Program 1: John J. Cannell, M.D., Director, Vitamin D Council

In the past few decades, prevalence rates of autism have skyrocketed, with recent reports finding that 1 in 86 American children suffer from autism. The cause of autism is poorly understood but clearly has both a genetic and environmental basis. Researchers are scrambling to further their understanding of autism and what causes it. In 2001, Dr. John McGrath suggested vitamin D plays a role in neural development. Six years later, Cannell theorized that vitamin D plays a role specifically in autism. Come learn about his theory and what all the research to date shows on the link between vitamin D and autism.

Program 2: Cedric Garland, DPH, Adjunct Professor, Family & Preventive Medicine, Moores Cancer Center, UC San Diego

Garland is a pioneering researcher on the role of solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation and vitamin D in reducing risk of several types of cancers, including breast, colon and ovarian cancers, as well as adult leukemia. He will review findings by his group and others that UVB and vitamin D are very effective in reducing the risk of breast cancer and increasing survival for those diagnosed with breast cancer. A recent study by his group found that women in the military with vitamin D levels of 40 ng/ml had half the risk of breast cancer occurring during the next three months than those with vitamin D levels less than 15 ng/ml. This study revealed that the effect of vitamin D on risk of breast cancer is experienced almost immediately. Though there are many risk-modifying factors for breast cancer, raising vitamin D levels appears to be the most efficient way to reduce risk, Garland says, and it has many other health benefits.

MLF: Health & Medicine/Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon autism program, 1:30 p.m. breast cancer program
Cost: $30 non-members, $12 members, $10.50 students (with valid ID). Price includes both events.
Program Organizer: Bill Grant

Join fellow Club members with similar interests to brainstorm upcoming Science & Technology programs. All Commonwealth Club members are welcome. We explore visions for the future through science and technology. Discuss current issues and share your insights with fellow Club members to shape and plan programs for the months ahead.

MLF: Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 6:15 p.m. planning meeting
Cost: FREE
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress
Also know: Photo by Flickr user Saperlott

Scott Loarie, Co-director, iNaturalist.org, California Academy of Sciences
Ken-ichi Ueda, Co-founder and Co-director, iNaturalist.org, California Academy of Sciences
Tanya Birch, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach
Mary Ellen Hannibal, Journalist - Moderator

How are bold new technologies helping in the fight to retain global biodiversity? Google's Birch will talk about the life-and-death consequences of empowering indigenous peoples in Brazil and Africa to monitor their biodiversity. Loarie and Ueda will share the goals of iNaturalist, an online social network for naturalists, and discuss ways social media and mobile technology can bring the power of crowds to the problems of biodiversity.

MLF: International Relations/Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Norma Walden
Also know: In association with iNaturalist.org

Mary Ruckelshaus, Ph.D., Managing Director, The Natural Capital Project
Heather Tallis, Ph.D., Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
Rich Sharp, Ph.D., Lead Software Developer, The Natural Capital Project

The appeal of seeing nature as a vital asset – as natural capital – has spread like fire over the last decade. This concept appears in thinking about agriculture, water, energy, health, fisheries, forestry, protection from hazards, mining, cities and the infrastructure supporting these and other vast sectors – and it increasingly appears in the ways communities, corporations, governments and other institutions frame decisions. Despite this awareness and energy, however, our state and planet remain besieged by degradation and growing threats of catastrophic change.

Leaders of The Natural Capital Project and The Nature Conservancy will talk about how they are using the power of open-source software tools to transform how communities and institutional leaders around the world include the value of natural capital in decisions improving outcomes for biodiversity and human wellbeing.

MLF: Science & Technology/Humanities/International Relations
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, $8 members, students free (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress
Also know: In association with Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund

Anthony D. Barnosky, Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley; Cox Visiting Professor, Department of Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University

Monday Night Philosophy highlights Professor Barnosky's research into how global change influences extinction dynamics and biodiversity maintenance. The most recent generation has witnessed humanity changing the planet in both positive and negative ways. Barnosky explains that the key challenge for the 21st century is to ensure that the negative changes, now accelerating, do not limit our capacity to make our children's world at least as good as our own.

MLF: Humanities/Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: George Hammond

Gretchen LeBuhn, Ph.D, Professor, Department of Biology, SFSU
Heidi Ballard, Ph.D, Associate Professor, School of Education, UC Davis
Mary Ellen Hannibal, Journalist – Moderator

Public participation in scientific research, also known as "citizen science," is a burgeoning practice that is more accessible than ever. As the world is confronted with growing challenges, from climate change to political upheavals, the individuals' ability to record observations to help assess the health of people and ecosystems is a valuable asset. Citizen science programs help empower communities to understand threats to their landscapes and well-being. They also help people understand science and how it is applied.  

Professor Gretchen LeBuhn of SFSU directs the world's largest citizen science undertaking on pollinators, The Great Sunflower Project, which enjoins regular people to make observations of bees in their own backyards. As one in every three bites of food each of us takes depends on pollinator services, she asserts that it is imperative to understand what is causing current bee declines. 

Professor Heidi Ballard of UC Davis is at the forefront of finding out how citizen science works and why it matters, and her work emphasizes citizen science that empowers communities to ask their own questions and thus to more directly serve their own needs. 

These two leading intellectuals will discuss the ways in which people, technology and crowd-sourcing are making a difference. The program will be moderated by award-winning journalist Mary Ellen Hannibal.

MLF: Science & Technology/Environment & Natural Resources
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, MEMBERS FREE, students free (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress
Also know: In association with SFSU and UC Davis

John Gillis, Ph.D., Professor of History, Emeritus, Rutgers University; Presenter, "What Happens when Shores Become Coasts”
Susan Schwartzenberg, Senior Artist, San Francisco Exploratorium; Presenter, "The Bay Observatory: Musings on the Water's Edge"
Robin Grossinger, Ph.D., Environmental Scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute; Presenter, "Second Chance: Shaping the Future Bay”
Gray Brechin, Ph.D., Geographer – Moderator

The Save the Bay moment of the 1970s was a premier regional effort at environmental protection and presented a model to the world. It remains an unfinished project, however, for the San Francisco estuary, like all shores, is what Rachel Carson called an “elusive and indefinable boundary,” which can never be saved once and for all.

Today, we are working with perspectives of the Bay that are informed by a deeper, more fluid understanding of both geography and history. Research by Robin Grossinger and his colleagues at the San Francisco Estuary Institute informs us of what it was like before the arrival of Europeans. This is supplemented by John Gillis’ historical study of coasts and coastal peoples. Exploratorium artist Susan Schwartzenberg offers us the artist’s capacity to explore the future through the powers of the imagination.

Together, these three panelists will open up for us the future of the Bay as perceived by science and the arts. They will explore their subject as a regional enterprise, an ecological whole that must take into account all the Bay’s species, including our own.