Citizen science can be used to increase the amount of big-data projects
Using EyeWire to assemble 3D models of the fruit fly’s and zebrafish’s hindbrains
The most complete wiring diagram of the fruit fly’s brain, which includes more than 145,000 nerve cells and over fifty million connections, has been published by researchers.
The team was surprised by some of the ways in which cells connect. For instance, neurons that were thought to be involved in just one sensory wiring circuit, such as a visual pathway, tended to receive cues from multiple senses, including hearing and touch1. Murthy said that it was astounding how connected the brain was.
It takes a lot of time to fact-check millions of data points. Instead, the team used EyeWire, a game-inspired platform, to assemble 3D models of the mouse’s and zebrafish’s hindbrains. The 100 best-performing players were trained to identify various types of cells and then set to work on the real project, which would have required at least 34 neuroscientists working full time for a year.
A package of papers about the data that was published in Nature today is described in the map1. Mala Murthy and Sebastian Seung, both from the University of New Jersey, are part of a group known as FlyWire.
John Ngai, director of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, which funded the studies, told Nature that such an approach could be used for larger connectome projects that the BRAIN Initiative is funding. This includes a programme called BRAIN CONNECTS, which involves training people in the research and technical skills required to generate wiring diagrams of mammalian brains.
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The scientists have known about two types of -ray phenomena in thunderclouds, glows that last a minute and high-intensity flashes that last a few millionths of a second. Now, researchers have identified that these both occur more frequently than expected, and that previously undetected γ-ray types exist, including flickering flashes that share characteristics of the other two types of radiation.
Physicists have identified new forms of γ-ray radiation created inside thunderclouds, and shown that levels of γ-ray production are much higher on Earth than previously thought.
Researchers pieced together a circuit-diagram of the fruit fly brain, which may help explain how lightning happens.
“We thought it would take many years to make this study,” says Murthy. As technology developed and we opened up the data, the volunteer community jumped in and were excited to participate with us. We completed it, in the time I would consider a record.
Volunteer scientists are getting involved in other areas as well. Earlier this month, researchers at the United Nations Statistics Division in New York City and Open Data Watch, a non-profit organization based in Washington DC, described how citizen scientists are helping to fill in data gaps for the UN Sustainable Develop-ment Goals, especially for marginalized communities5.
Authentication of amateur astronomers after asteroid Dimorphos is detected by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test
Last year, a study6 in Nature described how the asteroid Dimorphos became temporarily brighter and redder when NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft deliberately hit it. A group of amateur astronomer used a app to share their data with professional scientists, who confirmed the finding.
Often, it’s the professionals who need to check the work of the amateurs. The fly-brain work is different because the volunteers are working with scientists toauthenticate their findings, something that could have far-reaching effects in our data-rich world.
Researchers have published the most complete wiring diagram of the fruit fly’s brain, which includes more than 145,000 nerve cells and over 50 million connections. “It could be used for larger connectome projects that the BRAIN Initiative is funding,” John Ngai, director of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative at US National Institutes of Health, said.