Tag Archives: Galaxy Zoo
Reaching for the stars
June 4, 2010… than getting up in the middle of the night to stare at a blank sky and disappointed friends, the Galaxy Zoo project gives everyday people the chance to feel like real astronomers, any time they like and from the comfort of their armchairs.
The project cleverly uses such volunteers’ help to classify images of galaxies into various categories. There is a quick tutorial on the site, but otherwise no experience or knowledge is needed.
The exciting thing is that because the images are …
Tags: crowdsourcing Galaxy Zoo Hanny Van Arkel Kevin Schawinski
crowdsourcing, Galaxy Zoo, Hanny Van Arkel, Kevin Schawinski | 1 CommentScience fun: the protein shake that makes you a genius
November 11, 2010… the optimum “fold”.
World of Foldit
Other crowdsourced science projects exist, such as Galaxy Zoo, which has over 60 million contributions. What makes Foldit stand out (as if the chance to fold protein molecules wasn’t thrilling enough on its own) is that it is effectively a massively multiplayer online science game.
Now, I’d be the first to admit Foldit is no World of Warcraft. But although the interface and gameplay are pretty basic, Foldit does use the power of game …
How to lose friends and predict epidemics
October 19, 2010… in the spread of an epidemic. Those individuals who are the stars at the center of the social galaxy are the key to early detection. Because of their centrality, when these individuals pick up a piece of information, a germ or a specific behavior, it will quickly spread through the rest of the population. If you want an early warning of an epidemic, it is much more effective to monitor these central people than it is to monitor random people in a population.
Your friends have more …
