Galaxy Zoo

Source: "Astronomy: Stars in their eyes," The Economist, June 26th 2008.

There are several examples in which networks of very large numbers of personal computers have been networked, using time donated by their owners to solve computationally intensive scientific problems. Galaxy Zoo goes further using the Internet to allow large numbers of amateur astronomers to search the massive data set being developed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

This seems very important to me. It reminds me of the participation of thousands of bird watchers to do counts of birds to provide information on their population dynamics. Indeed, it might be comparable to the use of local informants by systematic biologists to help them locate species of plants and animals and to describe their behavior. What is new is the use of social networking ideas to link large numbers of interested (but not necessarily formally trained) people to aid trained scientists is their work.

Indeed, the idea seems similar in some ways to Wikipedia, in which an online community of constantly shifting membership has created a huge and important knowledge base (which I use all the time).

Searching digital imagery of the skies taken at very great resolution for objects that are "unusual" is something that can better be done by human eyes and minds than by computer programs. How do you program a search for "the unusual"?

It will be interesting to observe how many other scientists and knowledge workers can develop similar online communities of knowledge working volunteers to accomplish important work for the public good!