See You at the SAS Forum!
Forrest M. Mims III
The SAS Forum was first tested on 17 May 2006 by Michelle in RI, who wrote, "What topics do we want on the forum?" Discussions began on 3 July 2007, just over one year ago.
A simple post by Bill Dembowski on 4 July 2006 was followed by what remains the record number of views and replies. Bill's post: "Is anybody interested in observational astronomy? I'm mainly a Moon guy but will discuss anything above the clouds. You don't have to be doing it … just interested."
Have you followed the posts that followed? Just jump on the Forum and click on the Astronomy thread.
Other posts have also initiated considerable discussion, especially a thread begun on 9 March 2007 about Lance Osadchey's project in The Citizen Scientist about "An Experiment to Measure The Absolute Motion of the Earth." Lance's project attracted considerable attention, especially from C. Michael Edwards (posting as CMEdwards), who on 11 May 2007 posted a long review about Lance's project and suggestions for improving the experiment.
After less than two months, Michael posted the following intriguing note on the SAS Forum:
Posted on: 06-24-07 09:21 PM
I've reached the end of the first phase of my experiment, and cannot proceed much further without rebuilding both my apparatus and experimental plan.
I'm now composing a progress report for the Citizen Scientist. Hopefully, I can have it in print by the time I start my next series of measurements after the rebuild.
Michael quickly followed through, and I responded with this post:
Posted on: 06-25-07 10:50 AM
CMEdwards has submitted his progress report to THE CITIZEN SCIENTIST today (25 June 2007) , and I hope to have it ready in time for the next issue (first Friday in July).
This is very nice work that goes far beyond a mere progress report.
This is also the first major hands-on response to the SAS Forum. So thanks to Lance, CM, and all the others who have participated in and followed this discussion. Thanks also to Shawn, our resident nuclear physicist-with-portfolio, who encouraged publication of a controversial topic because Lance went to the trouble to experimentally demonstrate his hypothesis.
So until Friday, July 6...
As noted in my post, Michael's "progress report" is much more than ruminations about how to improve on Lance's experiment. It is a complete replication using an improved apparatus that is described in detail in his article in this installment of The Citizen Scientist, "A Progress Report on Replicating An Experiment to Measure the Absolute Motion of the Earth."
Michael's report is well worth reading and commenting on, so be sure to post your thoughts on the SAS Forum and periodically log in to see what others are saying.
Finally, recently I began a new thread on the SAS Forum called "The 'P' Word."
Posted on: 06-12-07 08:38 PM
SAS Friends,
This is to commend the faithful writers for THE CITIZEN SCIENTIST ( www.sas.org/tcs), especially our very hard working, dependable columnists. I've been editing TCS for 4.5 years and am pleased to say that I've never detected a hint of plagiarism until a few weeks ago. A potential contributor from another country sent TCS some very nicely written articles on several different topics. As I usually do with TCS articles, I ran some quotations through Google to make sure they were original with the author--and quickly learned that the articles were taken verbatim from several web sites!
These copied articles came from a university grad student, not a typical amateur scientist. In an era when virtually every issue of the leading science journals carries an article on the latest fraud or misconduct in the world of professional science, TCS has an enviable record. This should make all of us proud to be active members of the amateur science community.
Forrest M. Mims III
Amateur Scientist
Shawn Carlson responded with this:
Posted on: 06-16-07 01:02 PM
Forrest,
What a wonderful comment! I would urge you to share this with the membership through TCS and use it as a hook to get people to join our Forum. I want everyone to know not only that citizen scientists are such an honest group, but also that we do due diligence to make to protect the integrity of our publication and our organization.
I hope others will comment here about the 'P' word and our work.
Shawn Carlson
As you can see, we cover lots of territory on the SAS Forum. So please stop by for a visit. Review the threads and add your comments to those in which you have a special interest. Begin a new thread if you have something significant for the rest of us.
See you on the Forum
Meanwhile, what are your thoughts about Shawn's letter? How can we stem the growing trend of scientific fraud and misconduct? Please send your ideas to "Backscatter," and we'll try to publish them. Or go to the SAS Community Forum and contribute to the discussion there. 
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