All things #citizenscience & #biohacking

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[technariumas]

Menininkų rezidencijų programa Technariume: kritiška inžinerija

[EN below]

Skelbiame kvietimą dalyvauti menininkų rezidencijose Technariume, kuriant aktualų, apie technologijų poveikį visuomenei ir aplinkai kalbančius meno projektus.

Atrinkti dalyviai turės galimybę 8 savaites kurti Technariume, bendradarbiauti su techniniais kūrėjais bei naudotis Technariumo įranga: elektronikos ir biochemijos laboratorijų įranga, 3D spausdinimo, lazerinio pjovimo, metalo ir medžio apdirbimo įranga, keramikos, šilkografijos, siuvimo dirbtuvėmis, radijo ryšio stotimi ir kt.

Dalyvių vertinimo kriterijai:

– aktualumas: atitikimas dalyvių konkurse skelbiamoms temoms, socialinis ir meninis aktualumas

– inovatyvumas: meninių ir technologinių sprendimų unikalumas ir sudėtingumas

– praktinis įgyvendinamumas rezidencijos metu, paraiškos techninis pagrįstumas

– tarpdiscipliniškumas, bendradarbiavimo su Technariumo dirbtuvių nariais ir visuomene, jų įtraukimo ir lygiaverčio dialogo perspektyva.

Trumpą numatomo projekto aprašymą iki rugsėjo 15 d. kviečiame siųsti adresu opit(a)technarium.lt.

Daugiau apie kvietimą:

“Kritiška inžinerija” šią rezidencijų programą vadiname neatsitiktinai: 2011 m. J. Oliver, G. Savičić ir D. Vasiliev sukurtas Kritiškos Inžinerijos manifestas (https://criticalengineering.org/) teigia: “Kuo labiau esame priklausomi nuo technologijų, tuo labiau būtina tyrinėti ir parodyti jų veikimo principus”.  Analogiškai, visuomenei ignoruojant technologinės kilmės procesus, protokolus, logiką ir pasekmes, mes nebegalime prasmingai šių procesų kontroliuoti ir aprašyti. Kai technologijos ir infrastruktūros tampa nebepermatomos, technologinis progresas tampa kažkuo, kas mus ištinka. Pastaraisiais metais vis labiau ryškėja būtinybė suvokti ir kritiškai reaguoti į šiuo metu vykstančius greitėjančio technologinio progreso procesus ir jų pasekmes: nematomus globalius informacijos tinklus ir infrastruktūras, automatizaciją ir vis trapėjančius darbo santykius, interneto centralizaciją, masinį sekimą ir savicenzūrą, individualizuotos algoritminės dėmesio kontrolės, mašinų mokymosi bei dirbtinio intelekto keliamus etinius klausimus. Taip pat, ribų tarp fizinės ir virtualiosios tikrovės blukimą, atviro kodo, decentralizacijos bei dalinimosi kultūrą, skaitmenizuotą gamybą, antropoceno amžių, technologijų kontekste besikeičiančias lyčių sampratas, lengvai prieinamas ir mėgėjų naudojamas biotechnologijas, netolygų skaitmeninį raštingumą ir kt.. 

Kritinė inžinerija skatina ne tik tiesioginį, neutralų technologinį raštingumą, bet kviečia pažiūrėti į technologijas ir jų naudojimą kritiškai, nenustojant klausti, kas yra juodų dėžių viduje? Kam tai naudinga? Kas lieka nutylėta ir nematoma? Kokią rolę technologijos siūlo jų vartotojui? Kaip galime jas aktyviai dekonstruoti, stebėti, perdaryti, panaudoti savo tikslams, formuoti bendrą ateitį?

Programą remia Vilniaus miesto savivaldybė.

[EN]

(programming a forklift for R. Narkus exhibition, 2017)

We invite to take part in artist residency programme titled “Critical engineering” at Technarium hackerspace – an open, community-run, non-commercial workshop with a wide range of equipment and facilities.

The residents will be invited to use the workspaces and equipment at Technarium, forge mutually beneficial links with hackers, scientists, craftspersons and engineers and get technical support and advice during their 8-week residencies.

The residents will be selected via an open call, and evaluated based on these criteria:

– relevance and topicality: artistic, social and technological relevance to the topics described in the open call

– innovativeness: the artist plans to employ unique and challenging artistic and technological approaches

– practical feasibility: technical soundness of the proposed project, reasonable timescale and scope

– interdisciplinarity and dialogue: perspective of collaboration, co-creation and inclusive dialogue with both the wider society and technologists

Please send a short description of a planned project to opit(a)technarium.lt until 15/09.

More about the call:

The residence program is titled “Critical Engineering”, after the manifesto by J. Oliver, G. Savičić and D. Vasiliev (2011, https://criticalengineering.org/). It claims: “The greater the dependence on a technology, the greater the need to study and expose its inner workings, regardless of ownership or legal provision”. 

If societies ignore technological change, its protocols, logic and human consequences, we are no longer able to control and describe it: rather, the technological change is something that is inflicted on us There is a pressing need to see, understand, internalise and react to technologies and their consequences: the invisible global information infrastructures, automatisation and precarity of work, reality of the Anthropocene, centralisation of the Internet, mass surveillance and self-censorship, urgent ethical questions posed by targeted algorithmic attention control and propaganda, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Important facets of technological progress also include the blurring edges between physical and virtual realities, the culture of open source, de-centralisation and sharing, digital manufacturing, gender and technology, easy access to biotechnology, uneven digital literacy and many others. 

Art is a critical tool for looking at technologies and their use in a critical way, asking: what remains hidden and invisible? Who benefits from new technologies? Who is the product? How can we actively observe, deconstruct, reverse-engineer, hack new technologies? How can we perceive and shape the world of the immediate future, how to even imagine it beyond old dystopias?

We prefer the broader meaning of the term “hacker” – we define hackerdom as being someone who wants to understand the basics of a system, who finds unintended uses for and improvements to things and processes, who actively cares about shaping and improving one’s environment and sharing their knowledge. We are a diverse community that has a long history of collaboration with artists and cultural institutions.

[seplute]

Your knowledge makes a difference: What questions about accidental injuries does research need to address? Tell us! thndr.me/jKZEfz http://thndr.me/jKZEfz

[seplute]

The open-access crystallography database & the amazing Lithuanian researcher behind it - Saulius Gražulis !!! New episode of “Science Soup” - with English subtitles🤘 Had the honor to participate in this interview myself, and preparing an extended article about Saulius’ work for “Iliustruotas mokslas” (the Lithuanian edition of Science Illustrated).

[seplute]

[this is not a joke!] my 5K Shuttleworth grant and what i’m gonna do with it!

Not sure why the inspiration to finally write this came on April Fool’s Day, but this is totally not a joke... 😜

Although to be honest, i kinda thought so when i first received the following email... 😬

$5,000 - no strings attached ?! Sounds a bit of a scam, ha? 😆 If not the Shuttleworth Foundation’s name, and some digging around which led me to my main suspect for putting me up for this, Bastian, i might have dismissed it 😅

More citizen science! More social good! 😜

So anyway, back to the point! Last November i was nominated for a Shuttleworth Foundation’s Flash Grant by Madeleine Ball, and received $5,000 to use as i see fit, no strings attached (other than writing a blog post about spending the money, and included Shuttleworth’s logo to my blog 👌).

Dear Egle, This grant is to thank you for the great work you've been doing, with the belief that you'll find great uses for this funding to further your work. I am an advocate of democratizing science, bringing it outside the ivory tower – to see people empower themselves, directly. I admire your citizen science work, from Stall Catchers to Crowd2Map, as well as running workshops that share these skills and joys with others! As Jason notes, there are very few "strings attached" – share the news and tell others about the Shuttleworth Foundation (w/ the included logo), and write up a report later about what you did with the funding. :) Congrats on your excellent work, Madeleine

Due to some disturbances called Life, i am only getting around to start using the money now...

i have thought long and hard about it, and decided to invest it in the development of our open DIY biolab @technariumas​ hackerspace!!

Planning to go extreme with open sourcing everything - including where and how we spend the money, what we make or fix, or improve, and what projects we’re cooking up with the tools and materials we acquire. All to appear on GitHub - will share the links when i have them! Anyhow...  greatest thanks to Madeleine who nominated me (and Bastian who advised her to do that 😜), and to the Shuttleworth Foundation who, unlike most, are set on feeding the roots! 😉

Wish us luck ! 🤞

Find out more about Shuttleworth Fnd. here or by watching this video. The list of Flash-grantees is here.

[seplute]

Just attended: workshop on studying citizen science motivation

Just concluded in Vilnius (Lithuania), an AMAZING workshop dedicated to understanding and running studies focusing on citizen science motivation (organized as part of the COST action on citizen science). I can honestly say I learned A LOT - both about theory in motivation, and practical approach to measuring citizen science motivations. It will be very useful in measuring motivation in Stall Catchers and elsewhere!

Open sourcing my notes here!

Take away: the researchers at Israel Institute of Technology are developing a general citizen science motivation questionnaire, informed by existing studies (~30 already published relevant to citizen science). The questionnaire would make it a lot easier for project owners to run thorough surveys, covering all the bases of potential motivations of participants. AND it could be applied to different projects just the same, and motivations studied across projects and cultures, which is currently not being done by anyone!!

Theory of motivation

Maslow

Maslow was spot on about the these types of motivations (but not the hierarchy - people want to satisfy all their needs simultaneously; even if you’re hungry, you may still want to self-actualize).

Need to feed your citsci participants: won’t go out when it’s cold

Want to feel safe

Want to love and belong to something

Want to have self esteem and be appreciated by others

Want to self-actualize

All these needs lead to goal-oriented behavior. If you’re hungry, you’ll go eat. The upper you go in the pyramid, the more options you have to satisfy the psychological needs.

If we can identify these needs of our participants, we can find how to fulfill them in the project. If we try to tap more different needs, more people will be satisfied and want to join the project.

Vroom

Expectancy is important in citsci - that your actions will lead to expected outcomes: will succeed in using the tool, will succeed in contributing data. If task is too difficult or too boring people will have low level of expectancy and won’t participate. Will my effort lead to high performance?

Instrumentality - they need to know that their performance is leading to something, they are hungry for feedback.

Valence - is the outcome desirable? Not every person will participate in every citsci project - it needs to matter to them. I put in an effort and it let to outcome, but do I care? You cannot neglect that - if people don’t feel the outcome is desirable, they won’t put in the effort. In volunteering the reward is doing something that is important, desirable to them. If you want to hold motivation for a long time, tangible rewards might not be good. You need all three for motivation to be high.

Feedback is really important, need to keep the feedback flowing to keep valence. Even if it’s not immediate results, then at least report process, show pictures from the lab, that we’re analyzing the data, even if it’s taking a lot. Making more manageable rewards - like datasets/research Q, it helps (rather than a cure). For most citscientists a desirable outcome is that researchers are doing something with the data. Also in EOA the valence is very high - curing Alzheimer’s, but that can also become a risk if it’s not fulfilled.

Example with donations - often people never donate to the same organization again, because they don’t receive feedback about where their money went. Citscientists want to know what’s going on too.

Locke & Latcham

Having a goal is a very motivating thing. What is the goal of the participants? What is it they want us to do? E.g. adopt a piece of river. Goals must be specific. If a person has a specific goal, that’s enough to have motivation. Because we have an inner goal to achieve goals - this is who we are.

Goals get us going - but not just spinning wheels, it drives us in a certain direction. Specific and measurable goals are very motivating, we find it satisfying to meet them. Goals cannot be too far ahead - week, month is ok, but not 2 years etc.

Generic goals don’t mean anything: “Curing Alzheimer’s” - everybody cares, everyone thinks it’s very important, but nobody does anything. But specific, measurable goals will work, and people will put in effort. But you also need both types of goals - the big goals (curing Alz) gets people to look at your website. Before the process you need to have something big that they believe it. But it will not be enough to make them act - you need to have both.

Goals should be a to-do goal, not a not-to-do. That’s why diets never work - cause it’s a “don’t do this” goal. (Proven fact - this theory only works for to-do goals. There’s nothing that is efficient for not-to-do’s :D you have to flip it to a to-do thing to work. Cause eventually you let go and go back to square one with not-to-dos.)

Schwartz’ Value Theory (1992)

Said to be "the best" categorization framework for motivations.

People will find at least a few among this list that they care a lot about, and some that are not relevant to them. It’s important to realize that what’s important to you, might not be important to others, and in a citsci project there’s likely to be a mix of values.If we understand someone’s motivation, we know a lot about them, because motivations tend to occur in adjacent groups. So by knowing what they want, we can also predict what they don’t want. All values are always positive. In principle, you can value contradictory things, but in practice - in behavior - if you pursue one, you neglect the contradictory values. In citsci that’s very important, because they act. So if they value something that interferes with the wanted behavior, they won’t do it.

A major flaw in many citsci motivational studies is that they don’t address all dimensions of this map. If you don’t ask about it, people can’t tell you about it, and you leave holes in your motivation study. Cannot allow to have holes, have to fill the map.

There’s country specific values, and there’s data on many countries and a map of cultural values by Schwartz (and others too). Culture is something we can’t overcome - it’s a very strong factor. We can understand it and work with it, but not change it.

Values are very stable things, take centuries to change on a cultural level. But on individual level they take time, but change more easily. E.g. after major life changing events, such as moving to a different country.Some values are a bit tricky when it comes to citsci, e.g. power. “I want to win” - power dominance, and “I want to control resources” is a very different type of power.

Values, drives, needs, goals = motivation

The need to belong is critical for citscientists.

Creating a questionnaire on motivation:If an item cannot be categorized, i.e. there’s zero agreement (2-5 people), it should not be included. If an item is very unique, for a specific project, then not good for a general questionnaire. Don’t use words like “enjoy” - use different words that are less suggestive. Every word matters.

Very important to parse items when asking Qs. Can’t be “improve social standing and recognition” because it’s two separate - they need to be two separate questions, otherwise won’t know how to answer.

Some items, like “social status” are tricky - need to consider how they translate to other languages. Big problem with translations sometimes. If an item does not translate very well, better not use it - it’s ok if there’s other items capturing the category, such as Power - resource. There’s guidance of how to translate questionnaires the proper way. When you’re making a questionnaire, you shouldn’t keep using the same word “contributing contributing… strive strive… try try try …” - because the word has its own meaning, and people will enter a routine in answering and that’s highly not recommended. So it’s very important that items look different, a mix of words. Questionnaire with 10-15 items is about OK with same words, but not more. Give feedback at the end: “Thank you for participating, we learned a lot, it will help us communicate with you better, improve your experience…”It’s critical to randomize the questions (the items of motivations) for the respondents. 2 items from each category is the recommended amount to cover all bases.

Even if some items seem irrelevant, it’s recommended to leave them for variety. Because if people keep marking 5 - 5 - 5 (applies perfectly) then they think something’s wrong and start to report 3, 2 just because - not because they think so. If some categories (underlying motivations) aren’t represented, it changes people’s answers to the other category items. That makes it not comparable between projects, cultures etc.!!! Using a sliding scale (or an actual slider) rather than Likert scale is much more accurate, you just say 1 is Not at all, 5 is Very much, but leave 2-4 out, it’s easier for them to accurately answer.

Translations of questionnaires to other languages:

Translate to language

Give to 3 professionals with good level of English, to translate back to English - VERY IMPORTANT to make sure you capture the right meanings

You put their translations below each item, if there’s no match - need to discuss or not use it

Asking age, gender might be offensive in some cultures/cases. Asking about education level could be offensive in a citsci project. (But of course if you need to ask to answer Qs - ask, but if you don’t, don’t make them uncomfortable because they might opt out or responses will be affected. Important to keep your respondents/participants comfortable.)

Learning motivations may help you keep them alive, so they might continue (retention).

There’s lots of projects that study motivations in citsci projects - specific projects, bottom up. But the goal of this questionnaire is also to compare motivations *across* projects and cultures, because currently no-one is doing that.

[seplute]

Citizen scientists invited to speed up medical discovery

This blog post was authored by me, and first posted on CitSciBio.org.

If you were given a chance to improve health evidence, fight Alzheimer’s and uncover hidden clues in rare disease research - all from the comfort of your home - would you dare to say no?

Well, you are invited to do just that next week, in an online challenge organized by three citizen science platforms: Stall Catchers, Mark2Cure and Cochrane Crowd. CitSciMed Blitz - the first of its kind - will take place from 3pm GMT on Monday, February 26, and last until 3pm, March 3. Everyone can participate - no experience necessary, just a desire to help.

CitSciMed Blitz will be a joint competition consisting of three separate challenges:

The Stall Catchers challenge begins at 3pm GMT, February 26, and will last for 24 hours. Stall Catchers is an online citizen science game speeding up Alzheimer's research. Participants analyze movies from the brains of mice and look for stalled vessels. Check out this 30 second video to learn more, or head straight to the game to get acquainted. You will receive some training to help you get started. Try to analyze as many movies as you can on Monday!

The Mark2Cure challenge begins at 3pm GMT, February 28, and will last for 24 hours. Mark2Cure is a citizen science platform dealing with a rare disease known as NGLY1-deficiency. Volunteers extract information from biomedical abstracts in order to help researchers find clues in the literature. You can join the project right now, and be sure to show up when the challenge begins!

The Cochrane Crowd challenge begins at 3pm GMT, March 2, and will last for 24 hours. Cochrane Crowd is a citizen science project with the main focus on identifying studies that provide the best possible evidence of the effectiveness of a health treatment. The more studies identified by the Crowd, the more high-quality evidence is available to help health practitioners treat their clients. Watch this 2-minute video to learn more, and sign up to get started!

You can choose to participate in one or all three challenges of the Blitz. All you need to do is sign up on each separate platform, show up on each designated day and try to contribute as much as you can before the time runs out!

Three winners - one from each platform - will receive special citizen science trophies, custom built @technariumas! ONE contributor who scores highest across all three platforms will receive a triple Stall Catchers + Mark2Cure + Cochrane Crowd trophy! Each platform will also reward their top contributors separately.

Most importantly - this is YOUR chance to speed up medical discovery! If you can read this, you can help!

Learn more about the challenge in this recorded webinar. You can also follow the latest news about the event on Facebook.

[technariumas]

Science hackers meetup #1

Last night we met for the first meetup of Science Hacking at Technarium.

We have been inspired by the success of Science Hack Day Vilnius 2018 and decided to run these meetups every last Thursday of each month, and hopefully more long term projects develop over the year!

We looked over the hacks of SHDV18, and shared and discussed some new project ideas that we could pursue.

opit had an idea to do one of the two projects: monitoring of microplastics in Lithuanian drinking water, which would make people more aware of plastic pollution, and take action; and swine farm pollution monitoring, which is a big issue in Lithuania - but it’s very difficult to prove sources of pollution.

Next time we decided to work on a DIY isothermal amplification device that could detect DNA & RNA in field samples. It could be used to detect RNA of porcine viruses in water bodies, which is a very specific indicator of pollution with pig waste! The method could be accessible enough for citizen scientists, especially living around sources of pollution, to test water bodies near pig farms and find solid proof of inappropriate disposal of waste. That could then be used to keep the offending farms in check.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) shield for Arduino DNA detection - figure from Velders, Schoen & Saggiomo (2018). BMC research notes, 11(1), 93.

Join us for the next Science Hackers meetup, March 29th! You can RSVP on Meetup or Facebook.

[technariumas]

Another Science Hack Day Vilnius concludes with a bang! (no - literally)

Science Hack Day Vilnius has just taken place at Technarium, for the second year in a row. This time it was bigger, better and… more explosive!

Head over to the Science Hack Day Vilnius blog to read about the 20(!) teams that took part!

[seplute]

SCOBY hacking at SHDV18!

Our team “The Smell of Science” hacked SCOBY during Science Hack Day Vilnius 2018!! (And claimed the “Best Science Hack” award!!)

We started with an idea to make biodegradable Xmas wrap, which quickly evolved to biodegradable t-bags, t-bag based SCOBY culture starters, vegan dumplings & sausages and more 😅

See the protocols we used, especially for tea bags (which worked best of all!) below.

And here’s the video we made about the entire process for the final presentation of our hack (thanks to Vi.Zo! 😊):

Here’s a quick summary of the SCOBY material preparation “protocols” for wrapping paper, tea bags & vegan sausages !

Correction. It’s actually 1 cup of sugar for that amount of water ^. We grew our SCOBY in a large plastic box for ~2 weeks. It was about ~1cm thick.

That worked really well for making wrapping paper ^. You need to oil the drying SCOBY sheet (we used ~1:1 warm coconut oil & olive oil mixture).

Don’t use untreated metal grids for drying the SCOBY! It has lots of acid & oxidates metal, which is why it changes color and becomes this ew-looking thing!

Beetroot is a good natural way to dry the SCOBY !

Tea bags were produced as follows:

1) dry freshly recovered SCOBY sheet on cool air for ~1 hr so it loses >50% of water, but is still wet. The texture of it should be similar to removed human or animal skin 😬

2) cut pieces of SCOBY of preferred size, and sew them into a teabag shape, leaving one edge open. (Ever sown human or animal skin? This will feel the same!)

3) fill the bag with preferred tea and sew the bag together completely. Leave extra thread.

4) dry the tea bag by hanging it in front of a source of hot air (blow dryer, air heater etc.)

5) keep an eye on your tea bag so it doesn’t over-dry. Up to 1 hr should be enough to turn it into a tea bag-looking thing without it getting overly dry & brittle.

6) poke holes into the teabag with a needle.

7) fill a cup with nearly boiling water (~90 C) & dip your teabag in it! Make sure not to leave it too long, because the bag will absorb too much water and start melting. But it should not do so before your tea is ready!

8) the teabag might have a slight SCOBY smell (kinda fruity & a bit acidic), but the tea shouldn’t !

If it fails - try again !! 😜 (and don’t forget to report that failure somewhere, as well as the successes!)

😊 P.S. yes, SCOBY smells. Yes, that’s the smell of science.

😅

[technariumas]

Last week at the biolab: kombucha leather

Last week we had a guest from kombucha.lt at the biolab who brought samples of kombucha leather he had made!

We talked about the different ways of making it & it’s features (e.g. the one he brought had broken in the cold, even though until then it was keeping perfect leather features for 2 years! perhaps special kind of impregnation would help with that - requires hacking!), kombucha, growing SCOBY, looked at it under the microscope, and started our own SCOBY culture for our own kombucha leather!

Fresh SCOBY - symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, aka “tea mushroom”, which is what the leather is made from after it grows to 1-2 cm thickness and is dried, and impregnated with oils etc:

Leather under a microscope:

We will likely continue to hacking it during upcoming biohacking Thursdays & Science Hack Day Vilnius 2018, so come along!

[technariumas]

Citizen science trophy made by MN & seplute

seplute needed a trophy for her citizen science game, Stall Catchers, to award  to a school in Idaho (US), and together with her team decided to custom-build it at Technarium (instead of buying one of those tacky “science” trophies available online). For this MN adapted the design of last year’s Science Hack Day Vilnius prizes & milled it with his hand-made CNC mill:

The trophy has since traveled to Ithaca (NY), and from there to Boise (ID) in USA, where it was presented to Lake Hazel Middle School students as the first-ever citizen science award given to a school.

Since then, the story was covered by ABC TV network, Discover Magazine & PLoS Blogs, The Daily Telescope and elsewhere.

The designs are all open source, and are available here.

[technariumas]

Science Hack Day Vilnius registration is open!

Everyone is welcome: scientists, artists, engineers, students or just anyone curious about science & hacking. The two-day event is entirely free to attend – bring your curiosity with you!

[technariumas]

Leftovers from 🐞one biohacking Thursday in November... Vabalai!

[EN] We had a biohacking Thursday back in November dedicated for a bug’s life with an amazing amateur entomologist - Giedrius Markevičius. Below is a summary of the cool things he told us (in Lithuanian, sorry!).

[LT] Lapkričio pabaigoje biohakinimo ketvirtadienyje lankėsi entomologas-mėgėjas Giedrius Markevičius, ir mums pripasakojo daug įdomių ir daug kam niekad negirdėtų dalykų apie vabalus.

Dalinamės užrašais:

Apie Giedrių: nebaigęs bakalauro programuotojas, vaikystėje užsidegė vabalais ir ne krepšinį žaidė, o vabalus gaudė. Baigęs mokyklą įstojo į Lietuvos entomologų draugiją, ir iki šiol jo gyvenimo aistra yra vabzdžiai.

Keep reading

[seplute]

Apie piliečių mokslą “Ar žinai, kad?” žurnale :) // Citizen Science in 🇱🇹 popular science magazine

🇬🇧 Earlier this month I gave an interview to a popular science magazine in Lithuania. It’s so exciting that more & more journalists and the general public are getting excited about the topic! The interview was printed alongside citizen science examples, such as eBird and extreme citizen science, and the 10 principles of citizen science from ECSA.

🇱🇹 Šį mėnesį turėjau garbės duoti interviu “Ar žinai, kad?” žurnalistui Tautvydui Lukaševičiui apie piliečių mokslą :) smagu, kad lietuvos žurnalistai ir šiaip publika pradeda šia tema vis daugiau domėtis!

Interviu išspausdintas naujausiame, Nr. 22 žurnalo numeryje (prienamas daugumoje spaudos platinimo vietų), kartu su piliečių mokslo pavyzdžiais ir 10 piliečio mokslo principų, kuriuos parengė Europos piliečių mokslo asociacija (o verčiau, eghem, irgi aš.) O štai ir pilnas interviu, pasiskaitymui:

1. Kaip vertintum piliečių mokslo padėtį Lietuvoje, Europoje? Kokios tendencijos, kodėl dar nėra tokios kritinės masės kaip JAV?

Europoje piliečių mokslas jau sparčiai plinta, yra įkurta Europos piliečių mokslo asociacija (ECSA). Nors apskritai dauguma projektų - vis dar angliakalbėse šalyse, t.y. JAV, Anglijoje, Australijoje, o kitur - mažiau. Ko gero, taip yra dėl to, jog lengviau “pasiskolinti” gerąsias praktikas, vykdyti projektus kartu su JAV piliečių mokslo bendruomene, kur šis judėjimas labiausiai išplitęs. Kalbos barjeras užkerta kelią piliečių mokslui plisti kitose šalyse, nors kai kur jau randasi aktyvios bendruomenės. Pvz., labai daug piliečių mokslo iniciatyvų yra Ispanijoje, Skandinavijoje, Vokietijoje paplitęs “pasidaryk pats” mokslas, didelis “pasidaryk pats” biologijos (biohakingo) laboratorijų tinklas. Į Baltijos šalis piliečių mokslas tik pradeda skverbtis, tačiau kartu su kolegomis Estijoje ir Latvijoje stengiamės tokias iniciatyvas kurti ir populiarinti.

2. Ar yra projektų Lietuvoje, kuriuos galima išskirti?

Lietuvoje projektų nedaug, o jei jie ir yra, tai jų organizatoriai apie pasaulinį piliečių mokslo judėjimą nelabai ką žino, ir taip jų nevadina. Kiekvienais metais Labanoro girioje vyksta rūšių ralis - tai gana tipinis piliečių mokslo pavyzdys, “bioblicas”. Su Technariumo techninės kūrybos dirbtuvėmis organizuojame nemažai biohakingo užsiėmimų, tyrinėjame kerpes, o į šią veiklą gali įsitraukti kiekvienas norintis. Kiekvienais metais, liepos pabaigoje, dalyvaujame drugių savaitėje (National Moth Week), kurios metu “gaudome” naktinius drugius ant baltos drobės, juos fotografuojame, ir keliame į iNaturalist programėlę, taip prisidėdami prie pasaulinės bioįvairovės išsaugojimo iniciatyvos. Su Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetu neseniai pradėjome projektą su samangyviais - kviečiame visus, daugiausia moksleivius, ieškoti samangyvių (tai kolonijiniai bestuburiai vandens gyvūnai, labai svarbūs vandens ekosistemoms, tačiau mažai ištirti), juos atpažinti ir dalintis šiais duomenimis su VDU mokslininkais.

3. Kuo piliečių mokslas gali padėti tikriems mokslininkams, ar gali paskatinti atradimus, proveržius? Ko gero, nėra tokio dalyko kaip “tikras” mokslininkas :) kiekvienas, net ir neturėdamas mokslinio išsilavinimo, gali tapti savo dalyko žinovu, o be to ir sėkmingai taikyti mokslinį metodą rūpimiems tyrimams. Tačiau žinoma, jog piliečių mokslas dažnai remiasi partneryste su profesionaliais mokslininkais, o projektų dalyviai padeda išspręsti problemas, kurių vieni mokslininkai neįveiktų, pvz., esant dideliam duomenų kiekiui, kurio išanalizuoti patikimai negali kompiuteriai. Tokių projektų pavyzdžiai - Stall Catchers žaidime, kur ieškoma vaistų nuo Alzheimerio ligos analizuojant mikroskopu darytus filmukus gyvos pelės smegenyse, Galaxy Zoo projektas kur klasifikuojamos galaktikų nuotraukos ir kt. Pastarajame dalyviai jau padėjo išanalizuoti šimtus tūkstančių teleskopu darytų nuotraukų, kuriuos mokslininkams vieniems išanalizuoti truktų dešimtmečius. Nesunku įsivaizduoti, jog taip stipriai paspartinami tyrimai. Kita piliečių mokslo rūšis - duomenų ar mėginių rinkimas. Pvz., bičių savo aplinkoje stebėjimas (The Great Sunflower project), oro užterštumo matavimas, kritulių matavimas (CoCoRaHS) ir pan. Nenuostabu, jog vienas mokslininkas ar jų grupė negali vienu metu atsidurti visose pasaulio vietose ir iš ten surinkti duomenų, tačiau po pasaulį išsibarstę piliečiai mokslininkai čia gali labai padėti. Taip pavyksta atlikti tyrimus, kurie be visuomenės įsitraukimo būtų paprasčiausiai neįmanomi, arba užtruktų labai daug laiko. Juk negalime dešimtmečius laukti, pvz., vaistų nuo Alzheimerio ligos, jei subūrę jėgas galėtume tą patį pasiekti per keletą metų? Tokių, visuomenės pagalba pasiektų atradimų pavyzdžių jau yra ne vienas.

4. Ar nežiūrima į šią sritį taip - tarsi savanoriai bandymų triušiai ar pigi jėga?

Piliečių mokslo projektų dalyviai patys nėra tyrimų objektai. Tuo piliečių mokslas ir skiriasi nuo kitų visuomenės įsitraukimo reikalaujančių projektų, pvz., medicinos bandymų, elgesio tyrimų ir pan. Piliečiai mokslininkai - tyrėjai, kurie arba patys nuo pradžios iki galo vykdo tyrimus, arba juos atlikti padeda profesionaliems mokslininkams. Ar piliečiai mokslininkai nėra tiesiog pigi darbo jėga diskutuojama nemažai, tačiau viskas atsiremia į tai, dėl ko šie projektai vykdomi. Dauguma jų - skirti svarbiems atradimams paspartinti, ligoms išgydyti, rūšims išsaugoti, aplinkai gerinti ir pan. To pakankamai greitai be visuomenės pagalbos padaryti tiesiog nepavyktų. Be to, juos dažniausiai vykdo ne pelno siekiančios organizacijos, universitetai, kurie tikrai negali “pasamdyti” šimto tūkstančių piliečių mokslininkų. Taigi, kad tyrimai vyktų, tenka prašyti savanoriškos visuomenės pagalbos, ir tai visai suprantama. Vis dėl to, ar geriau suburti jėgas ir mums patiems svarbių rezultatų pasiekti jau šiandien, ar laukti kol tai po kelių dešimtmečių atliks laboratorijose? Piliečiai mokslininkai dažniausiai prisideda prie to, kas jiems patiems įdomu ir aktualu. Tai dažniausiai ir būna pats didžiausias atlygis, paskata veikti. O jei projektai vykdomi nesąžiningai, piliečių mokslininkų pagalbos prašoma ten, kur jos visai nereikia, užduotims, kurias galėtų atlikti kompiuteris ir pan. - dalyviai tai labai greitai perpranta, ir tuose projektuose tiesiog nedalyvauja.

5. Yra šalių, kur veikia viešos laboratorijos, kur kiekvienas nemokamai gali atlikti savo bandymus, kaip tai vertini? Ar realu tai Lietuvoje? Gal tai puiki idėja Lietuvai?

Lietuvoje tokia laboratorija jau veikia - ją su kitais nariais kuriame Technariumo techninės kūrybos dirbtuvėse, Vilniuje. Turime nemažai profesionalios, antram gyvenimui prikeltos įrangos, taip pat iš paprastų priemonių sukurtos įrangos ir pan. Vykdome edukacinius bei meninius projektus, po truputį užsiimame mažos apimties tyrimais. Dažniausiai tokia “pasidaryk pats” biologija nėra nemokama, nes vis dėl to nemažai kainuoja priemonės, yra narystės mokesčiai, išlaikantys laboratorijas ir taip toliau. Tačiau jų idėja - atvirai prieinama įranga, bei savo žiniomis besidalinanti bendruomenė. Tai ir leidžia kiekvienam tapti mokslininku ir sėkmingai atlikinėti tyrimus.

Daugiausia barjerų tokioms laboratorijoms, tarp jų ir mūsų laboratorijai, kelia genetinių modifikacijų apribojimai, aiškių teisinių direktyvų šiais klausimais nebuvimas. Įdomiausi projektai dažnai susiję su ko nors šviečiančio, ko nors neįprasto, arba visiškai naujo ir naudingo pasauliui, tarkim, taršalus apdoroti padedančių bakterijų, sukūrimu. Tačiau tai laisvai įgyvendinti dėl apribojimų kol kas pavyksta ne visur. Vis dėl to, šis “pasidaryk pats” biologijos (biohakingo) judėjimas sparčiai plinta, ypač JAV, Vokietijoje, ir kitur. Šios temos pradeda figuruoti ES tvaraus vystymosi direktyvose, finansavimo programose, todėl ateityje judėjimas tikrai augs. O augant bendruomenei atsiranda ir daugiau atviro kodo (open source) įrangos, kurią iš paprastų priemonių susikonstruoti arba nebrangiai įsigyti gali praktiškai kiekvienas. Todėl tokią laboratoriją įsikurti (netgi savo virtuvėje) darosi vis paprasčiau.

Visuomenės įsitraukimas į “pasidaryk pats” mokslą labai svarbus, ypač tokių pasaulinių problemų kaip aplinkos užterštumas, antibiotikų krizė, dėl besikeičiančio klimato plintančios ligos ir kt. akivaizdoje. Pasitelkus liaudies išmintį, “daug rankų didžią naštą pakelia” :) Daugiau į mokslą įsitraukusių žmonių -- daugiau idėjų ir ryžto veikti -- daugiau potencialių atradimų.

6. Kas skatina žmones tapti savanoriais tokiose projektose? Kas sunkiausia juos organizuojant.

Dažniausiai žmonės nori prisidėti prie to, kas jiems patiems įdomu arba aktualu. Pvz., paukščių stebėtojai tai dažnai vykdo tiesiog kaip hobį. Užterštų miestų gyventojai nori žinoti, koks iš tiesų oro užterštumo lygis jų aplinkoje dėl savo ir artimųjų sveikatos. Alzheimerio liga sergantys žmonės ar juos slaugantys šeimos nariai bei draugai nori prisidėti prie vaistų nuo šios ligos paieškų ir t.t. Taip pat piliečių mokslo projektuose žmonės tikisi daugiau sužinoti apie mokslą bei smagiai praleisti laiką.

Joks piliečių mokslo projektas neapsieina be sklaidos, labai svarbu dalyviams tinkamai paaiškinti tyrimo tikslus, kodėl reikalinga jų pagalba ir t.t. Tai, bei jau besikuriančios bendruomenės skatinimas, ko gero, daugiausia energijos reikalaujanti, tačiau ir viena smagiausių tokių projektų dalių. Taip pat kartais sunku užtikrinti dvipusę komunikaciją, jei projekte dalyvauja profesionalūs mokslininkai ir visuomenės nariai, priversti abi puses išklausyti ir suprasti viena kitą, užtikrinti, kad dalyviai projekte turi “balso teisę”, jų nuomonės paisoma.

7. Gal gali pateikti sėkmingų projektų pavyzdžių ir kuo jie prisidėjo prie mokslo pasiekimų?

Foldit baltymų lankstymo žaidimas sėkmingai veikia jau ne vienerius metus, o kai tik jis pasirodė 2011 m., žaidėjai per tris savaites išaiškino ŽIV baltymo struktūrą, kurios profesionalūs mokslininkai negalėjo išnarplioti apie dešimtmetį. Nuo tada žaidėjai išsprendė dar ne vieno baltymo struktūrą, taip paspartindami įvairių ligų tyrimus, vaistų paieškas.

Stardust@home projektas 2006 m. paprašė piliečių mokslininkų padėti analizuoti šimtus tūkstančių aerogelio, pargabento iš Stardust kosminių tyrimų misijos, mikroskopu darytų nuotraukų, ieškant ten įstrigusių kosminių dulkių. Mokslininkai apskaičiavo, kad vienam žmogui, dirbant be pertraukų, tai užtruktų bent 100 metų. Nuo tada projekto dalyviai padėjo atrasti 7 kosmines dulkeles (mokslininkai per tą patį laiką atrado 1).

Galaxy Zoo projekte piliečiai mokslininkai ne tik jau padėjo išanalizuoti šimtus tūkstančių galaktikų nuotraukų iš SLOAN dangaus apžvalgos programos, bet ir atrado visiškai naują galaktikų rūšį - “Žaliuosius žirnelius” (Green pea galaxy). Pastebėję nematytą žalią objektą nuotraukose, jomis dalyviai pradėjo dalintis projekto forume. Nors tai prasidėjo beveik kaip pokštas, galiausiai mokslininkai šias nuotraukas ištyrinėjo patys, ir pripažino, jog tai - visiškai naujo tipo galaktika. Nuo to laiko “Žalieji žirneliai” padėjo padaryti atradimų apie ankstyvąją visatą, žvaigždžių formavimąsi ir kt.

[seplute]

Hey, #citizenscience & #scicomm colleagues (and science fans!)... I started creating a “Citizen Science” rubric on a popular science popularization TV show in Lithuania, “Mokslo sriuba” (”Science Soup”) 😊 the rubric appears on the National TV provider’s “Culture” channel on Sundays, once a month. Here’s the first episode - it’s in Lithuanian, but I added English subtitles, so be sure to turn them on & watch!! 📺 ⏩ This is my first ever experiment with scicomm-in-video (as opposed to science writing), so it’s a bit scary! But I have a team of talented science soupians (in particular, my EyesOnALZ colleague Viktorija Zonyte 💜), who do all the video work - I just write the script & give them a hard time if I don’t like something! (I usually do like it 😛 )

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Our certificate for the National Moth Week 2017 citizen science initiative, which we participated in during No Trolls Allowed hackercamp in July, has arrived!

Congratulations on your participation in National Moth Week 2017. Please accept the attached certificate with our gratitude for your help in making the Sixth Annual National Moth Week a resounding international success. We hope you will print it out and display it proudly.Your event was among 375 registered. Moth nights and educational programs were held in National Parks, local and state parks, museums, universities and nature centers, as well as backyards and neighborhoods in 34 countries around the world.Moth-ers have contributed over 80,000 photographs to our Flickr group and NMW partner organizations. You can still submit your data and moth photos, which can help naturalists and entomologists assess moth distribution data throughout the world. 

[technariumas]

Some of the moths we caught - traditionally! - during No Trolls Allowed last month, for National Moth Week 2017. All uploaded to @inaturalist National Moth Week citizen science project!