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21 December 2001

A Journal for Amateurs? The Discussion Continues

Hi Shawn:

I saw your article about starting a research journal as an e-bulletin. My advice is two-fold. I've experienced what one writer expressed,the feeling of getting grant money and working toward a projected research goal without ever being able to complete it.

I thinl times are different now. There is more need for applied or practical researtch biology than in the past. I began my very practical environmental biology research right in the middle of the genetic engineering revolution. I believe, nowadays, competition for fuinds won't be so fierce with a citizen scientist's journa. Before funding sometimes was just based on greed. People are getting wiser now.

Thanks,

James Farr

PS: I was very happy to see me artcle published in this e-bulletin. It was well presented and the lay-out was superb.

 

Hi Shawn.

Seasons greetings to you and your family. And Sheldon and Nancy too.

Anyway. Journal. What would be useful would be to legitimise the requests of citizen scientists for adjunct projects to established programmes. There are few areas I have looked at that seem rich seams of subject matter for amateur science, properly managed.

It is unimaginable that the programmes would allow anyone to produce experimental data , if they cannot trust the data sources. Hence a role for SAS and its intended peer review system.

As a for-instance. I have an active interest in hydroponic gardening, on a small scale. NASA and Rutgers have a program for growing repeatable yield of tomato plants in hydroponic culture for future manned missions. They haven't tried it with your little "zero g" systems for example, as per you and your grandfathers interest. Wouldn't it be interesting to try it ? But if the data is not acceptable, what's the point ?

MAYBE oneday, organisations can suggest programmes and experimental protocols and amateur science may get a revival. It is a strange reversal that amateur science is so denigrated these days when NO science before the turn of the last century was anything but ! The contributions of Dalton, Joule, Priestley, Franklin, Ellery Hale, Russell Porter (naming some American citizen scientists), were all those of amateurs

Best regards

Steve Taylor