Join us to discover how astronomer Vera Rubin's persistence, after her work was initially dismissed, finally convinced the scientific community that dark matter might exist. It is now taken for

Join us to discover how astronomer Vera Rubin's persistence, after her work was initially dismissed, finally convinced the scientific community that dark matter might exist. It is now taken for granted that the universe is mostly dark, made up of particles that are undetectable even by our most powerful telescopes. This discovery of the possible existence of dark matter signaled a Copernican-like revolution in astronomy: not only are we no longer the center of the universe, but even the stuff we’re made of appears to be insignificant. By showing that some astronomical objects seem to exaggerate gravity’s grip, Rubin played a pivotal role in this discovery. Yeager tells the story of Rubin’s childhood fascination with stars, and her scientific education at Vassar and Cornell. She became a rarity, a woman in science, and her findings were equally incredible to her colleagues. Since some observatories still restricted women from using their large telescopes, Rubin was unable to collect her own data until a decade after she had earned her Ph.D. But in 1993 she received the National Medal of Science for her groundbreaking work. She’s also been memorialized with a ridge on Mars, an asteroid, a galaxy, and most recently the Vera C. Rubin Observatory—the first national observatory named after a woman. Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation. In association with Wonderfest. Author photo by Chris Johns. AUG 26, 2021 SPEAKERS Ashley Jean Yeager Associate News Editor, Science News; Author, Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond: The Life of Astronomer Vera Rubin In Conversation with George Hammond Author, Conversations With Socrates 💯SUBSCRIBE for more VIDEOS: https://www.youtube.com/user/commonwealthclub 📆 UPCOMING EVENTS: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events 🎉 BECOME a MEMBER: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/membership 💰 DONATE NOW: https://support.commonwealthclub.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=298 📺➕📻 Watch & Listen https://www.commonwealthclub.org/watch-listen CWC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonwealthclub/ CWC Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cwclub/ CWC Twitter https://twitter.com/cwclub The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum 📣, bringing together its 20,000 members for more than 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy. Founded in 1903 in San Francisco California 🌉, The Commonwealth Club has played host to a diverse and distinctive array of speakers, from Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 to Hillary Clinton in 2010. Along the way, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton have all given landmark speeches at the Club.

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Today, humans will extract almost 100 million barrels of oil from the Earth, and roughly equivalent amounts of coal and natural gas. In the latest IPCC 1.5 degree report, the deadline for halving

Today, humans will extract almost 100 million barrels of oil from the Earth, and roughly equivalent amounts of coal and natural gas. In the latest IPCC 1.5 degree report, the deadline for halving this extractive flow of fossil fuels is 2030, and eliminating it is 2050. Can we clean up these massive veins of fossil fuel energy in time to prevent irreversible climate damage? Do we have the technologies we need to scale up in time? The challenge of the energy transition is multifaceted – from providing zero-carbon fuels for ships to providing heat in our homes. These various demands require energy at different scales, in different places, and at different times. Eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels is not trivial, but one important, scalable technology is green ammonia. This carbon-free fuel is made from just air, water, and renewable electricity. That is it. Three ingredients: N2 from air, H2O, and renewable electricity. Fundamentally carbon-free. How close are we to deploying this technology? Announced investments for scaling it up are already in the billions of dollars, led by the Middle East and Australia looking to export their sunshine. What is this new 21st century oil? And what changes will it bring to our world? Zac Cesaro is an R&D engineer for Siemens Energy and third year DPhil in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. He is an expert in “green” ammonia production and use and has two years of experience operating the world’s first roundtrip green ammonia demonstrator at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK. His DPhil in Systems Engineering focuses on modelling the role of green ammonia in decarbonised electricity grids of the future, specifically in India. Prior to starting his DPhil, Zac completed a BSc in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University and worked as a manufacturing consultant in Boston, USA for 1.5 years. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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Wildlife veterinarian Dr. Gabby Wild discusses her latest book, National Geographic Kids’ "Wild Vet Adventures: Saving Animals Around The World". Dr. Wild travels the continents to meet some of

Wildlife veterinarian Dr. Gabby Wild discusses her latest book, National Geographic Kids’ "Wild Vet Adventures: Saving Animals Around The World". Dr. Wild travels the continents to meet some of Earth's most incredible critters, including regal lions, playful pandas, fearsome Gila monsters, and creepy tarantulas. She teaches young readers about animal anatomy and behaviors, diets, families, the dangers they face in the wild, the special human-animal relationships and the challenges that arise when they share a habitat. Dr. Gabby Wild has traveled the world to save animals. Kids often recognize Dr. Wild as the veterinarian from Animal Jam Classic, where she answers questions from children about wild animals. Some of her noted recent collaborations include World Wildlife Fund, National Geographic Society, Jane Goodall Institute, Harvard University, Oxford University, The American Museum of Natural History, The Bronx Zoo, Zoological Society of London, Natural History Museum (London) , and Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris). When Dr. Wild is not traveling to save animals, she is an emergency room doctor and veterinary surgeon at The Animal Surgical Center on Long Island. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University, Master’s of Public Health from the University of Minnesota, and is also a published genetics researcher. Get the book here: https://goo.gle/3abKTir. Learn more about Dr. Gabby by visiting https://gabbywild.org/. Moderated by Suzette Bishop. #WorldWildlifeDay #DrGabbyWild #NationalGeographicKids

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As scientists, we’ve long studied climate change, and sought to understand its causes. Now, we must take the next step and seek out and implement solutions. As a technologist, I believe there is

As scientists, we’ve long studied climate change, and sought to understand its causes. Now, we must take the next step and seek out and implement solutions. As a technologist, I believe there is great potential for technology to make a major difference. New innovations can slow the impacts of warming, whether through stopping deforestation, preserving biodiversity, or ensuring there’s enough food to go around and food is not wasted. But there’s also opportunity to address some of the underlying causes and even begin to reverse—the damage we’ve done to our climate and our planet. The call to action is this: Instead of aiming to limit global warming temperature increase by 1 degree Celsius, we have to think about what we’d need to do to reduce temperatures by 1 degree Celsius. This is a vital aspect of Operation Earth. Daniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Rus’s research interests are in robotics, mobile computing, and data science. Rus is a Class of 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, AAAI and IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy for Arts and Science. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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Xerxes Libsch spent his childhood summers at a camp on upstate New York’s Muscoot Farm, which breeds rare animals. The camp offered Libsch an opportunity to combine his love for the outdoors and

Xerxes Libsch spent his childhood summers at a camp on upstate New York’s Muscoot Farm, which breeds rare animals. The camp offered Libsch an opportunity to combine his love for the outdoors and animals, and left a lasting impression on him. To show his gratitude, he decided to spearhead a restoration project on the farm that the staff didn’t have capacity for. Through partnerships with farm staff, the Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and local businesses, Libsch and his team of 25 volunteers installed 22 birdhouses for declining native bird species, cleared an 800 square-foot area of deeply rooted invasive species, and created a half-mile nature trail. Libsch was also able to prevent two tons of animal waste from contaminating a nearby drinking water reservoir. In addition, his team erected an environmental learning center that provides information about the farm to the 600 summer campers and 135,000 guests who visit each year and has helped transform the farm into an inspiring and educational wild space.

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Last year, Dejah Powell founded Get Them to the Green (G2G), an organization that aims to foster love for the environment among Chicago youth, particularly youth of color. Powell’s first project

Last year, Dejah Powell founded Get Them to the Green (G2G), an organization that aims to foster love for the environment among Chicago youth, particularly youth of color. Powell’s first project with G2G was to organize a summer camp, through which she engaged 14 young people from across the city on issues like environmental justice, sustainability, and food and agriculture. G2G has since partnered with the non-profit Gardenneers to build a school garden at Powell’s elementary school to provide hands-on, outdoor environmental education opportunities for students, and has organized environmental education workshops throughout the city. Powell believes people can not solve a problem that they do not know exists. Now a senior at Cornell University, she hopes that environmental education in cities like Chicago will improve eco-literacy and help under-resourced communities access both local and global conversations.

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Jill Tarter, the astrophysicist who inspired Jodie Foster's character in Carl Sagan's movie Contact, dedicated her career to the search for extraterrestrial life. She is now the Director of the

Jill Tarter, the astrophysicist who inspired Jodie Foster's character in Carl Sagan's movie Contact, dedicated her career to the search for extraterrestrial life. She is now the Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California... but it wasn't an easy path. After her scholarship was taken away, she went to the dean of the engineering college and said, "Dean Corson, this isn't fair. I've been on dean's list every semester." And he kindly said, "You know, you're right. It isn't fair. It isn't fair at all." She has no idea what he said when he called up Procter & Gamble, but he got her that scholarship back. 20 years later, when Dean Corson was the president of Cornell, he had an advisory committee and Jill Tarter was on it. She was able to go up to him all those years later and say, "See, President Corson? Thank you for believing in me. I'm on your advisory committee for this fantastic telescope and I have to thank you once again."

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What's the connection between industrial water efficiency and access to clean drinking water? Srihari Balakrishnan lays out a big idea for water efficiency, discovered while building the 'Greenest

What's the connection between industrial water efficiency and access to clean drinking water? Srihari Balakrishnan lays out a big idea for water efficiency, discovered while building the 'Greenest Mill in the World'. Srihari Balakrisnan is the Managing Director - KG Denim Limited; Managing Director – Sri Kannapiran Mills Ltd.; and President – RndSoft He is an MS (Chemical Engineering) from Cornell University, US. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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