{"id":396,"date":"2008-10-06T02:06:45","date_gmt":"2008-10-06T02:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/10\/06\/on_pro_am_science\/"},"modified":"2008-10-06T02:06:45","modified_gmt":"2008-10-06T02:06:45","slug":"on_pro_am_science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/10\/06\/on_pro_am_science\/","title":{"rendered":"On Pro-Am Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have been scrabbling around for recent invoices and whatnot so that I can apply for a police check certificate from ACRO<sup><a href=\"#fn17527182794d13de919a1e9\">0<\/a><\/sup>. This is so that I can get a different class of visa, and I need to do it quite quickly, otherwise I&#8217;ll be returning to the UK somewhat sooner than I intend. I also have to get my photo endorsed by a &#8216;professional&#8217;, just as for a passport application. Now, in Australia the list of people who may endorse passport photos is quite short, but the British, bless &#8217;em, are more relaxed, accepting signatures from anyone on the following list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Accountant <\/li>\n<li>Bank\/building society official <\/li>\n<li>Barrister <\/li>\n<li>Broker <\/li>\n<li>Chairman \/ Director \/ Manager \/ Personnel Officer (limited company) <\/li>\n<li>Chiropodist <\/li>\n<li>Commissioner of Oaths <\/li>\n<li>Councillor: local or county <\/li>\n<li>Civil Servant (permanent) <\/li>\n<li>Engineer (Qualified) <\/li>\n<li>Fire Service Official <\/li>\n<li>General Practitioner <\/li>\n<li>Minister of a recognised religion <\/li>\n<li>Nurse (SRN and SEN) <\/li>\n<li>Member of Parliament <\/li>\n<li>Merchant Navy Officer <\/li>\n<li>Optician\/Chemist\/Dentist <\/li>\n<li>Police Officer \/ Police Staff <\/li>\n<li>Post Office Official <\/li>\n<li>Solicitor <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Teacher or Lecturer <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nFurthermore, I am encouraged to<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nnote that this list is not exhaustive, but\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nI must <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nensure that the endorsing individual is a Professional\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nwith a capital P.<\/p>\n<p>\nWorking in a University Department I can&#8217;t help but know a few lecturers&#8211;they usually beg me for food scraps as I pass them in the corridor&#8211;so it&#8217;s not a major problem. But it got me thinking about this whole Amateur\/Professional divide. <\/p>\n<p>\nHere at <em>Nature Network<\/em> we&#8217;ve been talking about <a href=\"http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/rpg\/blog\/2008\/10\/02\/on-happiness\">pay<\/a> and &#8220;fame and glory&#8221;:http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/UE19877E8\/blog\/2008\/09\/29\/in-which-science-becomes-a-sport-\u2013-hypothetically-speaking, mostly tongue-in-cheek (if you hadn&#8217;t realized), and one of the things that comes out is that most scientists are still doing this because they want to. That we&#8217;re, essentially, amateurs getting paid to do a hobby. The remarkable thing is that there are amateurs out there who are <em>not<\/em> getting paid for it, yet still do it. Science is a drug (this is something I&#8217;ll explore more in my own forthcoming novel. I know, everyone&#8217;s at it these days).<\/p>\n<p>\nAs Henry I think pointed out elsewhere, stuff like <a href=\"http:\/\/adn.agi.com\/webServices\/\">astronomy<\/a> can be done by <a href=\"http:\/\/objectstyle.org\/astronominsk\/Moon\/Moon2008\/Moon_20080725_en.htm\">amateurs<\/a> : you just need a decent telescope (couple of hundred quid, maybe) and time and patience. Theoretical physics can be done by anyone with access to a blackboard. Biological sciences are harder, generally requiring <del>nubile young students<\/del> expensive equipment and a shedload of paperwork. <a href=\"http:\/\/folding.stanford.edu\/\">Folding@home<\/a> (warning: it says &#8216;Mad Cow&#8217; on that page) can be performed by the amateur, admittedly, but it&#8217;s basically physics, yeah?<\/p>\n<p>\n(Big physics, small biology. Spot the difference. Actually, <a href=\"http:\/\/public.web.cern.ch\/public\/en\/LHC\/LHC-en.html\">small physics<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/paleontology.suite101.com\/article.cfm\/finding_local_fossils\">big<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucmp.berkeley.edu\/faq.php#training\">biology<\/a> are the flip-side of that coin.) <\/p>\n<p>\nAnd I find that I have to do things that I don&#8217;t actually get paid to do, and so am actually an enthusiastic amateur in my day job, especially when it comes to <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.usyd.edu.au\/labrats\/2008\/03\/on_randomization_monte_carlo_a_1.html\">extreme nerding<\/a> (actually, I have to do this because it&#8217;s almost impossible to find computational people who (a) know any biology (b) are interested in relevant biological problems<sup><a href=\"#fn19387623904d13de8d3c3bb\">1<\/a><\/sup>. There are honorable <a href=\"http:\/\/nsaunders.wordpress.com\/\">exceptions<\/a> of course). <\/p>\n<p>\nWhat&#8217;s intriguing to me is that this, the &#8216;cult of the amateur&#8217; if you like, is tightly linked to our engagement with the wider public. There are a lot of very smart people out there who are not doing science as a day job. They may not have scientific training, and might in fact have some wrong-headed notions, but that does not mean they&#8217;re stupid. They may, in fact, have a lot to contribute.<\/p>\n<p>\nHow do we engage with these people, explain why what we&#8217;re <a href=\"http:\/\/friendfeed.com\/rooms\/science-sport\">doing<\/a> (both generally and specifically) is important? Should we do this? I could really do with some amateur help with my microarray dataset, someone with skills I don&#8217;t have, don&#8217;t really have the time to learn, but who wants to nerd around with code and answer the questions I think are interesting<sup><a href=\"#fn985545244d13de8d3c3d1\">2<\/a><\/sup>. Is the <a href=\"http:\/\/usefulchem.blogspot.com\/2008\/09\/open-notebook-science-challenge.html\">Open Science<\/a> movement a step in the right direction?<\/p>\n<p>\nWhat, in effect, could we spool out to enthusiastic and capable amateurs in our own fields? Would it be useful? And as these people get involved, and talk to their friends and families, would it eventually serve to increase scientific literacy?<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nfn0. Australia, apparently, has had enough of other nations&#8217; convicts. She produces enough of her own already, I guess. <\/p>\n<p><p class=\"footnote\"><sup>1<\/sup> Why are <em>in silico<\/em> fantasists so obsessed with proving the fossil record? Haven&#8217;t we <em>done<\/em> evolution already?<\/p>\n<p><p class=\"footnote\"><sup>2<\/sup> I can&#8217;t pay them, obviously&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been scrabbling around for recent invoices and whatnot so that I can apply for a police check certificate from ACRO0. This is so that I can get a different class of visa, and I need to do it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/10\/06\/on_pro_am_science\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}