The smartphone has come to stay in every human hand on the planet. We make calls, send text messages, make and receive video calls, chat, and more.
Our smartphones have turned into our best friends…well, for some people who can’t seem to detach themselves from their phones. For a list of smartphone companies, head to Collected.Reviews.
But beyond all of these smartphone uses, there are other ways your smartphone can be used. Ever thought it would be useful for science?
Science is one area that the smartphone has found usefulness in now. Beyond just the traditional things we can do with our phones, there are other areas in life they can help us with. Now, one can use a smartphone to become a mini scientist. Many smartphone companies have introduced some apps with the help of some scientists to enable users to help with the discovery, prediction, and reporting of natural events around them. They did this based on their opinions of what people can likely do with their smartphones.
Let us look at 5 ways you can use your phone for science
1. Take Inventory Of Wildlife Around You
If you have an app like Project NOAH (Networked Organisms and Habitats) on your phone, it allows you to report a “spotting” and take pictures of new or endangered species (plants and animals) you see somewhere. This helps to give an accurate number of such animals and or plants in a location, especially for researchers and during wildlife population studies.
2. Check Traffic
The GPS tracker in a smartphone can help you to check how much traffic is in a place which makes driving easy and fast for you. It can help to report to radio or TV stations who will give feedback to their listeners.
3. Report Bird Sightings
Using an app like EBird, helps bird watchers record and sends their sightings of birds within an area to a database. The EBird app is the largest database of bird observations in the world.
4. Detect Seismic Disturbances
The accelerometer in smartphones can be useful in detecting shakes in the earth’s crust to predict earthquakes. This will make people evacuate such areas fast and reduce the mortality rate. You will need to download an app like “MyShake” and run it in the background of your phone. The data it reads will be sent to a database that will be read by scientists.
5. Health Care
Health care apps can be downloaded on your phone to help monitor some vital signs like your heart rate, pulse rate, and others. Fitness apps can also be used on your smartphone to create a detailed workout schedule for you that calculate how many calories you have burnt or need to burn to reach your desired weight.
The smartphone that helps you make and receive clear calls either at home or abroad is also a powerful tool for science. Imagine you helping scientists to predict an earthquake. Makes you feel like a mini scientist yourself, right?