Down to a Science » Science in Action

Speakeasy Brewery Tour – Recap & Pics

Kishore — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:20:29 +0000

On Friday, a group of us set out for the Speakeasy brewery in Hunters Point. We were treated to the BEST brewery tour I’ve ever been on. Kevin, the head brewer, lead us on a hour long tour through the small warehouse. We talked malts, sweet worts, hops, and oh yes…more hops. Kevin was adept at explaining the science behind a good brew….how bitterness develops from enzymatic breakdown of certain proteins, the essential oils that emerge from hops at just right temperature. All the while, we sidled right up to the brewing equipment (we were right on top of the beer!).

It was an amazing tour…they have tours every Friday at 4 PM. More info at Speakeasy’s website.

Enjoy the pics in the meantime!

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Garbage Pail Kids

Kishore — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:28:03 +0000

About 10 DtaSers hauled themselves to the SF Dump for a tour of the facilities. SF has a huge disposal facility with many separates parts: There’s hazardous disposal (paint, batteries, oil, e-waste, etc.), public dump (for all your personal dumping needs at $123.07/ton), the recycling center (bottles and cans just claps your hand, just clap your hands), and of course the good ol’ household garbage transfer station.

The sheer volume of garbage was staggering…about 14-18 tons per day goes straight to the landfill. Looking out at the field of garbage, it felt like a sea of plastic. In addition, you could see thousands of recyclable items mixed in with the garbage. It’s easy to understand why recycling rates for plastic have stayed flat over the past ten years when you look out on this heap.

The tour was heavily attended by artists seeking the exclusive Artist in Residency. We got to meet the two current artists, Casey Logan and Barbara Holmes. Casey makes science meets absurdity meets trash sculptures (he found a place in my heart), while Barbara has a furniture maker background. She keeps a blog on her experiences at the dump, check it out at http://www.re-f-use.blogspot.com.

I’ll be heading back for a tour of the Recycling Sorting Center on the 28th (4th Monday of every month @ 930 AM). I’ll have more to say after that experience. In the meantime, check out pics from the event:

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Cutting them no SLAC

Kishore — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:29:20 +0000

With the continued federal deficit and expense redistribution from the war to homeland security, physical sciences are feeling the pinch. The Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) is getting the brunt of money cut, missing out on $23 million of requested funding. In response, SLAC is laying off 125 of it’s 1600 employees and shutting down its PEP-II collider in March.

The PEP-II collider was scheduled to be shut down in September, but this was still quite a jolt. Here’s a picture of DtaS’ recent tour of SLAC, perhaps tours will be the only thing going on at this facility in the future.

SLAC Tour: A Recap from an attendee

Kishore — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 01:55:50 +0000

The DtaS Science in Action event – the Stanford Linear Accelerator was an amazing event. 20 people were able to get a 1st hand look at the one of the premier particle acclerators in the world.

We all gathered for a half hour explanation of particle physics…that quickly turned into an hour with all the fascinating questions (leave to science cafers to come up with good questions). We then spent another hour looking at the accelerator itself, along with more fascinating discussion on the research conducted there. Rather than my take, here’s a recap from David Ferris, an attendee from the tour.

Adam gave this analogy to explain atoms. Let? say you puffed up an apple so big its diameter extended from the Earth to the sun (take that, New York!). If an apple were that huge, how big would one of its atoms be?

Answer: the size of a football field.

OK so far. Pretty small. But does that mean that this magnificent apple is made up of football-field-sized chunks? No. All that means is that the components of an atom ?its nucleus and electrons ?exist in that football-field sized space.

So how big are the nucleus and electrons? The nucleus, Adam continued, is the size of an apple seed in the middle of that football field. And the electrons are far smaller than that. They are, in Adam? words, ?he size of a small virus,?which is to say, so small they?e hard to measure. In fact, Adam concluded, electrons don? have any mass at all, as we humans understand it. Oh, and they don? really exist anyplace, either. There? just a probability they exist.

This means that all matter ?your hands, your mouse, the coffee cup, the screen upon which you read this ?are made up of infinitesimally teeny bits of almost-nothing. How can something that appears so substantial in fact be the exact opposite? Mind blown. Game over.

More Info:
Ferris’ entire post

San Andreas Hike Recap

Kishore — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:58:48 +0000

This past weekend, 6 DtaS attendees strapped on their boots and hit the trail. Considering the recent 5.6 quake last week, what better time to learn about faults here in the Bay Area?

Six of us hit the dusty trail in Los Trancos Open Space Preserve. It was a docent led hike and our leader was quite knowledgeable. Over the course of the 2-3 mike hike (click the link to see a virtual tour of the hike), we were learned about basic earthquake science, with a eye on the 1906 quake. Many after effects of the 1906 quake were still visible, from tree trunks growing sideways to flat earthquake “benches” formed on the side of the hill. Most fascinating was the view from the hillside…you could see how the San Andreas snaked toward San Francisco, especially into Crystal Spring reservoir.

This hike is offered once a month. Check out the calender on Los Trancos’ website for more information.

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