I had an interesting discussion over beer with a colleague last week, we’re both seismologists.
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I had an interesting discussion over beer with a colleague last week, we’re both seismologists. The topic was, given the hostility toward science of the current regime and the difficulty of obtaining funding, how do we keep the science alive and moving forward?
One idea we had is to encourage and support independent scientists, who in a less-enlightened age would have been called “gentlemen scientists.” The concept would be to give interested people of independent means (e.g., retired) and STEM backgrounds the opportunity to do science in collaboration with scientists on campus. There would be shared office space, and independent scientists could at their discretion spend time on campus and meet with scientists and technicians to evaluate ideas and design experiments. They would presumably collaborate with full-time scientists to learn the current state of the science and the ins and outs of peer review and publishing.
As an example, much of seismology is signal processing; anyone with a background in signal processing (EE degree?) and even a rudimentary ability to code could produce real, useful science.
I would welcome any commentary here. Do you think people would be interested? If so, how do we reach them and invite them to participate?
Also: I’m not in love with the designation “independent scientist”, do you have suggestions for something better?
@wanderinghermit amateur/maven scientists ?
But this also bring a negative connotation.
What you propose is a bit similar to some practices done in astronomy. -
Free-range?
@wanderinghermit sure, why not, have a nice day
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@wanderinghermit citizen scientist? Man, if I was in a different stage of life I'd love to help out.
@intrepidhero @wanderinghermit
I think there are a lot of amateur astronomers who contribute to knowledge of the universe just by reporting what they see or record. Maybe you could check with professional astronomers and see what model they use to incorporate the data of part-timers.
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@intrepidhero @wanderinghermit
I think there are a lot of amateur astronomers who contribute to knowledge of the universe just by reporting what they see or record. Maybe you could check with professional astronomers and see what model they use to incorporate the data of part-timers.
@Anne_Delong @wanderinghermit two more names I thought of this morning: irregular (which I like cause it sounds kinda punk) or community scientist.
I was thinking this effort is comparable to open source development, where the result is a collaboration between academia, industry, and freelance contributors.
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@wanderinghermit sure, why not, have a nice day
Thanks for the suggestions! I think freelance might be the best I've seen so far.
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Thanks for the suggestions! I think freelance might be the best I've seen so far.
@wanderinghermit it sounds like wind in your hair feels, too, so there's that
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@wanderinghermit citizen scientist? Man, if I was in a different stage of life I'd love to help out.
@intrepidhero @wanderinghermit Yeah, that's the term I've seen in connection with iNaturalist
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