All these tools : How do people use them?

June 4, 2008

Folding@HomeI am sure most of you know that Michael Cariaso won the first 23andme Win Your Genome. The reason he did is a clear example of the power of the kinds of tools he used; specifically SNPedia and Promethease. I must admit that bbgm has not given Michael’s efforts quite the attention they deserve. Unlike many others, which might be flashier, they’re rather usable and his understanding of how the web works is no secret.

It also points to the importance of access to underlying data, e.g. 23andme etc allowing customers to export their genotypes (and the panels), without which tools like SNPedia and Promethease would not be too useful. But looking at Prometheus, at Foldit, at folding@home, the molecular workbench or even the rather nice tools provided by 23andme got me thinking. May people get interested in computers at a young age, programming, hacking. Some people become makers in their teens. I wonder, that with open data and scientific apps that are easy to use and accessible by many, are there kids actually playing around with them? When they use folding@home as a screensaver, do people wonder about what’s going on under the hood?

I suppose where I am going with this completely haphazard ramble is that there are tools now which allow us to ask some interesting scientific questions. The other day I talking about Brian Greene’s thoughts on science and the wonders of science. In keeping with that train of though, are today’s kids, or even adults for that matter, learning from the tools mentioned above, playing with them? Is anyone telling them what is happening? I am very very curious.

Update: Changed the title. That’s what happens when you’re half asleep and hit publish

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Posted by Deepak Singh | Filed Under Education, Science 

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    Well my cynical answer ! Most online and other users dont care much , more thanthe casual "Oh how cool this is" , but then again..all it takes is one among these hundreds or thousands who really thinks ! and then great changes happen.
    And there is no doubt that these outreach methods ensure that the "right person" is attracted to it sooner or later.
    Of course at other times I think the new ways the web reaches out to people ensures many mico-participatory oscillations that will eventually result in net-displacement. Therefore quantum leaps happen rarely but definitely so!

    I need to go read that statistical thermodynamics ( or is it quantum mechanics) textbook again that will hopefully put my answer in some "deeper footing" ..but then again who has the time!
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    Interesting idea - are students starting to play with genetic code the way some of them play with computer code?

    If a nonprofit organization has a real interest by in hosting a student-oriented contest involving using SNPedia to investigate their ancestry or genes I suspect I could find a donor to pay for a (student-sized) prize .... contact us at SNPedia and let's talk.

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