Canada BioImaging Event

Event Title: Pretty Images, Noisy Truths

Abstract: Advances in image processing and analysis are rapidly changing what we can extract from the images we collect. Denoising, deconvolution, image restoration, machine learning and increasingly sophisticated analysis tools can reveal information that may otherwise be difficult to detect and, in some cases, compensate for limitations in image acquisition.

These capabilities also raise important questions about how we acquire, process and interpret microscopy data. In our pursuit of cleaner images and more powerful analysis, have we developed an unhealthy relationship with noise? Are we becoming too comfortable correcting problems computationally rather than understanding where they arise? And at what point does revealing information become creating confidence that the original data simply cannot support?

This talk takes a critical look at the growing reliance on computational methods that attempt to infer what our microscopes did not adequately measure. It will examine what noise tells us about the quality and uncertainty of our data, what may be lost when we treat noise simply as a problem to be removed, and why increasingly convincing computational outputs demand greater—not less—caution in how we acquire, process and interpret microscopy images.

Speaker Bio: Michael Carnell is a microscopy specialist at the Katharina Gaus Light Microscopy Facility at UNSW Sydney, with extensive experience in advanced light microscopy, quantitative imaging and image analysis. His work spans microscopy training, method development and the application of imaging technologies across a broad range of biological research. A major focus of his work is helping researchers understand not just how to acquire and analyse microscopy images, but how the choices made during imaging and processing affect the information, uncertainty and conclusions that can be drawn from them.

Registering for this series does not automatically enroll you as a CBI or BINA member. We strongly encourage you to become a BINA member (or CBI member if in Canada)– it is free and you can join here

FREE and open to anyone! You do not need to be a BINA member to attend, but one-time registration is required