subject: Scientific Research Cannot Go Without Citizens [print this page] What connects a group of Bayaka pygmy hunters in the Congo Basin, opposed to illegal loggers encroaching on their land; residents of Deptford, in south London, concerned about a noisy scrapyard across the road from a school; and members of the website oldweather.org, transcribing century-old ship log books to gather information about historical weather conditions?The answer is they all have become citizen scientists, on the frontiers of a field that harnesses the wisdom of crowds, a do-it-yourself approach to technology and a radical approach to knowledge that blurs the traditional boundaries between local understanding and scientific expertise. In the words of Francois Grey, physicist at Tsinghua University in Beijing and coordinator of the Citizen Cyberscience Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, they all embody the spirit that: Science is too important to be left to scientists alone.Science has never been wholly confined to the labs, of course self-taught scientists included the great biologist TH Huxley; amateurs have taken part in a synchronised census of birds in the western hemisphere since 1900; and citizen stargazers have contributed significantly to our understanding of the heavens but citizen science is currently undergoing a renaissance and can even be seen evolving into new subspecies, such as extreme citizen science, citizen cyberscience and DIYbio. This was in evidence last week at the London Citizen Cyberscience Summit, held at the Royal Geographical Society and University College London, where experts and enthusiasts among them scientists, engineers, hackers and anthropologists met to discuss and to devise collaborative and innovative solutions to scientific and environmental problems.One illustrative case is Mapping for Change, a London-based social enterprise founded by Muki Haklay, a professor of geographic information science, and Chris Church, a veteran environmental campaigner, which uses online maps as tools for communication and action on sustainable development. Its director, Louise Francis a scientist who trained in molecular systematics explained how the organisation developed a methodology for collecting noise measurements with cheap, hand-held devices that the residents of Pepys Housing Estate in Deptford could use to create an online map of noise pollution in the area, as part of their campaign against an unpopular local scrapyard.For the first time, they had a visual way to show what they had been trying to say for the past eight years, said Francis. At a public meeting, the community were able to present the authorities with the evidence. It was the first time the local authority and the environment agency actually admitted there was a problem, said Francis. After professional acousticians carried out a survey that largely confirmed the results of the residents" study, the environment agency revoked the license for the scrapyard. It was an amazing feat for the community, said Francis. Although, she adds, it seems bittersweet, insofar as the scrapyard have appealed against the revoking of the license and it"s currently being battled in court.The campaign acted as a catalyst. The same residents became concerned about local air quality and discovered there were no pollution monitoring stations in the area. So, Mapping for Change came up with a way to take measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone and heavy metals. To measure NO2, for example, residents fixed small diffusion tubes at a cost of only 8 (80 yuan) each, including lab analysis to lamp-posts at particular locations. The local authority installed a monitoring station as a consequence. And across the Thames, in Royal Docks, local residents concerned about a planned extension to the nearby London City Airport made a similar map of noise pollution.It was just amazing, said Francis, referring to the transformational effects of the campaign. One of the ladies from the community [in Deptford], who hadn"t had any formal education to a certain level, said she felt so good about being able to do this that she went off and studied and got an NVQ [a work-based qualification]. She said it was because of her involvement in this process that she was able to do this.Mapping can collate publicly available environmental information that residents may not have seen. However, as these examples demonstrate, the process can also challenge official narratives about the places we live in. Asking how we perceive our own communities can begin a discussion about what the official dataset says and how can we go about sharing our local knowledge to represent the community, said Francis. 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