Facebook and Twitter may help with Universal truths (From Mid Devon Star)

Facebook and Twitter may help with Universal truths

7:00am Tuesday 1st December 2009

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A UNIVERSITY of Exeter astrophysicist is helping to organise a grass-roots event dedicated to the future of astronomy, when Facebook and Twitter could play a key role in shaping our understanding of the universe.

Dr Alasdair Allan is on the committee organising the .Astronomy conference, which takes place in Leiden, Holland, this week.

The meeting will be a melting pot for researchers at the cutting edge of technology, outreach professionals working in new media, and citizen scientists.

With over 50 astronomers, software engineers and media professionals expected from all over the world, the conference will focus on new concepts of thinking and working in astronomy today.

Participants will explore new ways of exploiting the data deluge that will be produced by upcoming surveys and instruments for the benefit of their science and of society as a whole.

New ways of communicating science to a wide audience have burst onto the scene in recent years: Web 2.0, blogs, podcasts and social networking. The event will look at what role this new media could play in the future.

Dr Allan said: “We are in the middle of a revolution in astronomy with the virtual observatory finally beginning to bear its first fruit.

“The arrival of Google Sky Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope fundamentally changed how the growing collections of data have been presented.

“Data mining, robotic telescopes and virtual observatories will soon take petabytes of data to a global audience of professionals and amateurs.

“Communication and networking technologies are changing science, for both researchers and the public alike.

“No science is better suited to engaging the general public in real scientific research and discovery than astronomy.

“Astronomers have a long history of the general public looking over our shoulders as we work. So one thing that shouldn’t surprise us is user generated content.”

One of the objectives of the meeting is to come up with a new citizen science projects, in which everyone will be invited to be directly involved in producing new scientific results.

The morning talks of the .Astronomy workshop will be streamed online on the meeting’s website http://dotastronomy.com/.

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