Citizen science has not only allowed more people to get closer to the generation of scientific knowledge, but it has also significantly contributed to the results of scientific research that have adopted this approach.
In recent years, the number of scientific research projects in Chile that decide to include citizen participation in their processes has been increasing. Through technological tools, people can contribute to the search for information on invasive species, monitor the cause of mortality of seabirds, contribute to the national registry of pollinating insects, and be part of experiments related to astronomy.
What is known as citizen science is a movement that seeks to facilitate people’s access to the generation of knowledge, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This way of doing science aims to contribute to democratization, counter misinformation, and guide scientific work towards solving socially important problems.
At the same time, it brings science closer to citizens and allows people not related to research to make their contribution to issues that are relevant to society, using their knowledge and resources.
Citizen science and astronomy
In Chile, various citizen science initiatives have been promoted. In the field of astronomy, a project that has been highlighted is Curved or Flat?, an initiative of the Department of Astronomy of the University of Concepción and the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies CATA, with the support of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Microsoft.
It is a citizen science initiative that has managed to connect children throughout Chile with the aim of determining the true shape of the Earth, by measuring its radius using the ancient method of Eratosthenes, and then gathering these calculations on their web platform.
“Last year we did the measurement with hundreds of children participating, we managed to measure a radius of the earth with only a 10% error, which demonstrates the great potential of this project and has the future goal of breaking the world record for the most massive simultaneous measurement of the earth’s radius from Chile,” commented Rodrigo Herrera, coordinator of the initiative and academic at the CATA Center.
He also highlighted the relevance of applying citizen science in astronomy. “It is a great dissemination tool especially to attract new generations to start doing science interactively and in collaboration with astronomers,” commented the academic. He added that citizen participation also allows “using all the work of the citizens to improve and develop even more complete and precise studies of the universe.”
Another initiative is Glowatch, a tool developed by Fundación Cielos de Chile, Fundación Ciluz, the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies CATA, and the Center for Mathematical Modeling, to involve people in reducing light pollution. Through WhatsApp, Glowatch allows citizens to report those polluting sources that affect their environment, contributing to the protection of dark skies for astronomy and also for the protection of people’s health and biodiversity care.
Other fields
Citizen science not only contributes to astronomy, there are various initiatives that have been developed in Chile to contribute to other fields. One of them is the “Pollinators Challenge” of the Chilean Pollination Network, which aims to create a registry of existing pollinators in the country using the app iNaturalist so that anyone can record the interaction between plants and insects that are pollinating from their cell phone.
Dr. Maureen Murúa, coordinator of the initiative and academic at the GEMA Center, Genomics, Ecology and Environment of the Universidad Mayor explained that they promoted this project so that more people can learn about the pollinating insects in Chile to enhance their conservation.
“We find it essential that people know what they have, it is very difficult to conserve something you do not know. But also, considering that all citizens are sampling in different places in Chile, it allows us to expand to a volume of data that we could not reach with researchers alone,” added Murúa.
Likewise, other citizen science projects have been the search to understand the invasion of the harlequin ladybird in Chile, through a web platform developed by academics from the University of Chile, where people could collect relevant information about this invasive species that was later systematized.
Also, the REVAM project for monitoring seabirds brought together researchers and citizens to establish a database on seabird mortality and related factors throughout the country. And, currently, Santiago Hot, an initiative that will seek to map areas of extreme heat in the capital during this January, is being developed, which will gather information to design mitigation interventions.
