Physical oceanography is the study of the physics of the ocean. As such, the discipline encompasses a very broad diversity of phenomena, ranging from the smallest space and time scales of order 1 second and 1 cm associated with vertical turbulent mixing, to the largest space and time scales of order centuries and 10,000 km associated with global climate variations. The processes occurring at different scales interact in very complicated ways. The multiscale characteristics of physical oceanographic data require sophisticated statistical analysis techniques to investigate a specific process and its interactions with other processes. Collaborative interactions between physical oceanographers and statisticians could potentially result in the development of new and innovative statistical techniques that could improve the present understanding of physical oceanography. The Statistics and Physical Oceanography report reproduced in this volume represents one element of an effort by the Office of Naval Research to stimulate more collaborations between the two disciplines. This introduction to the report provides a framework for understanding the context of the report. For the benefit of statisticians with little or no prior exposure to physical oceanography, this introduction also provides a brief survey of the general topics of physical oceanographic research, a description of the temporal and spatial scales of physical oceanographic data, and a summary of the demographics of physical oceanographers.

This report, prepared in response to a request from the Office of Naval Research, describes research opportunities in statistics and applied probability arising in physical oceanographic applications. It is expository, with the intended audience being statisticians and quantitatively literate people with a background in statistical applications to science, and federal agency representatives interested in encouraging such cross-disciplinary research.

Forensic scientists have used genetic material (DNA) as evidence in criminal cases such as rape and murder since the middle of the last decade. The forensic scientist's interpretation of the evidence, however, has been subject to some criticism, especially when it involves statistical issues (including relevant areas of population genetics in the realm of statistics). These issues include the appropriate method of summarizing data subject to measurement error, independence of events in a DNA pattern or profile; characterization of heterogeneity of populations; appropriate sampling methods to develop reference databases; and probabilistic evaluation of evidence under uncertainty of appropriate reference database. I review these issues, with the goal of making them accessible to the statistical community. My thesis in this article is that, for most cases, the tremendous genetic variability among individuals obviates concern arising from minor violations of modeling assumptions.

On the 100th anniversary (1993) of Lewis Carroll's Pillow Problems, Eugene Seneta presented a selection of the problems the author, Charles Dodgson, claims to have solved while in bed. The selection omits the one problem in continuous probability: "Three points are taken at random on an infinite plane. Find the chance of their being the vertices of an obtuse-angled triangle." Charles Dodgson presents a solution that involves a clear error in conditioning. An alternative solution is suggested here. This solution seems rather natural and should be especially appealing to statisticians. The nature of the solution suggests a method for using transformation groups to give meaning to the phrase "at random" in somewhat general situations.