By Amy Tooke
Anyone! That’s the idea behind “citizen science” projects, where research scientists ask members of the public to help them with gathering and analysing data. Anyone who is interested in science can get involved in the latest research projects. Typically projects either involve the public collecting the data themselves and then submitting it back to the researchers, or going online to help analyse data that the researchers have already collected.
One example of the public analysing previously collected data is the Worm Watch Lab project. Run by the Medical Research Council, the project is investigating how the genetics of the nematode worm (C. elegans) affect its nervous system and behaviour. Researchers have made thousands of movies of worms with different genetic mutations, in order to study the function of those particular genes. The movies are online for members of the public to watch and report each time the worms lay eggs; so far a grand total of 74,032 videos have been analysed by 11,992 volunteers. Results have helped uncover new roles for the genes in the nervous system that were mutated. Believe it or not, many of the nematode genes are similar to human genes, which means that this information can help understand how the human brain works. https://www.wormwatchlab.org/
You might think that this idea of “crowd-sourced” science is relatively new in the age of social media, but some projects have been running for decades. The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has been running its Big Garden Birdwatch since 1979. They ask people to count the birds in their gardens for one hour over a particular weekend in January – it’s too late to take part this year but they’ll be announcing the results soon. Last year people counted more than eight million birds over the weekend! The Big Garden Birdwatch is a wonderful example of how citizen science projects can grow and develop – it was originally started as an activity for junior members of the RSPB to do at the weekend, whilst at the same time collecting information to find out what the 10 most common species of birds were. Now, it has been running for over 35 years enabling analysis of year to year trends in bird populations. This can help to identify potential problems – then measures can be put in place to help reverse them. https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch
What else can I get involved with?
There are all sorts of projects running at the moment. You don’t need a PhD and a lab coat to contribute to exciting science!
The Citizen Science Alliance has details of a huge range of projects over at https://www.zooniverse.org/
OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) run a number of environmental surveys, from counting bugs to pond dipping https://www.opalexplorenature.org/
The Big Butterfly Count runs from 14th July – 6th August and is the world’s biggest butterfly survey http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/