In my free time, I'm part of a local group, the Puget Sound Mycological Society. Beyond the satisfaction of being out in the woods and finding delicious mushrooms, I have found unexpected joy and scientific fulfillment thanks to the passion of #citizenscientists. (1/n)
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In mycology, much scientific discovery is driven by "amateurs" -- that is, people who are not professional scientists. Calling them amateurs is kind of specious -- many of these amateurs are incredibly knowledgeable and regularly put in the work of a professional scientist. (3/n)
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Because they are not professional scientists, they have to either fund this work themselves, or rely on grants like the Ben Woo Scholarship. Organized efforts like the
@na_mycoflora#mycofloraproject help too. (4/n)Prikaži ovu nit -
Recently, I've had the pleasure of funding several efforts to collect/document local mushrooms, record those observations on
@inaturalist, and then send those samples out for DNA sequencing. PSMS is running one such study at#BridleTrails. It is entirely volunteer run. (5/n)Prikaži ovu nit -
Then dedicated "amateurs" have to interpret the DNA sequence results. Sequences in GenBank can't always be trusted because samples are frequently mis-identified or lack location info (v. problematic for mycology, where we still lack accurate names for most species) (6/n)
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I just got back a preliminary report on the first of these findings. It's very exciting, and I cannot emphasize enough how great it feels that there are people in the world that love mushrooms so much that they would dedicate their free time to pour over DNA sequences. (7/n)
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Many of the best amateur mycologists would never survive the academic world as it exists today. I try to remind myself of this fact every day -- academia is a biased system that rewards only a narrow idea of the "scientist." (8/n)
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I will continue to work hard to make science a more inclusive place. Until then,
#citizenscience is food for the soul. (fin)Prikaži ovu nit
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