Join us in Infusion Coffee Shop in Dundee Science Centre at 6pm on Wednesday the 15th of September for the first talk in our new 2010/2011 Cafe Science Series! This year we have talks on invisibility, biofuels, foot care, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and so much more. But our first talk from Charles Paxton (University of St Andrews) is all about Sea Monsters and Statistics.

The hunt for unknown animals like the great sea serpent and the kraken is often considered a pseudoscience but statistics can tell us some interesting things about sea monster reports and the probabilities of finding unknown animals. The hunt for Nessie may be more scientific than you think.

Sea monsters have been reported since antiquity but only recently has this topic come under statistical scrutiny. Recent research suggests there may be large numbers of large marine and freshwater animals awaiting discovery by science. Given this, is it time to re-evaluate reports of unknown aquatic animals?

Again statistics can help understand biases in eyewitness testimony. Statistics can also be used to obtain the probabilities of extinct animals being alive today and even how big they can get. In the future there will be monsters…

This is a FREE event, and everyone is welcome to attend. Doors will open at 5.30pm for a 6pm start, with a question and answer session after the talk.

When lasers were invented in 1960 they were called “a solution looking for a problem”. Since then we have seen lasers find uses in nearly every part of our lives, in supermarket barcode scanners, CD players, corrective eye surgery and many other medical and cosmetic procedures.

Most lasers emit a continuous beam of light, whereas an ultrafast laser concentrates its energy into incredibly short bursts of light, resulting in very intense pulses. This means ultrafast lasers can be used in new ways such as in the operating theatre, cutting biological tissues with extreme precision without damaging nearby tissues.

Dr Maria Ana Cataluna from the University of Dundee is a researcher in the development of a new generation of miniature ultrafast lasers and will discuss how these sophisticated lasers are pushing the boundaries in biomedical imaging and minimally-invasive diagnostics and treatments.

Maria’s talk embodied the spirit of  Cafe Science with lots of audience particiaption and a lively discussion. You can view the videos of her talk on our YouTube channel or you can view the first clip below.