Slow Science

April 26th, 02010 by Alexander Rose - Twitter: @zander

Since its inception in 01979 programs like the Long Term Ecological Research Network have been selecting and tracking ecological sites to be monitored over the long-term.   The NSF funded LTER network  hopes to codify what usually occurs by accident in science.  For instance the “Keeling Curve“, which was one of the first bits of scientific proof about baseline atmospheric carbon, was not found on purpose.  The Keeling curve was discovered as part of a control for another experiment on volcanism.

However it is only when we do the the same boring non-sexy data collection year after year, that we might see trends that only appear after decades or centuries.  This is difficult science to keep going on an ongoing basis, and it is great to see it getting done.  It is also worth pointing out that other institutions are doing “slow science” like The Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute which has been studying a chunk of Panama for almost 90 continuous years.  We also now have over 50 years of Pan Evaporation Data thanks to the agriculture industry, which is leading to startling new realizations about the global dimming effect.

There is also a lot of science being done that would be great to make into slow science.  For instance the many chapters of the Surfrider Foundation collect all kinds of data about the toxicity of ocean water in sites all around the world.  Yet as far as I know they are not saving this data for posterity, as they are primarily concerned with how toxic the water is at a given moment. But just think how fantastic it would be to have that data from 100 or 1000 years ago?

I would love to hear about other “slow science” projects and collect them here.  Either ones that are going on, or data that you would like to see collected over the long-term like the Surfrider example.  So please use the comments field to suggest others.

Listing of Slow Science experiments (thanks for the additions!):

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 02010 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Long Term Science.

  • Tom Zeller

    The National Audubon Society has conducted an annual Christmas Bird Count since 1910 and has overseen hundreds of local counts for many decades. Volunteers gather at the same time of year and scour the same area each year, listing species and number observed. Annual differences due to weather are smoothed out over many years. Maps can be drawn of species ranges and trends over time noted. See http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/ for more information. – TZ

  • Sam

    In the human realm, there is the well-regarded Framingham Heart Study: http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/

    This study has been following individuals since 1948 from the Massachusetts town of Framingham, and has been running long enough that their offspring have also been enrolled, and recently a third generation cohort has been started.

  • Duncan

    There are three that come to mind for me:
    The Beverly Clock, which operates via atmospheric pressure. Wikipedia describes it as a long-running science experiment, but I’m not sure what the experiment is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Clock

    The Oxford Electric Bell is an experiment and has been running since 1840. It was used to distinguish between two then-prevailing theories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Electric_Bell

    And for something that is actually experimenting: http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/Research/Centres/Content.php?Section=Resources&Page=ClassicalExperiments

    They’ve been running tests on crop rotation and field fertility for over 150 years.

  • bryan

    Sloan Digital Sky Survey

    http://www.sdss.org/

  • http://www.suitusa.com/tools.aspx?id=106 Man Suits

    good studies!

  • http://www.suitusa.com/tools.aspx?id=106 Man Suits

    150 years???? the proponents were no longer living..

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