Where We Live: Crowdsourced Science

Users can search for planets and analyze proteins from their couch.

Image
Andromeda & star nurseries
Photo:Cano Vääri (Flickr Creative Commons)
Where We Live: Crowdsourced Science
Download Audio
Audio Playlist
Where We Live: Crowdsourced Science

Today, we’re talking about crowds...their power, and perhaps, their combined wisdom.

A recent Boston Globe column called the scientific world a closed society. But technological innovation has opened up the field to the ordinary citizen on the outside with online programs such as Foldit and Planet Hunters - attempts at “crowdsourcing” some of our trickiest problems.

Later on in the program, we’ll talk with a representative from the Planet Hunters team about searching for distant planets from the comfort of your living room. 

Special thanks to Betsy Kaplan for putting together today's show.


  

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <br> <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <hr> <table><td><tr> <div> <span><h3><h4><h2><h1><p>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.