The Heroism of Citizen Science

Though many may not realize it, science has only recently entered the professional realm.  Prior to industrialization, science was a pursuit of pure love – most scientists, from Leonardo DaVinci to Huygens, Darwin, and Jefferson nurtured and communicated science as a respite from their engineering, civil, or medical duties.  Often, scientists of the past found time for their endeavors only in light of having inherited substantial wealth.  One thing is certain – no government was keeping scientists on the payroll.  Eventually, Academies began holding competitions and professorships emerged, but our contemporary perception of science as a line-of-work is a largely modern conception.

There is much reason to believe that while the medical-industrial boom afforded science a professional place in society, there remains a loud call for amateurs.  Mary Ellen Hannibal’s latest book, Citizen Science, presents a world where amateur investigators (from the Latin root for “love”) often still drive discovery and are persistently responsible for amassing many of the enormous datasets that scientists and policymakers depend upon for their analyses.  Ms. Hannibal continues to involve herself both in direct research as well as in promotion of various citizen science technologies, aimed at making data-collection as simple as an app for your phone.

She has written three books stemming from the cit-sci paradigm including The Spine of the Continent and Evidence for Evolution.  In addition to her professional writing, Ms. Hannibal serves as a professor at the California College of the Arts and continues to collaborate with institutions such as Smith College, Stanford University, the American Geophysical Union, and the Rewilding Leadership Council and contribute to stunning visualizations of ecological phenomena.  She has spoken everywhere from NPR to TED and TEDx about citizen science and is presently focused on reconstructing and accurate history of land-use changes in the U.S.  We can’t wait to read her upcoming book about the Anthropocene whenever it drops.  

Harmonious Existence Requires Understanding of Interconnectedness

Citizen Science takes us on a tour through many different contemporary cit-sci projects in Northern California and throughout the United States, many of which Ms. Hannibal herself contributed data.  The conclusions drawn from these projects do not paint an optimistic perspective about the future of the planet.  We witness the overwhelming decline of coastal species — sea stars, harriet hawks, redwoods and bees.  This sampling of nature gives one the impression that we will probably find a way forward as a species but that if we’re not careful to correct our step soon, the quality of that future will suffer.

This is the mythos of humans as wanderers, desperately for survival, churning up the world with flailing arms.  We’ve done so much to improve the lives of so many on the planet in the past two centuries but the cost to ecological diversity has been substantial.  Speaking by phone, Ms. Hannibal drills down into the roots of the ecological crises we now face, citing the central dogma of ecology: “no species is an island.” Without the trees beyond our windows, we have no air to breathe and even without predators, the entire chain becomes threatened.  Citizen Science goes to great length to unveil the interconnectedness of existence.

The best way to understand interconnectedness may be through visualization.  In fact, much of the citizen science occurring today culminates in the production of stunning or dynamic maps of natural phenomena:  the migration routes of birds, or the re-wilding of a particular district.  Often, though citizen scientists lack the technical training for the preparation of manuscripts, they prove better equipped to communicate with the public than professionals.  It is therefore not only citizen scientist’s contribution of data to academics that makes an impact, but also their own interpretations and disseminations in the form of art and literature.

Ecology:  A Story of Life 

Ms. Hannibal is keenly aware that the many species of the planet need a voice. Science is, after all a special way of telling stories. Even a scientific theorist must convey a story of causation in nature, for example.  There is no doubt that early Greek scientists, or natural philosphers, presented their ideas using various poetic and literary forms.  Today, the literary parallels are more front and center for citizen scientists than professionals.  Three of the central heroes in Citizen Scienceare a trio of 20th century citizen scientists, friends and writers; Joseph Campbell, John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts.  The interweaving of the three heroes’ journeys are a vital addition to the Ms. Hannibal’s work.  They help us understand the influence that citizen science can have on the world even in the utter absence of standard academic bindings.

Campbell’s own work provides the framework for the hero’s journey undertaken by the three friends  — a universal tale of archetypical heroes called to action, defeated, and risen again to eternally seek.  Ricketts founded one of the first zoological supply companies out of his home-laboratory in Monterrey Bay.  His numerous escapades with both Steinbeck and Campbell would see Ricketts immortalized as the character of Doc from Steinbeck’s smash-hit, Cannery Row among other classics.  Steinbeck and Ricketts would collaborate on the book Log from the Sea of Cortez, and Ricketts would publish one of the first modern citizen science works, Between Pacific Tides.  

Together, the three mid-20th century writers pave a way for literature and science to overlap once more, reminiscent of antiquity, to mediate the apparent rivalry between humans and nature. Ms. Hannibal completes the arc by entering her own history, and that of her father, into the literary testimony. Hannibal grew up in the East Hampton of Steinbeck’s legacy, bustling with the scrawl of writers and artists. Her father achieved some success with an early novel, but then retreats to a more professional realm after failing to find an audience for later works.  He clearly provides a heroic template for Ms. Hannibal’s idealization of the writer as artist and thinker.  

The Deathside of Life

All stories have an end, and life itself is no exception. While grappling with the death of whole species on our planet, Ms. Hannibal relates her own experiences during the then recent passing of her father. It is through this lens that the author is able to really convey what is means to be an observer observing another observer, as is so often the case in science. We come to see science as story-telling that remedies chaos. Through the legacy of Ms. Hannibal’s father, we understand that the task of being human is to put ourselves in alignment with nature. Science can help us to understand the misalignments, so we can then set ourselves toward engineering solutions.

Overall, the book is a joy to read. It unhurriedly explores many different side-quests throughout its didactic wanderings, all converging on the ways that normal people can contribute to the mushrooming world of science. There is no doubt that the academy is fantastic at doing exactly what it is they do — processing data. But it seems like the professionals could use a little help now & then with generating that data, and maybe even with assigning meaning to the patterns they note. Grab yourself a copy and let us know any thoughts you had while reading!

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