As a deeply interested individual in brain science and neurotechnology myself, this particular report has instantly inspired my own future plans for new directions in amateur research and citizen science at my own home.

Tim Marzullo, a recent PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, has been working on a project to develop a very low-cost amateur neurological recording device. Along with his friend, Greg Gage, they are nearing success on a prototype, and even presented their work at the recent Society of Neuroscience conference in Washington, D.C.

With a home-made micro-manipulator, a classic bandpass filter with amplifier, and a willing bug, they will soon be recording neuronal action potentials in their own garage for under $100.

In only a few days (or less), my wife and I will have our second child, a son named Andrew. I have a deep interest in the human brain as well as the underlying functions that give rise to what we consider human consciousness... a natural phenomenon that remains completely out of the range of current scientific explanation.

I hold the hypothesis that human beings actually develop consciousness well after delivery into this world, and that there is a transition into this higher functioning state. Starting with the birth of Andrew, I will work on a journal of observations to record his development in an attempt to identify this transitional process. Although these observations will be entirely subjective and experiential, I do anticipate that we might find just a glimpse into the development of this one infant human brain and how it interacts with and evolves in our world.

Follow along with the journal in Neuron News from Dynamic Patterns under the Topical Category "Raising Consciousness," and let me know what you think as well as provide me with any guidance or suggestions you might have during my observational experiment.

Recently, one of our brave Endeavour astronauts inadvertently let a tool bag slip through her fingers (it wasn't properly attached initially and so caught her unexpectedly). The bag was assumed to be lost to NASA, but it has been recently sighted by amateur astronomers as a reasonably bright satellite.

Only a pair of binoculars are required to view the tool back, and it is currently being tracked online at Spaceweather.com. Enter your zip code to see when you can spot the tools in space!

Last spring, citizen science activities received a wonderful feature the The Christian Science Monitor. Focusing on some of the largest nation-wide citizen science programs as well as a brief interview with Dr. Carlson of SAS, the article is another positive reflection that amateur research activities are growing and will continue to be encouraged.

"'Citizen scientists' watch for signs of climate change" :: The Christian Science Monitor :: April 10, 2008 :: [ READ ]

A thorough guide created by past directors at the Great Smokey Mountains Institute at Tremont and published by the Association of Nature Center Administrators is a wonderful resource for program leaders around the world who are interested in developing new and improving existing citizen science projects.

In addition, this guide will prove to be useful for the individual amateur researcher to help organize personal projects and stimulate ideas for getting involved within the community and even within ones own backyard.

A partial version is available for download below (16 pages of 88), and the complete document may be purchased for $20 directly from the ANCA.

"The Director's Guide to Best Practices in Citizen Science" :: Copyright 2007 :: [ DOWNLOAD ]

Scientists from the University of Montana and the University of Calgary reported in 2007 on their use of local citizens to monitor and record observations of wildlife crossings of Highway 3 in southwestern Alberta, Canada. The data is being used to better understand wildlife movement in the area and how a planned highway improvement project might impact the environment.

This is a wonderfully useful approach for data collection in order to provide a potentially more broader look at a long-term natural pattern. What is particularly interesting about this report, however, is that is does address what will ultimately be the most critical issue for citizen science programs to overcome: how to guarantee that data collected from unregulated and potentially biased and subjective observers can be filtered into a set of data that can be considered scientific.

Citizen science data may never be considered as "real science" unless biases and unintentional errors can be monitored or filtered out. As long as the data collection sets are sufficiently large, then statistical analysis against a known, accurate sub-set of data can be used. Of course, once statistics is brought into the picture, then some generalizations are typically required, which can lessen the viability of the data.

I do believe that this is "legitimacy issue" is fundamental, and must be addressed by program leaders in the crowdsourcing citizen science projects.