Predicting Auroras – Wednesday 14th January 2015, 6pm
Auroras (northern lights) are one of our planet’s natural wonders. Usually a polar phenomenon, they are visible from the Dundee area only a couple of times each decade, but this winter our chances of seeing them are significantly better than…
The New Age of Renewable Energy – Monday 24th November 2014, 7pm
Dr David Rodley from the University of Dundee Centre for Renewable Energy will speculate on how the energy landscape in Scotland and the wider UK might look in the future. Will carbon become the new currency as extreme targets for…
Fats: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly – Wednesday 12th November 2014, 6pm
It is now widely acknowledged that increased consumption of a Western-type high calorie diet, along with a sedentary lifestyle, has contributed to a marked increase in the global prevalence of obesity. In particular, eating foods which are high in fat…
CAFÉ SCIENCE TAYPORT – BIOFUELS: SPINNING STRAW INTO BLACK GOLD – Thursday 6th November 2014, 6pm
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our cars and airplanes ran on a fuel that reduced CO2 emissions while promoting food production? Find out the latest from Dundee’s cutting-edge research into biofuels. Professor Claire Halpin’s team take ‘second-generation’ biofuels to the…
Personal Genomes: From Ancestry and Identity to Health – Monday 27th October 2014, 7pm
The genetic blueprint for our bodies contains over 3 billion letters, and we have just started to unravel the meaning of these genomic instructions. With many companies offering to analyse your genomes, both for ancestry and health related purposes, and…
Cystic Fibrosis: The Lung Ranger Project – Wednesday 8th October 2014, 6pm
Cystic fibrosis is the most common inherited disease in the UK affecting over 10,000 people in the UK. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, about 1 in 25 of the population in the UK carry a mutation in a gene…
Ageing Brains and Ageing Minds – Monday 29th September 2014, 7pm
‘My brain might be 70 years old but who I really am isn’t!’ What is the relationship between a person and the brain? Need we think of ageing as impairment just because mental processes are subject to age-related change? This…
Forensics: Your Life in Your Hands – Wednesday 10th September 2014, 6pm
Traditionally, the identification of offenders from photographic or video evidence has focussed on facial features. However, criminals are increasingly ensuring that their face does not appear in physical evidence. However, in 2007 a new scientific technique was accepted in the…
Cafe Science Series 2013/2014
Our Cafe Science Series for 2013/2014 has now come to an end. If you missed out on any of the discussions, or you just want to watch them again, we have videos available online for most of the programme. You can…
Summer Special: A Tale Of Two Penguins – Wednesday 6th August 2014, 7pm
The D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at the University of Dundee holds two penguin specimens that each have extraordinary stories to tell, connecting Dundee’s whaling industry with pioneering Antarctic exploration. Find out how these penguins came to be in D’Arcy Thompson’s…
Getting Down to Earth: A Closer Look at Life Below Our Feet – Monday 23rd June 2014, 7pm
Soil is alive, with a handful of soil containing billions of microscopic organisms. Soil is much more than the dirt that sticks under our shoes or holds up our plants – soil is a jungle of living organisms that break…
Sudden Death: Getting to the Heart of the Causes – Wednesday 11th June 2014, 6pm
In the past, sudden death in a young person was attributed to ‘natural causes’. We now know that these tragic events are often caused by inherited heart conditions. Making an early diagnosis is important, as there are effective treatments available…
Making Healthcare Decisions: Is Your Voice Missing? Monday 26th May 2014, 7pm
Who and what prevents your voice being heard when decisions about healthcare are made? Everyone has the right to receive the same health care quality and everyone should have the right to be involved in decisions about health care. These…
Stories R Us: How Technology Can Help Nonspeaking People to Share Their Stories – Wednesday 14th May, 6pm
We all tell stories to make friends; sharing our experiences with others gives us the opportunity to forge connections with other people, finding common ground upon which we can build relationships. Stories are a means by which we can improve…
Why Breast Cancer Medicine can be Hard to Swallow – Monday 28th April 2014, 7pm
Treatments for breast cancer that target hormone production in the body are effective in reducing the return of breast cancer in women in recovering from cancer. These medicines such as Tamoxifen have been the mainstay of breast cancer management for…
Sports Drinks: Performance in a Bottle or the Perfect Placebo? – Wednesday 16th April 2014, 6pm
The consumption of sports drinks is commonplace, from Sunday-league footballers to gym-goers to Olympic athletes. So it’s no surprise that sports drinks manufacturing is a multi-million pound worldwide industry that through sponsorship and advertising has become increasingly visible in our…
Pink for Girls and Blue for Boys? The Colour of Gender Stereotyping – Monday 24th March 2014, 7pm
The recording of this talk are now available as a playlist on YouTube. Despite attempts to eliminate gender stereotyping from society through passing new laws, the likelihood of stereotyping people on the basis of their gender remains a social problem….
From Policy to Plate: Understanding What Our Children Eat – Wednesday 12th March 2014, 6pm
For primary school pupils, eating a healthy meal at lunchtime can improve concentration and performance, as well as their diet. This has been recognised by the Scottish Government who have created legislation and a curriculum that support healthy eating in…
Spinning Straw into Gold – Monday 24th February 2014, 7pm
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our cars and airplanes ran on a fuel that reduced CO2 emissions while promoting food production? Biofuels made from cereal straw could do just that. Claire’s team work as part of the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy…
Wonderful Wetlands – Getting Low Cost, Low Carbon Energy from Constructed Wetlands – Wednesday 12th February 2014, 6pm
Kiran Tota-Maharaj from Abertay Universitydescribed how we can access low-cost renewable energy by combining heat pumps in wetlands. This can be achieved by creating constructed wetlands, which are engineered systems which store water and filter out pollutants. Kiran described a…
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