Science Cheerleader

2009 was a thrilling year for citizen scientists (you know, those “average citizens” who volunteer to lend their brains to science). It wasn’t that long ago, when as a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, I’d inevitably be met with blank stares when I uttered the words “citizen science.” But this year, we witnessed a rising tide and 2010 will surely bring with it tidal waves of citizen science breakthroughs.

A recent report to the National Science Foundation concluded: “The number of published scientific papers based on citizen-collected data is increasing each year. Many more projects could be created that will appeal to the increasing numbers of amateur naturalists and stargazers who are interested in lending their brains to science.” And indeed, hundreds, if not thousands, of new citizen science projects are now underway.

In mid-January, my partner (Michael Gold) and I, with support from  Science House will run a soft launch of ScienceForCitizens.net, the Craigslist meets Match.com in the realm of citizen science. A one-stop shop for learning about and contributing to the massive variety of existing projects out there. Opportunities for collaborations exist, just drop me a line at darlene@sciencecheerleader.com if you’re interested.

First, a nod to the giants whose shoulders we (citizen science advocates) stand upon:

• Cornell University has some of the longest running citizen science projects, primarily in the field of ornithology. Thanks to Rick Bonney and his tireless team, Cornell continues to dominate the field. See Citizen Science Central.
• Terrie Miller launched her blog way before most of us even knew what a “blog” was. She practices what she preaches and has taken the lead in bringing permaculture to the masses.
• Yale, Oxford and NASA’s Galaxy Zoo project amassed hundreds of thousands of amateur astronomers to sort through images of the galaxies. Wisely, they’ve partnered with other space science projects through which massive amounts of data are collected, and recently launched the Citizen Science Alliance as a mechanism to share and decipher gold mines of information.
• The Society of Amateur Scientist, 15 years old and counting, has a loyal membership of innovative problem solvers. SAS is led by Dr. Shawn Carlson and uber amateur scientist Forrest Mimms.

2009 wrap up:
Here are but some of the many citizen science news items of 2009:
The NY Academy of Sciences: The Growth of Citizen Science
The New York Times: A New Kind of Big Science
O’Reilly Report: Citizen Science and Urban Sensing
TreeHugger: The Big Deal with Citizen Science
Education.com: Citizen Science benefits to children
Seed Magazine: Creating Citizen Scientists
CNN Citizen Science and Climate Change

Every good idea needs a critic. If additional proof is needed that citizen science is more than just a passing fancy, witness the emergence of the critics. I, for one, value the opinions of critics as important tools to help keep well-intended efforts from becoming (too) manipulated by opportunists. The critics will keep things honest. In fact, you can expect to read some critical articles and posts written by me…shortly! For now, check out  Science is not a democracy and AIG executive pay and the citizen scientist.

2009 Citizen Scientists of Distinction. Our Founding Fathers were the pinnacle representatives of “amateur scientists” or “citizen scientists.” PBS lays out its list of all-time Great Amateurs in Science here.
Today, their spirit lives on in the likes of (previously mentioned) Shawn Carlson and Forrest Mimms,  as well as through these lesser known citizen scientists, who made the headlines in 2009: (Special thanks to @scicheer Twitter followers for weighing in with your favorites.)

• Anthony Wesley,  a computer programmer and amateur astronomer who lives in Australia, discovered a hole in Jupiter’s atmosphere, the size of the Earth! He tipped off NASA. In a remarkable twist of fate, the discovery was made on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the 15th anniversary of another large comet strike on Jupiter.

• Like it or not, at least three citizen scientists played key roles in what has become known as Climategate.

• Six-year-old Alyson Yates and her mom, Kate, discovered a rare nine-spotted ladybug while taking part in Cornell University’s Lost Ladybug citizen science project. This native species had been taken over by the Asian imported seven-spotted bugs, in the 1970s. Researchers at Cornell are breeding the native species and hope to introduce them back to the land that was once their own.

• By running DNA tests, teenagers in NYC found a new breed of cockroach and discovered food labels lie. Their adventures are wrapped in this NPR piece about the bubbling DIY biology movement.

• Shawn Carlson gives Popular Mechanics his short list of top amateur science projects here.

And, interesting factoid for you Batman fans, it turns out Cat Woman was once inspired by an amateur scientist who studied snowflakes (character’s based on the real amateur scientist who studied snowflakes).

Last but not least, here’s a shout out to the world’s greatest citizen science reporters, Dr. John Ohab ,  Sarah Chobot–soon to be a Ph.D.!–John Collier and our skeptical cheerleader, Occam’s Razor, of course. Thank you for enlightening and inspiring thousands of readers.

Happy 2010! Now go get your hands dirty with science!

-Darlene

Found this here.

Studying gravestones to track changes in Earth’s chemistry. Call for volunteers! EarthTrek presents a global Gravestone Project.

This project aims to map the location of a graveyards around the globe and then use marble gravestones in those graveyards to measure the weathering rate of marble at that location.The weathering rates of gravestones are an indication of changes in the acidity of rainfall between locations and over time. The acidity is affected by air pollution and other factors, and could be used as a measure of changes in climate and pollution levels.

Discover Magazine’s Top 100 Stories of 2009 #69: Science Sets Its Eyes on the Prize
Big money awaits innovators who can build rockets, sequence genomes, predict people’s movie preferences, harvest energy from the tides, or explore the Moon.
by Darlene Cavalier
From the January-February special issue; published online December 25, 2009

We’ve been forecasting this explosion in citizen science for 1.5 years right here. Check out this piece that just ran on NPR today about a DIY (Do It Yourself) biology movement sweeping the nation. And, if you want to scan the landscape of hundreds of other citizen science projects or upload your own, be sure to register at ScienceForCitizens.net and we’ll ping you when the beta site launches on January 16th!

National Geographic Kids has a short and sweet slide show description of fireworks. Turns out my personal favorite, The Weeping Willow,  (pictured left) is made by adding an excess of charcoal to the firework. Photo by Ramon Gutierrez.

Judy Lee’s dream job lets her design everything from toys to pet products AND she gets to bring her dog to work. Learn more about women in engineering at EngineerYourLife.org.

Check out this amazing holiday greeting by Dr. John:

This week, The Scientist reports on a study suggesting the long-cherished mistletoe may be messing with the white spruce trees’ hormones. In a not-yet-published report, Barry Logan, an associate professor of biology at Bowdoin College, and his team discovered that, unlike traditional host-parasite relations where, in an attempt to stave off damage, the host tree directs water and nutrients to healthy limbs and branches at the expense of infected ones, the dwarf mistletoe triggers the white spruce to manufacture hormones that direct cherished resources towards infected branches. The parasitic effects of the dwarf mistletoe include tangled witches’ brooms , small needles and stunted tree growth.
Dwarf mistletoe isn’t always lethal, according to The Scientist.

“Forty-two species (including the eastern variety) exist, and they impart varying degrees of harm on their favorite host trees. In Washington and Oregon, western hemlocks show evidence of having weathered infections of hemlock dwarf mistletoe for 80 years or more, Logan says. White spruce, on the other hand, succumb to eastern dwarf mistletoe in 15 or 20 years.”

“There’s an interplay between [host and parasite] which I didn’t appreciate when I first tackled this project,” Logan adds. “It makes it more interesting, and more complicated.”

From that skeptical elf, Occam: Santa Claus has been romanticized by everyone from Norman Rockwell to Coca-Cola to filmmakers the world over.  We all have a general idea of what the “jolly old elf” is like, and I guess most of us assume a life of monogamy for the old fellow as part of this image.  But I would argue that if he is like most men with power and financial resources (see: Woods, Tiger), that’s probably not the case.  Consider:  so far as we know he’s always been married to Mrs. Claus, and the internet tells us that he’s anywhere from 250 to 550 years old…that’s a long time to be climbing down just one chimney, if you get my snowdrift.  Further, he’s been sneaking into the homes of women for a looong time, in that kinky, soft, alluring outfit; you can’t tell me that of all those homes there aren’t a few desperate housewives looking for some Christmas comfort, especially given that they may already fetishize him (84 percent of adult women have had Santa fantasies, according to the Holiday Organization of Romantic, Naughty, Yuletide Women).  And judging by the feats attributed to him he apparently transcends time and space, so he wouldn’t have to worry too much about getting caught by Mrs. Claus (though the image of Mrs. Claus using a giant candy cane to smash out the back window of his sleigh is pretty funny).

But, perhaps I’m not giving enough credit to the fidelity of the women of the world.  In fact, a recent report shows that evolutionarily, women may just inherently know that avoiding Santa and being faithful to their spouses helps them – specifically, this report says it helps them have healthier babies.  (more…)