[情報]從SETI@HOME到原始人類化石：公眾網絡科學打造研究新奇觀

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From SETI@home to Hominid Fossils: Citizens' Cyberscience Reshapes Research Landscape SETI@home Update, January 15, 2008 by Amir Alexander In the beginning was SETI@home, the first large-scale volunteer computing project, launched in 1999 with seed money from The Planetary Society. Within months the project had millions of volunteers around the world joining to form the most powerful computer network ever assembled. Other projects soon followed, focused on everything from the search for large prime numbers to protein folding. 在SETI@home的最初，由美國行星協會資助，首次大規模的志願者計算項目於1999年開啟。幾個月後，全球各地數以百萬的志願者參與到該項目，組成了最強大的計算機網絡。其它項目也隨之而來，從尋找最大的素數到蛋白質折疊分析。 Then, in 2002, David Anderson, SETI@home’s own director, launched BOINC, the Berkeley Online Infrastructure for Network Computing. Instead of different projects each with its own platform and volunteer community there was now a growing family of projects, all sharing the BOINC platform. Volunteers no longer had to subscribe to a single project, but could divide their computer’s time as they saw fit between different BOINC ventures. 之後，在2002年，SETI@home 的主管 David Anderson 推出了BOINC（伯克利開放式網絡計算平台）。取代了各個項目使用各自的平台，使不同項目的志願者可以結合起來，共同分享BOINC平台。志願者不再麻煩於單一項目，他們可以根據自身的志願對BOINC下不同的項目分配他們的計算資源。 But just down the hall from SETI@home headquarters at the Space Science Laboratory in Berkeley, a different approach was taking shape. Planetary scientist Andrew Westphal was trying to figure out an effective way of detecting the interstellar dust grains embedded in the collector of the spacecraft Stardust. Computers, he found, could not pinpoint the elusive particles, but a practiced human eye could. The only problem was that no single person could hope to go over the millions of microscopic observations required for scanning the entire collector, and retain his or her sanity. Inspired by what Anderson and SETI@home chief scientist Dan Werthimer were accomplishing a few doors away, Westphal wondered: is it possible to harness the visual capabilities of thousands of volunteers, just as SETI@home harnesses their computer CPUs? 但剛從伯克利空間科學實驗室的 SETI@home 總部下來，一個另類的想法正在形成。行星科學家 Andrew Westphal 正在設法找出一個有效檢測由星塵號飛船收集回來的星塵顆粒。他發現，電腦並不能精確找到這難以捉摸的星塵粒子。而經過訓練的人眼卻可以。唯一的問題是，沒有一個單一的人希望去觀察數以百萬計從顯微鏡掃描出來的所有收集塊，並保證他/她的腦袋沒壞掉。。Anderson 和 SETI@home 的首席科學家 Dan Werthimer 在通過幾扇門後獲得靈感，Westphal 驚訝的問道：“是否可以利用成千上萬志願者的眼睛，就像 SETI@home 利用他們的計算機CPUs。 It wasn’t easy to translate the experience gained in volunteer computing to this new model that required the active participation of volunteers. But working in close cooperation with Anderson, and with support from The Planetary Society, Stardust@home was launched in August of 2006. Along with a NASA Ames project called ClickWorkers, dedicated to cataloguing craters on Mars, Stardust@home represented the first generation of scientific projects, in which members of the public working online contributed not computer time, but brain power. 利用志願者的電腦計算轉換成這種新模式並不容易，它需要志願者的積極參與。但在 Anderson 的密切合作還有行星協會的支持下，Stardust@home 於2006年8月啟動。伴隨著 NASA 的 Ames 項目 ClickWorkers（這個項目致力於編目火星上的火山口）Stardust@home 作為以通過網絡讓公眾成員捐獻大腦能力而並非計算機時間的第一代科學項目為代表，意義重大。 The remarkably creative feedback loop at Berkeley's Space Science Laboratory did not end there. Westphal, who was originally inspired by the success of SETI@home to launch Stardust@home, now returned the favor. Just as SETI@home spawned BOINC, Anderson wondered, could Stardust@home beget its own universal platform? Only in this case, instead of facilitating projects where personal computers do all the work, the new platform would make it possible for volunteers to use their minds and skills in support of scientific projects. 在伯克利空間科學實驗室，該顯創意得到的反饋並未結束。Westphal 起初有感於 SETI@home 的成功而開展了 Stardust@home，並且得到青睞。正如 SETI@home 催生了 BOINC，Anderson 考慮是否為 Stardust@home 帶來自己的通用平台？只有在這種情況下，新的平台將有可能使得志願者利用自己的頭腦和技術來支持科學項目，代替現時的全由計算機工作的協助項目。 Anderson and his team swung into action and within months developed a prototype for a platform to facilitate Stardust@home-like projects. They called it "Bossa," which stands for the "Berkeley Open System for Skill Aggregation." In many ways Bossa is similar to BOINC, and it makes use of all of BOINC's community features, including the credits, the competition, the teams, and the message boards. Where it differs is in the type of projects that it facilitates – volunteer computing for BOINC, "skill aggregation" for Bossa . There are many scientific projects, Anderson reasons, that could potentially benefit from the combined intelligence and skills of members of the lay public, but only the tiniest fraction actually make use of this approach. Bossa seeks to change this, by making it easy for scientists to launch public participation projects, and also provide a ready-made pool of dedicated volunteers. The new platfom, according to Anderson, is the natural next step in what he calls "Citizen Cyberscience." Anderson 和他的研究小組隨即采取行動，並在數月內開發一個提供給類似於 Stardust@home 的協助項目的平台原型。他們稱之為：“Bossa”，“伯克利開放式技能彙聚系統”（伯克利開放式技能協助系統，這樣好像易懂一些。。）。Bossa 在許多方面類似於 BOINC，它利用了所有 BOINC 的社會功能，包括積分、競賽、小組、以及留言板。它不同於 BOINC 的志願者計算機協助項目，Bossa 是“志願者技能協助”。Anderson 的理由是，有許多重大科學項目，有可能受益於非專業公眾的智力與技能的協作。但現在實際上能利用這種方法的卻是很微小。Bossa 將改變這一狀況，使它很容易的為科學家開展公眾參與的項目，還提供一個現成的熱忱志願者聚合地。根據 Anderson 所述，新平台的下一步他稱之為 "Citizen Cyberscience"（公眾異度科學？） Bossa is still in the developmental stage, but its first project is already preparing to launch. AfricaMap is a joint venture of the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, and the University of Geneva designed to review satellite images of the African continent. Volunteers who join AfricaMap will be scanning high-resolution images of remote regions in Africa where maps either do not exist or are sadly out of date. Their job will be to mark the precise locations of roads, rivers, villages, etc., thereby assisting efforts to aid impoverished regions and documenting the effects of global warming on the continent's landscape. According to Anderson, AfricaMap will go online within a few months. Bossa 仍處於開發階段，不過其第一個項目已經准備啟動了。AfricaMap 是由一家在 Kumasi,Ghana 的合資科技大學和日內瓦大學共同設計的項目，目的是審查非洲大陸的衛星圖像。志願者加入 Africamap 後將獲得非洲偏遠區域的高分辨率圖像，通過仔細查看找出哪些地圖不存在或者已經過時。他們的任務是將道路、河流、村莊等的精確位置標記出來。通過協助努力，以幫助貧困地區和記錄全球暖化對非洲大陸的影響。據 Anderson 說，Africamap 項目將在線持續數月。 While AfricaMap will be Bossa's first big test, Anderson already has other projects lined up to join the Bossa family. He is particularly excited about a project, not yet named, that for the first time will join Citizens' Cyberscience with the search for human origins. The Awash valley in Ethiopia harbors one of the richest deposits of hominid fossils in the world, dating back as much as 4 million years. It was there in 1974 that paleontologists found the most complete hominid skeleton ever unearthed, and named her "Lucy." Every year during the wet season the rains wash away the top layer of the soil in the valley, exposing new fossils that were hidden just beneath the surface. That is when paleontologists scour the rich fossil beds of the Awash basin, looking for the remains of our ancient hominid ancestors. But time is short: soil erosion from the next rain or dust storms will soon cover up the fossils once more. As a result, even the most diligent fossil hunters can search only a small fraction of the exposed fossil beds before they are covered by earth and dust, and lost to researchers forever. 而 AfricaMap 將是 Bossa 的首次重大考驗，同時 Anderson 已經安排好了其它項目排隊等候進入 Bossa 的大家庭。另外，他特地告訴我們他非常興奮的一個尚未命名的項目，任務是尋找人類起源，這類科學研究將第一次讓公眾參與。在埃塞俄比亞港口的 Awash 流域，是世界上原始人類化石最豐富的地方之一，時間可追溯到400多萬年前。在1974年，古生物學家正是在這裡發掘出最完整的原始人骨骸。並命名她為“Lucy”。在那裡每年雨季，雨水都會衝走流域頂部表層的土壤，使被掩埋在下方的新化石展露出來。古生物學家在 Awash 盤地尋找著衝刷後殘留的遠古人類祖先的化石。但是提供尋找時間很短：在下次大雨或者沙塵暴的土壤衝蝕後，化石就會被掩蓋。因此，即使最勤快的化石獵人在暴露的化石盤地被泥土和塵灰覆蓋前也只能搜索一小部分，而之後就永遠失去了進一步的調查機會。 But when the new Bossa project launches, this could all change. According to plans, researchers will use a low-flying unmanned drone to take high resolution images of the fossil beds immediately after they are exposed by rain. Using Bossa , these images will be immediately sent out to volunteers around the world who will scan them on their computers. Just as Stardust@home volunteers are trained to detect the tracks of interstellar dust particles, the new project's participants will be trained to recognize hominid fossils in the images, mark their location, and return their results to project headquarters. With these results in hand, paleontologists will be able to cut the time it takes them to locate fossils to a fraction of what it is today. With a complete overview of the fossil beds in hand, paleontologists will head directly to the locations of the most promising fossils, and extract them for further study before they are once more swallowed by the Earth. By substituting the thousands of eyes of Bossa volunteers around the world for the exhausting labor of a small team on site in Ethiopia, the new project could revolutionize the gathering of hominid fossils. There is no telling how many precious fossils will be saved and collected in this way, and what they could tell us about our origins and distant ancestors. 不過，當 Bossa 項目啟動後，這將可能改變。根據計劃，研究人員將使用低空飛行的無人駕駛飛機對被大雨衝洗後暴露化石盤床立刻進行掃描，獲得高分辨率圖像。通過 Bossa，這些圖像將立刻發送給全球的志願者讓他們在自己的電腦上進行仔細查找。正如 Stardust@home 的志願者受過訓練後查找星際塵埃顆粒，新項目的參加者將得到培訓以在圖像中發現原始人類化石，標記其位置，並向項目總部返回結果。通過這些結果，古生物學家將能削減現在只能尋找一小部分化石區域的時間。通過掌握完整的化石盤床概貌，古生物學家將直向最有希望的化石地區，並在它們被泥土掩埋之前得到進一步的研究。通過 Bossa 志願者數以千計的眼睛為埃塞俄比亞的一個小團隊網站提供協作，新項目將從根本上改變了原始人類化石的收集。項目沒辦法告知能有多少珍貴的化石將被保存，但他們可以告訴我們，通過這種方式，將對我們的起源和祖先有更深的了解。 Projects such as AfricaMap and the hominid fossil venture are closely modeled on Stardust@home in making use of volunteers' proven ability to recognize the finest features of high-resolution images. But while planning to implement these on the experimental Bossa platform, Anderson is also thinking ahead to more complex uses of the skills and intelligence of citizen volunteers. His focus in on "Rosetta," a well-established BOINC project, run from the University of Washington, that investigates the folding of proteins on volunteer's computers. Proteins are long strings of amino acids, which are the building blocks of life as we know it. In order to carry out their functions, however, proteins must spontaneously and almost instantaneously fold themselves in very precise ways. This process, which takes place repeatedly and reliably in biological systems, is an essential but little understood feature of life. Rosetta scientists are studying it by using volunteer's computers to model the "lowest energy" folding configurations of various proteins. 如 Africamap 和原始人類化石收集項目，正在密切仿照 Stardust@home，利用志願者辨認高解析度圖片細節特征的能力。但是，盡管計劃在 Bossa 實驗平台運行這些項目，Anderson 更進一步的想更綜合的利用志願者的技能和智力。他的重點將對於由華盛頓大學開辦的利用志願者計算機分析蛋白質折疊的已經在 BOINC 下運作良好的項目“Rosetta”。我們知道蛋白質是長串的氨基酸，它不同的組合構築形成了生命體。然而，蛋白質為了能達到它們的功能，必須自發的幾乎瞬間非常精確的折疊自己。這個過程在生物系統內可靠地不斷重復著，而這必要的過程僅僅是我們所了解生命的一小小部分。Rosetta 的科學家正利用志願者提供的計算機資源模擬不同蛋白質“最低能力狀態”的折疊形態，從而更深的了解它們。 It turns out, however, that computers are not the only ones capable of determining ideal folding configurations. Some humans are good at it too, so good in fact that the very best can do it better than any computer. Can such unique and sophisticated human capabilities be harnessed for scientific research through volunteer computing? Anderson and his partners at Rosetta believe that they can. Together they are designing what amounts to an online video game, in which payers compete with each other in finding the lowest-energy folding pattern of specific proteins. If the game proves popular, they hope it will attract those unique individuals with a special "knack" for this complex task.All this work on Bossa and its different applications "has gotten me very excited" said Anderson. "It's just like in the early days of BOINC," he said, "trying to find a single common platform for a range of different applications." 然而從結果看來，並非唯有電腦才能確定理想折疊狀態。有些人更善於並且比電腦做得更好。這些獨特而老練的技能能否通過電腦讓志願者進行協作？Anderson 和他的伙伴相信在 Rosetta 上是可行的。他們正在共同設計一個在線視頻游戲，不同的參與者彼此為尋找最低能量折疊形態而進行競賽。如果游戲受到歡迎，他們希望以此吸引那些擁有熟練技術的獨特的人來進行這復雜的任務。Anderson 說道：“Bossa 的所有工作和不同的應用‘使我非常興奮’，‘這就像 BOINC 成立當初一樣’。試圖尋找一個單一通用平台來進行不同的應用。” And what of SETI@home, the granddaddy of all of today's citizens' cyberscience projects? It too is still going strong, forever expanding its capabilities for searching out intelligent life in the universe. Over the past few years SETI@home has begun collecting data using the new multi-beam receiver at Arecibo, instead of the old single beam it had used since its launch in 1999. This means that the project can now scan the skies much faster and more efficiently than before, because it is looking at seven different points simultaneously. Furthermore, the new hardware put in place makes possible a far more sensitive search over a frequency band 40 times greater than before. The end result is that the new SETI@home is generating 500 times as much data as before, about 300 gigabytes a day, or 100 terabytes (100,000 gigabytes) per year. According to project scientist Erik Korpela, this is about the amount of data stored in the U.S. Library of Congress… 那麼對於今天所有公眾異度科學（citizens' cyberscience）項目的鼻祖 SETI@home 是怎樣的呢？它依然強大，並不斷為尋找地外文明而擴大其能力。在過去幾年，SETI@home 已經使用了在阿雷西博射電望遠鏡上新的多波束接收器來收集數據，代替了1999年所啟用的舊的單波束接收器。這意味著項目可以更快更有效率的掃描天空，因為它可以同時對7個不同的目標進行掃描。此外，新的硬件設備也投入到位，更為靈敏的接收器將可以比以前大40倍的頻段進行搜索。如此，新的 SETI@home 將比以往獲得500倍的數據，大約每天300GB，每年100TB。根據項目科學家 Erik Korpela 所說，有關數據存儲於美國國會圖書館… SETI@home is still the largest scientific public participation in history, with 170,000 active volunteers around the world running 320,000 computers. But with such massive amounts of data to process, the project is looking for even more volunteers to join the search. "The next generation SETI@home is 500 times more powerful than anything anyone has done before" said Werthimer. "That means we are 500 times more likely to find E.T. than with the original SETI@home." 回顧歷史，SETI@home 仍然是最大的公眾參與科學的項目。全球有170,000名活躍志願者運行著320,000台電腦。但面對如此大量的數據等待處理，項目方正尋找更多的志願者參與這項搜索行動。Werthimer 說道：“新一代 SETI@home 將比以前所有工作的強大500倍，這意味著比起上一代 SETI@home，我們將有500倍的可能尋找到外星人！” With projects in the works ranging from SETI@home's volunteer computing to Rosetta's cutting-edge computer game, Anderson is hopeful about the future prospects of Citizens' Cyberscience. "The larger question for the long-term," he said, "is how far can this idea be pushed?" Traditionally, he explained, the lead scientists would conduct the highly skilled portion of an experiment, requiring knowledge and sophisticated thinking, while their assistants were charged with the more mundane tasks. But with Citizens' Cybersciene members of the lay public are undertaking increasingly sophisticated and complex tasks. "How far up the chain of scientific research can public participation go," Anderson wonders. The answer, at this point, is anyone's guess. But with new generations of volunteers pushing the frontiers of Citizens' Science ever further, it is clear that the limit has yet to be reached. 從 SETI@home 的計算機協助到 Rosetta 的尖端電腦游戲，Anderson 對於公眾異度科學（Citizens' Cyberscience）的未來前景很有希望。他說：“而長遠的問題是如何把想法推廣。”他解析道：傳統上，前沿科學家在實驗中指導著技術要求非常高的部分，需要豐富的知識和先進的想法，而他們的助手卻從事於簡單而平凡的任務。但隨著公眾異度科學（Citizens' Cybersciene）開展，公眾將逐漸承擔先進和復雜的任務。Anderson 驚訝的說：“公眾能參與到多前沿科學研究去？”而答案，大家都在猜測。但隨著新一輩的志願者把公眾不斷推向前沿科學，可以清楚的看到，這還沒有受到限制。 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.139.96.173