While we most commonly associate Google with its ability to search the Intertubes for our favorite science FAILs, the tech giant is also opening new doors for citizen science. A recent article in the Public Library of Science (PloS) ONE highlights a new mobile phone application, powered by Google Maps and Google’s Android operating system, that allows professional and citizen scientists to gather, submit, and access research data from the field.

The application, called EpiCollect, was initially designed for epedimiological and ecological studies but has potential for a number of other fields, including economics, public health, and resource allocation. Individual users can input data records (variables, photos, GPS location, etc) into EpiCollect from their mobile phone, which is synchronized to a central database. An accompanying web application, located at www.spatialepidemiology.net, provides a common location for mapping, visualization, and analysis of the data by everyone involved in the study. The two-way connectivity between the EpiCollect mobile application and the central database could increase the collection and collation of data for community projects, particular in resource-limited areas.

Importantly, EpiCollect was developed as a free software using Google’s open-source Android operating system. Anyone interested in using the software is encouraged to contact David Aanensen in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London.  The EpiCollect website also provides three sample epidemological datasets and a facility to geocode your own spatial data.

From Dr. John…Looking for a fun way to translate your love of pignut hickory (Carya glabra) into scientific data that can help the planet? Look no further than the National Phenology Network (NPN), an organization that calls on citizen scientists to monitor the influence of climate change on plants and animals in the US.

NPN defines phenology as the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events, such as the first flower on a plant, the appearance of a songbird species in spring, or the changing leaves in fall. Phenological events are particularly sensitive to climate variations (e.g., temperature), and shifts in timing can dramatically affect the planet’s ecological systems. That, in turn, can affect the way we live – allergies, recreation, farming, and our ability to respond to natural disasters are all impacted by phenology.

NPN harnesses the power of citizen scientists and the Internet to collect, share, and store information on patterns of phenology for 200 critical plant species across the nation. NPN will use your contributions to help scientists identify which species are changing, and ultimately, better predict the impact of changing phenologies on natural systems and people. Do this immediately:

1. Select your favorite plant.
2. Learn about site selection, plant marking, and phenological observations.
3. Join the network and become an official participant.
4. Start observing, collecting, and reporting.
5. Feel a sense of personal satisfaction and enrichment.

At this time, citizen scientists can only monitor plant species. However, in 2010, NPN will welcome observations for many species of animals, including yellow-bellied marmots, hummingbirds, wood frogs, bumblebees, and all of your favorite Disney characters.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: Biology, Computers and Technology
• Location: at home, close to home
• Duration: any
• Cost: free
• Gear: no
• Level of Difficulty: easy

From Dr. John….If you’re anything like me, you take pride in knowing everything. That’s why I spend my free time reading and contributing to the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), an online, collaborative project documenting biodiversity knowledge about all life present on Earth. EOL is a global initiative seeking to create an “infinitely expandable” resource for all of our planet’s 1.8 million known species.

Launched in February 2008, EOL draws from existing databases, such as AmphibiaWeb and Mushroom Observer, and sponsorship from a number of leading scientific organizations. The scientific community and general public can contribute to this growing body of knowledge by posting images to the EOL Flikr group and adding tags and text comments to any species page. In addition, citizen naturalists with a demonstrated commitment to quality science can apply to become curators who are responsible for maintaining EOL’s vetted content.

The Encyclopedia of Life makes it ridiculously easy to get involved – users can log in using OpenID, which eliminates the need to create and forget yet another annoying username/password. They also have a discussion forum and a Twitter page. OmniSCIENCE is just a click away!

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: Biology, Computers and Technology
• Location: at home, close to home
• Duration: any
• Cost: free
• Gear: no
• Level of Difficulty: easy

The “distributed computing” project known as SETI@home just celebrated its 10th anniversary. For the past decade, thousands of volunteers have loaned the experiment a little bit of their personal computers’ idle capacity to help in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe. There’s no sign of ET yet, but the San Francisco Chronicle’s Science Editor David Perlman reports that the quest continues–and has a lot to be proud of.

The same technology that stitches together 235,000 PCs around the world to create a supercomputer for SETI@home now powers nearly a hundred other such research projects, according to Perlman. These range from Rosetta@home, which helps chart possible new designs for proteins, to Einstein@home, which sifts satellite data for evidence that may prove Einstein’s prediction of gravity waves.

Want to volunteer your computer to pitch in whenever it’s not fully occupied? (Many of these programs have cool dashboards that let you tune in to the analysis and learn a bit about the underlying science.) Visit the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing and check out the list of projects to choose from.

As the spread of influenza A virus H1N1 (otherwise known as the swine flu) continues around the world, it becomes even more important for researchers to have access to as much clinical data as possible so that they can develop treatments not just for this virus, but for many other common conditions affecting our population.  One way that clinical data can be available for researchers to analyze is through CureTogether, an open source health research plan.  (For more information on what it means to be an open source, click here.)

This webpage is not just helpful to the researchers that can log on and view the anonymous data compiled by the website, as users can also benefit just by updating their profile.  The CureTogether website allows you to track your health day-by-day by monitoring your medication schedule or health goals, and you can compare your symptoms and treatment plans to those of other users.  This has the potential to be a great networking system for those just diagnosed with an illness, especially those who are not ready to connect publicly through a face-to-face support group.

I know the idea of putting your health information on the internet can be scary, so I checked out this site personally before writing this post.  Signing up was very easy – I entered my e-mail address, a password, and a username that will be visible to other users of the database (which you can make as personal or as impersonal as you choose).  I then searched for the health conditions that affect me, and answered a series of yes or no questions about my symptoms and treatment for that disease.  I now have the options of monitoring my weight, sleep, and symptoms on a daily basis.  Additionally, CureTogether will provide updates to my personal webpage with treatments and symptoms as other people report them.  If I choose to, I can connect with the community further by blogging about dealing with my condition (I’m sure many people can relate to my terrible allergies, for example) or jump into an existing blog-based discussion with patients that share my condition.  The nice thing about CureTogether is that you can be as connected or as disconnected from the community as you want to be on the user level – the only thing that will be collected is the anonymous data that you input about your condition.  And what happens to all this data?  CureTogether posts data generated by the website community as it is used in research studies.  You can track this on their Research Findings blog.

NOTE:  This website, while very helpful, should not be used in lieu of seeing your regular medical doctor.  However, the things you learn while visiting CureTogether may help you and your doctor to develop your ongoing treatment plan.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: health, research database
• Location: at home or close to home
• Duration: a few minutes daily, if you want to track your progress
• Cost: free or low cost
• Gear: a computer with internet access
• Level of Difficulty: easy

Video games are everywhere these days!  And so, the next time you go to pick up your Wii controllers or log on to your favorite World of Warcraft server, take an hour or so to put your gaming skills to a more scientific use.  Scientists at the University of Washington are exploiting our societal love of video games to advance their research on protein folding by creating the game Foldit.

Though this program appears to be just a game based on logic, each “move” in the game is actually determining protein structure, one fold at a time. So why should you dedicate your hour of free time folding proteins instead of getting a new high score on Mario Kart?  Proteins are biology’s workforce: they drive all of the reactions that make biology work, and comprise all of the structural elements that hold biology together.  Proteins self-assemble into specific shapes, or folds, in order to carry out their designated function.  When proteins fold incorrectly, they can clump together into aggregates that promote diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cystic fibrosis, and Mad Cow.  And so, by understanding the folding process for particular proteins linked to these diseases, scientists can also begin to predict where folding mistakes may occur and how to avoid them. To get started, download the free Foldit program and take the 20 minute tutorial on the rules of the game.  There are also beginner puzzles you can try to familiarize yourself with how the program works.  From there, it’s happy folding! A special thank you to JT Lewis, for bringing the Foldit project to my attention. (Reporting on citizen science projects is much easier to do with the help of our readers — this means YOU!  Please report any projects you hear about using our form on the main webpage!)

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: Computers and technology
• Location: at home or close to home
• Duration: a few hours, or less
• Cost: free or low cost
• Gear: A computer with an internet connection (to download software)
• Level of Difficulty: Easy

Hey, Citizen Scientists! Here’s another terrific activity for our  Project Finder. BioBlitz is a 24-hour event in which teams of scientists, volunteers, and community members join forces to find, identify, and learn about as many local plant and animal species as possible. National Geographic is “helping conduct a BioBlitz in a different park each year throughout the decade leading up to the U.S. National Park Service centennial in 2016.” The next annual National Geographic-National Park Service BioBlitz takes place at the Indiana Dunes BioBlitz, a 24-hour event from May 15 to May 16, noon to noon. The goals of the BioBlitz are “to record as many living organisms in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 24 hours, to increase awareness of the diverse species in this urban setting and to better understand how to protect the natural environment in the future. Chicago Wilderness and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources are collaborating in the race to discover and document the 15,000-acre park.”      

“Explorers” of all ages are needed.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

 Topics: Animals, Birds, Ecology, Environment, Nature

 Location: Chicago, Outdoors

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Fee: No Costs

Gear: No special equipment required

Duration: 24 hours

Suitable for people of all ages!

Finally, you can add that very special member to your online social network—your houseplant.

Why would a plant want to join your network? To let you know when it’s thirsty, of course. Also to regularly report on its moisture level and to periodically thank you for watering it.

The network we’re talking about is Twitter, a group-oriented “microblogging” tool. This Web service keeps networks of friends, colleagues, businesses, and total strangers in contact through barrages of short messages known as “tweets.” And everybody from Barack Obama to the New York Times to my niece seems to be Twittering these days.

So why not Phil, the wilting philodendron that lives in your bedroom?

All you need is a clever do-it-yourself kit from a company called Botanicalls (cost: $89.95). With it you can build an electronic moisture-sensing system that enables one lucky houseplant to join your Twitter group. (Have a look at one houseplant’s tweets.)

This is a fairly geeky project, involving circuit boards, capacitors, ethernet cables, and a soldering iron, among other special equipment. But the kit’s instructions look clear, deliberate, and user-friendly. For a preview, see the company’s getting started and assembly page.

FYI, Botanicalls started out several years ago with a kit that enabled your plant to contact you by telephone, which they now call the Classic kit. If you need a break while you’re building the Twitter kit, I recommend you periodically watch the hilarious video that explained the Classic. It’s at the end of this post.

And, check out this scifi short story inspired by this Science Cheerleader blog post!

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

> Topics: Biology, plants, computers, electronics.
> Location: At home, or anywhere you have a plant.
> Duration: About 20 steps to assembly, then installation and testing. Maybe one long session or several separate sessions of a few hours each.
> Cost: $89.95 for the kit, which includes the required electronic components.
> Gear: Basic tools for assembling electronics such as needle-nose pliers, soldering iron, wire snips, etc. A computer with Internet access is also needed.
> Level of difficulty: Pretty technical.

Botanicalls “Classic Kit” Video (a hoot)