Small Talk 23 - Citizen Science
Let's talk about something positive. If you were a scientist facing a massive problem, and lacked the resources and computing power to tackle it, what would you do? Well, you'd probably turn to... citizen science! That might sound like a character from The Electric Company, but actually it's a growing practice that harnesses 'human computation' on a large scale to solve massive problems. Most of us have already contributed to citizen science in some way. But being a passive—or unwitting—participant doesn't compare to the thrill of getting involved because you want to.
Citizen science is a practice where amateurs contribute to a scientific project, typically by collecting data and performing routine analysis. It's kind of like 'crowdsourcing,' but more systematic and intentional. One form of citizen science you've probably assisted is reCAPTCHA, the web prompt that determines whether you're a robot. In its early versions, reCAPTCHA was designed to assist with digitization of books, especially texts where the original was too blurry for computer character recognition. When you interpreted the fuzzy letters and typed what you saw, you contributed one small translation to a massive database of digitized texts. (Google later bought the service and no longer employs it for translation.)
The reCAPTCHA example is handy because it illustrates how most of us have already contributed to an otherwise intractable project. But I don't love it because most people didn't know they were offering a service (and that's one of the reasons it became controversial). The exciting and inspiring examples of citizen science are those where amateurs sign up for a project and contribute intentionally. And these days, there are a lot of these projects. In 2017, President Barack Obama signed into law the Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Act, whose website currently lists 504 active projects. And that's just those with a federal sponsor, not including all the projects happening worldwide.
Galaxy Zoo is a particularly famous project, where amateur astronomers assist in the classification of galaxies. When it launched in 2007, there were 900,000 galaxies observed by robotic telescopes. The effort for researchers to classify all those galaxies would have taken years. So they provided analysis tools to volunteers--within 24 hours of launch, the project was receiving about 70,000 classifications per hour. Just because... people wanted to. Participants shared their awe at seeing galaxies never observed by human eyes before. Their reward was a feeling of contribution and discovery, two of humanity's most honorable motivators.
What else? The project Foldit, from the University of Washington (go Dawgs) uses a video game in which players fold structures of proteins. The results of their analysis are employed for medical and biological research. The iNaturalist project provides an app for amateurs to record observations in nature, share with other naturalists, and discuss findings. Their results have helped promote biodiversity initiatives and influenced city planning. In Denmark, 30,000 school children cooperated with their Natural History Museum to identify native species of tardigrades (those incredible miniscule 'water bears' that are virtually indestructible). By the end of the project, the little Danes had discovered at least nine new species of tardigrade and shed new light on their ecosystems. Tak børn!
A wonderful aspect of citizen science is how it encourages us to engage with our natural world. To bear witness and intensely observe what's happening around us—from the microscopic world of tardigrades to galaxies in deep space. Awareness in this astonishing universe at this remarkable moment is our most precious gift, but it's easy to get distracted by... well, all the distractions. Acts of research help us return to a state of awe and appreciation. Which brings me to my favorite example.
In 2002, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology launched the eBird website, where bird enthusiasts could report birds they had observed, and see checklists from other birders. Within a few years, they had compiled about 350,000 observation reports in North America. But with the release of a mobile eBird app, expansion worldwide, and the launch of bird identification tools, the service took off—20 years after launch, the lab had compiled 80 million checklists. Today, more than a million people have shared observations through eBird and 23 million people have identified birds with the Merlin Bird ID app.
But stats don't really tell the story. It's better to consider that today, at the beginning of spring migration, as thousands of people take their morning walks, they're using their Merlin app to identify bird songs. Some of them record what they saw with eBird. All these observations are offered into the data store of the Cornell Lab, where they create models that show what species of birds are where and how many. That is, now we know where all the birds are!
That's an exaggeration, but not completely. You can see animated maps that show birds by species moving through their migration. You can find specific counts of birds that flew over last night. You can get alerts that tell you when a rare bird appears in a park near you. And, as you can imagine, all this data has helped bird conservation tremendously. eBird data has helped pass conservation legislation, set aside refuges, assist threatened species, and convince cities to turn their lights down to avoid bird collisions. And what's good for birds is almost always good for the rest of us. That is some sweet citizen science.
I'll include some links for you below. Maybe try this one thing: Install the Merlin Bird ID app, and the next time you hear a bird singing outside, just press the little green microphone and see what happens. It's magic my friends, which is probably why they call it Merlin. That little rush of magic might inspire you to contribute a little more. And when each of us contributes, together, toward a common goal, even against formidable odds, we demonstrate why we're worthy of sharing this world with all that we observe.
Have a good one,
Kipling Knox
Federal Citizen Science website
Get the Merlin Bird ID app (or just search your app store)
Audubon’s Bird Migration Explorer
photo credit: Toucan by the author in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica
