DailyDirt: Crowdfunding Science!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Crowdfunding wallet designs and various gadgets may be fun and bring about some innovative products that might not normally get funding, but a lot of popular crowdfunding campaigns are relatively straightforward development projects and shouldn't be all that risky for backers. Crowdfunding actual scientific ventures adds a bit more risk for backers because no one can really say how an experiment will turn out -- unless the experiment has been done before. Adding to the challenge for scientific crowdfunding is the jargon and scientific understanding necessary for a backer to know what a particular project is actually trying to do. If you want to support some science, here are just a few science-related projects to check out.- There's a non-zero chance that an effective Ebola treatment already exists in the database of FDA-approved drugs. Computational models could help identify which existing drugs might be suitable targets, and this approach has worked for other diseases, finding possible antimalarial drugs and anti-viral targets. [url]
- Some biohackers wanted to see if they could extend the range of human vision by taking vitamin A2 doses for a while. They've published the data they've collected, but the conclusion seems to be that you probably shouldn't take vitamin A2 for long periods of time in the hopes of being able to see in the near infrared. Also, the participants in this study reported an increase in nightblindness. [url]
- TRUDI (Tele-Robotic Ultrasound Distance Imaging) is an ultrasound robot that allows doctors to obtain diagnostic measurements remotely. It might look a little creepy for a robot arm to go straight for a patient's neck in the pitch video, but this robot can measure other parts of the circulatory system, too. [url]
- If you ever wanted an open source real-time PCR machine, you can pre-order one for about $1,300. This isn't the first open source PCR thermocycler, but this version has a lot of nice bells and whistles, including a touchscreen and some analytics software. [url]
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Filed Under: biohackers, crowdfunding, ebola, nightblindess, open source, pcr, real-time pcr thermocycler, science, telemedicine, trudi, ultrasound robot, vitamin a2
Companies: experiment.com, gofundme, kickstarter, medstartr
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Patent-free chemotherapy drug development
Project MarilynDisclaimer: I donated.
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professional beggars
That's what makes these "pink ribbon" donation drives such a scam, and it's a shame that so many businesses and consumers alike have been duped into giving them so much money.
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Re: professional beggars
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Well duh, they just forgot to eat lots of carrots with the A2.
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The idea that carrots improve your vision because they have a lot of vitamin A dates back to WW2. British intelligence didn't want the Germans finding out that they had invented radar, so the leaked some (completely made up) information about how they'd had a scientific breakthrough in a completely unrelated field: nutrition. Apparently feeding their RAF pilots lots of carrots gave them superhuman night vision, which was how they managed to do so well at intercepting German planes at night! And the idea just sort of stuck, even after the truth about radar came out.
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Re:
http://neuronresearch.net/vision/pix/vitaminAs.gif
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Patent-free chemotherapy drug development
Disclaimer: I donated.
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Re: Patent-free chemotherapy drug development
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140925/08202528637/crowdfunding-patent-free-drug-treating-cancer .shtml
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Re: Re: Patent-free chemotherapy drug development
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The Last Word
“Re: professional beggars
Not sure if you're talking about foundations or the crowdfunding portals themselves, which do mostly take a commission off of funds raised. If the latter, it's worth pointing out that there are a number of non-profit portals that cater to scientific research projects, such as Consano for medical research, and the many university-hosted portals.