Aristotle, Aelian And The Giant Octopus: The Earliest 'Citizen Science' Goes Back More Than 2,000 Years

(MENAFN- The Conversation) If we want to research a subject, how do we do it? We could read about it in books or do experiments in a lab. Or another way is to find people who know something about it and ask them.

Collecting information from members of the public has long been a method of scientific research. We call it citizen science . According to National Geographic, this is“the practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge”.

Today, citizen science is a popular practice, with dozens of programs designed by academics to engage the public and leverage power by numbers. Its origins, however, go much farther back than you might think – all the way to ancient times.

Most of us know of Aristotle (384–322 BCE) for his philosophical works, but he was also a great scientist .

Aristotle consulted the general public when undertaking his scientific research projects. He wrote a number of books about animals, the greatest of which was his History of Animals . He also wrote smaller works including Parts of Animals and Generation of Animals. Collectively, these are usually referred to as Aristotle's biological writings .

The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (approximately 24–79 CE) has told us about some of Aristotle's research methods when writing these texts.

According to Pliny, Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE) – who was Aristotle's student – supported Aristotle's research on animals by ordering the public to collaborate:

Modern scholars aren't certain Alexander actually gave this order. Nonetheless, Aristotle's writings about animals often refer to information he received from others who worked directly with animals, such as hunters, beekeepers, fishermen and herdsmen.

For example, Aristotle thought worker wasps die off during the winter while mother wasps live through it. He must have relied on the reports of farmers for this information. In the History of Animals, he wrote :

Aristotle was at times also critical of the eyewitness information he received. For instance, in Generation of Animals, he says some people told him fish don't copulate, because they had not seen fish copulating. But he goes on to say these people are wrong – and that he himself knows fish do indeed copulate:

Aristotle was right. While most fish don't have sexual intercourse, some do . Clearly, Aristotle had either asked enough people and/or investigated the issue himself to find the truth.

Aristotle wasn't the only ancient researcher who got information from members of the public. Another was the philosopher Theophrastus (372–287 BCE), whose main area of research was plants. Like Aristotle, Theophrastus weighed up and tested the credibility of the different reports provided to him.

In his Enquiry into Plants, he rejects the opinion of some of his informants, saying :

Instead, he preferred the report of some sailors. These sailors, who had made a voyage and examined the trees in person, reported that frankincense and myrrh come from different trees.

Theophrastus believed them – and once again he was right. Frankincense comes from Boswellia trees, whereas myrrh comes from Commiphora trees.

Collecting information from the public isn't straightforward. People might fabricate information, or report strange and bizarre sights that are difficult to verify.

The Roman historian Claudius Aelian (2nd-3rd century CE) collected all kinds of (sometimes strange) stories about animals for his work On Animals.

In one passage Aelian describes a number of animals with rather odd features:

Elsewhere, Aelian reports on strange creatures we are more familiar with. Take, for example, his story of a giant octopus :

Aelian says one of the merchants wanted to fight the octopus to prevent it stealing their food, but was too afraid as the creature“was too big for one man” to fight.

We don't know whether Aelian's stranger stories are true or not. Nonetheless, it's clear at least some of these tales were collected from other people during his research.

By getting help from the public, ancient researchers were able to make a great deal of progress in studies of subjects such as animals and plants. They had to be careful, though. Much like today, discernment was necessary in the case of strange tales.

• History
• Science
• Ancient history
• Citizen science
• Scientific research
• Aristotle
• Alexander the Great
• Ancient world
• Aelian
• Pliny the Elder

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