[Music]
a cold night in November of 1782 John
Godric are his friend Edward we’re
looking at the mesmerizing night sky
full of stars like so many nights before
John was 18 years old and was deaf he
explored the silent immensity of the
universe with much concentration
suddenly he noticed that the star beta
per se commonly known as Algol had a
dramatic change in its brightness John
almost hypnotized persisted looking at
the star for an entire hour this was not
the first time that someone had noticed
that Algol was a variable star but Don
was the first person to calculate the
period of variation in brightness and
explain why this variation was happening
he reasoned that an astronomical object
was orbiting around the star and
eclipsing it like John many amateur
astronomers have made important
contributions to the scientific field of
astronomy if Yan and L were will add
alive today probably they will have
participated in the project galaxy sue
galaxy sue invites people from the
general public to classify photographs
of galaxies in a web portal some of
these galaxies have never been seen by
human eyes before because these
photographs were taken by robotic
telescopes more than 150 thousand people
participated in the first year of the
project galaxies soon who could resist
the call for looking into the distant
reaches of the universe other scientific
fields have a hit
of contribution from contributions from
amateurs like botany and zoology
for example passionate bird watches from
the 18th and 19th centuries do beautiful
detail illustrations of new species of
birds found in the American continent
today passionate bird watchers take
photographs to monitor the population of
new species of birds that are under
threat due to climate change and human
activities the success of Galaxy Zoo
which has produced 55 publications and
scientific publications so far led to
the expansion of the organizational web
portal to include other scientific
topics like biology and climate its new
name is sue universe today the internet
new technologies and widespread access
to education are fostering a more
systematic and extensive participation
of citizens in science and we have a new
name for this passion for science
citizen science citizen science is a
recent approach characterized by the
active involvement of non-professional
scientists in the scientific process
depending on the project no professional
scientists can participate in different
stages of the scientific process for
example contributing data annotating
classifying and analyzing data
formulating research questions in
collaboration with scientists and also
helping in the design of tools and
methods to conduct a research study in
fact any of us could do a research study
if we have enough motivation to
contribute something to the world and
seek help from experts
the United Nations Environment Program
the European Environment Agency and the
White House of the United States already
recognized the value of citizen science
for solving research questions the vast
amounts of data that can be collected
and analyzed with public participation
increase the statistical power of
results also citizen science makes
possible the analysis of vitamins of
data that could not be done otherwise
the number of scientific publications
where citizen science was present has
been increasing steadily during the past
ten years according to an analysis of
the University of Gothenburg in Sweden
which was published in 2006 in 2016
sorry
so citizen science has a tremendous
value for communities and invite on the
environment
thanks to open participation and public
knowledge but I’m gonna illustrate this
with a story I live in London Tracey and
her neighbours were worried about
pollution from traffic they talked about
the dark dust covering their furniture
when they left the window open they were
concerned about so many cars passing in
front of their children schools and they
wondered how could we know if our
concerns are really justified and how
could we convince the local authorities
that they should take our concerns
seriously Tracey who was a young and
energetic leader fine found out that
there was only one monitoring station
near her neighbourhood from the London
air quality network this was completely
insufficient to know if the air they
were breathing was toxic later she found
out about the Barbican citizen science
project in the Barbican neighbourhood of
London
neighbourhoods neighbors had team up
with researchers of University College
London and the social enterprise mapping
for chains to monitor air pollution
during an entire year with the data they
collected they were able to bring the
issue of pollution from a tunnel with
high volume of traffic to the attention
of the City of London inspired by this
example Tracy decided to contact mapping
for change and she learned that they
were helping other people in other
neighborhoods of London to monitor air
pollution she attended a training
session organised by mapping for change
and collected money among her neighbours
to buy the materials needed I make I met
Tracy in a call and rainy morning of
March in London that day she and her
friends were going out for the first
time to monitor air pollution with all
the materials and I was going to
accompany them in their adventure Tracy
was carrying a bag full of diffusion
tubes like the one you can see the
picture on the right and one of his of
her friends worker were scurrying a
ladder that they used to get up and
attached the diffusion tubes to the
lampposts in the street and you can see
the set up in the picture on on the left
while doing this they were taking notes
in a notebook about details the location
time reference number of the diffusion
tube and also they input these details
in the online application of mapping for
chains Tracy and her neighbours had
chosen 10 locations to monitor air
pollution based on their knowledge of
the area and they usually make of public
space for example they know the path
their children follow from the school to
the parks and while we were doing this
activity walking from one location to
the next they were commenting to me
like they were concerned that the local
authorities may approve the construction
of a lorry passes across the
neighborhood they did their small parts
were threatened by new building plans
and at that moment I noticed for the
first time these small protest banners
that were hanging from some of the
lampposts and red parks not profits you
can see one of those in the picture on
the left four weeks later Tracy and her
team went out again collected the
diffusion tubes and send them to the lab
for analysis and the lab send the
results to Tracy sim put them in the web
platform of mapping for change and now
everybody can see in this public map the
air pollution data that was obtained by
Tracy her team and many other
communities in London some of these
communities are now bringing the issues
of air pollution to the attention of the
local authorities thanks to the power
and understanding that this research
studies they are carrying has given them
and they are serving this power powerful
information with the London neighbors
and in fact with the world this is just
the beginning of a story a success story
that shows the value of citizen science
and open participation for communities
and the environment but the best thing
about public knowledge is that it is
contagious and exactly two weeks ago on
a sunny Sunday of November in Barcelona
I went out I met some enthusiasts and a
university professor here in Barcelona
and for the first time in Barcelona we
were attaching diffusion tubes in the
lampposts of my neighborhood probably no
in Barcelona soon you will see yourself
in mapping for change the secret to this
success is easy to use technology that
is economically accessible and motivated
citizen scientists sarin and seen their
results of the research in a public map
together
with the data collected by other people
like them makes them feel part of a
wider and devorah
and let me tell you one more example to
illustrate how important it is to design
technologies that are easy to use and
that encourage public sharing some
illnesses are spread by mosquitoes like
malaria dengue and Zika the tiger
mosquito who is which is an invasive
species that can cause an epidemic was
detected in Spain for the first time
near Barcelona in 2004 experts warn that
we should monitor and control the
expansion of tiger mosquito because it
was posing a threat to public health but
how can we monitor mosquitoes we would
need an army of scientists to do that
indeed the project mosquito alert has a
an army of 40 more than 40,000 citizen
scientists with an easy-to-use mobile
application anybody can quickly learn to
identify tiger mosquitoes
if you spot one open the application
take a photograph with your phone
enabled location access answer a quick
question of some quick questions and
send it an expert with validated and
soon anybody can see your contribution
in a public map where you can see all
the detected tiger mosquitoes in Spain
in fact you could even become an expert
for validation
thanks to citizen scientists of the
project mosquito alert the first time
that I’m a tiger mosquito was detected
they for the first time they detected a
tiger mosquito in andalusia and in
Aragon and the detailed public map is
used to complement other scientific
projects and also is helping public
health professionals there are many
citizen science projects out there of
all topics for all tasters where we can
participate we could even start our own
project we can learn how to do science
we can learn about something we are
passionate about from galaxies to birds
we can help advance human knowledge we
can help change our environment for
better but most of all we can enjoy our
passion for science with our loved ones
like John and Edward did more than 200
years ago because science is a social
and level
[Applause]
you
[Music]
a cold night in November of 1782 John
Godric are his friend Edward we’re
looking at the mesmerizing night sky
full of stars like so many nights before
John was 18 years old and was deaf he
explored the silent immensity of the
universe with much concentration
suddenly he noticed that the star beta
per se commonly known as Algol had a
dramatic change in its brightness John
almost hypnotized persisted looking at
the star for an entire hour this was not
the first time that someone had noticed
that Algol was a variable star but Don
was the first person to calculate the
period of variation in brightness and
explain why this variation was happening
he reasoned that an astronomical object
was orbiting around the star and
eclipsing it like John many amateur
astronomers have made important
contributions to the scientific field of
astronomy if Yan and L were will add
alive today probably they will have
participated in the project galaxy sue
galaxy sue invites people from the
general public to classify photographs
of galaxies in a web portal some of
these galaxies have never been seen by
human eyes before because these
photographs were taken by robotic
telescopes more than 150 thousand people
participated in the first year of the
project galaxies soon who could resist
the call for looking into the distant
reaches of the universe other scientific
fields have a hit
of contribution from contributions from
amateurs like botany and zoology
for example passionate bird watches from
the 18th and 19th centuries do beautiful
detail illustrations of new species of
birds found in the American continent
today passionate bird watchers take
photographs to monitor the population of
new species of birds that are under
threat due to climate change and human
activities the success of Galaxy Zoo
which has produced 55 publications and
scientific publications so far led to
the expansion of the organizational web
portal to include other scientific
topics like biology and climate its new
name is sue universe today the internet
new technologies and widespread access
to education are fostering a more
systematic and extensive participation
of citizens in science and we have a new
name for this passion for science
citizen science citizen science is a
recent approach characterized by the
active involvement of non-professional
scientists in the scientific process
depending on the project no professional
scientists can participate in different
stages of the scientific process for
example contributing data annotating
classifying and analyzing data
formulating research questions in
collaboration with scientists and also
helping in the design of tools and
methods to conduct a research study in
fact any of us could do a research study
if we have enough motivation to
contribute something to the world and
seek help from experts
the United Nations Environment Program
the European Environment Agency and the
White House of the United States already
recognized the value of citizen science
for solving research questions the vast
amounts of data that can be collected
and analyzed with public participation
increase the statistical power of
results also citizen science makes
possible the analysis of vitamins of
data that could not be done otherwise
the number of scientific publications
where citizen science was present has
been increasing steadily during the past
ten years according to an analysis of
the University of Gothenburg in Sweden
which was published in 2006 in 2016
sorry
so citizen science has a tremendous
value for communities and invite on the
environment
thanks to open participation and public
knowledge but I’m gonna illustrate this
with a story I live in London Tracey and
her neighbours were worried about
pollution from traffic they talked about
the dark dust covering their furniture
when they left the window open they were
concerned about so many cars passing in
front of their children schools and they
wondered how could we know if our
concerns are really justified and how
could we convince the local authorities
that they should take our concerns
seriously Tracey who was a young and
energetic leader fine found out that
there was only one monitoring station
near her neighbourhood from the London
air quality network this was completely
insufficient to know if the air they
were breathing was toxic later she found
out about the Barbican citizen science
project in the Barbican neighbourhood of
London
neighbourhoods neighbors had team up
with researchers of University College
London and the social enterprise mapping
for chains to monitor air pollution
during an entire year with the data they
collected they were able to bring the
issue of pollution from a tunnel with
high volume of traffic to the attention
of the City of London inspired by this
example Tracy decided to contact mapping
for change and she learned that they
were helping other people in other
neighborhoods of London to monitor air
pollution she attended a training
session organised by mapping for change
and collected money among her neighbours
to buy the materials needed I make I met
Tracy in a call and rainy morning of
March in London that day she and her
friends were going out for the first
time to monitor air pollution with all
the materials and I was going to
accompany them in their adventure Tracy
was carrying a bag full of diffusion
tubes like the one you can see the
picture on the right and one of his of
her friends worker were scurrying a
ladder that they used to get up and
attached the diffusion tubes to the
lampposts in the street and you can see
the set up in the picture on on the left
while doing this they were taking notes
in a notebook about details the location
time reference number of the diffusion
tube and also they input these details
in the online application of mapping for
chains Tracy and her neighbours had
chosen 10 locations to monitor air
pollution based on their knowledge of
the area and they usually make of public
space for example they know the path
their children follow from the school to
the parks and while we were doing this
activity walking from one location to
the next they were commenting to me
like they were concerned that the local
authorities may approve the construction
of a lorry passes across the
neighborhood they did their small parts
were threatened by new building plans
and at that moment I noticed for the
first time these small protest banners
that were hanging from some of the
lampposts and red parks not profits you
can see one of those in the picture on
the left four weeks later Tracy and her
team went out again collected the
diffusion tubes and send them to the lab
for analysis and the lab send the
results to Tracy sim put them in the web
platform of mapping for change and now
everybody can see in this public map the
air pollution data that was obtained by
Tracy her team and many other
communities in London some of these
communities are now bringing the issues
of air pollution to the attention of the
local authorities thanks to the power
and understanding that this research
studies they are carrying has given them
and they are serving this power powerful
information with the London neighbors
and in fact with the world this is just
the beginning of a story a success story
that shows the value of citizen science
and open participation for communities
and the environment but the best thing
about public knowledge is that it is
contagious and exactly two weeks ago on
a sunny Sunday of November in Barcelona
I went out I met some enthusiasts and a
university professor here in Barcelona
and for the first time in Barcelona we
were attaching diffusion tubes in the
lampposts of my neighborhood probably no
in Barcelona soon you will see yourself
in mapping for change the secret to this
success is easy to use technology that
is economically accessible and motivated
citizen scientists sarin and seen their
results of the research in a public map
together
with the data collected by other people
like them makes them feel part of a
wider and devorah
and let me tell you one more example to
illustrate how important it is to design
technologies that are easy to use and
that encourage public sharing some
illnesses are spread by mosquitoes like
malaria dengue and Zika the tiger
mosquito who is which is an invasive
species that can cause an epidemic was
detected in Spain for the first time
near Barcelona in 2004 experts warn that
we should monitor and control the
expansion of tiger mosquito because it
was posing a threat to public health but
how can we monitor mosquitoes we would
need an army of scientists to do that
indeed the project mosquito alert has a
an army of 40 more than 40,000 citizen
scientists with an easy-to-use mobile
application anybody can quickly learn to
identify tiger mosquitoes
if you spot one open the application
take a photograph with your phone
enabled location access answer a quick
question of some quick questions and
send it an expert with validated and
soon anybody can see your contribution
in a public map where you can see all
the detected tiger mosquitoes in Spain
in fact you could even become an expert
for validation
thanks to citizen scientists of the
project mosquito alert the first time
that I’m a tiger mosquito was detected
they for the first time they detected a
tiger mosquito in andalusia and in
Aragon and the detailed public map is
used to complement other scientific
projects and also is helping public
health professionals there are many
citizen science projects out there of
all topics for all tasters where we can
participate we could even start our own
project we can learn how to do science
we can learn about something we are
passionate about from galaxies to birds
we can help advance human knowledge we
can help change our environment for
better but most of all we can enjoy our
passion for science with our loved ones
like John and Edward did more than 200
years ago because science is a social
and level
[Applause]
you
[Music]
Please follow and like us: