Central Valley Café Scientifique, 4 May: In the blink of an eye - biology through the lens of a high-speed camera

[Madhusudan Katti]

Central Valley Café Scientifique presents:

In the blink of an eye - biology through the lens of a high-speed camera

Have you ever wondered what all can happen in a blink of an eye? At Fresno State, Dr. Ulrike Müller and her research team study how small organisms move and feed. Small organisms are not only hard to see because they are small but also because they often move very fast. Using high-speed cameras that can record at 50,000 images per second and more, the team is studying how insects fly, how fish swim and how carnivorous plants catch their prey. They found that plants might just be the fastest predators, ingesting their prey in less than 1 millisecond, and that fish larvae can swim at more than 60 body lengths per second - for comparison, Michael Phelps reaches around 1 body length per second. High-speed recordings are helping us to understand how animals generate large forces to move fast, and how they control their movements. High-speed cameras help us discover new ways to swim and to fly to inspire new designs for small flying and swimming robots.
 
Dr. Ulrike Müller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at California State University, Fresno. To get a preview of Dr. Müller's talk, listen to the most recent episode of our radio show Science: A Candle In The Dark, where she was the featured guest earlier this week. You can download this and previous episodes of the show from our podcast feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/sciencecandle/

Do join us at Peeve's Pub on Monday evening where we can all learn about life in motion, as seen through the lens of high speed cameras. Dr. Müller will share some astonishing videos and images recorded in her laboratory showing some of the extraordinary ways in which different small organisms move.

When: Monday, 4 May 2015, 7:00 PM

Where:  Peeve’s Public House
, 1243 Fulton Mall, Fresno, CA 93721

Contact:  559-278-2460 (cafe inquiries) / 559-573-5735 (Pub’s number)

A PDF copy of the full poster for this event is attached below, for you to share with your friends and family. Please visit the Café Scientifique website for further details about our events, and listen to previous episodes of our radio show on the podcast:

http://www.valleycafesci.org/