Naturalist 101
Botany Basics
Anna Barr, Academy Naturalist & Educator
Kendra Hauser, Academy Landscape Exhibits Assistant

Saturday, June 22 from 10am to Noon
The Bay Area is home to a dizzying array of native plants. From monkey flowers to lizard tails, how do you begin to identify them? Get started by examining the common parts of flowering plants and discovering differences among major groups. Then, explore the grounds around the Academy, where more than 70 local species grow.

Please Note: This program is for adults and families with children ages 10+. We will meet at the Academy’s Business Reception desk.

Reservations: Members: $12, General $15 Seating is limited and advanced ticketing is required. To reserve a place today, buy a Member or Non-Member ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831

Benjamin Dean Lecture
The Once and Future Kepler Mission:
Hot on the Trail of Habitable Earth-size Planets
Dr. Jon Jenkins, Senior Research Scientist, SETI Institute

Monday, July 15th, 2013 at 7:30pm, Planetarium
Kepler vaulted into the heavens on March 7, 2009, initiating NASA’s search for Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars in the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the planetary surface and support alien biology. In the 4 years since, a flood of photometric data on upwards of 190,000 stars of unprecedented precision and continuity has provoked a watershed of 132+ confirmed or validated planets, 2700+ planetary candidates and a resounding revolution in our understanding of the behavior of stars. Recent discoveries include Kepler-62 with 5 planets total of which 2 are in the habitable zone, and are 1.4 and 1.7 times the radius of the Earth. Dr. Jenkins will highlight key science results from Kepler, and will also discuss the daunting challenges that faced the technical and scientific team as they designed, built and are now operating this amazing observatory. He will also give a brief overview of TESS, NASA’s next mission to detect Earth’s closest cousins.

Reservations: Members: $8, General $12, Seniors $10. Seating is limited and advanced ticketing is required. To reserve a place today, buy a Member or Non-Member ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831

Benjamin Dean Lecture
Cosmological Intimations of Infinity
Dr. Anthony Aguirre
Associate Professor of Physics, UCSC

Monday, August 5th, 2013 at 7:30pm, Planetarium
During the past two decades astronomers and cosmologists have assembled an extremely successful model that accurately describes and explains the evolution of the observable universe over the past 13.8 billion years, most recently confirmed with amazing accuracy by the PLANCK satellite's observations of the cosmic microwave background. A key component of this cosmological "standard model" is the theory of Inflation, in which at ultra-early times the universe was expanding exponentially. Originally envisaged as an important but brief cosmological epoch, since Inflation's invention cosmologists have realized that in many cases inflation completely upends our picture of the ultra large-scale structure of the universe, and suggests that the universe lasts forever, may not have had a beginning, and has enormous size and complexity that is best described as a 'multiverse'. Aguirre will trace the development of these ideas, as well as look forward to prospects for testing or even confirming the idea of an infinite inflationary multiverse.

Reservations: Members: $8, General $12, Seniors $10. Seating is limited and advanced ticketing is required. To reserve a place today, buy a Member or Non-Member ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831

Special Performance: The Kepler Story
Motion Institute & Morrison Planetarium

Sunday, October 6, 13, 20, and 27 at 6:30pm
We are excited to announce our first ever prime-time Sunday evening performance series taking place in the Morrison Planetarium - the world’s largest all digital dome. As a one-man performance with dramatic supporting music and full dome visuals, the Morrison Planetarium in collaboration with Motion Institute presents The Kepler Story - an innovative, immersive performance piece about the life and story of 17th-century astronomer and mystic Johannes Kepler. The story of his life, including his discovery of the three laws of planetary motion which removed Earth once and for all from its position at the center of the Universe, took an even more dramatic turn when his mother was arrested for witchcraft and Kepler was forced to defend her. On the way to her trial, reading Galileo’s father’s book on harmony, Kepler experienced one of his greatest epiphanies about the harmony of the universe.

History, religion, passion and science intersect in this remarkable individual’s life with a performance in the Academy’s planetarium that has the capacity to elicit moments of transcendence as it enlivens your senses and stimulates your mind. We will explore Kepler’s unique capacity to integrate a worldview steeped in mysticism with a rigorous scientific perspective based on observation and experimentation.

Written and directed by Nina Wise and performed by Norbert Weisser, a veteran film and stage actor, The Kepler Story integrates spectacular visuals developed by the Morrison Planetarium visualization studio and Toshi Anders Hoo, deeply moving music by composer and cellist Zoë Keating and sound design by Emmy Award winner Christopher Hedge.

Reservations: Academy Members: $12, General: $15. This is a 60-minute performance. Seating is limited. To reserve a place today, buy a ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831. Late arrivals will not be permitted entry, tickets are not transferable and non refundable.

Conversations On Science

In this series, the Academy has partnered with City Arts & Lectures, Inc. to present distinguished scientists, professors, writers, thinkers, photographers and artists who discuss important and timely scientific and environmental issues. These conversations are held downtown at San Francisco's beautiful Herbst Theatre at 401 Van Ness Avenue and at the Nourse Theatre at 275 Hayes Street.

The Science of Yoga: A Mind-Body Practice
Jon Kabat-Zinn in Conversation with Kelly McGonigal

Wednesday, January 9th, 7:30pm at the Herbst Theatre
Yoga has been shown to effectively improve over 50 medical conditions including stress induced injuries and illnesses. By combining the mindfulness techniques of meditation with physical movement of yoga, people all over the world have witnessed reductions of stress and physical ailments in their bodies. Jon Kabat-Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He combined the practices of mindfulness meditation and Hatha yoga in his world renowned Mindfulness – Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. MBSR helps patients cope with stress, pain, and illness by using moment-to-moment awareness and is now being taught at over 200 top medical centers around the world, and is offered at hospitals, schools, prisons and in professional sports. Kabat-Zinn will be in conversation with Kelly McGonigal a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University. She is the author of Yoga for Pain Relief, which translates recent advances in neuroscience and medicine into mind-body strategies for relieving chronic pain, stress, depression, and anxiety. McGonigal is passionate about translating cutting-edge research from psychology, neuroscience, and medicine into practical strategies for personal health and happiness.

Ticketing Information Below

Brilliant!Science: Decoding Human Health

Stroke of Insight: Strengthening the Brain
Jill Bolte Taylor in Conversation with Thomas Goetz

Monday January 28th 7:30pm at the Herbst Theatre
As a Harvard brain researcher, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. studied the question of how the brains of people with mental disorders differ from those without. At the age of 37, her study of the brain was changed by a very personal experience. She had a stroke. As she watched her experience unfold, her brain functions -- motion, speech, memory, linear thinking and self-awareness -- shut down one by one. What followed was a transformational experience and a personal study of perception as it differs between left brain processing and right brain experiencing. After a long and successful rehabilitation, she has become a spokesperson for the possibility of coming back from a brain injury stronger than before. She is the best-selling author of My Stroke of Insight and has the second most watched TED talk of all time. Taylor remains the national spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center and has been an active member and supporter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) since 1993. Taylor will be in conversation with Thomas Goetz who serves as the executive editor of Wired Magazine where he oversees all aspects of the publication from story conception to cover packages. Goetz holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California at Berkeley and is author of The Decision Tree: A Manifesto for Personal Health which was published in February 2010 by Rodale Books. This program is presented in partnership with the Gladstone Institutes.

Ticketing Information Below

The Brilliance of Sleep
Matt Walker in Conversation with Amy Standen

Wednesday February 27th 7:30pm at the Herbst Theatre
Scientists have long wondered why we power down our brains and enter into a sleeping state then spending countless hours in light dreamless slumber. Professor Matt Walker in the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory within the Department of Psychology at U.C. Berkeley and his team have found compelling evidence for the purpose of this kind of sleep suggesting that it can solidify newly learned memories by rewiring the architecture of the brain. Bursts of electrical impulse brain waves known as sleep spindles may be networking between the brain's hippocampus – with its limited storage capacity – and the prefrontal cortex's – the storage area– effectively clearing the way for new learning. His team has also found evidence that sleep can associate and integrate new memories together, performing a kind of sleep-dependent alchemy. Beyond learning and memory, Dr. Walker’s lab has discovered recent findings that sleep can refresh emotional brain reactivity, effectively ironing out our prior waking concerns and allowing for well rested rational next day decisions. Sleep benefits us not only in learning and memory but also in many other ways that improve our health. Dr. Walker will be in conversation with Amy Standen from QUEST, an award-winning multimedia science and environment series created by KQED, San Francisco. Her work has been recognized by the National Association of Public Radio News Directors and Northern California's Society of Professional Journalists. Standen has been a producer on Pulse of the Planet, editor of Terrain Magazine and an editor at Salon, and a "roving reporter" for KALW's Philosophy Talk also contributing frequently to NPR.

Ticketing Information Below

The Power of Language
Lera Boroditsky in Conversation with Roy Eisenhardt

Wednesday March 20th 7:30pm at the Herbst Theatre
There are over 7,000 languages around the globe and each one may shape a given culture’s conception of time, space, color, or even justice. Lera Boroditsky, who conducts groundbreaking research on how language shapes thought says that “each language is its own universe”. Boroditsky is a professor of psychology, neuroscience, and symbolic systems at Stanford University who pays attention to what a speaker of a given language thinks, perceives, and remembers about an event. She makes the claim that “different languages invite speakers to develop different cognitive skills.” This idea that language shapes thoughts puts her at ends with linguists such as Noam Chomsky who contend that thought and perception are universal entities expressed but not shaped through language. The connection between language and thought has long captivated poets, philosophers, linguists, and thinkers of many sorts, but the modern debate has its roots in the work of the early-20th-century American linguist Benjamin Whorf and his Yale mentor, Edward Sapir. They believed that the structure of language was integral to the formation of thought and the evolution of cultural. The Whorf-Sapir theory of language was all but abandoned after about the 1930s. Boroditsky is often called a “neo-Whorfian” cognitive scientist as she is bringing this theory back to the forefront of discussion. She is “one of the first to show truly convincing evidence for the effects of language on cognitive processes,” including mental imagery, reasoning, perception and problem solving. Lera Boroditsky will be in conversation with Roy Eisenhardt who practiced law for twelve years in San Francisco and has taught at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. He previously served as the Executive Director for the California Academy of Sciences. Some of his numerous interviews for City Arts & Lectures include Stephen King, Gene Wilder, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Desmond Tutu, David Remnick and Isabella Rosselini.

Ticketing Information Below

Unlocking the Mysteries of Neuroscience
David Eagleman in Conversation with Dr. Kiki Sanford

Wednesday April 10th 7:30pm at the Herbst Theatre
David Eagleman is a neuroscientist and a New York Times bestselling author. He directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he also directs the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. He is best known for his work on time perception, synesthesia, and neurolaw. His work of fiction, SUM, is an international bestseller published in 27 languages. Wednesday is Indigo Blue explores the neurological condition of synesthesia, in which the senses are blended. His latest book, the New York Times bestseller Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, explores the neuroscience of the conscious mind. Eagleman is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Next Generation Texas Fellow, a council member on the World Economic Forum, a research fellow in the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and a board member of The Long Now Foundation. He is an academic editor for several scientific journals, and has been named one of 2012's Brightest Idea Guys by Italy's Style magazine. He is the scientific advisor for the television drama Perception, and has been profiled on the Colbert Report, NOVA Science Now, the New Yorker, CNN's Next List, and many other venues. He appears regularly on radio and television to discuss literature and science. Eagleman will be conversation with Kirsten Sanford popularly known as Dr. Kiki. She holds a doctorate in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology (emphasis in Neurobiology) and a Bachelors degree in Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology from the University of California, Davis, and is a specialist in learning and memory. She is the founder and host of the popular This Week in Science podcast and radio show. Dr. Kiki is dedicated to making science accessible. She has produced and hosted programs featuring scientific luminaries such as James Watson, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Brian Green, Lisa Randall, Leonard Susskind, and Michio Kaku among others. David Eagleman is the 2013 Claire Matzger Lilienthal Distinguished Lecturer.

Ticketing Information Below

The Social Network Effect
Nicholas Carr in Conversation with Thomas Goetz

Tuesday May14th 7:30pm at the Nourse Theatre
Is it possible that the popular social networks of the modern day net are having profound impacts on the neural networks of our brains and on our psychological functioning? Is Google making us stupid? When bestselling author and 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas Carr posed that question in a celebrated Atlantic essay, he tapped into a popular question of how the Internet is changing us. Carr expands his thoughts into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences as he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind” from the alphabet, to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer. Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic — a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is the ethic of the industrialist, of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. Nicholas Carr will be in Conversation with Thomas Goetz who is the executive editor of WIRED magazine and author of The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine. A journalist for more than 15 years, Goetz has reported on media and business for the Village Voice, the Wall Street Journal, and The Industry Standard.

Ticketing Information Below

The Science of Love & Attraction
Helen Fisher in Conversation with Michael Krazny

Tuesday June 4th 7:30pm at the Nourse Theatre
Helen E. Fisher, PhD biological anthropologist, is a Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. She has written five books on the evolution and future of human sexuality, monogamy, adultery and divorce, gender differences in the brain, the chemistry of romantic love, and most recently, human personality types and why we fall in love with one person rather than another. Fisher maintains that humans have evolved three core brain systems for mating and reproduction: 1. Lust (the sex drive or libido) 2. Romantic attraction (romantic love) 3. Attachment (deep feelings of union with a long term partner). “Love can start off with any of these three feelings,” Fisher maintains. “Some people fall head over heels in love, but the sex drive evolved to encourage you to seek a range of partners; romantic love evolved to enable you to focus your mating energy on just one at a time; and attachment evolved to enable you to feel deep union to this person long enough to rear your infants as a team.” But, these brain systems can be tricky. Having sex, Fisher says, can drive up dopamine in the brain and push you over the threshold toward falling in love. And with orgasm, you experience a flood of oxytocin and vasopressin--giving you feelings of attachment. “Casual sex isn’t always casual” Fisher reports, “It can trigger a host of powerful feelings.” In fact, Fisher believes that men and women often engage in “hooking up” to unconsciously trigger these feelings of romance and attachment. What happens when you fall in love? People can list what they don’t like about their sweetheart, but they sweep these things aside and focus on what they adore. Intense energy, elation, mood swings, emotional dependence, separation anxiety, possessiveness, a pounding heart and craving are all central to this madness. Helen Fisher will be in conversation with Michael Krasny who is the host of the KQED radio program Forum. He is also a professor of English at San Francisco State University and the author of Spiritual Envy: an Agnostic’s Quest and Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life. His many stage interviews include Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, and Brian Greene.

Ticketing Information Below

Ticketing Information:

Reservations:
Call 415-392-4400 or visit: City Box Office
(Academy discounts applied during checkout.)

Members: $20 Balcony $25 Orchestra/Box
Non Members: $22 Balcony $27 Orchestra/Box

Pritzker Lectures 

Free to Academy members, the Pritzker lecture series features engaging speakers from the Bay Area and beyond. Topics cover a wide range of subjects related to the Academy's mission to "explore, explain, and sustain life."

Benjamin Dean Lectures

This series of talks for the general public is given by noted scientists in the fields of astronomy and space science. It is held in the Morrison Planetarium, home of the most accurate and interactive digital Universe ever created, which is shown on the world's largest all-digital dome.

Benjamin Dean Lecture
The Once and Future Kepler Mission:
Hot on the Trail of Habitable Earth-size Planets
Dr. Jon Jenkins, Senior Research Scientist, SETI Institute

Monday, July 15th, 2013 at 7:30pm, Planetarium
Kepler vaulted into the heavens on March 7, 2009, initiating NASA’s search for Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars in the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the planetary surface and support alien biology. In the 4 years since, a flood of photometric data on upwards of 190,000 stars of unprecedented precision and continuity has provoked a watershed of 132+ confirmed or validated planets, 2700+ planetary candidates and a resounding revolution in our understanding of the behavior of stars. Recent discoveries include Kepler-62 with 5 planets total of which 2 are in the habitable zone, and are 1.4 and 1.7 times the radius of the Earth. Dr. Jenkins will highlight key science results from Kepler, and will also discuss the daunting challenges that faced the technical and scientific team as they designed, built and are now operating this amazing observatory. He will also give a brief overview of TESS, NASA’s next mission to detect Earth’s closest cousins.

Reservations: Members: $8, General $12, Seniors $10. Seating is limited and advanced ticketing is required. To reserve a place today, buy a Member or Non-Member ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831

Benjamin Dean Lecture
Cosmological Intimations of Infinity
Dr. Anthony Aguirre
Associate Professor of Physics, UCSC

Monday, August 5th, 2013 at 7:30pm, Planetarium
During the past two decades astronomers and cosmologists have assembled an extremely successful model that accurately describes and explains the evolution of the observable universe over the past 13.8 billion years, most recently confirmed with amazing accuracy by the PLANCK satellite's observations of the cosmic microwave background. A key component of this cosmological "standard model" is the theory of Inflation, in which at ultra-early times the universe was expanding exponentially. Originally envisaged as an important but brief cosmological epoch, since Inflation's invention cosmologists have realized that in many cases inflation completely upends our picture of the ultra large-scale structure of the universe, and suggests that the universe lasts forever, may not have had a beginning, and has enormous size and complexity that is best described as a 'multiverse'. Aguirre will trace the development of these ideas, as well as look forward to prospects for testing or even confirming the idea of an infinite inflationary multiverse.

Reservations: Members: $8, General $12, Seniors $10. Seating is limited and advanced ticketing is required. To reserve a place today, buy a Member or Non-Member ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831