7/28/2019 Commentary Reading Assignment on Topscott's Global Science Article

1/2

Jim Leandro P. CanoAERS 142 Commentary Reading Assignment No. 1

Knowledge. They say it is one of the wellsprings of line, and true enough, ithas been so for the world since the time people started discovering, inventing, andcreating what they deemed beneficial for mankind. In the process of doing all thesein the past, there was the issue of how to get that newfound knowledge out there tothe world. When Gutenberg had invented the machine that could put all thatknowledge into something which any person can virtually hold, read, and keep, therewas an explosion of all that knowledge. There was an increase in mankinds totalknowledge bank. Fast forward to the 21st century and we find ourselves in the middleof technological advancements. Everyone can be connected to any institution, anyperson from the other side of the world and communicate with them; all because ofthe presence of one technological advancement the Web. The Web has literallycaught us and intertwined humans so that communication has become faster, moreefficient, and most especially, convenient.

The scientific community, which has been one of the great history-shapinggroups, has found a way to communicate their researches with the Web. This is what

the article tries to explain, the concept of collaborative science, where scientists areopening their researches to the public and not holding back their findings to the fourcorners of the laboratory. The argument and the gist of this article is the veryessence of the simple concept taught in class Science Communication.Collaborative science is the action of science communication, where researches arelaymanized for the public; and, not only that, but the public is also given theopportunity to help out in whatever way they can to further the research. Take forexample the first project featured in the article, Galaxy Zoo. I took the liberty ofchecking the website and true enough, it does allow you to help classify pictures ofgalaxies taken by the different space telescopes out there like the Hubble. KevinSchawinski and his team would not have classified that many galaxies if they werenot willing to go naked as Jean Claude-Bradley would call himself. Naked in thesense that they were willing to be transparent to the world and give the ordinaryJuan dela Cruz a chance to participate in writing history; in Galaxy Zoos case,classifying galaxies. In the words of Schawinski, Mass collaboration on the Internetis a powerful multiplier. From this setup, we can see that the model is not one wayanymore, generator to communicator to user, but even vice versa. Thats whatmakes collaborative science more interesting because this allows the learning curveof not only the user, but also of the researcher, to be faster than before. Get the twosides of the communication channel to learn faster, and more ideas and researchescan be sharpened for the purpose of making the world a better place for future

generations.With regard to funding models, all I can think of was, What if there was a

company/website/wikifunding scheme established for the sole purpose of poolingfunds that will help projects and researches of scientists along with the interestedcitizens? And that the projects/researches that would be funded are really for theworld and not just one side of the world; not just the west, but most especially to theparts that need help the most. I hope that funding bodies would not just beinterested in helping those in their locale. That projects funded by this companywould be aimed to end hunger, eradicate poverty, erase the presence of major andprevalent diseases, etc. It is not impossible given that collaborative science is nowexistent. All those researches made through collaboration around the globe justneeds some boost, financially. And hopefully, thats where this wikifunding companycomes in.

7/28/2019 Commentary Reading Assignment on Topscott's Global Science Article

2/2

Jim Leandro P. CanoAERS 142 Commentary Reading Assignment No. 1

The boundaries of discovery and inventions are pushed farther with theglobalization of science. It is not impossible anymore to see in the future computersthat can compute and project how a piece of land would like given the trends ofclimate. Such a machine could help agriculturists program the necessary croppingsystems around the world so that countries would be assured of food security.Developers would know the future landscape of Real Estate with that kind ofinformation at hand. And the list of stakeholders can go on and on.

With the medical companies, the thing that was running through my head as Iwas reading the article was the question of whether big medical companies talkamongst each other like how oil companies talk to each other. Its possible that theythemselves are the hindrances to the release of drugs that can absolutely curecancer, Alzheimers, etc. because such drugs can be bad for the business, assumingthat people can be healed absolutely. Who then would they sell to if no one is sick? Itmakes you think if we try to look at it from that perspective, right?

Its amazing to be alive in this time when there is no scarcity when it comes toinformation and knowledge. When at the click of a button, you have what you needto know, in just milliseconds. But the challenge for our generation is really how tomake the most out of the information produced from this collaborative efforts ofscientists and ordinary people. How can we use it for the betterment of societies,countries and the world? Thats the challenge for our generation, and we have tomake the right decisions. If we are to shape history, the available information fromcollaborative science can be our tools, but our decisions will define how we shapehistory with these tools.