complex number to the nth power to a complex number of angle = n * α. At the conclusion, a challenge will be tossed out to our Maths Club participants to prove this theorem by the PRINCIPLE of INDUCTION. We will plan on revisiting this with an inductive proof of de Moivre’s Theorem the following week (23.May 2024).

In MATHEMATICS, it makes things generally easier to KEEP IT REAL, but DON’T FORGET TO BRING YOUR IMAGINATION because IMAGINARY NUMBERS EXIST just as surely as the number days in a week exist.
We hope to see you there!
– Tagline, tour guide and Sensei of Maths dojo

Discussion
2024-05-18 10:00 - 11:00 | The Lighthouse Café
5 topics for discussion, suggested by our members. The choice is yours. We use a voting station to determine which topic will be discussed.
1. Artificial Intelligence
2. Ethics in Science
3. Green deal
4. The Woke trend and consequences
5. How to stop wars
You can vote on Saturday at the Polling Station at the Lighthouse.

Empowering Our Low-Watt Brains
2024-05-25 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Empowering Our Low-Watt Brains

The typical human brain runs on only 12-watts of power – less than a refrigerator light bulb. Thus, our brain has an amazing array of tricks to maximize the returns on that dim wattage. This presentation considers proven tactics to better understand our own brains, and how to best connect with the minds of others

Steven R. Van Hook (Kip Roffo) is a researcher in transcultural relations, teaching courses in cross-cultural communications and international marketing for the University of California and other universities in the United States and abroad. He’s been a social worker, newspaper columnist, radio talk show host, TV news anchor, and television bureau chief in Moscow. He has a PhD specializing in transcultural education, and has research published in scholarly journals including UNESCO’s Prospects and the Journal of Research in International Education.

Genome Island
2024-06-01 10:00 - 11:00
June is a Field trip month at The Science Circle. This year we will open it with a tour given by Dr. Mary Anne Clark on her Genome Island.

Darwin IV
2024-06-08 10:00 - 11:00 | HMS The Beagle
Darwin proposed a theory of evolution focused on inherited elements. And these elements (which we now term “genes”) existing in discreet locations in genomes are passed down from generation to generation freshly coding for the new individual. Or so we thought. In a small number of cases, science has found that the phenotype or expression patterns of the parent influence the phenotype of the offspring. A slight vindication of Darwin’s evolutionary theory competitor Lamark.
This talk will describe several examples of inheritance based on the condition of the parents that are not the typical gene code inheritance pattern. It will also describe the basics of the mechanism known as epigenetics which describes how gene expression is controlled.
A presentation on location by Dr. Stephen L. Gasior

Educare
2024-06-15 10:00 - 11:00
This presentation provides a first-hand update on academia’s
response to virtual world learning over the past decade-plus. Steven Van Hook
(Kip Roffo) brings more than 20 years’ experience as an educator, author, innovator, and course designer. He will cover the evolving university response Virtual World educational possibilities, citing administrator, instructor and student concerns including:

Appeals and protests of Virtual World learning
Cost-effective program development
Best VW teaching tactics and practices
Benefits and necessities of immersive experiential learning
Field-trip to the Educare VW campus

Bio: Dr. Steven R. Van Hook has taught communication and culture classes for
universities in the USA and abroad for 25 years, developing one of the first hybrid virtual courses for UCSB in 2000. He has led in academic positions including faculty senator, ombudsman, curriculum development, accreditation review, and instructor mentoring. He is President of Educare Research, a nonprofit program serving international educators and students. He’s been a newspaper columnist, radio reporter, TV news anchor, and science 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 has served as a trainer and officer for organizations including VISTA, Head Start, as a licensed Master Captain by the US Coast Guard, and a private pilot. 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: http://wwmr.us

SL21B: The Science Circle, Chemistry Island & Mathematics Club
2024-06-22 10:00 - 11:00
Over the past few months, Dr. Phil Youngblood and his colleagues Dr. Mike Shaw & Dr. Robert Hendrix worked hard on three exhibitions on the SL21B site. Today they give an overview of their work.
