Don't have a lab? Now you can crowdsource your science
Jacob Aron, technology reporter
Need to run an experiment for your research, but don't have the equipment? Or perhaps you're constantly losing track of lab supplies? Two new online companies launched by the Y Combinator start-up funding firm are promising to make scientists' lives easier by solving common research problems.
Science Exchange, based in Palo Alto, California, lets researchers outsource their experiments to other labs for a fee - think of it as a version of Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing service but for DNA sequencing or chemical analysis. You list the experiment you need performed then other scientists bid for it, letting you choose the best price or level of service.
It's a neat idea for making use of expensive equipment that might otherwise sit dormant, but does it mean that legions of grad students will be stuck performing other people's experiments?
There's also the question of quality assurance on experiments, though the service does provide a rating system to weed out troublemakers.
Even if you have the right equipment to perform your own experiments, you might not know where everything is. Quartzy is designed to help lab managers track their inventories, timetable the use of resources and rate or order new supplies. No more arguing over who gets to use the centrifuge, then.
Both services are free to use, with Science Exchange charging a transaction fee on any outsourced experiments and Quartzy charging labs for customised inventory management such as adding a university logo.
Need to run an experiment for your research, but don't have the equipment? Or perhaps you're constantly losing track of lab supplies? Two new online companies launched by the Y Combinator start-up funding firm are promising to make scientists' lives easier by solving common research problems.
Science Exchange, based in Palo Alto, California, lets researchers outsource their experiments to other labs for a fee - think of it as a version of Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing service but for DNA sequencing or chemical analysis. You list the experiment you need performed then other scientists bid for it, letting you choose the best price or level of service.
It's a neat idea for making use of expensive equipment that might otherwise sit dormant, but does it mean that legions of grad students will be stuck performing other people's experiments?
There's also the question of quality assurance on experiments, though the service does provide a rating system to weed out troublemakers.
Even if you have the right equipment to perform your own experiments, you might not know where everything is. Quartzy is designed to help lab managers track their inventories, timetable the use of resources and rate or order new supplies. No more arguing over who gets to use the centrifuge, then.
Both services are free to use, with Science Exchange charging a transaction fee on any outsourced experiments and Quartzy charging labs for customised inventory management such as adding a university logo.
Shameless Screen Grab courtesy of New Scienist
Garage Scientists of the World Unite! Now, you can have the Professional Interns do your mind numbing research for you - and at a reasonable cost. They'll even bid, to take the toil and drudgery of keeping copious notes of your results! When America has finally fallen behind the rest of the world in Theoretical and Applied Sciences (Engineering), we can still prepare ourselves to accept outsourcing work from other countries. "The Burger Flipping Sciences".
Like your low, low taxes? - Don't fund the Sciences. Research, Exploration, Climate Change, Advanced Physics. Slash and eliminate funding for education. Watch innovation flee our domestic labs and centers of higher learning to other, better funded nations.
And yet;We are Not a nation of Fat Dumb People who stare at Televisions. We as a nation are creators, innovators, and questioning people. We didn't build the world we live in by accident. We did it with focus and intent. IF we want to achieve great things, we must be prepared to do the commensurate work to reap the future benefits. Low taxes today, bankrupts our future.
(It's a basic principle behind trying to Rule the World)
-Lord Malignance
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