Stargasm

Well first I'd like to address the fact that I couldn't have chosen a worse timing to start a blog. I won't get into details about the reasons behind the strike at school, but the short version goes a bit like this: we had a strike against a 82% tuition fees hike, and it worked. BUT, since we were on strike all last spring, we're stuck with a crazy, compressed, two semesters in one type deal this fall. In September, I was finishing my winter 2012 semester (10 university classes a week, with cases of conflictual scheduling), and now since October 1st, I'm completing another 5 university classes in 12 weeks (as opposed to 15 in a regular setting), with no break in between or lecture week or anything. So no breather. I'm quite exhausted, and have very little time for anything other than mandatory readings and writing papers for class. That being said, I still wanted to take a moment to write a bit about what I've been working on lately.

The PH Paradigm

One of my classes last semester was Sociology of science and technology. I had a paper to write for that class, and decided to write it on the search for exoplanets. I was originally gonna write about theories of everything, another subject I'm quite fond of, but upon my involvement in a project called Planet Hunters, I decided to go for a sociological study of the PH project, a "citizen science" project. I like it when they put a little bit of "human" in their science! :P

Anyhow, to make yet another long story short, the principle of PH is using human eyes to look at light curves and spot transiting planets in the Kepler Field. The effort is quantitative, meaning the success of the method depends on the volume of classifications more than the quality, and in this perspective, the volunteers are viewed as tools better left untrained. There is however also a qualitative aspect to the PH postulate, in that human eyes are better at spotting patterns than any computer algorithm (a certain team from Princeton, however, would probably disagree), and also an unexpected sense of community, of shared knowledge (in the figure of PH Talk) that has functions of public education, outside of the main scientific goal of PH.

I'll probably end up talking more about PH as time goes by, I'm gathering more data in the meantime (still waiting on my first paper's grade and comments before I translate/complete it). I started a thread on the PH Forum today, asking PH users to talk about their motivations in engaging in a citizen science project like this, I can't wait to see what they have to say! I'll keep the blog posted on any further developments in the study.

What's Funded by NASA Stays at NASA...

Through my study of Planet Hunters, I also stumbled upon another "citizen" project called Pale Blue Dot. It's another case altogether, as PBD has a completely different finality: funding a scientific enterprise through grassroots public funding initiatives. The functioning is simple: you can "adopt" a star, for a minimum donation of 10$ (100$ for a star with a planet), and all the profits go to research, through the Kepler Astroseismic Science Consortium, an international collective of exoplanet scientists. These guys can't get funding through NASA because NASA only funds 100% american projects (nationalistic bastards...). Since I'm all for the collective, non-deterministic funding of science, I was delighted by the project, and happy to contribute my 10$ to 'adopt' KIC9958387, a star around which I spotted a possible HZ candidate last summer. Even if I don't end up "officially" discovering the planet, I still feel like I contributed to the advancement of science, even if it's just symbolically through PH and financially through PBD.

I don't feel like my work is done in vain, since I gained knowledge (and still do!) from this whole PH experience, and a better sense of the place of "profanes" in the scientific enterprise. Last spring was all about the fight for accessibility in education, and important questions were raised about the funding of research and post-secondary institutions. I'm studying to become a sociologist, but also ultimately to become a teacher. The mobilization of knowledge in universities and the governance policies in such institutions are therefore issues that are very close to my heart. I found something interesting in projects like PH, like an intuition confirmed: there are imperatives of collegiality at the heart of all sciences. It's more than just the effectiveness of the scientific method, it's also fundamental to our collective consciousness. The division and diversification of social work modified our universities' finality, from one of transmitting the collective knowledge reflexively and critically, to one of training experts, who invest in their "human capital", which they can later sell on the market against a higher wage in the context of the knowledge economy. Basically, diplomas aren't earned anymore, they're bought against a better chance of faring on the highly competitive job market.

I'll leave it at that for now, if I get into an argument against the utilitarian, neoliberal conceptions of education, we'll still be here tomorrow morning! :P

For now, let's just enjoy a (somewhat) related video by one of my favorite artists, Mastodon. This song is great, my favorite from their latest album and one of my favorites in general, plus the video features TRANSITS! ...I mean C'MON!!! :P Hehehe.