Citizen scientists can actually be more productive than professional scientists, as they don't have to worry about "publish or perish", and hence they can devote more energy to topics that aren't trivial. Albert Einstein was just a patent clerk when he developed the Special Theory of Relativity in his free time.
+Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky Especially in biology, there are still a lot of fundamental unanswered questions that aren't even looked at since there is little financial incentive. For example. S. cerevisiae is probably the best understood biological organism in existence at the molecular level. It was the first free-living organism with a sequenced genome and is the workhorse of modern biology. We know it lives on grape skins, eating the sugars that leak out when they are ripe. Where does it live the rest of the year? Not known. I've seen some hypotheses about it living on tree bark but it's a big unanswered question. I have a set of small books called _Research Problems in Biology_ that were published in 1965. They asked prominent biologists of the time to come up with scientific questions that were significant and that an amateur could do in their home. I've read through these books and now, over 50 years later, this is the result. About 1/3 of those questions have been answered. About 1/3 turned out to be poorly thought out problems that later research showed to be unimportant or actually very complicated problems. About 1/3 are still important unanswered problems that could still be done by an amateur.
I am (sorta) upset that amateur astronomy wasn't mentioned in this episode. If someone with a telescope finds something in the sky that wasn't found before, be it an asteroid or comet or planet or star or anything, they get official credit by the IAU for their discovery. That should count for this episode, eh?
There's another great video game for citizen science is called EyeWire, where people help researchers at Princeton University map the structure of retinal neurons in mice. All you need is an internet connection and a knack for finding missing pieces of a puzzle. :) I've been a part of this project for 3 years now and that community is growing as well.
Most entomologists would be classed as 'amateur' but have an incredible knowledge of their chosen taxon. They also have to collaborate a fair bit, because one person cannot be a specialist in more than a few orders.
EVE Online has Project Discovery, a minigame linked to real life research centers where the object is to identify cellular structures. Computers have a really tough time and a terrible track record. We, as the players, are not only sifting through and cataloguing data, but TEACHING the A.I. how to do what we do :D
Okay I'm just gonna say this now.. Hank, since I've found your channel, this video is probably one of the best ones (if not the best) you've put up till now. This video is truly inspiring and I'm going to share it with lots of people that I want to encourage towards the sciences. You've captured a lot about ethics and how humanity should work together to help prolong its own future for the better. The interests & ideals of an individual don't matter if their energy or resources can be added into working towards science as a unit. You've convinced me now to even sign up as a Patron after this episode... Keep doing what you do!
Then there are people like me, who aren't currently able to go for a higher degree or land a science job, but still practice/research it in our free time.
The university near where I live has a citizen bat patrol. You sign up and if they have openings in your area they give you a bat-radar thing to put on your car and you drive around at dusk looking for and recording bat calls! I haven't done it, but I'm considering it.
I sign up for several study for my cancer treatments. Especially, a study to prevent CDiff. I told my family that when I die I want to become a cadaver to help med students. True story.
+Steven Davidson It's pretty neat, but you also need to keep in mind that it isn't really free- there are costs from electricity usage and wear-and-tear on your hardware (see boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Heat_and_energy_considerations ). If this isn't something you're willing to live with, other citizen science projects such as those at the Zooniverse might be a better option. edit: I guess you could say that in some ways, because of heat considerations, it isn't quite the coolest.
Not gonna lie using phrases like "these data" rather than "this data" to reflect that data is used as a collective noun is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
+sugarfrosted I don't know where you're referring to, but I would assume he is talking about multiple pieces of data so his tense would be correct in that situation.
+TheAndroidAssassin "This data" is correct. It is used exactly the same way as "information". Nobody would say "these information" or "these information". Or "these collection", though "these collections" would be correct when used differently, to refer to separate, discrete collections. Language "is" how it's used, and only a very small minority of people use "these data". www.google.com/trends/explore#q=this%20data%2C%20these%20data&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B4
It's a series of pits and grooves that hold microscopic hairs and receptors. It's also a bit fragile (even though the muscle part is strong) as noted by anytime your tongue dries out and you touch it with your finger.
i had plans for a system that would solve bigger problems than just observations, it would allow "citizen science" reach the next level while gaining the ability to become a "professional scientist" based on contributions. the one issue is gaining the influence or funding for the first steps for this system. you can know how to solve problems but convincing people to give you the ability is a much bigger and complex issue.
can not be good at everything, if i ever get the money i will hire professional writers to make sure it is 100% correct. everyone knows writing at a professional level is the definition of intelligence. always need to pander to the prescriptive language.
I actually participated in a citizen science thing- it's called "QuestaGame," an app game created to study biodiversity by encouraging people to take photographs of various fauna and flora in the world around them, and awarding points based on how rare the particular sighting is to the given area. Earlier this year a QuestaGame player found a completely new species of spider previously unknown to science, and had it named after him!
+SciShow +GamesWithHank EyeWire is a neuronal mapping game used for connectome research (Sebastian Seung). You guys have talked about the connectome before, so I think it'd be awesome if you guys added it to the description! Seriously,this game lets you make 3D models of neurons and their connections from 2D slides. Please do add it for everyone to enjoy. PS. Hank. uh, science AND games! This was meant for your other channel (EyeWire, FoldIt, EteRNA)!
more games need to be tailored to solving world problems and still being fun and envoloping we need to stop playing games like warcraft and start playing games like eteRNA
You don't have to be a professional scientist to make a contribution to our collective knowledge. Get started at SciStarter.org and find thousands of searchable projects that match your location, interests, and skills!
Nice video. I did some research on Math curriculum sequencing, "double-dosing" 9th graders in algebra 1, and high-stakes teacher evaluations. That kind of work is fun!
one of my favorite citizen science games is eyewire, in it you are given slides of brain tissue made with an electron microscope and use it to produce 3d models of brain cells making a super detailed brain map the scientists use to learn how the brain functions on a cellular level
I used to donate computer time to a college research project called fold at home. They designed computer simulations for studying protein folding as it occurs in cells, and were studying diseases that arise from how proteins miss-fold, such as prion diseases and Alzheimer's. I donated about 3 years of computer time from 4 computers to this project. If I wasn't using the computer, it was taking jobs from the project.
I really liked the crowd sourced radiation map they did in Japan. A bunch of people had these giger counters with GPS built in. When they took a reading it was paired with the location. It really helped to understand the impact of the nuclear accident at Fukushima.
Yay! Citizen science is literally one of my favorite things! I'm so glad you did an episode on this - I've shared a few citizen science projects on my channel already, too :)
I participated in a lot of citizen science projects as an ecology student and post graduation as well, but it eventually felt a lot like unpaid labour rather than a hobby or learning experience. Finding a project where you feel valued can be tricky.
+Supernerd7 Same here. Maybe it's just a bad batch of people, but I sure as heck don't feel like "one of the team" most of the time. Is a shame too, because these are the kinds of projects that I want to work with for the sheer enjoyment of it. As you said though, oftentimes it just feels like unpaid labour.
Supernerd7 I am studying biochemistry but I would like to do taxonomy whenever I can. Collecting animals and plants and cataloging my findings. That is a part of biology that even though it is vital for our understanding of our environment is horribly underfunded nowadays since the focus is on molecular biology. I am not very intrigued by citizen science projects though since most of it seems like it's either very low quality research or just a huge hassle that you won't see anything for.
I'm so honored that a town from the island I'm from, Puerto Rico, has been mentioned here!! I love this RU-vid page tons... Running out of videos to watch made by them!
***** Zelda is my favourite franchise that features puzzles prominently. They may be amazing, but I wouldn't call them puzzle games; they're action adventure games.
there is actually a very interesting gamer based data research, its called project discovery (eve online is the name of the game) and very involved in the game. we processed so much data for them in the first few hours we ended up breaking there servers =D
I assumed this would be related to the newest citizen science project, the quantum computing game, and it's breakthroughs. Guess it's just a timely video instead, as it's still tangentially related.
Im involved in a citizen science project in the UK at the moment, where we're trying to find out if seeds which have been to space grow at different rates to those that haven't. Fittingly, they're Rocket seeds.
Another great passive way to be a citizen scientist is by donating your computer(s) to SkyNet! (Granted the main way I know about this is because my best friend used our college's computers to process data, which made him like 3rd in the most processed list, and the college didn't like that, but I never said this)
Another passive program you can download if you want to help out researchers is GIMPS, or the great internet Marsenne prime search. It uses your computer when you're not to help mathematicians find larger and larger Marsenne primes.
There's also this cool thing where you can analyse data from radio telescopes to see when stars dim (evidence that there may be a planet moving in from of it. The name escapes me at the moment.
There should be some virtual online community thing with avatars, explorable worlds, and whatnot where you can make virtual money by doing various citizen science things on your computer. It would create a potentially large community of gamers/citizen scientist which people would join cause it's fun(like other such communities on the internet). When new citizen science games pop into existence they will be shown to and used by the already large community. Such a community could even make citizen science games much more popular. Also the whole virtual money thing would create more of an incentive to do citizen science games.
for anyone interested SETI also has an app for android (not sure if apple) BOINC uses your smart phone or tablets computing power when its plugged in, above 80% charged and not in use to
I would actually really like to see a video on Geomagnetic Reversal. As in whether it really is as probably as some say, or rather if it is then what would happen and how.
As an archivist, I just wanted to point out, that "archives" the noun always has an s on the end. Even when you'd expect the singular, like, "this belongs in an archives."
I used to run seti on an old computer, it used to run while i was asleep, bonus was the running screen was sooooooo boring it knocked be out cold, but now i share the time using boinc between asteroid hunting and medical research.
Dear Scishow, could you guys please do an episode on how our perception ended up how it is right now??? I've already been thinking about colour and wether our internal experience of it would be the same. But what about the other senses? How do I even know wether your experience of smell isn't actually the same as my experience of hearing?
+Merthan E. (M. E.) I've seen the one from vsause multiple times, lovely video. It really inspired me. But still thats only the visual system. And I know we're talking about qualia here, but I'm hoping modern research might be bringing us a little further, cuz the one from vsauce is pretty old already.
I used to participate in SETI@home. It was awesome. When your computer hibernates or sleeps you get a screensaver showing what section of the sky they are currently scanning using your CPU!
scishow have derek from veritasium over for talkshow once again , his talkshow was for me the best , i love the way he explains and also the way you expain nd make some physics videos or on some scientific principle or concept such as your videos on fundamental forces or some of other earlier vids , recent ones are gennerally related to bio. big fan since 2-3 years
I went to download SETI@Home and saw that they use a software called BOINC, and I instantly thought of Calvin and Hobbes. "Scientific progress goes 'BOINC.'" XD
+Moonbeam They actually answered this in a video. Was a while ago. Not 100% sure whether or not it was scishow or not but the reasoning is what ZipperBeansPyro said; it's mostly if not all from the clothes you wear.
World community grid. Use your computer resources to help cure cancer and other diseases. Also helps with projects like clean water to find better ways of purifying water
Thank you for making this video. It's really frustrating to me sometimes how out of reach science seems to people if they're not professional scientists.
I love Citizen Science! I volunteer for the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (reef.org). Like the project Hank talks about where people survey birds, we survey fish while we're diving or snorkling. It makes my diving much more interesting because I now know what I'm looking at and I'm now seeing lots of little and hidden things I'd never noticed before. And I'm giving back! It's great! If you're a diver or snorkler, and want to give it a try, check out our free webinars where we teach people which fish is which! Get started at www.reef.org/resources/fishinars or check us out of Facebook at facebook.com/REEF.org/.
I've been running World Community Grid for years, and even when I let it run at full capacity (ie. not just when the screensaver comes on/overnight) it virtually never causes a noticeable slowdown. Costs a bit of money in increased power usage since the CPU is running at full power all the time, but money well spent IMO (especially considering it works out to something like $3.50 a month).
Shoutouts to amateur chemists, who face so many challenges in their art -- as you might imagine, there are so many chemicals involved in illegal activities (schedule I drugs or precursors, explosives), it is very difficult for them to do anything without stepping on a legal landmine!
2 questions! Why and how does our body tingle (f.e. a dead leg), and how quickly should the feeling begin? Can a substance you consume in any way become a part of your genes? For instance, a long-time use of a drug. I am very curious about these things, and I hope you 'll find them worth answering. :D
Citizens are using basic electronics to build radiation detectors to measure radiation from Fukushima and uploading their results. I hope similar projects are set up for people to monitor other pollutants globally. Maybe uploading home made weather stations. Products like Arduino allow citizens to both enjoy simple microprocessor electronics and help out.
I love this! I've always wanted to know what I can do as an amatur scientist. I want to make discoveries, but I'm only 15 so I thought I would need to wait and educate and go through the whoel school system before I could do anything.
+Drama_Llama_5000 So much in science has become known already. My university degree in Science was done in the first two years by heavy slogging through the science text books. Forty years later, that text book study is a good foundation for my whole life.
It can be as simple as recording precipitation for climate scientists/hydrologists (www.cocorahs.org/) There is a framework for donating your computer power, BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing), used by several projects, one of them SETI@home. I used to participate in S@h, but then I realized how much more power I was sucking/had to pay for :-( . I'm sure computing has gotten a lot more efficient in energy usage since then, so hmmm....I may start again sometime.
They should present historical findings in science as though it were happening today, and presented by Hank.... they'd revolutionize education. Kids could just watch videos of Hank slowly but surely bring them up to speed with reality while simultaneously acclimatizing them to watching the news! -- and creating an epidemic addiction in children to watching online videos... not like that isn't already happening xD
Regarding the bird survey, how do they get accurate counts since they could easily be recounting some of the same birds. A half a mile wouldn't be unrealistic for a bird to fly.
I have 4 computers that run BOINC projects from Rosetta@home, Einstein@home, and World Community Grid. Its useful for the scientists and i get some badass screensavers. win win.
+PappaLitto main desktop: sli gtx 970 with an i7 3770k, 2nd desk is an amd phenom quad 950 with an amd 7770, laptop one is a i7 3610qm with a gtx 660m, and last laptop is a phenom quad N930 with a amd 6700m.
