Why Google is Good for Science

Poking around on the linkurl:iSpecies blog;http://ispecies.blogspot.com/2006/01/antweb-google-earth-map.html today, I found a comment alerting readers to linkurl:an interesting little tool;http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/DEVmapform.php on the online version of __Practical Fishkeeping__, "the UK's best-selling aquarium magazine." Fish Mapper is an applet that plots fish distribution data, culled from an online service called linkurl:FishBase;http://www.Fishbase.org , using Google Maps. For each specimen the map illustrates where it was isolated (latitude/longitude data), its museum accession number, and the year of harvest. The tool is similar to linkurl:AntWeb;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15878/ , which we covered this past November. AntWeb, the California Academy of Sciences' online resource for all things "ant-y", allows users -- lay and scientist alike -- to browse or search the Academy's extensive collection of ant specimens within Google Earth, which overlays the collection (that is, where the samples were isolated) on a world map or satellite image. I expect we'll see more specimen collections making their way onto Google Earth and Google Maps. That's because they are, at heart, basically just data presentation tools, linkurl:more akin to Adobe Acrobat than to desktop GIS systems.;http://www.digitalearth.com.au/2005/08/17/google-earth-notes/. Imagine how valuable such a readily accessible system could be to botanists or microbiologists, for instance. Instead of presenting data in tabular form your colleagues would see an intuitive interface mapping samples with their locations, images, accession numbers, and perhaps related URLs. linkurl:All you need;http://www.keyhole.com/GoogleEarthHelp/Importing/Importing_GIS_Data_Into_Google_Earth.htm is a publicly accessible file that links sample data to GPS coordinates. With handheld GPS receivers dropping in price, it's becoming more and more simple to collect this data.

Why Google is Good for Science

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Meet the Author

Jeff Perkel

Related Research Resources

Nergal Networks: Where Friendship Meets Infection

Research Resources

Podcasts

Webinars

Videos

Infographics

eBooks

Unraveling Complex Biology with Five-Dimensional Multiomics

Resurrecting Plant Defense Mechanisms to Avoid Crop Pathogens

Seeing and Sorting with Confidence

Streamlining Microbial Quality Control Testing

Products

Product News

Agilent Unveils the Next Generation in LC-Mass Detection: The InfinityLab Pro iQ Series

Pioneering Cancer Plasticity Atlas will help Predict Response to Cancer Therapies

Alamar Biosciences, Alzheimer's Disease Data Initiative, and Gates Ventures Unite in Global Partnership to Advance Translational Research in Alzheimer's Disease

How Alderley Analytical are Delivering eXtreme Robustness in Bioanalysis