Category Archives: RC2

The Repeating Crumley-ONS Project: Next Steps

Slightly over a month ago, I came across the Winnower and began a project in open notebook science. The concept was to upload notes from my notebook to the Winnower, archive the notes, and get DOI’s for each post. Then I would write 2 papers: one to summarize the experiment and the other to theorize a complete publication system that would incentive open documentation of real-time research (open notebook science). I chose the Repeating Crumley experiment for this experiment in ONS, and you can read about the reasoning here.

Well I’m happy to say that I’ve completed Steps 1, 2, and 3! I’ve posted every notebook entry in the RC series (there’s a physics pun there somewhere) to the Winnower and received DOI’s for almost every post. A few posts didn’t translate, at all, on the platform. They are uploaded, but I didn’t bother with the DOI. Regardless, you can go on any of my Winnower posts and get a DOI (or click through to my notebook),  or look through the RC entries and click the DOI to get to the Winnower archive of that post.

One cool side effect of this project was that a Twitter friend noticed a post that had embedded .gifs and I think I am now credited with being the first to publish a scientific paper with embedded .gif’s.

Now it’s time to write the paper based on all this research. I got the process started a couple years ago with a Google Doc about the project. I think I never followed through, because I didn’t value the traditional publication process. I think open science and peer review publication are on a course to merge and the incentives for ONS will shift, but this is a topic for another time.

Anyway, here is the previous write-up which I’ll work on, merge with some info from my dissertation, and to which add some new thoughts.

This part may take some time…

Repeating Crumley Experimental Data on FigShare!

It took me a while, but I finally got my data from the Repeating Crumley set of experiments up on FigShare. Of course, I didn’t call it Repeating Crumley there since that experiment has no context. You can download the data sets and figures here:

Repeating Crumley FigShare Data and Figures

The interesting thing about this site is that your data remains your data but is openly accesible. Each upload is given a citation. Mine is:

Salvagno, Anthony; Koch, Steven J; Salvagno, Anthony (2012): Repeating Crumley: Tobacco Seed Growth in D2O. figshare.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.89655
Retrieved 22:15, Mar 02, 2015 (GMT)

Also there is a little section for social media promotion and it tracks the page analytics for you as well. That is pretty neat!

It did take me a while to get this up on FigShare unfortunately. For a while I couldn’t log in with Twitter, Facebook, or Google. I was asked repeatedly to sign in while trying to upload stuff. Eventually I just gave up and created a new account. Then when I tried to upload my first images, the site was unresponsive. I did spend a considerable amount of time organizing my resources so it would be presentable on FigShare, so that added to the mess a bit. And I also spent some time collecting links from my notebook to incorporate with the data so all experimental information can be collected. I also monified my active experiments page a little so some of the links are easier to navigate.

Despite how time consuming this first run was, it was definitely worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

RC2: Day 9


Yea I’m pretty sure everything is dead… damn heat.

RC2: Day 8


Since the lab is a blistering 95F, I’m officially ending this experiment. I will still take pictures for about 7 more days because I want to watch the evaporation rate, but none of this data will be counted towards anything. Most tellingly is that the seeds in DI water barely sprouted and there hasn’t been much change in the past couple of days. Compare that to the DDW seeds and that spells problem…

RC2: Day 7

CHTM Cooling System Down

Since this past Friday (Sept  23, 2011) the cooling system at CHTM has been down. I’m not sure if it is turned off for the impending winter or temporarily broken. This means that right now the lab is a toasty 92F and has been that way all weekend long. Unfortunately this can potentially mean a lot with regards to my seed growth experiments. Now I’m not sure if this is actually the case, but I think with regards to the experiments it may be in the best interest to scrap Try 2 for both the Repeating Crumley and the DDW Effects on Seed Growth until the temperature becomes a bit more stabilized. Now I will still record data and keep track of the experiments, but I will not include these results in any final markups. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn something from these experiment!

RC2: Day 6

Repeating Crumley Try 2: Setup

I am on Trial 2 of the Repeating Crumley Experiment. Trial 1 was a pretty decent success, but I ran into some issues regarding image acquisition, experiment stability, and water evaporation. I made some adjustments and began the experiment again. Here is how I setup the second trial:

  • There are 20 seeds of the Dark Virginia variety from the Tobacco Seed Company in each sample.
  • There are 8 water samples: di water, deuterium depleted water, 33% d2o in di water, 66% d2o in di water, 99.9% d2o, 33% d2o in ddw, 66% d2o in ddw, and a sample of di water without any seeds.
  • The sample of di water with no seeds is acting as a control to monitor the possibility of fungal/mold growth. 20 seeds were added to water and allowed to incubate in solution for 30 minutes. At the end of the incubation period the seeds were removed and the sample was sealed.
  • The seeds were added to each sample container (analyslides), and a water type was added immediately after seed addition.
  • After closing the samples, clear nail polish was added around the rim to seal the chambers from the surrounding environment.
  • Data is taken using a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910.
In the previous trial, the images were taken from below the samples. This resulted in several sample drops. In this trial, I have placed the samples flat on the lab top and am taking data from above the samples. In this manner, the samples have been significantly less agitated then before.
My biggest worry is that the nail polish has/will contaminate(d) the water samples, producing undesirable results. I have ordered a bunch of supplies to test what may create the best seal, while creating the least amount of interaction with the sample water. That experiment will be started as soon as possible and the result will be used to create a third trial run.

RC2: Day 5

RC2: Day 4

I haven’t had much time to study these pictures, but from quick observations it looks like the seeds in 33% d2o mixed with ddw are sprouting before the seeds in 33% d2o mixed with di water. Another interesting thing to note is the seeds in pure di water are sprouting slowly. I’m hoping that my use of nail polish to seal the analyslides hasn’t ruined the experiment.