Museum seeks sounds from the natural world
The public can upload the sounds they record in the natural world to the Tingjianwanwu program on WeChat.
The summer air is filled with the high-pitched songs of singing insects and experts are encouraging the public to record the sounds of the nature to play their part in scientific research.
A WeChat mini program called Tingjianwanwu, literally "hearing everything," was launched over the weekend by the Shanghai Natural History Museum and the School of Computer Science and Technology of East China Normal University.
Besides insects, people can also record birds chirping and frogs croaking when they walk around in neighborhoods or parks. They can then upload one-minute audio clips to share their discoveries with scientists and find out what they have heard — crickets or cicadas, bullfrogs or Asian toads.
As more wildlife is spotted in residential neighborhoods, the program also allows people to take photos of snakes, yellow weasels, raccoon dogs and other commonly seen wildlife in Shanghai.
“Even scientists working in the fields 24 hours per day can find very few from the natural world. The participation of the public will help us make a great leap forward,” said museum researcher He Xin.
Any new discovery is precious. Besides images and audio clips, people can also write down where and when they find the species. "It helps us better understand the living environment of wildlife and finally build a database of the city's wildlife," He said.
Zhang Yunfei, another researcher, said it had become common practice for scientists to do research by inviting the public to make contributions. In the UK, people are encouraged to take photos of roadside plants and share them with scientists.
A girl makes humming sounds by running her finger around the rim of a bowl during an event at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
Inspired by the program, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum has organized a group of children to stage plays to explain the principles behind how sounds are created.
The 25 children, aged between 8 and 11, played musical instruments such as ukulele and made music with glasses and buckets. “The pitch produced by the glass goes up when I pour off the water because the frequency of a note is correlated to its pitch,” one child said.
Senior educator Liu Guozhang said the event allowed children to learn scientific principles in an entertaining way.
