Citizen Science: opportunities and hazards in a patented world
Brian White
Come behind the scenes of the early days of Windowfarms as “Superforest”
Jackson works briefly with the project, suggests and demonstrates a novel
solution and saves the entire project from an expensive crisis. Skip forward a
couple of years, the Windowfarms project (hydroponic vegetable growing in your
windows) is a worldwide success in open source co-operation and Jackson is
unaware that he is a hero of the windowfarm movement and mentioned in 2 TED
Talks! (I know because I told him). How can we keep brilliant quirky citizen
scientists like Jackson interested and working to improve our lives? Let’s
find more Jacksons, and nurture them to help us all grow! I will show a few
pictures of windowfarm vegetables which are mindblowing and economically
disruptive. Also a few pics of neat innovations which came from the worldwide
community. I will dip into the “bee walls” projects that originated in central
Europe. Pollinators worldwide have suffered catastrophic decline and these
produce habitat for pollinators. I will also delve into citizen science solar
cooking research and compare the unique problems and opportunities that face
citizen scientists with those that face “real” scientists.
About Brian White:
Brian White is a stonemason in Victoria and a trained as a lab technician
(applied biology) in Ireland, works as a stone mason and invented the
pulser pump in the late 1980s which is now being researched in Queens
University.
My mum imparted her frugal beliefs and my father gave me much more time
to learn and play with my projects than any overworked father should have.
Laziness is a great motivator. I wanted an automatic watering system for my
garden. How do I get the water out of the stream and around the plants without
using energy and without having to haul it myself? A tiny ram pump that I made
failed after half an hour due to dirt in the clack valve.
Ducks kicking up dirt!
The quest for a “no moving part “duckproof” pump” led from coffee jar suction
pump to the “what the hell is this?” which I later renamed pulser pump. 20
years later, it has been replicated in England and a tiny research project in
Queens University, Ontario validated the concept. But nobody yet knows their
full capabilities.
My solar projects are progressing slowly. Interest comes from Stirling engine
enthusiasts, aid workers etc. If I had more technical wherewithal, they would
be done now.
Thanks to my family and friends, and ducks and those who encourage and argue
for getting me this far.
I am a citizen scientist too!
My “pulser pump” went on Wikipedia last year, and my video about it is the
most watched “airlift pump” related video on the internet. According to
youtube, it is seen in more than 150 countries every month.
I am also involved in the linen project. (Growing flax for food and fibre),
making habitat for solitary bees, and I made a “2 storey compost bin” that is
in an e-book from instructables. I have also made several solar cooker
innovations.
I have never succeeded in getting funding for the projects, (which slows
things down a lot).
On the plus side, I have never been curbed by the strings attached to funding,
which can stop things altogether!
More details about the tracking solar accumulator
and the clam shaped solar cookers can be found on the
solarcooking.org wiki.
