Bioweathermap is not the most accurately named project but it is pretty cool. From their site:
The BioWeatherMap initiative is a global, grassroots, distributed environmental sensing effort aimed at answering some very basic questions about the geographic and temporal distribution patterns of microbial life. Utilizing the power of high-throughput, low cost DNA sequencing and harnessing the drive of an enlightened public we propose a new collaborative research approach aimed at generating a steady stream of environmental samples from many geographic locations to produce high quality data for ongoing discovery and surveillance. Our approach will provide a unique opportunity to engage the public in the scientific research process while we address fundamental questions such as “How diverse is the microbial life around us?” and “How do microbial communities in different habitats change over time?” and “How can advanced sequencing technologies best be utilized to address issues in biodiversity, public health, and biosurveillance?”In other words, it is about microbes (suggestion to them - it might be good to have something about microbes in the title of the project - maybe "microbioweathermap" or something like that). Anyway, to do the project they have been collecting dollar bills from various people:
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| From PLoS Blog. |
- The Bioweathermap Sees The Germs Around Us - Forbes
- The Bioweathermap Facebook page
- Some of their videos on Vimeo
Seems to me there are more and more Citizen Microbiology projects out there. For some other posts of mine about CM projects (got to give them an abbreviation) see:
I really like "microbioweather"!
ReplyDeleteThx!
Jason