Science Cheerleader

 NASA’s Radio Jove program “helps amateur scientists and students observe and analyze natural radio emissions of Jupiter, the Sun, and our galaxy.”

Build and use your own Decametric Radio Telescope.  Follow Live Observations Online. 

Why study radio waves from Pluto? “Radio waves are generated because the planet has a magnetic field. This magnetic field originates deep in the interior of the planet, and the overall strength of the magnetic field directly affects the type of radio emission emitted by the planet. This helps us with the theory of how the magnetic field is created in the interior, and in determining the composition of the various interior layers.”

Everything you’ll need to get started, make and record observations and draw upon your data can be found on the comprehensive NASA website. There’s even a  Jupiter Radio Emission Prediction Table to help you plan key days and times to capture radio signals. For example, folks like me who live on the East Coast, can use a radio telescope to detect signals from Pluto between February and September several times a month on specific dates, winnowed down to nearest minute. 

One way your data will be used is to see how well the predictions of radio storm probability match the actual occurrence of radio storms. The more observations recorded and shared, the better.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

 Topics:Cosmology, Geology, Space Science,

 Location: At or close to home; indoors.

Level of Difficulty: Pretty technical

Fee: anywhere from $50 to $250 for Radio Telescope kits and parts

Gear: Needs a computer, software and Radio Telescope

Duration: a couple of  hours to assemble Radio Telescope; observations last 5-15 minutes a pop.

Suitable for students with adult supervision. Site includes an extensive lesson plan.

The 109th Christmas Bird Count “Citizen Science in Action.”
Sunday, December 14, 2008 to Monday, January 5, 2009

Volunteers across America are donning binoculars to track birds and contribute to the longest-running wildlife census effort to assess the health of bird populations.

“From feeder-watchers and field observers to count compilers and regional editors, everyone who takes part in the Christmas Bird Count does it for love of birds and the excitement of friendly competition — and with the knowledge that their efforts are making a difference for science and bird conservation. Find out how to get involved.“

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

> Topics:Birds, ornithology, environment, conservation.
> Location: 15 mile radius. If one radius is not near your home, there are other ways to participate.
> Duration: Count volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 15-mile (24-km) diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day (24 hours).
> Cost: $5.00
> Gear:Binoculars, pencil, paper.
> Level of difficulty: Not difficult. For beginners and experienced bird and nest watchers.

Karen Laverty of PBS affiliate WGBH dropped me a line about a brand new NOVA show premiering on Tuesday 11/25 on PBS.

“Ocean Animal Emergency”  shows ocean mammals being rescued from the wild, tagged (see left; photo credit: Doug Hamilton) and released or cared for by the vets and wildlife volunteers (citizen scientists!) from the world-renowned Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA.

The volunteer citizen scientists at the Center racked up 81,000 hours last year and saved the Center an estimated $800,000! After they’re trained, they handle everything from cleaning pens to preparing food, updating medical charts, administering antibiotics and taking blood samples. 

“Like canaries in the coal mine,” Karen explains,  ”the marine mammal populations are a barometer for the health of the world’s oceans.”  

Here’s a colorful radio piece I did on a related topic: the Shad (aka: Philadelphia’s fish). Shad move from the ocean to the river to spawn, then return to the ocean. Shad fishermen are often the first to learn about the conditions of rivers. When there’s no shad to be had, pollution is the primary suspect.

If you’re interested in learning how to monitor the water in your area (including the source of your drinking water), the EPA has a national directory of volunteer water monitoring programs. Check it out!

Finally, you can add that very special member to your online social network—your houseplant.

Why would a plant want to join your network? To let you know when it’s thirsty, of course. Also to regularly report on its moisture level and to periodically thank you for watering it.

The network we’re talking about is Twitter, a group-oriented “microblogging” tool. This Web service keeps networks of friends, colleagues, businesses, and total strangers in contact through barrages of short messages known as “tweets.” And everybody from Barack Obama to the New York Times to my niece seems to be Twittering these days.

So why not Phil, the wilting philodendron that lives in your bedroom?

All you need is a clever do-it-yourself kit from a company called Botanicalls (cost: $89.95). With it you can build an electronic moisture-sensing system that enables one lucky houseplant to join your Twitter group. (Have a look at one houseplant’s tweets.)

This is a fairly geeky project, involving circuit boards, capacitors, ethernet cables, and a soldering iron, among other special equipment. But the kit’s instructions look clear, deliberate, and user-friendly. For a preview, see the company’s getting started and assembly page.

FYI, Botanicalls started out several years ago with a kit that enabled your plant to contact you by telephone, which they now call the Classic kit. If you need a break while you’re building the Twitter kit, I recommend you periodically watch the hilarious video that explained the Classic. It’s at the end of this post.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

> Topics: Biology, plants, computers, electronics.
> Location: At home, or anywhere you have a plant.
> Duration: About 20 steps to assembly, then installation and testing. Maybe one long session or several separate sessions of a few hours each.
> Cost: $89.95 for the kit, which includes the required electronic components.
> Gear: Basic tools for assembling electronics such as needle-nose pliers, soldering iron, wire snips, etc. A computer with Internet access is also needed.
> Level of difficulty: Pretty technical.

Botanicalls “Classic Kit” Video (a hoot)

Want to gaze at stunning astronomical photographs and help astronomers do their research at the same time? Meet, GalaxyZoo.org, a Web site that enables amateur galaxy analyzers to work from the comfort of their computers.

You don’t need any specialized knowledge. After going through a brief tutorial and qualifying test, you can head to the Galaxy Analysis portion of the site and start reviewing images that need to be cataloged. Just look over each object’s shape and label it with the proper “profile”: spiral galaxy, elliptical galaxy, star, or don’t know.

Volunteers have turned out millions of galaxy classifications, which affiliated scientists will be including in upcoming journal articles. The site reports that last year, its “armchair astronomers” discovered more than “500 overlapping galaxies in the local universe when astronomers had previously only known of 20 such systems.”

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

> Topics: Astronomy, computers.
> Location: At home, office, or anywhere you can get to a computer.
> Duration: As short or as long as you like. It only takes a moment to classify each galaxy.
> Cost: Free.
> Gear: Computer with Internet access.
> Level of difficulty: Easy (after you do the tutorial).

The latest issue of Make magazine (number 15) is devoted to build-them-yourself, high-tech musical instruments. And the coolest of the bunch is this laser harp, at right, being played by its inventor, tech musician Stephen Hobley.

You coax out the computer-generated sounds by waving your hands to break the light beams and change their lengths.

To build a laser harp, you’ll need to be familiar with and fearless about such things as MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technology, circuit boards, photo cells, voltage regulators, and computers. If you’re not a serious music technology geek who’s been tinkering for years in the garage, you’ll need to buy or scare up a significant amount of hardware and software.

Stephen’s article in Make does include a simpler project—a single-beam “laser theremin,” as opposed to the six-beam laser harp. But even that’s still a pretty complex gizmo.

Whether or not you dive into this project, we’re sure you’ll appreciate the sights and sounds of the harp in action. Check out Stephen’s video demo, below.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

> Topics: Computers, electronics, music, light, sound.
> Location: At home, or in your secret laboratory.
> Cost: $19 for the plans and schematics; order from Stephen Hobley’s Web site. Significant additional cost for parts and equipment.
> Gear: Computer, MIDI utility software, software synthesizer, USB-MIDI interface, soldering equipment, insulated wire, wire cutters and strippers, multimeter, alligator leads, saw, drill, vise and clamps.
> Level of difficulty: Pretty technical.

Clear skies are beckoning you! Through Monday, November 3rd, the Great World Wide Star Count invites you to join in this international event that “encourages everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations and report what they see online.”

These folks make is super easy to  determine which constellation you will observe, what to look for and how to record your observations.  Let me know if you decide to give it a shot!

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

> Topics: Space, Astronomy
> Location: Near home, outside.
> Duration: About 10 minutes to review website, determine constellations and download activity guide; another 10 minutes to gaze and 10 minutes to enter data.
> Cost: $0.
> Gear: Nothing but the naked eye!
> Level of difficulty: Pretty simple.

Firefly season has ended. In a few short months, volunteer citizen scientists (folks like us), recorded 11,800 fireflies on behalf of researchers. The data collected will help scientists better understand these critters and shed light on how nature and human actions impact their fate.

Through this program, FireFly Watch, citizens help scientists while learning a good deal about science in the process.

“Firefly researchers have been saying for years that a site like this is needed, but [until now] nobody has taken the time and effort to put one in place,” says Don Salvatore, director of FireFly Watch at the Boston Museum of Science.

It’s one of many so-call Citizen Science projects. Expect to see more popping up as researchers’ budgets are slashed and more of the DIY (do-it-yourself) population seizes the opportunity to make a difference in the world.

Cheers!