Citizen Science by Jamie Zvirzdin

Navigating the Waters of Truth: Reflections and Horizons for Citizen Science

In “The Origins of Totalitarianism” (1951), Hannah Arendt said, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” This year’s “Citizen Science” column has rigorously examined and interrogated this blurry line: How do we become intellectually secure if we’re afraid to ask questions in class? How do we sort cause and effect, science from pseudoscience and superstition, bias from objectivity? How can we distinguish between placebo and nocebo effects and authentic medical responses? And how do we navigate scientific jargon and complicated data while patiently pursuing the mysteries of science?

I envision information—words and numbers that supposedly describe some aspect of our reality—as drops of water. The quality of the water ranges from the polluted or muddied to the clean and clear, mirroring the continuum of information from the malicious or erroneous to the beneficial and accurate. Our survival as a species hinges less on the original purity of each droplet than on our collective ability to navigate these waters: discerning patterns and potential problems, filtering contaminants, and successfully managing information channels.

Discerning Patterns, Identifying Problems

In the digital era, “surfing the Internet” aptly describes the oceans of data now available to us. It’s a veritable Noachian deluge, threatening to drown us if we don’t build our own mental Ark to stay afloat. Navigating this inundation, however, requires more than mere passive floating; it calls for active engagement and discernment.

When I lived in the Marshall Islands, I witnessed how Marshallese traditional navigators expertly read slight changes in wave patterns, which allowed them to detect faraway islands and underwater obstacles merely by observing the water’s surface. Even the subtlest ripples and swells provided clues about distant winds and currents.

This ancient art of wave-piloting mirrors the careful judgment we need in our digital age. Just as Marshallese navigators interpret the ocean’s language to safely guide their specialized canoes, we must also learn to read the vast undulating sea of information, judging between the factual and the fallacious.

Filtering Contaminants

Living in the Marshall Islands also provided me with a tangible experience of transforming the impure into something consumable. A researcher working with the U.S. Agency for International Development showed me a reverse osmosis machine, a marvel that turned seawater into drinkable water. It was a shock to watch sea water going into the machine, but I tasted no salt in the water coming out. While the machine was too expensive to run other than during an emergency, it reminded me, powerfully, of the miracle of clean drinking water. 

Filtering water closely parallels the filtration of our daily information intake. It takes time and effort. Full filtration is particularly expensive, costing a great deal of time and effort; however, the cost may be less severe with cleaner sources. It takes much less time to use a carbon filter on mountain stream water, for example, than a full reverse osmosis machine on polluted lagoon sea water. We may never achieve absolute purity in the information we receive, but the ability to filter, to discern the essence of truth from contaminated information, is vital. It’s essential to corroborate information across verified outlets rather than rely on a single news source, particularly social media sources. We should all be alarmed, for example, that the Pew Research Center is reporting that about a third of Americans in the 18–29 age group are getting their news from TikTok, a company that is heavily influenced by the People’s Republic of China and known to disseminate harmful misinformation. Teens likewise struggle to identify what is real and what is fake about the Israel-Hamas conflict on social media. We can read any news we want, but we need to filter and test the information before swallowing it.

Manage Information Channels

The journey from source to sink is a marvel of modern engineering. Water, drawn from oceans or reclaimed from sky or sewage, undergoes rigorous filtration processes and passes through many pipes before it emerges, clear and safe—usually—from our kitchen taps. In May 2013, I was living in Montreal when sediment caused a problem at the filtration plant and turned the tap water brown. My family, among 1.3 million residents, resorted to boiling water for safety until the issue was resolved. More concerning, a 2019 “Global News” investigation revealed that parts of Montreal’s water system had lead levels comparable to those in Flint, Michigan’s 2015 crisis. The culprits: aging lead pipes and fluctuating water acidity, which resulted in lead contamination that posed serious health risks, including the potentially fatal Legionnaires’ disease. These incidents and other water crises underscore the critical role of those who maintain our water lifelines, who ensure the integrity and safety of what we consume.

Likewise, managing the channels through which information flows involves a complex system of checks and balances. It includes ensuring the integrity of data at its source, overseeing its journey through various media and platforms, and delivering it in a form that is both accessible and comprehensible. When subjected to raw, contaminated, overwhelming footage, we are drenched but unquenched. Consuming the right amount from the right pipes is crucial, for just as we rely on clean water for physical health, so, too, do we depend on accurate information for our intellectual and societal well-being.

Before we plunge into the new year with its cascade of headlines, posts, texts, podcasts, documentaries, and more, it is good to pause and take a deep breath, to reflect on the vast ocean of information that lies before us. Equipped with the skills to discern, filter, and manage, we are better prepared to sail through life and safely quench our thirst for knowledge. Our journey through “Citizen Science” is more than an academic exercise; it is an expedition into the heart of what it means to be informed, engaged, and empowered in an age where truth and fiction so frequently collide. Although approaching truth is an everlasting goal, I remain guardedly hopeful. Raising a virtual glass of fresh, clean water, here’s to you and to our adventures in 2024.

Jamie Zvirzdin researches cosmic rays with the Telescope Array Project, teaches science writing at Johns Hopkins University and is the author of “Subatomic Writing.”