Science is a universal human skill

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, science, citizen science

On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse crossed the middle of the United States. For those who couldn't travel to the path of totality, a partial eclipse could be seen throughout the country. I was to work at the Delaware Museum of Natural History that day, and the amount of the Sun to be hidden was about 80%, so it was a significant event. At the Museum, we announced and advertised a public Eclipse Day, with a number of telescopes and other devices prepared for the public to join in.

Here we see U.S. Senator Chris Coons looking through binoculars fitted with special filters so he could see the Sun directly and safely. He was one of hundreds of people who came to join the event.

We showed people how to make a "pinhole" with their hand, or by making a small hole in a piece of paper or cardboard, so they could see the shape of the sun projected onto the ground as the Moon crossed in front of it.

People most enjoyed the four telescopes that we set up for projecting the solar image onto screens, as seen in this photo. My own "stovepipe" telescope is in the foreground. Only a little of the Sun was covered at this point. Just behind it a volunteer is adjusting another telescope to move the image back to the center of the screen. The other two telescopes are hidden by the crowd. The picture below was taken near maximum eclipse.

This event shows that people in general are fascinated by nature and natural events. Yet about 9 people in 10 would say, "I am bad at science." That is because they don't know what science is. They don't realize that our life is built around science. The way we learn to interact with people, beginning in infancy, is by observing how others react to us, and by trying different things to see what the reaction will be, and learning to do what gets the reactions we want. Growing up, we learn how to walk around without getting hurt (too much), how to throw a ball, and a great many other skills, by this ordinary process: observe, experiment, categorize, and predict.

What people actually mean is, they are bad at some of the things "professional scientists" do, such as making formal (and often costly) experiments, or publishing articles. If we broaden "publishing" to include gossip and giving advice, though, and also consider how diligent we are to learn things that really interest us, we are all scientists. It's time we acknowledge the fact.

You may have heard the term "citizen science." Perhaps you have stumbled across one of its manifestations, such as Galaxy Zoo, SETI@home, or the Great Sunflower Project (I'll explain what they are in a moment). Equally likely, you may know nothing of these things yet. In either case, a new book should prove quite a treat!

The Field Guide to Citizen Science: How You Can Contribute to Scientific Research and Make a Difference, by Darlene Cavalier, Catherine Hoffman, and Caren Cooper, introduces just the tip of the iceberg of the immense field citizen science has become. For several years I have participated in a number of projects through the Zooniverse interface, which currently includes 78 active projects, all performed online. I got started at Zooniverse through the Galaxy Zoo, for which I viewed galaxy images from the Hubble Space Telescope and reported their shape and other characteristics. Over time I participated in 36 projects, from counting penguins to transcribing labels. The Field Guide introduces the much broader scope of projects of all kinds, about 1,600 of them, available through SciStarter, which was founded by Ms Cavalier.

The bulk of the book describes more than 40 projects. Some are carried out online (including some of the Zooniverse projects); some are done in the home or yard (such as Great Sunflower, for which you plant sunflower seeds and, once they grow up and flower, count the types of bees that visit them); for some you venture out in nature; some are done by day, some by night; and for some you need to get equipment such as a trail camera or a kit the project supplies. The authors also have suggestions for introducing citizen science into schools, libraries and other public venues, such as the eclipse event I described above.

I have to put in a plug for museums: are you a collector? Maybe you collect things that would interest a museum. I work with the seashell (mollusk) collection at the Delaware museum, and I have noticed that more than half the museum's holdings of 2 million shells in more than a quarter-million "lots" (groups of shells of one species collected at one place and time) were donated by private collectors, either during their lifetime as active collaborators, or they were willed to the museum. Whatever museums exist near you, do find out what kinds of items they are interested in receiving for their collections. If you collect seashells, for example, even if you just pick up "a few pretties" every time you go to the shore, it is worthwhile to have a conversation with a curator of mollusks, to find out what kind of data to collect along with the shells, so if/when you later donate them, they will be useful to the museum and researchers that use the collections for scientific purposes. Museums don't hold collections "just so they'll have them", but so historical and ecological study can be done. Not only do I occasionally take in shells I have collected, a month ago I found a recently dead opossum. After making sure it was actually dead, not just fooling, I put it in a bag and drove it right to the museum, where the curator put it in a freezer (all new animal specimens are put through a freeze-thaw-refreeze routine to kill parasites and their eggs).

The great variety of projects offered through SciStarter will have something, probably several somethings, for anyone with any sort of interest. I created a SciStarter account to see how it compares with Zooniverse. Prior to today, I have participated in 36 Zooniverse projects (and made nearly 20,000 classifications), I also have the iNaturalist app on my phone (but it's early days, I have only "collected" 55 observations), and I recently got the Cicada Safari app to use whenever Brood X erupts in my neighborhood (none so far).

When I set up a SciStarter account, I found that in my profile I could link its dashboard to the accounts I have with Zooniverse and iNaturalist. In the Field Guide I found a few projects I may try out, including Fe-BARQ ("Fe" for "feline": describe your pet cat's personality) and Foldit (a kind of game to investigate how a protein molucule folds). In the past I've run the SETI@home "screen saver", which actually works one's computer flat-out, analyzing signals from space in hopes of finding intelligent life elsewhere; I may do so again.

In the Project Finder I entered a few key terms: my state; "animals"; and checked off project types "at home", "on a hike", and "exclusively online". The project types are inclusive, not combined. SciStarter suggested 54 projects. That was just a test. I can go back later and select one or more to try.

Science depends on data. When citizens collect or help sort and categorize data, it helps professional scientists. It can also introduce us to new friends we meet through the projects, friends with common interests. It is worthwhile to get this book and keep it on hand.