Project of the Day: Photosynq

The Photosynq platform starts with a hand-held device which connects to your cell phone and measures fluorescence and absorbance of photosynthetic plants and algae in a non-destructive way.

Photosynq is a completely open-source project which is continually being improved:

“These measurements provide a detailed picture of the health of the plant and are used for plant breeding, improving plant efficiency, and to identify novel photosynthetic pathways for energy and crop research. Existing field-portable fluorescence and absorbance devices cost thousands of dollars and are too expensive for plant breeders in the developing world. In addition, these devices use proprietary software and hardware, so each user experience and dataset is isolated.

We believe that phenomic plant data, like genomic data, is a critical global resource and must both be shared and agglomerated to be useful.

Therefore, the devices will automatically sync all user data to the cloud via users’ cell phones, where anyone can see and analyze it. In this way we can create a high quality, open set of photosynthesis data points taken from around the world. Most importantly, the data is taken using the same instrument and protocols, making it highly comparable and consistent.

Within the Photosynq community, researchers can create “experiments” via the website.

These include clear measurement protocols, measurement locations, plant species, and other specifications or those collecting the data in the field. Users, like students, teachers, and citizen scientists can take part in this research by taking data points within these parameters. Conversely, users may identify interesting data points, unusual results, or other field data which they can push to researchers for further study in the lab. These kinds of interactions can connect excited and motivated citizen scientists to plant researchers and breeders in ways not previously possible.”

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