Citizen Scientists Advance Astronomy at Home

Starting in 2007, volunteers around the (1) world began contributing via the Internet to cutting-edge astronomical research. Galaxy Zoo, a website developed at Oxford University, achieved an immediate and extraordinary success, surprising even the astronomers who created it. Initially, project leaders invited the public to study images gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in order to classify galaxies as elliptical or spiral. (2)

In the case of spiral galaxies, (3) by which participants were also to note the direction of the galaxy’s (4) rotation, clockwise, or counterclockwise. During Galaxy Zoo’s first year, 150,000 volunteers took a short online tutorial and began (5) eyeballing the SDSS images on their own computers and submitting their classifications. Soon after the start of the project, (6) its managers had to upgrade hardware to handle the contributions, which (7) proved to be a real challenge.

Project creators are quick to point out that humans perform some scientific tasks far better than computers do, even in disciplines such as (8) astronomy, however, that rely heavily on technology. (9) The huge database amassed as part of Galaxy Zoo allowed researchers to advance their understanding of galaxy formation, evolution, and (10) types. [A] Resulting articles appeared in such (11) elaborate locations as the journals of the Royal Astronomical Society. [B] Following Galaxy Zoo’s success are other similar projects, such as Galaxy Zoo: Hubble. [C] These online (12) endeavors, which ask for increasing sophistication of judgment from citizen scientists, engaging them in an array of astronomical challenges. [D] “If you’re quick,” reads the home page of one such (13) website “you may even be the first person in history to see each of the galaxies you’re asked to classify.” With that kind of encouragement, hundreds of thousands of viewers look for new planets, describe “bubbles” in the Milky Way, and examine the surface of the Moon—(14) tasks each volunteer can perform conveniently on his or her own computer. (15)

Notre Dame Cathedral: Saved By a Book

Every year, thirteen million people visit Notre Dame de Paris (16) on an annual basis. They wait in long lines to view the brilliant stained glass of the famed rose windows, to (17) gaze at the horned and gaping gargoyles, (18) and to feel small beneath the vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses of the cathedral considered by many to be the premier example of French Gothic architecture in the world.

There would likely be no cathedral to visit, (19) for instance, if not for Victor Hugo’s epic novel Notre-Dame de Paris, commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. In the late 1700s, during the French Revolution, much of the architectural icon was destroyed. What builders and craftsmen, starting in 1163, had (20) then taken more then one hundred fifty years to create (21) were tumbling into ruins in politically tumultuous times. The population of a city engulfed in chaos chose Notre Dame as one of its targets, defacing statues, breaking windows, and smashing furniture in an attempt to remove any vestiges of royalty and of its religion.

Years later, in 1831, Victor Hugo published his novel, (22) the masterpiece offers a sweeping and brutal look at issues of class and power in France. The first novel to have beggars as protagonists, the book also (23) features the cathedral itself as a central character. So popular was the story that one of its effects was to spur the restoration of the (24) cathedral, and Hugo had portrayed as teetering on the brink of utter deterioration. In addition to being exalted as a monumental work of architecture, the cathedral (25) emerging in Hugo’s pages as embodying history—history worth preserving with a vengeance. The actual work of restoration was (26) helped by Gothic Revival architect (27) his name is Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

The popular sentiment that set the stage for the restoration was fueled by a (28) novel, that like the monument it celebrated, eventually gained international (29) cheers.

Lobster Lore

 In the early seventeenth century, lobsters were plentiful (31) among the New World. They could be gathered by hand in shallow waters or caught by the dozens in nets tossed over the sides of boats. After heavy storms, (32) for example, shorelines were often littered with lobsters, sometimes in piles two feet high. Among European (33) colonists—though—plenitude did not lead to popularity. Apocryphal stories have overemphasized this idea that lobster was rarely eaten by choice. They claim that servants’ contracts specified limits as to how often servants would partake of lobster and that Boston dockworkers went on strike, fed up with the indignity of being forced to eat lobster as often as three times a week. Snippets of quotations are often spun to bolster such stories of (34) colonists’ disdain for the crustacean. When welcoming a new boat of colonists in 1622, William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony, (35) confessed, some say, to his humiliation at having to serve lobster. But what he expressed was regret over serving (36) it, “without bread or anything else but a cupp of fair water.” The message was this: Lobster was plentIful.(37) It was a good source of protein.

These stories present an exaggerated truth. (38)  With so much lobster and so little else, colonists indeed tired of lobster. They preferred using it as fishing bait to seeing them on their dinner tables. In Europe, however, lobster was scarce, expensive, and in high demand. Soon, technological innovations would soon allow New Englanders to profit from their lobster wealth seeing (39) them on their dinner tables. In Europe, however, lobster was scarce, expensive, and in high demand. (40) Soon, technological innovations would soon allow New Englanders to profit from their lobster wealth.

Specialized boats, (41) called smacks, were constructed to enable lobstermen to catch and hold large numbers of live lobsters. (42) With improvements in canning methods in the mid-1800s meant that lobster could be preserved and shipped to people far from (43) the New England coast. Lobster pounds soon dotted the shoreline. The once-plentiful but poorly appreciated (44) lobster eventually becoming a mainstay of the New England economy. (45) Who knew?

Circadian Rhythm and Blues

People who have trouble falling asleep (46) might potentially have the chance to benefit from a simple suggestion: turn off the light, especially if it’s blue. Though scientists have long known that light levels influence our ability to fall asleep, recent studies suggest that certain kinds of light (47) effect the body more than others. Light composed of blue wavelengths, which computers, televisions, and cellular phones emit, is especially effective at causing wakefulness.

The problem with blue light (48) is a subject researchers have recently begun to study.

One function (49) is, vision—the eye receives the input necessary for sight. Additionally, the eye helps regulate the body, using sensors in the retina that detect variations in daylight. Based on the amount of light the retinas sense, the body sets its internal clock to a twenty-four-hour cycle called the circadian rhythm, (50) which cues body functions, such as digestion and blood pressure.

 Crucial to the functioning of the circadian rhythm is melatonin, a light-sensitive hormone secreted by the brain. Melatonin promotes sleep. When the retina detects bright light, the body suppresses melatonin to encourage wakefulness. (51) Still, melatonin production increases when light levels (52) drop, inducing drowsiness. Blue wavelengths of light (53) are particularly adept at slowing melatonin release.

The widespread use of technology is another reason that blue light is problematic. For example, blue light-emitting diodes are replacing lightbulbs that emit other wavelengths of light. Also, many people are using high-tech devices (54) these days. 

All (55) its extra blue light can disrupt the circadian rhythm of technophiles.

Aware of (56) the blue light problem, some technology designers are working to better (57) control circadian rhythms.

(58) Hoping to invent lights and screens that can emit different wavelengths of light depending on the hour of the day. Meanwhile, experts suggest turning off technological devices an hour before bed to promote melatonin release and a healthy circadian rhythm. (59) Melatonin is important to circadian rhythms.

Reviving a Tradition

When Donald Yellowbird Montileaux first began to make art, he adopted the traditions of his Lakota ancestors, painting images of tribal (61) life on buffalo hides that he tanned himself. It was when he discovered a second tradition, one begun after buffalo grew scarce on the plains, (62) that he started to develop his own artistic style on the pages of antique ledgers. (63) In contrast, he joined a growing number of contemporary artists in reviving ledger art.

[1] White (64) traders, who carried with them ledgers: accounting books filled with records of financial transactions. [2] Ledger art originated in the mid-nineteenth century, when Plains Indian tribes came into increasing contact with white settlers moving west. [3] Plains artists found that the ledger (65) paper, with it’s high silk content, allowed them to create more detailed drawings than buffalo hide did. [4] Using ledgers filled up or left behind, the artists provided (66) richly illustrated accounts of their individual and tribal (67) histories—important gatherings—symbolic dreams, and triumphs in battle. (68)

 Using pages from these same ledgers, Montileaux faithfully sets down his tribe’s (69) history in a style drawn from original ledger art, creating scenes of warriors and buffalo, horse herds and camping (70) sites, in a style modeled closely on that of the original ledger artists. (71) By expertly blending multiple layers of pencil in colors not available in the nineteenth (72) century he is able to produce rich, complex, hues. Against a backdrop of faded numbers and signatures, his distinctive figures, rendered in fiery reds, earthy yellows, and powdery blues, (73) seems to lift off the page.

Though firmly committed to tradition, Montileaux (74) aims to inspire modern Lakota generations to blaze new paths. His dual motivations are, perhaps, best reflected in the painting Looking Beyond One’s Self. In it, three Plains youths stand together, the vast star field above them representing their path to the future, a landscape of ledger lines their link to the past.