7 September 2025
Welcome friends of science,
विज्ञान के मित्रों का स्वागत है,
(Vigyaan ke mitron ka svaagat hai)
About 200,000 people in the Bay Area speak Hindi. Languages spoken in India: Hindi (43.6%) · Bengali (8.30%) · Marathi (6.83%) · Telugu (6.70%) · Tamil (5.70%) · Gujarati (4.58%) · Urdu (4.19%) · Kannada (3.61%).
I walked behind the above banner on Labor Day along with a brass band, government representatives, union reps (from at least 7 unions), federal employees & admins, teachers, students, families, children, et al. The photo shows some of the hundreds of us on MacDonald Avenue in Richmond.
Speeches and signs covered a gamut of demands: a living wage for workers, affordable health care and housing, fully funded schools, a more progressive tax code that prevents billionaires, the end to presidential overreach, the end to Palestinian genocide, etc. There were about a thousand such demonstrations in the U.S. on Labor Day.
Our government’s attack on clean, renewable energy continues:
- The Health & Human Services Department (HHS) is studying whether wind turbines are creating human-harming electromagnetic fields.
- The Defense Department is investigating whether wind turbines pose risks to national security.
- The Health & Human Services Secretary is working with the Interior Secretary, the Commerce Secretary, the Energy Secretary, and the Defense Secretary to investigate possible risks from offshore wind turbines.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is noticeably absent from this unscientific witch hunt, in part because its scientific research arm was dismantled earlier this year.
[Blue – Members; Dark Grey – Former Members]
On the flip side is the United States Climate Alliance: 22 States plus Puerto Rico and Guam have committed to the Paris Agreement within their borders. Thirteen of them have pledged to financially support the transition to Electric Vehicles. You too can show your support by signing this letter. Our household transitioned many moons ago [and my electric Zero S motorcycle is an awesome ride].
By the way, the $7,500 federal tax credit for the purchase of a new EV ends this month. ($4,000 for used EVs) Significant cost savings for leasing an EV also end this month. Many other credits and reimbursements are going away. See the list here.
RAFFLE
Our raffle prize is a 6 cm crystal ball containing our entire galaxy. It’s an adjustable-brightness LED night light with a wooden stand. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith <at> gmail <dot> com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, the eOracle murmured “287” and Kat’s guess of 305 won the R2D2 light.
AGRIVOLTAICS
This portmanteau derives from combining “agriculture” and “photovoltaic”. Here are three known advantages of this mash-up – besides income from generating electricity.:
- A good farming practice is to let one of your fields lie fallow for a year or longer. Then it is planted again while another field takes its turn to rest. It is now known that covering a fallow field with open rows of elevated solar panels hastens the soil’s recovery, brings in beneficial insects, and promotes biodiversity.
- Sheep that graze in an agrivoltaic field take advantage of the solar panels for shade and for protection from harsh weather. Result: A higher quality of wool that commands a higher price.
- Placing solar panels over vineyards so that plants avoid the midday sun results in a higher yield of juice, albeit without greater amounts of sugar. Outcome: more wine with a slightly lower percentage of alcohol.
Things to Do this Week
OMG! There are so many wonderful science-related events this week. Peruse them all on the Bay Area Science Calendar. Below are my (biased) picks.
Join me at Skeptics in a Real Pub Tuesday 7 – 9:30pm, Millbrae
Astronomy on Tap East Bay Tuesday 7:30 – 9pm, Oakland
SETI Live: Worlds of Fire? Livestream Thursday 2:30pm
James Randi in Australia Livestream Thursday 7:30pm
Kits Cubed 5th Annual STEM Fair Saturday 10 – 3pm, Oakland
The Physics Show: Three Performances Saturday & Sunday, Foothill College
Why Tides Matter Sunday 1 – 2:30pm, Alviso
ENVIRONMENT
Kill an urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) for kelp! (Macrocystis porifira)
[I just had to include their taxonomic names since they are deeply etched into my grey matter after surviving the Invertebrate Biology course at the Bodega Bay Marine Lab.]
Before the 19th century, northern Pacific coasts had a great abundance of kelp forests that harbored rich ecosystems. Then came the slaughter of Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris) for the fur trade. Result: the Purple Sea Urchin – a favorite Sea Otter snack – exploded in numbers and destroyed kelp forests. For years now, divers off the Southern California coast have been successful in restoring kelp forests by hammering Purple Sea Urchins to death. Watch them in action!
A Federal judge in Texas removed the Endangered Species designation of the Lesser Prairie Chicken. It will now be easier to get permits for new oil wells in the bird’s range which includes southwestern Kansas, southeastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, and the panhandle and south plains of Texas. Here is a short video (with audio) of the bird dancing on their lek.
FUN NERDY VIDEOS
Microplastic Problems – Cup O’ Joe – Joe Schwarcz – 4 mins
¿Black Hole Inside Our Sun? – Sabine Hossenfelder – 5.5 mins
Forecast: Antarctic Volcanic Eruptions – SciShow – Stefan Chin – 7 mins
Fossil of a New Human Species – Arizona State University – 13.5 mins
Big Oil Doesn’t Want You Knowing Stuff – Just Have a Think – Dave Borlace – 14 mins
I Challenged Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot – Cleo Abram – 16 mins
Misinformation & Distrust in Science – Royal Institution – Naomi Oreskes – 17 mins
Electric Trucking Challenges – Engineering with Rosie – Rosemary Barnes – 18 mins
Solving Evolution’s Hardest Problem – Hank Green – 20 mins
Measuring the Sun 2,200 Years Ago – Ben Sylverson – 22 mins
Benthic Ecosystems & Deep-Sea Mining – Howtown – Adam Cole et al. – 22 mins
Carbon – Tales from the Periodic Table – Ron Hipschman – 39 mins
Natural Rubber Is Essential – Veritaseum – Derek Muller – 41 mins
Search for Aliens – with Jill Tarter – Star Talk – Neil deGrasse Tyson – 53 mins
The Stones Are Speaking – PBS – (Pre-Clovis Gault Archaeology Site) – 56 mins
Enjoy your week with friends, family, and the outdoors,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“I came from a tradition of demonstrations and protests, and I really believe in them. I think they are powerful ways to bring people together, to organize, to raise awareness, and most importantly to empower people.”
—Jagmeet Singh (1979 – ) Canadian politician
Apropos Indian languages, Sometime in 1977 I was on a day bus tour of Madras (now Chennai), in which I was the only non-Indian. The guide spoke only in English, not for my sake but because the other tourists were from all over India. However, after the lunch break some of the tourists, Hindi speakers if my memory is correct, complained that the guide was not speaking any Indian language, and so thereafter he gave his spiel in Hindi and one other Indian language in addition to English.
My wife used to work for EPA, which you correctly refer to as the Environmental Protection Agency, though perhaps more accurately these days the Environmental Pollution Agency.
Speaking of the environment, this weekend instead of participating in a mass demonstration in DC, I joined some of my fellow northern Virginians in protesting the clear cutting of trees by the local power company, Dominion Energy, along a four mile stretch of a
44 mile rail trail, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Trail, to try to prevent further decimation of the trees along the trail.