The Proceedings of the National Academies of Science has an entire issue focused on two of my favorite topics: The overlap of science and creativity, and the value of citizen science. And, appropriately enough, most of these articles are available in full, so I would encourage you to head over and explore.
Here are some samplers:
Creativity and collaboration: Revisiting cybernetic serendipity
Abraham Lincoln founded the US National Academy of Sciences in 1863 by way of an Act of Congress. The National Academy of Sciences Congressional Charter stipulated a nongovernmental advisory organization of scholars whose role was to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art.”
That charter, which combined “science and art” came at a time in which those disciplines were seen as closely related, maybe still infused with the spirit of Renaissance thinkers, such as Leonardo da Vinci, whose brilliant integration of art, design, science, and engineering produced astonishing breakthroughs and bold creations that have endured for 500 y. Leonardo’s training as an artist enabled him to make more accurate medical drawings, see the movement of bird wings, understand the dynamics of flowing water, and much more.
Citizen science frontiers: Efficiency, engagement, and serendipitous discovery
Citizen science has proved to be a unique and effective tool in helping science and society cope with the ever-growing data rates and volumes that characterize the modern research landscape. It also serves a critical role in engaging the public with research in a direct, authentic fashion and by doing so promotes a better understanding of the processes of science. To take full advantage of the onslaught of data being experienced across the disciplines, it is essential that citizen science platforms leverage the complementary strengths of humans and machines. This Perspectives piece explores the issues encountered in designing human–machine systems optimized for both efficiency and volunteer engagement, while striving to safeguard and encourage opportunities for serendipitous discovery. We discuss case studies from Zooniverse, a large online citizen science platform, and show that combining human and machine classifications can efficiently produce results superior to those of either one alone and how smart task allocation can lead to further efficiencies in the system.
Before we pop below the line, I want to give a shout out to the Daily Bucket, Dawn Chorus, and all the other citizen science activities that take place on Daily Kos on a regular basis. Good on you, people. Also, I love Zooniverse and am a regular participant. I’ve spoken with the folks there several times about focusing some of DK’s energy on their site, and I certainly intend to do just that in the near future.
Science Literacy
CBS News: School cancels Darwin musical after protest from handful of parents.
Sophie Lewis
This one isn’t quite what you might expect. For one thing, the school isn’t in the United States, it’s in the UK. Also the parents claim they weren’t upset that the play contained information on evolution, though … that seems a little open to debate.
About 90 students were preparing to perform "Darwin Rocks!," a musical about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, next month at Hartford Manor Primary School — a non-religious school in Cheshire. According to BBC News, six parents expressed concern over they portrayal of Christian views throughout the show, which is aimed at 7-to-11-year-olds
After some parents—presumably, a subset of those six out of ninety parents—threatened to pull their kids from the show, the school did the thing that schools do. They cancelled the whole performance. So the kids who had been rehearsing for the musical are surely thrilled about that.
Several parents said they felt the school made the wrong choice in canceling the show. "It really does feel like a huge step backwards," parent Alan McDonald told The Independent. "It doesn't seem evenhanded or in any way right."
There’s a reason it feels that way.
PNAS: Forget STEM. Remember STEAMM+D.
Sara Diamond
Merriam-Webster defines imagination as “the act of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality”; imagination combines “creative ability” and “resourcefulness.” This paper considers two interdisciplinary fields in which distinct approaches have sought a solution to the “imagination gap” and have resulted in new research questions, methods, outcomes, and even philosophies. These are science, technology, engineering, arts, math, medicine, and design (STEAMM+D) and Indigenous research that establishes questions and methods from an integrated interdisciplinary worldview and the individual’s responsibilities toward community and land. By intertwining these approaches, it is possible for science and society to apply creative problem solving in addressing complex challenges, thereby fostering sustainable innovation.
Personally, I’d argue that math is one of the sciences, so you could easily drop and M. But then, medicine would seem to be just specialized engineering and … It’s okay, I can get used to it. And I certainly like the idea that arts and design are merged here with science and engineering.
PNAS: Data visualization literacy
Katy Börner, Andreas Bueckle, and Michael Ginda
In the information age, the ability to read and construct data visualizations becomes as important as the ability to read and write text. However, while standard definitions and theoretical frameworks to teach and assess textual, mathematical, and visual literacy exist, current data visualization literacy (DVL) definitions and frameworks are not comprehensive enough to guide the design of DVL teaching and assessment. This paper introduces a data visualization literacy framework (DVL-FW) that was specifically developed to define, teach, and assess DVL.
Pick a subject, any subject — even science. I would give up that subject in the 6th or 7th grade for a dedicated year toward making kids understand logical fallacies and giving them the ability to effectively construct and read data visualizations. These are critical skills, and the lack of them plays a huge role in allowing groups to be overrun by nonsense masquerading as fact.
This paper puts data visualization on a par with reading and writing as a basic skill. They’re right (and I say that with one hand on my stack of Edward Tufte books).
Climate change
Science: Climate change vs. the potato.
Erik Stokstad
On a bleak, brown hill here, David Ellis examines a test plot of potato plants and shakes his head. “They're dead, dead, dead,” he says. Pests and lack of rain have laid waste to all 17 varieties that researchers had planted.
It is a worrying sign for Ellis, the now-retired director of the gene bank at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima. People have grown potatoes in this rugged stretch of the Andes for thousands of years. In recent years, that task has gotten tougher, in part because of climate change. Drought and frost are striking more often. The rains come later, shortening the growing season. And warmer temperatures have allowed moths and weevils to encroach from lower elevations.
In the US, we’re used to seeing potatoes in only a few varieties, generally large brown objects designed to become French fries. But the Incas grew hundreds of varieties, and over four thousand types exist. It’s an extraordinarily versatile, malleable little tuber, adaptable to most any conditions. Which makes the declining productivity in areas close to the plant’s origin especially upsetting.
In Peru and around the world, enhancing the potato has become a high priority. It is the most important food crop after wheat and rice. Potatoes are already a staple for 1.3 billion people, and the nutritious tubers are becoming increasingly popular in the developing world. Keeping up with the demand means adapting the potato to various soils and climates. It must also resist new threats from pests, disease, heat, and drought.
Be sure to watch this little video to the end.
We are in unknown territory, and as much as we try to predict the effects of unprecedented warming, there are going to be plenty that haven’t been seen in advance.
Medicine
PNAS: Cognitive ability in old age is predetermined by age 20
Denise Park
One of the major scientific problems of the 21st century is determining how to maintain cognitive vitality in late adulthood and prevent age-related cognitive decline. There is considerable evidence that adults age 60 y and older have better cognition in late adulthood when they maintain an active lifestyle, engage in cognitively stimulating leisure activities, and have advanced education and occupations of high complexity. It appears that a lifetime of such engagement builds a neurocognitive reserve or creates additional neural circuitry that protects cognitive function in later years. Other studies have shown that an overall level of high cognitive ability (intelligence) is an important component of late-life cognitive resilience and may even delay a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease by months or years.
That all sounds good. If you get off the couch now and then, keep your mind active, educate yourself, and are generally a somewhat clever person in the first place, you can fend off the horrors—and they are horrors—of cognitive decline. Only …
In PNAS, longitudinal findings by Kremen et al. challenge the role that enriching life experiences play in supporting cognition in late adulthood and indicate that cognitive function in old age is largely predetermined by general cognitive ability (GCA) measured in young adulthood. Others have reported that even adolescent GCA has high predictive value of GCA in late life.
The thought that you are who you are in high school should be scary to anyone. And I’m going to continue to read, play games, and generally fart around with new stuff I find interesting. It’s just that I won’t have the “working out my brain” excuse.
Biology
Science: Honeybees can do basic math.
Scarlett Howard, et. al.
Many animals understand numbers at a basic level for use in essential tasks such as foraging, shoaling, and resource management. However, complex arithmetic operations, such as addition and subtraction, using symbols and/or labeling have only been demonstrated in a limited number of nonhuman vertebrates. We show that honeybees, with a miniature brain, can learn to use blue and yellow as symbolic representations for addition or subtraction. In a free-flying environment, individual bees used this information to solve unfamiliar problems involving adding or subtracting one element from a group of elements. This display of numerosity requires bees to acquire long-term rules and use short-term working memory. Given that honeybees and humans are separated by over 400 million years of evolution, our findings suggest that advanced numerical cognition may be more accessible to nonhuman animals than previously suspected.
This is a gem of a study. Nifty experimental set up and interesting results that challenge preconceived notions. Although … discovering that they’re so clever doesn’t make me feel any better about losing two hives in two years due to my own mistakes.
Nature: Diet drugs vs. mosquitoes
Matthew Warren
Researchers have discovered a way to stop mosquitoes biting — by using human ‘diet’ drugs to trick them into feeling full. The scientists suggest that the drugs could one day be used to control the spread of diseases.
I could definitely stand to lose some weight — especially if it means losing some mosquitoes in the process. But there’s more to learn here.
Previous research had suggested that a mosquito’s desire to feed is controlled by neuropeptides, molecules used by the nervous system to communicate2. Vosshall and her team suspected that neuropeptide Y (NPY) receptors might be particularly important, because they form part of the molecular pathway involved in food-seeking behaviour for many animals — including humans.
Some human appetite-suppressant drugs already target the NPY receptors, so Vosshall decided to take a “completely zany” approach: feed these drugs to mosquitoes and see what happens.
The method worked: mosquitoes that fed on a solution containing NPY-activating drugs were much less likely to approach a human-scented ‘ lure’ than were the control group, and their appetites remained suppressed for two days.
Hold on. Feed the drugs to the mosquitoes? Aren’t they already pretty slim? And … suddenly, this seems less interesting.
Image
As usual, today’s image is from Andy Brunning at Compound Interest. Visit his site for a larger, easier to read version.