Citizen Science in Europe: opportunities in Life Sciences, Vita Scientia 2016
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Transcript of Citizen Science in Europe: opportunities in Life Sciences, Vita Scientia 2016
UNREALIZED POTENTIAL OF CITIZEN SCIENCE IN EUROPE: OPPORTUNITIES IN
LIFE SCIENCE RESEARCH
EGLĖ MARIJA RAMANAUSKAITĖ, MScVilnius University, Citizen Cyberlab, Human Computation Institute
VITA SCIENTIA 2016, VILNIUS
CITIZEN SCIENCE – real scientific research done by or together with non-scientists
• Popular in the English-speaking world, esp. US
• Europe catching up …
• Mostly biodiversity, but others popping up
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS:
× ARE NOT cheap labor!
Enjoy learning about science
Appreciate a fun way to spend time
See the Big Picture & want to contribute to science!
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS can
Charlop-Powers, Z. et al. (2015). Global biogeographic sampling of bacterial secondary metabolism. eLife, 4, e05048.
Q2. Can you… trick time to squeeze in ALL THAT DATA??
Q3. Or have a free-to-use supercomputer right in your lab???
IS CITIZEN SCIENCE RELIABLE?
YES: • 1 trained researcher = 23 citizen scientists• Thousands of volunteers do this• Usually one task / puzzle / experiment is given to
several citizen scientists
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS: Have skills unmatched by any computer Have “microexpertise” that makes a powerful team Are quick to learn
Think outside the box!! Not noise… whole new type of galaxy!
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS CAN: Achieve breakthroughs Publish papers
Help solve the world’s most pressing problems, like climate change, Alzheimer’s, cancer…
Follett R, Strezov V (2015) An Analysis of Citizen Science Based Research: Usage and Publication Patterns. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0143687.