Most of us are aware of the bacteria on the surfaces we come in contact with. The doorknob for the bathroom, coins and paper currency in our pockets, handrails in subway cars, computer keyboards and mice at the library… the list of built environments on which microbes thrive is nearly endless. In our preoccupation with concern for what might be transferred from these surfaces to our hands, we often completely forget that the microbes living on our hands are also being transferred to everything we touch. And as dirty as some surfaces are, they pale in comparison to you and I. Numerically speaking, human beings are 90% bacteria! Even washing our hands and gargling with mouthwash does not erase their presence from our bodies, which is fortunate, because these bacteria are essential for our health and well-being by helping us digest food and keeping away more dangerous microbes.

Each person’s collection of microorganisms is different. And in fact, the collection of bacteria on your right hand is different from the collection on your left hand, and the bacteria on your cheek are different from the ones on your chin. The compositions of these bacterial communities change very little day-to-day.

Now think about the light-switch in your bedroom. The one that only you touch, using the same hand, every day. Does it match the bacterial fingerprint for your hand? And if it does, did you put your bacterial community on the light switch… or, did the light switch’s bacterial community jump to your hand? And what about the other surfaces in your home that you interact with every day such as floors, doorknobs, and countertops?

I want to find the answers to these questions. To do so, my colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory and I are looking for volunteers who are about to move to a different house to join the Home Microbiome Study. They will be asked to collect samples every other day for six weeks to monitor how microbiomes of themselves and their house change in response to one another. This data will provide valuable information on how stable our microbiomes are, and whether our microbiomes colonize our house… or our house’s microbiome colonizes us!

Automated External Defibrillator (AED)

This project aims to crowdsource the first-of-its-kind map of Automated External Defibrillators in Philadelphia by photographing AEDs.

When someone collapses and stops breathing, an automated external defibrillator or AED can save their life. [Home AEDs are available for purchase.] In Philadelphia, PA, a city with about 1.5 million people, AEDs are all around us. Near our homes, workplaces, and even grocery stores! Currently, there is no comprehensive map, and, as a result, AEDs are often not used when they are most needed. With the crowdsourced information collected from this contest, the organizers will build a map of AED locations in Philadelphia that can inform 911 services and the public.

The MyHeartMap contest will officially go live January 31, 2012 at 9am! Until then, you can download the app from the iPhone store and Android marketplace and start submitting entries. Clues will be posted at the project website myheartmap.org and philly.org. The contest closes on March 13, 2012, at 6pm ET!

There are three ways to play:

1. Find and photograph the most AEDs in Philadelphia County before March 13, 2012 and win the $10,000 grand prize. The team or individual that finds the most “confirmed,” “eligible” AEDs by the contest end date will receive the grand prize of $10,000.

2. Be the first to submit a photograph of a “Golden”AED and win $50. The organizers have identified between 20 and 200 AEDs in Philadelphia County as “Golden” AEDs. These are unmarked, and you won’t know it’s a winner when you photograph it. Clues will be posted at the MyHeartMap project website.

3. Want to help but not compete for a prize? Submit addresses of locations without AEDs or that you wish had an AED – this is just for fun, and it will help with the map.

I had the opportunity to chat with the brains behind this project, Raina Merchant, Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine:

Raina Merchant

SciStarter: Why did you start this project, Raina?

Raina: I wanted everyone who had a cardiac arrest to survive and have a second chance at life. For this to happen, lots of different components of the chain of survival have to be in place. AEDs are an important link in the chain, and this seemed like a good place to start and then build on. I was disturbed to learn that although AEDs were in public places all over the world, no one knew where they were, and, in the event of an emergency, I couldn’t use my phone or emergency services to locate them. I wanted to approach the AED problem using a novel approach that engaged the public through technology, phones, and social media.

I learned about the DARPA Network Challenge (DNC) to locate red balloons from a colleague and thought that it seemed like a great approach to apply to a public health problem. The DNC showed that with the proper incentives, today’s “networked society” is able to virtually mobilize to help solve a challenge and importantly to innovate. When this challenge relates to the American public health system and the well-being of our citizens, there is the opportunity for the response to be equally strong if not better. Ultimately, studying how social networking can augment traditional research methods offers significant promise in approaching public health challenges that are essentially stuck and need a paradigm shift to advance

SciStarter: What do you hope to accomplish?

Raina: Our goals are to:
- Build the first U.S. city crowdsourced map of AEDs that can be made available to the 911 center and the public via a mobile phone.
- Gain a better understanding of the distribution of AEDs in Philadelphia so that we can determine optimal AED placement.
- Develop crowdsourcing and social media metrics related to data collection, validation, and surveillance.
- Use the information learned from this project to expand the MyHeartMap challenge to other US cities and then the rest of the U.S.

SciStarter: What persuaded you to make it participatory (involve the public)?

Raina: The traditional approach for locating AEDs would involve hiring a large team of research assistants to search for AEDs. This approach would be costly and time-consuming and wouldn’t help with improving the public’s awareness of AEDs in their environment. There are lots of examples of how citizen science projects can engage the public to help with data collection – the result is often a more empowered public and new ways of approaching health challenges.

SciStarter: Any concerns about the quality of data?

Raina: We recognize that collecting data about AEDs is difficult and that some data entries with low quality data will be intentional and others unintentional.

SciStarter: And surprising developments?

Raina: Several teams have contacted us and indicated that they are going to participate long-distance and collect data without being in Philadelphia. They are going to rely completely on data entered through social networks. We’re excited to see if this strategy works as this could provide important insights about how organizations can evaluate data they haven’t visualized.

SciStarter: Take a wild guess at how many defibs will be accounted for in total and how many will be spotted by the winner?

Raina: We think there are about 5000 AEDs in Philadelphia. We hope that winner uses a creative strategy to find most of them. I’ll guess 4997!

SciStarter: What’s next?

Raina: We hope to develop subsequent challenges in Philadelphia and then expand to collect AED data across the country. We’re also looking to use other social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gigwalk, Tumblr, Google Insights etc…..to engage the public to help us study and solve important public health challenges.

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Photo courtesy of Adrian Binns

The Trumpeter Swan is the largest bird in North America, but in the early 20th Century, they were extremely hard to see.

Over-hunted for their feathers and skins, these beautiful birds once teetered on extinction. In the early 1900s, fewer than 100 remained in the wild. Despite decades of subsequent protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the population grew only to 700 individuals by the 1960s.

The Trumpeter Swan Society formed in 1968 to better coordinate Trumpeter conservation through advocacy, research coordination, and habitat restoration. Since then, the number of Trumpeters in North America has increased to an impressive more than 34,000 individuals. The swans are now independently finding wintering grounds across the Lower 48, and the Society needs citizen scientists to report these pioneering birds.

To be a part of the effort to protect this successfully restored species, visit the Trumpeter Swan Watch and report your sightings. Visit the Trumpeter Swan Society for a printable identification guide.

Citizen data provides the Trumpeter Swan Society with valuable tools for their work, including protecting swans from lead poisoning. In Washington State, the group advocated for and achieved a reduction in use of lead shotgun ammunition. Both waterfowl and terrestrial animals can accidentally ingest shot left in the environment, and slowly die from lead poisoning. The Trumpeter Swan Society continues to advocate for the use of non-toxic ammunition, and provides material support to biologists rescuing poisoned swans.

While these beautiful animals are most abundant in Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, Washington, and Alberta Province, Trumpeters have been seen in almost every state.

Trumpeter swan sightings: all years, all reports (via eBird)

The next time you spot a large swan, take a closer look. If it towers over all the other ducks, geese and swans around it, it could be a Trumpeter. Standing at up to 5 feet tall, this all-white bird with a big black bill and big black feet are hard to miss.

From searching for invertebrates to measuring wind speed, everyone can gain new knowledge and skills and play their part in protecting the natural environment. This is the philosophy of Open Air Laboratories (OPAL), a project based in England that encourages the public to explore their surroundings, record their findings, and submit their results to the OPAL national database making their contribution available to scientists and others involved in environmental science and policy.

OPAL has created six surveys that the public can use to collect data and all are important areas of research:

OPAL Soil and Earthworm Survey
OPAL Air Survey
OPAL Water Survey
OPAL Biodiversity Survey
OPAL Climate Survey
OPAL Bugs Count

Each one of these surveys has been designed so that anyone can use them – no specialist knowledge is needed to take part and equipment is either provided or is easy to make or find. The instructions are simple to follow and each survey contains a ‘workbook’ for recording results. Once people have completed their survey, they upload their results onto the OPAL website or send them by post.

The surveys have allowed data to be gathered from all over England, something which scientists would not usually have the time or capacity to do. Data can also be collected from areas which are not normally accessible to scientists such as private gardens – a habitat which is vital for biodiversity in urban areas.

The latest survey, launched in June 2011, is called OPAL Bugs Count. This survey invites people to look for the invertebrates or ‘bugs’ around the buildings where they live, work and go to school and record what they find and where. The survey also asks people to look for six keys species on which important information is needed to understand their distribution and how this is changing.

So far the amount of data collected has been phenomenal! Over 17,500 OPAL surveys have been completed to date. Through the OPAL Soil and Earthworm Survey, over 8000 earthworms have been identified and patterns of distribution are being investigated . The OPAL Biodiversity Survey has meant comparisons between invertebrate numbers in urban and rural hedges can be made. Results from the OPAL Water Survey are revealing the general good health of ponds and those that are suffering from pollution, including some from heavy metal contamination. These are just a few examples of the wealth of information about England’s environment that has been found through OPAL

Collecting data is a vital part of the OPAL programme however it is also very important that people have the knowledge and skills required to record wildlife. OPAL has developed an online education programme that helps to increase understanding of their environment and illustrate how humans affect it and how it affects us. OPAL scientists work directly with communities to carry out field surveys, run workshops and encourage people to take their interest further by joining local societies and groups. OPAL has a schools programme that not only gives children the opportunity to partake in surveys but also educates teachers on wildlife identification and survey techniques.

We aim to remove some of the barriers that prevent people from getting involved in environmental issues by giving people the confidence to start recording and measuring, understanding and enjoying the natural world around them, something which is so vital if we are to protect England’s environment.

About the Author: Laura Hill is the OPAL Coordinator, based at Imperial College London. Laura works within the OPAL Management team who oversee the work of OPAL’s 14 partner institutions.

Discover Magazine author, Katie Palmer, recently sat down with Darlene to get the inside scoop on SciStarter and a host of other topics.

What led to the creation of SciStarter? What are Darlene’s favorite citizen science projects? What got her interested in communicating science 
to the public?
 Can hands-on 
activities really help us make sense of the 
complexities of 
climate change?

Read the story to find out!

Here are two excerpts and a PDF version of the article. Sorry, the full article is not yet available online.

By taking a look at the world around you, the sky above you, the civilizations that have gone before you, or the molecules inside you, you can become a “citizen scientist.” In “Masters of the universe” (Business Spotlight 1/2012), Carol Scheunemann looks at how people are contributing to scientific understanding — through their hobbies.

And, here’s a shameless, self-promoting excerpt:

Besides folding proteins, hunting galaxies, or watch- ing snails, thousands of other activities for citizen scientists attract huge numbers of volunteers worldwide, says “science cheerleader” and blogger Darlene Cavalier from Philadelphia, co-founder of the Web portal SciStarter. The portal offers a central listing where citizens and projects can find each other. People can search in various categories, such as time, costs, or skills needed, and by specialty, or geographic area. Cavalier says that, while some people want to contribute to research, others “are drawn to citizen science because it connects them to — and helps protect — nature.”
When she’s not busy working on her Web sites, speaking at conferences, or writing for Discover, a U.S. popular-science magazine, you might find Cavalier and her four children adding to scientific understanding by digging in a bag of dirt from the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY, looking for bits of mastodon fossils.

Thanks for joining our journey. Wait until you hear what we’ve got cooking for 2012!

Happy New Year from the SciStarter team!

11. ClimatePrediction.net
Climateprediction.net is a distributed computing project that aims to produce predictions of the Earth’s climate up to the year 2300 and to test the accuracy of climate models. To do this, the project needs people around the world to volunteer time on their computers – time when their computers are on but not being used at full capacity.

10. Gravestone Project

Help researchers map the location of graveyards around the globe and then use marble gravestones in those graveyards to measure the weathering rate of marble at that location. The weathering rates of gravestones are an indication of changes in the acidity of rainfall between locations and over time. The acidity is affected by air pollution and other factors, and could be used as a measure of changes in climate and pollution levels.

9. Project Squirrel

Project Squirrel is calling all citizen scientists to count the number of squirrels in their neighborhoods and report their findings. The goal is to understand urban squirrel biology, including everything from squirrels to migratory birds, nocturnal mammals, and secretive reptiles and amphibians. To gain data on squirrel populations across the United States, citizen scientists will also be asked, when possible, to distinguish between two different types of tree squirrels – gray and fox. Anyone can participate in Project Squirrel!

8. Foldit: Solve Protein Puzzles for Science

Foldit is a revolutionary new computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research. Researchers are collecting data to find out if humans’ pattern-recognition and puzzle-solving abilities make them more efficient than existing computer programs at pattern-folding tasks. If this turns out to be true, researchers can then teach human strategies to computers and fold proteins faster than ever!

7. Great World Wide Star Count
This Great World Wide Star Count is an international event that encourages learning in astronomy by inviting everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and report what they see online. Participating in the event is fun and easy! You can join thousands of other students, families and citizen scientists from around the world counting stars.

6. Nature’s Notebook
Nature’s Notebook is a national plant and animal phenology observation program. You can join thousands of other individuals who are providing valuable observations that scientists, educators, policy makers, and resource managers are using to understand how plants and animals are responding to climate change and other environmental changes. Your observations will make a difference!

5. Dragonfly Swarm Project
The Dragonfly Swarm Project uses the power of the Internet to allow everyone to participate in a large-scale study of dragonfly swarming behavior. Participants observe dragonfly swarms wherever they occur, make observations of the composition and behavior of the swarm, then submit a report online.

4. Phylo

Phylo is a game in which participants align sequences of DNA by shifting and moving puzzle pieces. Your score depends on how you arrange these pieces. You will be competing against a computer and other players in the community.Though it may appear to be just a game, Phylo is actually a framework for harnessing the computing power of mankind to solve a common problem — Multiple Sequence Alignments.

3. Laser Harp: Build It Yourself

We first found out about Stephone’s harp in an issue of Make magazine that was devoted to build-them-yourself, high-tech musical instruments. Sounds awesome, huh? After building your laser harp, you’ll coax out the computer-generated sounds by waving your hands to break the light beams and change their lengths. Stephen Hobley’s Laser Harp project was last year’s #1 citizen science project in our Project Finder.

2. EteRNA Game: Solve Puzzles for Science
EteRNA, a collaborative online game, allows ordinary citizens to help biologists take a crack at solving a challenging RNA mystery, namely: what are the rules governing its folding? Players who assemble the best RNA designs online will see their creations synthesized in a Stanford biochemistry lab!

1. Mastodon Matrix Project

The Mastodon Matrix Project needs citizen volunteers to analyze actual samples of fossil matrix (the term for the material in which a fossil is found) from a mastodon fossil excavated in New York.Volunteers sort through the matrix to find ancient shells, bones, pieces of plants, and rocks from the time when the mastodon lived and died. The discoveries will be sent back to the Paleontological Research Institution, where they will be cataloged and further analyzed by paleontologists to help scientists form a true picture of the ecology and environment in which the mastodon lived.

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Happy New Year from the SciStarter team!

PS Stay tuned — we’ll post the top 11 citizen science projects of 2011 tomorrow morning.

11. Citizen Paleontologists Are Making History
Several research projects are combining the skills and interests of citizen paleontologists with those of scientists in order to help us understand more about earth’s history and evolution. Here are a few examples of projects that are getting citizens and researchers working together and leading to scientific discoveries.

10. Book Review: The Intersection by Tom Cole
The Intersection is the story of a man’s passion told through his data. Cole starts with a short essay on his data journey, presents summary statistics (life list for that location, most numerous birds), then launches into a bird-by-bird summary, much like a field guide. Blogger Kate Atkins provides her full review.

9. What’s in your water heater? NASA wants to know!

Researchers at Penn State University need your help to study the distribution of microorganisms in household hot water heaters. John had a chance to chat with Dr. Chris House, Associate Professor of Geosciences & Director of the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, to get the inside scoop on microbes, why they’re important, and how the study will help NASA understand extreme environments around the Solar System.

8. Measure and record earliest signs of hurricane Irene
Before Hurricane Irene, we provided a few examples of how you could help scientists record and share on-the-ground observations to help pinpoint hurricane Irene’s actions, determine her next steps, and better predict and react to future storms. We also provided a list of opportunities to get involved in local watershed monitoring efforts.

7. 10 back-to-school projects for young citizen scientists

As summer comes to a close, a young person’s fancy may turn to fretting at the thought of being cooped up in a classroom. But for fans of science and nature—and by that we mean kids who like to watch clouds, hunt mushrooms, prowl around graveyards, and check out what gets squashed on the side of the road—fall need not signal the end of fun. To keep young minds entertained as well as enlightened, we recommended the following 10 back-to-school projects for student citizen scientists. Teachers and parents, please note: Many of these programs provide materials around which you can build lessons. And there are lots more where these came from.

6. Conversations about conservation: public participation in scientific research
On April 7th and 8th, 2011, 60 practitioners from a diversity of academic, government and non-profit sector backgrounds came together to answer the following question: How can public participation in scientific research (PPSR) help to bridge the divide between science research and conservation practice?” Anne Toomey provides a first-person recap on everything that took place.

5. Snowed In? Contribute to Science!

This winter, help researchers track climate change by grabbing a ruler and measuring the depth of snow wherever you happen to be. That’s all there is to it! Your data will advance climate science, and you’ll get to see your depth report appear on our world map of snow tweets.To help you get started, we put together this “How To” video complete with some empirical evidence from your fellow citizen scientists

4. EteRNA: Biology plus videogames equals cutting-edge science
EteRNA, a collaborative online game, allows ordinary citizens to help biologists take a crack at solving a challenging RNA mystery, namely: what are the rules governing its folding? Players who assemble the best RNA designs online will see their creations synthesized in a Stanford biochemistry lab!

3. 12 Days of Christmasy Citizen Science Projects
Make sure you’re on Santa’s “nice list” this year. Consider helping researchers help the planet this holiday season. Here are a dozen opportunities to get involved in real research during the 12 days of Christmas!

2. The importance of thinking scientifically
What does it mean to discover new ways of thinking? Anne Toomey takes a look at her own adventures in citizen science and explains why she thinks engagement — learning through doing, questioning and direct experience — is the most important factor.

1. Studying Dragonfly Swarms with Citizen Science
The Dragonfly Swarm Project uses the power of the internet to allow everyone to participate in a large-scale study of dragonfly swarming behavior. Participants observe dragonfly swarms wherever they occur, make observations of the composition and behavior of the swarm, then submit a report online.

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In this video from the U.S Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Comet Lovejoy takes a death-defying journey through several-million degree solar corona as it passes the Sun on December 15th, 2011 (EST). The comet defied the expectations of many experts by not only surviving its solar plunge but re-emerging as strong and bright as before.

“It’s absolutely astounding,” says Karl Battams, computational scientist at NRL. “I did not think the comet’s icy core was big enough to survive plunging through the several million degree solar corona for close to an hour, but Comet Lovejoy is still with us.”

Comet Lovejoy zooms toward the sun. This is the SECCHI COR-1 (inner coronagraph) image on the STEREO-B satellite. (Image: STEREO/SECCHI image courtesy NASA/NRL)

The imagery used for this video was gathered from NRL’s Sun-Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI)/EUVI-A instruments, which are a part of the NASA Solar Terrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) mission. STEREO consists of two space-based observatories – one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind. With this new pair of viewpoints, scientists are able to see the structure and evolution of solar storms as they blast from the Sun and move out through space.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, Comet Lovejoy was discovered on Dec. 2,  2011, by a citizen scientist — Terry Lovejoy of Australia. As it turns out, it’s not all that uncommon for comets to be discovered by citizen scientists from the public. For years, NRL’s Sungrazing Comets Project has asked people to help discover new comets.

If you’re interested in joining comet hunters around the world, check out the SOHO Comet Hunting Project.

On the first day of Christmas, Missouri gave to me…an opportunity to help stem the threat of invasive pear trees in Missouri’s urban forest and in other parts of the U.S.

On the 2nd day of Christmas, the UK’s British Trust for Ornithology gave to me….the Nest Record Scheme, a citizen science project to monitor the the turtle dove, the UK’s most most threatened farmland bird, and many others.

On the 3rd day of Christmas, Iowa gave to me…the Greater Prairie Chicken Project ensure these future hens remain in Iowa.

On the 4th day of Christmas, the National Audubon Society gave to me…the world’s longest running citizen science project, the Christmas Bird Count.

On the 5th day of Christmas, Nevada gave to me…the chance to collect monthly water quality data at the Yuba River, which is affected by gold mining.

On the 6th of Christmas, Seattle Audubon Society gave to me… the chance to help seabird researchers create a snapshot of geese density on more than three square miles of nearshore saltwater habitat.

On the 7th day of Christmas, the Swan Society of the University of Melbourne gave to me…the My Swan project to report sightings of tagged black swans around the world.

On the 8th day of Christmas, Zooniverse gave to me…the Milky Way Project, a chance to help scientists study our galaxy, as well as the Milky Way advent calendar and even Milky Way tree ornaments!

On the 9th day of Christmas, the Science Cheerleaders gave to me…1300 young ladies cheering for citizen science as they set a new Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Cheer!

On the 10th day of Christmas, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums gave to me…FrogWatch, an opportunity to help protect frogs-a-leaping.

On the 11th day of Christmas, Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology gave to me, Science Pipes, a free service that lets you connect to real biodiversity data, use simple tools to create visualizations and feeds, and embed results on your own web site or blog.

On the 12th day of Christmas, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation gave to me…the Ruffed Grouse Drumming Survey to help hunters survey the population of ruffed grouse during breeding season.

If you’re fortunate to experience a white Christmas, consider sending your snow depth measurements to cryosphere researchers at the University of Waterloo’s Snow Tweets project. They want to use your real-time measurements to help calibrate the accuracy of satellite instruments currently measuring snow precipitation.

Happy holidays from the SciStarter team!

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