amautur astronomers
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So, you're not a licensed Astronomer, but you still have an unquenchable thirst to contribute to the field? Or maybe you're only in high school, but you want to help environmental scientists? Or you want to contribute to the rapidly evolving field of genetics? You don't need high-tech scientific equipment to fulfill these wishes. Nor do you need a fancy, white lab coat (but you can wear one if you want) or a laboratory. All you need is a computer, internet connection, and the link below, and you can be on your way to advancing the metaphorical frontier of science.
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Summary
Lucianne Walkowicz begins her TED talk by reflecting on how the enticing, night sky packed with stars and other astronomical mysteries is slowly slipping away from the grasp of society. She claims that we cannot even notice such a loss, because we are too pre-occupied by our phones and other technological devices. She debunks the statement that the loss of dark and clear night skies is a product of growth and technological improvement. Before explaining her reasoning for this statement, Walkowicz fondly reflects upon her first time truly seeing a dark sky when she was on a road trip in Arizona. She claimed that it made her feel tiny and small, just by looking at the thousands of stars packed into the sky. In New York, she never had this elusive experience due to the abundant light pollution. She began to wonder why she never got this experience until a late time in her life. Walkowicz talks about how outdoor lighting inevitably results in the drowning out of natural starlight, as artificial light is closer to our eyes. This is due to the somewhat spherical shape of a light bulb, which encourages light scattering. The intended purpose of a light bulb in the outdoors is to illuminate the immediate area-- however, this spherical shape of a light bulb results in the majority of the light being lost and scattered into the atmosphere, thus resulting in light pollution. And thus, most areas in the world are denied the privilege of stargazing in clear skies due to light pollution. She claims that most technology, however, is not harmful to the progression of astronomy. She cites the Hubble Space Telescope as an example-- it allowed astronomers to have access to deep space photographs of numerous astronomical objects, objects that a naked eye cannot see. She also cites the website, Zooinverse.com as a way that technology has allowed society to contribute to scientific knowledge. This is an example of a citizen science project, where citizens themselves work on advancing the metaphorical frontier of scientific knowledge by analyzing data from major scientific endeavors. This contribution proves useful to science, as citizen scientists have actually found planets through the Kepler mission, and published their own paper about it.
Connection to the Thesis
This artifact connects to the thesis statement because it portrays the American frontier of knowledge being pushed forwards by the pure curiosity and genuine interest of American people. Citizen science projects allows for virtually anyone to contribute to scientific projects and channel their creative and curious energies. Currently, over 60,000 people are involved in citizen science projects, which portrays the wide-spread curiosity of Americans about the cosmos. These citizen scientists are unbound to a paycheck, it is essentially their hobby; they are amateur scientists. They chose to educate themselves about the universe by choice, and their motivation is their unquenched thirst to push their knowledge forward. They are the pioneers of the metaphorical frontier. Astronomical research impacts society as a whole because it improves it-- more advanced scientific knowledge results in a more educated population, which results in increased creativity. Sites like Zooinverse allow such curious pioneers to be given the priceless opportunity to expand the knowledge of society, with no age limit, no price, and no degree necessary.
Lucianne Walkowicz begins her TED talk by reflecting on how the enticing, night sky packed with stars and other astronomical mysteries is slowly slipping away from the grasp of society. She claims that we cannot even notice such a loss, because we are too pre-occupied by our phones and other technological devices. She debunks the statement that the loss of dark and clear night skies is a product of growth and technological improvement. Before explaining her reasoning for this statement, Walkowicz fondly reflects upon her first time truly seeing a dark sky when she was on a road trip in Arizona. She claimed that it made her feel tiny and small, just by looking at the thousands of stars packed into the sky. In New York, she never had this elusive experience due to the abundant light pollution. She began to wonder why she never got this experience until a late time in her life. Walkowicz talks about how outdoor lighting inevitably results in the drowning out of natural starlight, as artificial light is closer to our eyes. This is due to the somewhat spherical shape of a light bulb, which encourages light scattering. The intended purpose of a light bulb in the outdoors is to illuminate the immediate area-- however, this spherical shape of a light bulb results in the majority of the light being lost and scattered into the atmosphere, thus resulting in light pollution. And thus, most areas in the world are denied the privilege of stargazing in clear skies due to light pollution. She claims that most technology, however, is not harmful to the progression of astronomy. She cites the Hubble Space Telescope as an example-- it allowed astronomers to have access to deep space photographs of numerous astronomical objects, objects that a naked eye cannot see. She also cites the website, Zooinverse.com as a way that technology has allowed society to contribute to scientific knowledge. This is an example of a citizen science project, where citizens themselves work on advancing the metaphorical frontier of scientific knowledge by analyzing data from major scientific endeavors. This contribution proves useful to science, as citizen scientists have actually found planets through the Kepler mission, and published their own paper about it.
Connection to the Thesis
This artifact connects to the thesis statement because it portrays the American frontier of knowledge being pushed forwards by the pure curiosity and genuine interest of American people. Citizen science projects allows for virtually anyone to contribute to scientific projects and channel their creative and curious energies. Currently, over 60,000 people are involved in citizen science projects, which portrays the wide-spread curiosity of Americans about the cosmos. These citizen scientists are unbound to a paycheck, it is essentially their hobby; they are amateur scientists. They chose to educate themselves about the universe by choice, and their motivation is their unquenched thirst to push their knowledge forward. They are the pioneers of the metaphorical frontier. Astronomical research impacts society as a whole because it improves it-- more advanced scientific knowledge results in a more educated population, which results in increased creativity. Sites like Zooinverse allow such curious pioneers to be given the priceless opportunity to expand the knowledge of society, with no age limit, no price, and no degree necessary.