Voices
ers. At last count there were seven
scientific publications that included FoldIt Players as co-authors.
Second, the public can contribute to the actual collection of
scientific data — but only once
the scientific community has defined the parameters of debate. We
cannot decide on the efficacy of a
medical treatment by counting the
number of “Likes” on Facebook;
no matter what, professionals will
need to conduct continued clinical trials and evaluate their outcomes carefully. But gathering the
full range of side effects a drug may
have is a point where public input
would be invaluable. Individuals
reporting on their own experiences
would provide first-hand accounts
that could be considered in the improvement of drug design.
Recent success stories make it
clear that citizens may well play an
increasingly important role in aiding science. But if the public gets
involved at too early a stage in the
scientific process, confusion can
ensue. A real-world case is found
in the climate crisis. Scientifically,
the climate change problem is a
complex one that has profound
implications for each one of us. A
deeper understanding of modeling
future uncertainties is actively be-
PRIYAMVADA
NATARAJAN
HUFFINGTON
06.24.12
ing developed and debated among
scientists, but the terms of the
debate have devolved from evidence and data to politics, due to
the participation of citizens with
specific agendas. As such, before
we can even begin to explore a
solution, we must convince large
swathes of the public that there is
a problem to begin with.
While some crowd-sourcing
advocates will chafe at a limited
We cannot decide
on the efficacy of a medical
treatment by counting the
number of ‘Likes’ on Facebook.”
role for public involvement in
the scientific process, citing the
buzz surrounding effective crowdsourcing in its other applications,
we ultimately still need experts.
No one wants to walk across a
crowd-sourced bridge. Citizen science is new territory for us all —
scientists and citizens — and the
possibilities for success are legion. But we must think very carefully about where the boundaries
should be. What is clear is that
there must be boundaries, and
that is a truth we don’t
need to crowd-source.