Citizen Science Experiment Research Articles

How Nutritious Are French Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) from the Citizen Science Experiment?

French beans are tender, immature, edible pods that are harvested early in the plant's growth cycle and are usually eaten cooked. The growth habits of French beans were studied for the first time in a Citizen Science experiment, and 19 pod samples were collected for further nutritional analysis. Various macronutrients (e.g., protein, ash, fat, carbohydrates, amino acids) and multi-element profiles were determined. A survey of their growing habits revealed that beans are usually planted once or twice a year in May and June at a length of 5-10 m, with a predominance of dwarf beans cultivation over climbing varieties, and pest resistance and stringless pods are the most important characteristics when deciding on a bean. Homogenised freeze-dried pod samples contained 16.1-23.1% protein, 4.5-8.2% ash, 0.1-1.1% fat, and 62.0-70.6% carbohydrates and had a caloric value of 337-363 kcal/100 g. Of the 17 free amino acids identified, 8 were essential (histidine, threonine, methionine, valine, lysine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine) and 9 were non-essential (cysteine, aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, arginine, alanine, proline, tyrosine); meanwhile, of the 12 elements, 5 were macroelements and 7 were microelements. The predominant free amino acids were aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and serine. In the multiple comparisons (Box and Whisker plot), the parameters caloric value and iron showed the strongest response. A very strong positive significant Pearson correlation (≥0.95) was found for five pairs of variables within the free amino acids. Comparison of the nutrient data obtained in the pods showed near-perfect or high complementarity (85.2-103.4%) with the food composition databases for half of the parameters, suggesting that the home-grown French beans from the Citizen Science experiment are a highly nutritious vegetable.

Hands On Biofilm! A multidisciplinary public engagement event using kombucha tea pellicle as an accessible example of biofilm

Public engagement with science has become increasingly important for the scientific community. There are many documented public engagement events that focus on aspects of microbiology, but relatively few utilise biofilms as a topic, despite their importance. Kombucha tea pellicles are easy to grow biofilms, facilitating their use within the public domain as examples of these complex communities.The aim of this work was to deliver a public engagement event that introduced visitors to general concepts about biofilm, and applications around sustainability, using kombucha. The event encouraged visitors to: build a biofilm using model clay; inoculate kombucha tea cultures using different incubation conditions, as part of a citizen science experiment to assess impact on pellicle biofilm yield; create garments and drapes on mini-mannequins using dried kombucha pellicle fabric, and demonstrate the range and importance of fermented foods (including kombucha tea), and ‘good bacteria’. Quantitative and qualitative indicators of engagement were built into the activities.More than 1200 visitors, mainly in family groups, visited the event over a 4-h period. Knowledge of biofilms was low at the beginning of the event. Participation in all activities was high. Indicators of quantitative engagement were impressive, but it was difficult to obtain qualitative evidence other than observations from the delivery team (nineteen members) because of the intensity of the event and volume of visitors.The event was clearly successful in terms of fulfilment of aims, audience engagement and enthusiasm: the embedded evaluations helped to evidence the impact and reach of the event, enabling confidence in dissemination of good practice in the enhancement of public understanding of the importance of biofilm in general, and kombucha in particular.

Heliophysics and amateur radio: citizen science collaborations for atmospheric, ionospheric, and space physics research and operations

The amateur radio community is a global, highly engaged, and technical community with an intense interest in space weather, its underlying physics, and how it impacts radio communications. The large-scale observational capabilities of distributed instrumentation fielded by amateur radio operators and radio science enthusiasts offers a tremendous opportunity to advance the fields of heliophysics, radio science, and space weather. Well-established amateur radio networks like the RBN, WSPRNet, and PSKReporter already provide rich, ever-growing, long-term data of bottomside ionospheric observations. Up-and-coming purpose-built citizen science networks, and their associated novel instruments, offer opportunities for citizen scientists, professional researchers, and industry to field networks for specific science questions and operational needs. Here, we discuss the scientific and technical capabilities of the global amateur radio community, review methods of collaboration between the amateur radio and professional scientific community, and review recent peer-reviewed studies that have made use of amateur radio data and methods. Finally, we present recommendations submitted to the U.S. National Academy of Science Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024–2033 for using amateur radio to further advance heliophysics and for fostering deeper collaborations between the professional science and amateur radio communities. Technical recommendations include increasing support for distributed instrumentation fielded by amateur radio operators and citizen scientists, developing novel transmissions of RF signals that can be used in citizen science experiments, developing new amateur radio modes that simultaneously allow for communications and ionospheric sounding, and formally incorporating the amateur radio community and its observational assets into the Space Weather R2O2R framework. Collaborative recommendations include allocating resources for amateur radio citizen science research projects and activities, developing amateur radio research and educational activities in collaboration with leading organizations within the amateur radio community, facilitating communication and collegiality between professional researchers and amateurs, ensuring that proposed projects are of a mutual benefit to both the professional research and amateur radio communities, and working towards diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities.

Home-to-school pedestrian mobility GPS data from a citizen science experiment in the Barcelona area

The analysis of pedestrian GPS datasets is fundamental to further advance on the study and the design of walkable cities. The highest resolution GPS data can characterize micro-mobility patterns and pedestrians’ micro-motives in relation to a small-scale urban context. Purposed-based recurrent mobility data inside people’s neighbourhoods is an important source in these sorts of studies. However, micro-mobility around people’s homes is generally unavailable, and if data exists, it is generally not shareable often due to privacy issues. Citizen science and its public involvement practices in scientific research are valid options to circumvent these challenges and provide meaningful datasets for walkable cities. The study presents GPS records from single-day home-to-school pedestrian mobility of 10 schools in the Barcelona Metropolitan area (Spain). The research provides pedestrian mobility from an age-homogeneous group of people. The study shares processed records with specific filtering, cleaning, and interpolation procedures that can facilitate and accelerate data usage. Citizen science practices during the whole research process are reported to offer a complete perspective of the data collected.

Citizen science at school increases awareness of biological invasions and contributes to the detection of exotic ambrosia beetles

The serious and growing threat posed by biological invasions to biodiversity and livelihoods means that public engagement in dealing with problems of invasive alien species is ever more urgent and necessary hence a citizen science experiment was carried out in north-eastern Italy. The study aimed i) to raise awareness of invasive alien species threatening trees and forests, and ii) to perform monitoring activities of a group of wood borers as an example, involving teachers and students (aged 11 to 18) of high schools. Students and teachers were given background knowledge and trained about the protocol for collecting data in schoolyards/grounds. Native (Anisandrus dispar (Fabricius, 1792), Xyleborinus saxesenii (Ratzeburg, 1837)) and exotic ambrosia beetles (Anisandrus maiche Kurentsov, Cnestus mutilatus (Blandford), Xylosandrus crassiusculus (Motschulsky, 1866), Xylosandrus germanus (Blandford, 1894)) were used as the target species, as they could be easily detected through accessible and low-cost traps requiring limited effort. The traps were exposed for 24 hours weekly between March and June 2021. The experiment also aimed to strengthen public involvement, connecting environmental education and experiential outdoor learning. The mutual collaboration resulted in a wider knowledge of the potential impact of exotic species. It also led to new geographical citizen-science records of two alien ambrosia beetles considered to be quarantine pests by the European Union: C. mutilatus, new for the European part of the EPPO (European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization) region, and A. maiche, which was previously found only in Eastern European EPPO member countries.

From a Seismological Network to a Socio- Seismological One: A Citizen Science Experiment in Haïti to Reduce Seismic Risk: Analysis of a “Small Box” that Can Do a Lot

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was hit by one of the largest seismic disasters known to date. At the time, the culture and perception of seismic risk was low among the population and—because of the lack of seismic sensors in Haiti—so was seismological knowledge. In a citizen seismology approach, the S2RHAI project used low-cost seismic sensors (Raspberry Shake) to (1) complement the national seismic network and (2) to improve risk perception, preparedness, and scientific knowledge of the population. Through these objectives, we introduce a paradigm shift in which seismic networks are not only composed of sensors, but also of citizens who gather around these tools and the information they produce. We present here the results of a qualitative survey of 15 Raspberry Shake (RS) seismometer hosts in Haiti. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to learn about users’ experience to assess their motivations, difficulties, and expectations in this citizen seismology process. We found that RS hosts expressed pride and interest in being part of the RS network and actively contributing to risk reduction in their community. Some of them reported a form of empowerment in that they could compensate for the deficiency of the state, which they generally distrust. However, the RS hosts also expressed the need for more technical and scientific support from scientists. Also, few of them engaged in mediation activities or discussions with their community members, partly because they feared that this would awaken the trauma caused by the earthquake of 12 January, 2010. This allowed us to list concrete actions to (1) improve the seismic information system, (2) better integrate the volunteers into the network, (3) enrich the collaboration between citizens and seismologists, and (4) accompany them in their role as ambassadors to their community. We conclude that understanding the motivations, obstacles, and expectations of volunteers is essential to increase the chances of sustainability of this citizen seismology project.

Citizen Science to Assess Light Pollution with Mobile Phones

The analysis of the colour of artificial lights at night has an impact on diverse fields, but current data sources have either limited resolution or scarce availability of images for a specific region. In this work, we propose crowdsourced photos of streetlights as an alternative data source: for this, we designed NightUp Castelldefels, a pilot for a citizen science experiment aimed at collecting data about the colour of streetlights. In particular, we extract the colour from the collected images and compare it to an official database, showing that it is possible to classify streetlights according to their colour from photos taken by untrained citizens with their own smartphones. We also compare our findings to the results obtained from one of the current sources for this kind of study. The comparison highlights how the two approaches give complementary information about artificial lights at night in the area. This work opens a new avenue in the study of the colour of artificial lights at night with the possibility of accurate, massive and cheap data collection.

How IoT-Driven Citizen Science Coupled with Data Satisficing Can Promote Deep Citizen Science.

To study and understand the importance of Internet of Things-driven citizen science (IoT-CS) combined with data satisficing, we set up and undertook a citizen science experiment for air quality (AQ) in four Pakistan cities using twenty-one volunteers. We used quantitative methods to analyse the AQ data. Three research questions (RQ) were posed as follows: Which factors affect CS IoT-CS AQ data quality (RQ1)? How can we make science more inclusive by dealing with the lack of scientists, training and high-quality equipment (RQ2)? Can a lack of calibrated data readings be overcome to yield otherwise useful results for IoT-CS AQ data analysis (RQ3)? To address RQ1, an analysis of related work revealed that multiple causal factors exist. Good practice guidelines were adopted to promote higher data quality in CS studies. Additionally, we also proposed a classification of CS instruments to help better understand the data quality challenges. To answer RQ2, user engagement workshops were undertaken as an effective method to make CS more inclusive and also to train users to operate IoT-CS AQ devices more understandably. To address RQ3, it was proposed that a more feasible objective is that citizens leverage data satisficing such that AQ measurements can detect relevant local variations. Additionally, we proposed several recommendations. Our top recommendations are that: a deep (citizen) science approach should be fostered to support a more inclusive, knowledgeable application of science en masse for the greater good; It may not be useful or feasible to cross-check measurements from cheaper versus more expensive calibrated instrument sensors in situ. Hence, data satisficing may be more feasible; additional cross-checks that go beyond checking if co-located low-cost and calibrated AQ measurements correlate under equivalent conditions should be leveraged.

The INCREASE project: Intelligent Collections of food-legume genetic resources for European agrofood systems.

SUMMARYFood legumes are crucial for all agriculture‐related societal challenges, including climate change mitigation, agrobiodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, food security and human health. The transition to plant‐based diets, largely based on food legumes, could present major opportunities for adaptation and mitigation, generating significant co‐benefits for human health. The characterization, maintenance and exploitation of food‐legume genetic resources, to date largely unexploited, form the core development of both sustainable agriculture and a healthy food system. INCREASE will implement, on chickpea (Cicer arietinum), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), lentil (Lens culinaris) and lupin (Lupinus albus and L. mutabilis), a new approach to conserve, manage and characterize genetic resources. Intelligent Collections, consisting of nested core collections composed of single‐seed descent‐purified accessions (i.e., inbred lines), will be developed, exploiting germplasm available both from genebanks and on‐farm and subjected to different levels of genotypic and phenotypic characterization. Phenotyping and gene discovery activities will meet, via a participatory approach, the needs of various actors, including breeders, scientists, farmers and agri‐food and non‐food industries, exploiting also the power of massive metabolomics and transcriptomics and of artificial intelligence and smart tools. Moreover, INCREASE will test, with a citizen science experiment, an innovative system of conservation and use of genetic resources based on a decentralized approach for data management and dynamic conservation. By promoting the use of food legumes, improving their quality, adaptation and yield and boosting the competitiveness of the agriculture and food sector, the INCREASE strategy will have a major impact on economy and society and represents a case study of integrative and participatory approaches towards conservation and exploitation of crop genetic resources.

Comparison of Two Approaches to GNSS Positioning Using Code Pseudoranges Generated by Smartphone Device

The release of Android 7.0 has made raw GNSS positioning data available on smartphones and, as a result, this has allowed many experiments to be developed to evaluate the quality of GNSS positioning using mobile devices. This paper investigates the best positioning, using pseudorange measurement in the Differential Global Navigation Satellite System (DGNSS) and Single Point Positioning (SPP), obtained by smartphones. The experimental results show that SPP can be comparable to the DGNSS solution and can generally achieve an accuracy of one meter in planimetric positioning; in some conditions, an accuracy of less than one meter was achieved in the Easting coordinate. As far as altimetric positioning is concerned, it has been demonstrated that DGNSS is largely preferable to SPP. The aim of the research is to introduce a statistical method to evaluate the accuracy and precision of smartphone positioning that can be applied to any device since it is based only on the pseudoranges of the code. In order to improve the accuracy of positioning from mobile devices, two methods (Tukey and K-means) were used and applied, as they can detect and eliminate outliers in the data. Finally, the paper shows a case study on how the implementation of SPP on GIS applications for smartphones could improve citizen science experiments.

Smartphone Sensors for Citizen Science Applications: Light and Sound

In recent years, the continued improvement and deployment of smartphone technology has resulted in the growth of smartphone sensor systems. Citizen science projects that require on-the-spot measurement of a variety of parameters such as illuminance and sound level may benefit from this new technology. As yet, there have been few attempts at critically assessing these sensor systems and their accuracy. I calibrated the light and sound sensors on a variety of apps and on three platforms using professional-grade instruments. Provided that modest adjustments to the recorded data are made using a small set of calibration curves, the usefulness of smartphone sensor light and sound systems for conducting citizen science experiments can be dramatically improved. Light intensity measurements for illuminances above 5,000 lx can be made with ±12% accuracy compared with calibrated values, and sound intensity measurements from 35 to 90 dB can be made to within ±1.5 dB. A significant failing among the light-metering apps is that none of them save the measurements in exportable file formats for later analysis. This greatly limits the usefulness of these apps for non-photographic applications. I conclude that, when proper measurement and calibration protocols are applied, smartphone sensors can indeed generate relatively high-quality data using their light and sound sensors within restricted measurement ranges. These calibrated measurements compare well with professional-grade, calibrated systems, but at far lower cost. This opens the door for a new generation of citizen science and crowdsourced applications involving the monitoring of light and sound values.

Barriers and enablers to engagement in participatory arts activities amongst individuals with depression and anxiety: quantitative analyses using a\xa0behaviour change framework

BackgroundThere is a large literature on the health benefits of engagement with the arts. However, there are also well-recognised challenges in ensuring equity of engagement with these activities. Specifically, it remains unclear whether individuals with poor mental health experience more barriers to participation. This study used a behaviour change framework to explore barriers to engagement in participatory arts activities amongst people with either depression or anxiety.MethodsData were drawn from a large citizen science experiment focused on participation in creative activities. Participants who reported engaging infrequently in performing arts, visual arts, design and crafts, literature-related activities, and online, digital and electronic arts were included and categorised into no mental health problems (n = 1851), depression but not anxiety (n = 873) and anxiety but not depression (n = 808). Barriers and enablers to engagement were measured using an 18-item scale based on the COM-B Self-Evaluation Questionnaire, with subscales assessing psychological and physical capabilities, social and physical opportunities, and automatic and reflective motivations. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify whether individuals with either depression or anxiety reported greater barriers across any of the six domains than individuals without any mental health problems. Where differences were found, we calculated the percentage of protective association explained by various demographic, socio-economic, social, physical or geographical factors.ResultsIndividuals with depression and anxiety felt they would be more likely to engage in arts activities if they had greater psychological and physical capabilities, more social opportunities, and stronger automatic and reflective motivations to engage. However, they did not feel that more physical opportunities would affect their engagement. Covariates explained only 8–37% of the difference in response amongst those with and without anxiety and depression.ConclusionsFindings suggest that for individuals with poor mental health, there are certain barriers to participation that are not felt as strongly by those without any mental health problems. Mapping the behaviour change domains to potential interventions, activities that focus on increasing perceived capabilities, providing social opportunities, and reinforcing both automatic and reflective motivations to engage has the potential to help to redress the imbalance in arts participation amongst those with poor mental health.

Gray plumage color is more cryptic than brown in snowy landscapes in a resident color polymorphic bird.

Camouflage may promote fitness of given phenotypes in different environments. The tawny owl (Strix aluco) is a color polymorphic species with a gray and brown morph resident in the Western Palearctic. A strong selection pressure against the brown morph during snowy and cold winters has been documented earlier, but the selection mechanisms remain unresolved. Here, we hypothesize that selection favors the gray morph because it is better camouflaged against predators and mobbers in snowy conditions compared to the brown one. We conducted an online citizen science experiment where volunteers were asked to locate a gray or a brown tawny owl specimen from pictures taken in snowy and snowless landscapes. Our results show that the gray morph in snowy landscapes is the hardest to detect whereas the brown morph in snowy landscapes is the easiest to detect. With an avian vision model, we show that, similar to human perceivers, the brown morph is more conspicuous than the gray against coniferous tree trunks for a mobbing passerine. We suggest that with better camouflage, the gray morph may avoid mobbers and predators more efficiently than the brown morph and thus survive better in snowy environments. As winters are getting milder and shorter in the species range, the selection periods against brown coloration may eventually disappear or shift poleward.

Acceleration of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma in the Low Corona as Measured by the Citizen CATE Experiment

The citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) Experiment was a new type of citizen science experiment designed to capture a time sequence of white-light coronal observations during totality from 17:16 to 18:48 UT on 2017 August 21. Using identical instruments the CATE group imaged the inner corona from 1 to 2.1 RSun with 1.″43 pixels at a cadence of 2.1 s. A slow coronal mass ejection (CME) started on the SW limb of the Sun before the total eclipse began. An analysis of CATE data from 17:22 to 17:39 UT maps the spatial distribution of coronal flow velocities from about 1.2 to 2.1 RSun, and shows the CME material accelerates from about 0 to 200 km s−1 across this part of the corona. This CME is observed by LASCO C2 at 3.1–13 RSun with a constant speed of 254 km s−1. The CATE and LASCO observations are not fit by either constant acceleration nor spatially uniform velocity change, and so the CME acceleration mechanism must produce variable acceleration in this region of the corona.

How the weather affects the pain of citizen scientists using a smartphone app

Patients with chronic pain commonly believe their pain is related to the weather. Scientific evidence to support their beliefs is inconclusive, in part due to difficulties in getting a large dataset of patients frequently recording their pain symptoms during a variety of weather conditions. Smartphones allow the opportunity to collect data to overcome these difficulties. Our study Cloudy with a Chance of Pain analysed daily data from 2658 patients collected over a 15-month period. The analysis demonstrated significant yet modest relationships between pain and relative humidity, pressure and wind speed, with correlations remaining even when accounting for mood and physical activity. This research highlights how citizen-science experiments can collect large datasets on real-world populations to address long-standing health questions. These results will act as a starting point for a future system for patients to better manage their health through pain forecasts.

On the impact of Citizen Science-derived data quality on deep learning based classification in marine images.

The evaluation of large amounts of digital image data is of growing importance for biology, including for the exploration and monitoring of marine habitats. However, only a tiny percentage of the image data collected is evaluated by marine biologists who manually interpret and annotate the image contents, which can be slow and laborious. In order to overcome the bottleneck in image annotation, two strategies are increasingly proposed: “citizen science” and “machine learning”. In this study, we investigated how the combination of citizen science, to detect objects, and machine learning, to classify megafauna, could be used to automate annotation of underwater images. For this purpose, multiple large data sets of citizen science annotations with different degrees of common errors and inaccuracies observed in citizen science data were simulated by modifying “gold standard” annotations done by an experienced marine biologist. The parameters of the simulation were determined on the basis of two citizen science experiments. It allowed us to analyze the relationship between the outcome of a citizen science study and the quality of the classifications of a deep learning megafauna classifier. The results show great potential for combining citizen science with machine learning, provided that the participants are informed precisely about the annotation protocol. Inaccuracies in the position of the annotation had the most substantial influence on the classification accuracy, whereas the size of the marking and false positive detections had a smaller influence.

Smartphone Sensors for Citizen Science Applications: Radioactivity and Magnetism

When proper measurement and calibration protocols are applied, smartphone sensors can generate relatively high-quality data among a variety of physical parameters that compare well with professional-grade, calibrated systems, but at far lower cost. This may open the door for a new generation of citizen science and crowdsourced applications involving the monitoring of these physical parameters for innovative research. Based on the calibrated results from a variety of apps and platforms, the direct use of smartphone sensor systems for conducting citizen science experiments is warranted, especially if modest adjustments to the recorded data are made using a small set of calibration curves. Radiation dosimetry variations near ±0.05 μSv/hr are dominated by noise, however at altitudes of 26,000 feet or higher, a clear cosmic ray signal can be easily detected above 0.5 μSv/hr. Magnetic fields can be detected with a random noise limit set by the digitization process at about ±200 nT, but a variety of instrument and unknown influences cause systematic errors as high as ±1,500 nT, which may be reduced somewhat by following appropriate measurement protocols. At this level, severe geomagnetic storms can be detected as an adjunct to auroral studies.

Improved camouflage through ontogenetic colour change confers reduced detection risk in shore crabs.

Animals from many taxa, from snakes and crabs to caterpillars and lobsters, change appearance with age, but the reasons why this occurs are rarely tested.We show the importance that ontogenetic changes in coloration have on the camouflage of the green shore crabs (Carcinus maenas), known for their remarkable phenotypic variation and plasticity in colour and pattern.In controlled conditions, we reared juvenile crabs of two shades, pale or dark, on two background types simulating different habitats for 10 weeks.In contrast to expectations for reversible colour change, crabs did not tune their background match to specific microhabitats, but instead, and regardless of treatment, all developed a uniform dark green phenotype. This parallels changes in shore crab appearance with age observed in the field.Next, we undertook a citizen science experiment at the Natural History Museum London, where human subjects (“predators”) searched for crabs representing natural colour variation from different habitats, simulating predator vision.In concert, crabs were not hardest to find against their original habitat, but instead, the dark green phenotype was hardest to detect against all backgrounds.The evolution of camouflage can be better understood by acknowledging that the optimal phenotype to hide from predators may change over the life history of many animals, including the utilization of a generalist camouflage strategy. A plain language summary is available for this article.

Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov ed. by Gennady Barabtarlo

Reviewed by: Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov ed. by Gennady Barabtarlo Derek Lee gennady barabtarlo, ed. Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. Pp. xiv + 202. In Vladimir Nabokov's 1969 novel Ada, the nonagenarian Van Veen begins Part II, Chapter 4 with a seemingly simple question: "What are dreams?" His first answer is fairly straightforward: "A random sequence of scenes, trivial or tragic, viatic or static, fantastic or familiar, featuring more or [End Page 124] less plausible events patched up with grotesque details, and recasting dead people in new settings."1 But then Van goes on to argue that over the course of his life he has learned dreams are so much more, something akin to an uncanny visual language riddled with so many clairvoyant and prophetic elements that if properly organized into a larger pattern, they transcend mere randomness to form "the living organism of a new truth."2 Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this metaphysical line of musing is that Van's belief in a "new truth" actually derived from Nabokov's own history of dream experimentation. Nabokov was a lifelong insomniac and lucid dreamer who eventually came to believe his visions contained information about the future. Starting in October 1964, he began testing this eccentric hypothesis by recording his nightly dreams on A6 index cards for nearly three straight months, for the expressed purpose of comparing them with real-world events. This was far more than your standard dream journal—it was a scientific experiment on the nature of precognition. Gennady Barabtarlo's Insomniac Dreams is a remarkable account of Nabokov's dream experiment and his broader fictional and nonfictional inquiries into the oneiric. This concise study is an invaluable resource for Nabokov scholars, with Barabtarlo sharing intimate details of Nabokov's sleep schedule, dreams fragments, and family life that were only previously locatable in the author's archives at the New York Public Library. Moreover, it will appeal to supernatural scholars and enthusiasts given its arcane, even bizarre content. Critics of the occult and the paranormal will find it especially compelling since the dream log is essentially a real-time record of a citizen science experiment in prognostication. Nabokov proves a radical empiricist of the very first order here, willing to examine his dream experience of time on open terms rather than attempting to pigeonhole them within dominant physical and philosophical paradigms of chronology. As such, we as readers gain more than just a novel look into a literary giant's life. We obtain access to the insights, possibilities, frustrations, and dizzying logic that comes with exploring the science of dreams. The theoretical foundation for Nabokov's dream study is introduced in Part I. Most readers will not be familiar with the chronological work of John W. Donne—I certainly wasn't. Donne was an early-twentieth-century British aeronautical engineer who was fascinated by the temporal theories of Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, Max Planck, and Albert Einstein. In 1927, he published An Experiment with Time, an unorthodox text that piqued the [End Page 125] interest of several literary figures, including J. B. Priestley, T. S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges, and eventually Nabokov. According to his theory of "serial time," Donne rejected linear and even relative notions of time common to modern physics, positing instead that time was best construed as a series of layers that could travel both forwards and backwards. He further argued that dreams contained "images of past experience and images of future experience blended together in approximately equal proportions" (12). As such, they represent a threshold through which we can understand the deeper reality of time, as well as the immortality of the human soul. Heady stuff, indeed. As an engineer, Donne also provided a practical methodology for analyzing the precognitive nature of dreams, which involved keeping a journal by one's bed to record dreams immediately upon waking and then verifying them against actual events. Part II represents the core of Insomniac Dreams and offers the entirety of Nabokov's experiment on "reverse memory" as conducted while staying at the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland. Barabtarlo provides complete transcriptions of...

Modeling Amateur Radio Soundings of the Ionospheric Response to the 2017 Great American Eclipse

AbstractOn 21 August 2017, a total solar eclipse traversed the continental United States and caused large‐scale changes in ionospheric densities. These were detected as changes in medium‐ and high‐frequency radio propagation by the Solar Eclipse QSO Party citizen science experiment organized by the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (hamsci.org). This is the first eclipse‐ionospheric study to make use of measurements from a citizen‐operated, global‐scale HF propagation network and develop tools for comparison to a physics‐based model ionosphere. Eclipse effects were observed ±0.3 hr on 1.8 MHz, ±0.75 hr on 3.5 and 7 MHz, and ±1 hr on 14 MHz and are consistent with eclipse‐induced ionospheric densities. Observations were simulated using the PHaRLAP raytracing toolkit in conjunction with the eclipsed SAMI3 ionospheric model. Model results suggest 1.8, 3.5, and 7 MHz refracted at h≥125 km altitude with elevation angles θ≥22°, while 14 MHz signals refracted at h < 125 km with elevation angles θ < 10°.