Electronic tagging

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_tagging 

 

An electronic ankle tag

Electronic tagging is a form of surveillance that uses an electronic device affixed to a person.

In some jurisdictions, an electronic tag fitted above the ankle is used for people as part of their bail or probation conditions. It is also used in healthcare settings and in immigration contexts. Electronic tagging can be used in combination with the global positioning system (GPS). For short-range monitoring of a person that wears an electronic tag, radio frequency technology is used.

History

The electronic monitoring of humans found its first commercial applications in the 1980s. Portable transceivers that could record the location of volunteers were first developed by a group of researchers at Harvard University in the early 1960s. The researchers cited the psychological perspective of B. F. Skinner as underpinning for their academic project. The portable electronic tag was called behavior transmitter-reinforcer and could transmit data two-ways between a base station and a volunteer who simulated a young adult offender. Messages were supposed to be sent to the tag, so as to provide positive reinforcement to the young offender and thus assist in rehabilitation. The head of this research project was Ralph Kirkland Schwitzgebel and his twin brother collaborator, Robert Schwitzgebel (family name later shortened to Gable). The main base-station antenna was mounted on the roof of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church; the minister was the dean of the Harvard Divinity School.

Reviewers of the prototype electronic tagging strategy were sceptical. In 1966, the Harvard Law Review ridiculed the electronic tags as Schwitzgebel Machine and a myth emerged, according to which the prototype electronic tagging project used brain implants and transmitted verbal instructions to volunteers. The editor of a well-known U.S. government publication, Federal Probation, rejected a manuscript submitted by Ralph Kirkland Schwitzgebel, and included a letter which read in part: "I get the impression from your article that we are going to make automatons out of our parolees and that the parole officer of the future will be an expert in telemetry, sitting at his large computer, receiving calls day and night, and telling his parolees what to do in all situations and circumstances [...] Perhaps we should also be thinking about using electronic devices to rear our children. Since they do not have built-in consciences to tell them right from wrong, all they would have to do is to push the 'mother' button, and she would take over the responsibility for decision-making." Laurence Tribe in 1973 published information on the failed attempts by those involved in the project to find a commercial application for electronic tagging.

In the U.S., the 1970s saw an end of rehabilitative sentencing, including for example discretionary parole release. Those found guilty of a criminal offense were sent to prison, leading to sudden increase in the prison population. Probation became more common, as judges saw the potential of electronic tagging, leading to an increasing emphasis on surveillance. Advances in computer-aided technology made offender monitoring feasible and affordable. After all, the Schwitzgebel prototype had been built out of surplus missile tracking equipment. A collection of early electronic monitoring equipment is housed at the National Museum of Psychology in Akron, Ohio.

The attempt to monitor offenders became moribund until, in 1982, Arizona state district judge, Jack Love, convinced a former sales representative of Honeywell Information Systems, Michael T. Goss, to start a monitoring company, National Incarceration Monitor and Control Services (NIMCOS). The NIMCOS company built several credit card-sized transmitters that could be strapped onto an ankle. The electronic ankle tag transmitted a radio signal every 60 seconds, which could be picked up by a receiver that was no more than 45 metres (148 ft) away from the electronic tag. The receiver could be connected to a telephone, so that the data from the electronic ankle tag could be sent to a mainframe computer. The design aim of the electronic tag was the reporting of a potential home detention breach. In 1983, judge Jack Love in a state district court imposed home curfew on three offenders who had been sentenced to probation. The home detention was a probation condition and entailed 30 days of electronic monitoring at home. The NIMCOS electronic ankle tag was trialed on those three probationers, two of whom re-offended. Thus, while the goal of home confinement was satisfied, the aim of reducing crime through probation was not.

Additional technologies

Sweat alcohol content monitor

See also: Breathalyzer

According to Alcohol Monitoring Services (AMS), Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM) is currently available in 35 U.S. states.

On 31 March 2021, in England, so-called sobriety tags started being rolled out for some offenders who commit alcohol-driven crimes after testing the tags in Wales in October of the previous year. It monitors sweat samples every 30 minutes and alerts the probation service if alcohol is detected.

Uses

Medical and health

The use of electronic monitoring in medical practice, especially as it relates to the tagging of the elderly and people with dementia, has generated controversy and media attention. Elderly people in care homes can be tagged with the same electronic monitors used to keep track of young offenders. For people suffering from dementia, electronic monitoring might be beneficially used to prevent them from wandering away. The controversy regarding medical use relates to two arguments, one about the safety of the patients and the other about their privacy and human rights. At over 40%, there is a high prevalence of wandering among patients with dementia. Of the several methods deployed to keep them from wandering, it is reported that 44% of wanderers with dementia have been kept behind closed doors at some point. Other solutions have included constant surveillance, use of makeshift alarms and, the use of various drugs that carry the risk of adverse effects.

Commercial

Smartphones feature location-based apps to use information from global positioning system (GPS) networks to determine the phone's approximate location.

Parental

A company in Japan has created GPS-enabled uniforms and backpacks. School children in distress would be able to hit a button, immediately summoning a security agent to their location.

Vehicular

Public transit vehicles are outfitted with electronic monitoring devices that communicate with GPS systems, tracking their location. App developers have integrated this technology with mobile-phone apps. Now, passengers are able to receive accurate public transit timetables.

Effectiveness

An ankle monitor used for electronic tagging in Massachusetts.

The use of ankle bracelets, or other electronic monitoring devices, have proven to be effective in research studies and possibly deter crime.

Several factors have been identified as necessary to render electronic monitoring effective: appropriately selecting offenders, robust and appropriate technology, fitting tags promptly, responding to breaches promptly, and communication between the criminal justice system and contractors. The Quaker Council for European Affairs thinks that for electronic monitoring to be effective, it should serve to halt a developing criminal career.

The National Audit Office in England and Wales commissioned a survey to examine the experiences of electronically monitored offenders and the members of their family. The survey revealed that there was common agreement among survey respondents that electronic monitoring was a more effective punitive measure than fines, and that it was generally more effective than community service. An interviewed offender is credited with saying: "You learn more about other crimes [in prison] and I think it gives you a taste to do other crimes because you've sat listening to other people."

In 2006, Kathy Padgett, William Bales, and Thomas Bloomberg conducted an evaluation of 75,661 Florida offenders placed on home detention from 1998 to 2002, in which only a small percentage of these offenders was made to wear an electronic monitoring device. Offenders with electronic tagging were compared to those on home detention without. The factors thought to influence the success or failure of community supervision, including type of electronic monitoring device used and criminal history, were measured. The results showed that offenders who wore electronic tags were both 91.2 percent less likely to abscond and 94.7 percent less likely to commit new offenses, than unmonitored offenders.

Criticisms

The electronic monitoring of a person, on whom an electronic tag is fitted, does not physically restrain this person from leaving a certain area, nor does it prevent this person from re-offending — the primary aim of probation. Furthermore, the public perception of home detention is that it is a form of lenient punishment.

As early as 1988, the Penal Affairs Committee of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), wrote a briefing in its Green Paper strongly opposing the adoption of electronic monitoring in England and Wales. The Committee noted all the claims made in favor of electronic monitoring but insisted that all such claims could be ‘either demolished or rendered invalid' by arguments against it. The major argument or criticism against it was that on the basis of past experience, electronic monitoring would not absolutely be used on people at risk of custody, but on people who would otherwise have been granted probation or community service. This would lead to a widening of the net of control rather than reducing prison population; it would undermine constructive and supportive interventions. The Penal Committee concluded that the degrading monitoring of fellow human beings, electronically, was morally wrong and unacceptable.

In the US in 1990, Ronald Corbett and Gary T. Marx criticized the use of electronic monitoring in a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Baltimore. In the paper, which was later published in the Justice Quarterly, the authors described ‘the new surveillance' technology as sharing some ethos and the information-gathering techniques found in maximum-security prisons thereby allowing them to diffuse into the broader society. They remarked that ‘we appear to be moving toward, rather than away from, becoming a "maximum-security society". The authors acknowledged the data mining capacity of electronic monitoring devices when they stated that "data in many different forms, from widely separated geographical areas, organizations, and time periods, can easily be merged and analyzed".

In 2013, it was reported that many electronic monitoring programs throughout the US were not staffed appropriately. George Drake, a consultant who worked on improving the systems said "Many times when an agency is budgeted for electronic-monitoring equipment, it is only budgeted for the devices themselves". He added that the situation was ‘like buying a hammer and expecting a house to be built. It's simply a tool, and it requires a professional to use that tool and run the program.' Drake warned that programs can get out of control if officials don't develop stringent protocols for how to respond to alerts and don't manage how alerts are generated: "I see agencies with so many alerts that they can't deal with them," Drake said. "They end up just throwing their hands up and saying they can't keep up with them." In Colorado, a review of alert and event data, obtained from the Colorado Department of Corrections under an open-records request, was conducted by matching the names of parolees who appeared in that data with those who appeared in jail arrest records. The data revealed that 212 parole officers were saddled with the duty of responding to nearly 90,000 alerts and notification generated by electronic monitoring devices in the six months reviewed.

Notable instances

• English professional footballer Jermaine Pennant played a Premier League match in 2005 while wearing an electronic tag; he had received the tag for drunk-driving and driving while disqualified.
• Lindsay Lohan failed to appear at a mandatory hearing, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. The judge ordered Lohan to wear a SCRAM bracelet, an electronic device that monitors the sweat for alcohol and alerts authorities if prohibited substances are consumed.
• Roman Polanski, one of the most famous fugitives from American justice in the world, was arrested in Switzerland. The terms of his release included $4.5 million bail, house arrest wearing an ankle bracelet at his chalet, known as Milky Way, in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad, after having spent sixty-seven days in a Zurich detention centre.
• Bernard Madoff, the financier accused in a $50 billion fraud case before trial was ordered under house arrest, with electronic monitoring, and posting $10 million bail against his $7 million Manhattan apartment, and against his wife's homes in Montauk, NY, and Palm Beach, FL.
• Dr. Dre (Andre Young), American rapper and record producer, was arrested in 1992 for assaulting record producer Damon Thomas and later pleaded guilty to assault on a police officer, eventually serving house arrest and wearing a police monitoring ankle bracelet.

Jurisdictions

United Kingdom

Those subject to electronic monitoring may be given curfews as part of bail conditions, sentenced under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 in England and Wales (with separate legislation applying in Scotland). Alternatively offenders may be released from a prison on a Home Detention Curfew. Released prisoners under home detention are allowed out during curfew hours only for:

• A wedding or funeral (service only) of a close relative
• A job interview
• Acting as a witness in court
• Emergencies.

Additionally, electronic monitoring may be used for those subject to a curfew given under the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011 (previously known as a control order under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005)

Since electronically monitored curfews were rolled out throughout England and Wales their use has increased sharply, from 9,000 cases in 1999–2000 to 53,000 in 2004–05. In 2004–05, the Home Office spent £102.3 million on the electronic monitoring of curfews and electronically monitored curfews are considered cheaper than custody.

Typically, offenders are fitted with an electronic tag around their ankle which sends a regular signal to a receiver unit installed in their home. Some systems are connected to a landline in the case where GSM is not available, whilst most arrangements utilize the mobile phone system to communicate with the monitoring company. If the tag is not functioning or within range of the base station during curfew hours, or if the base is disconnected from the power supply, or the base station is moved then the monitoring company are alerted, who in turn, notify the appropriate authority such as the police, the National Probation Service or the prison the person was released from.

In 2012, the Policy Exchange think tank examined the use of electronic monitoring in England and Wales and made comparisons with technologies and models seen in other jurisdictions, particularly the United States. The report was critical of the Ministry of Justice's model of a fully privatized service - which gave little scope for police or probation services to make use of electronic monitoring. The report, Future of Corrections, also criticized the cost of the service, highlighting an apparent differential between what the UK taxpayer was charged and what could be found in the United States.

Subsequently, there were a number of scandals in relation to electronic monitoring in England and Wales, with a criminal investigation opened by the Serious Fraud Office into the activities of Serco and G4S. As a result of the investigation, Serco agreed to repay £68.5 million to the taxpayer and G4S agreed to repay £109 million. The duopoly were subsequently stripped of their contract, with Capita taking over the contract. In 2017, another criminal investigation saw police make a number of arrests in relation to allegations that at least 32 criminals on tag had paid up to £400 to Capita employees in order to have 'loose' tags fitted, allowing them to remove their tags.

The monitoring of sex offenders via electronic tagging is currently in debate due to certain rights offenders have in England and Wales.

Electronic tagging has begun being used on psychiatric patients, prompting concern from mental health advocates who state that the practice is demeaning.

In June 2022, the British Home Office announced a one-year pilot to track migrants who arrived on small boats on "dangerous and unnecessary routes" with GPS devices that will help "maintain regular contact" and more "effectively process their claims".

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia and New Zealand existing law permits the use of electronic monitoring as condition for bail, probation or parole. But, according to the 2004 Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia the surveillance must be proportionate to the risk of re-offense. It is also required that, the surveillance of the offender is minimally intrusive for other people who live at the premises. Electronic tagging of a person is part of different electronic monitoring systems in Australia. Correctional agency statistics are collected in Australia for so called "restricted movement orders". In South Australia, a drive-by facility allows the monitorer to drive past a building in which the tagged person is supposed to be. In New Zealand, the electronic tagging of offenders began 1999, when home detention could be imposed instead of imprisonment.

Brazil

In August 2010, Brazil awarded a GPS Offender Monitoring contract to kick start its monitoring of offenders and management of the Brazilian governments early release programme.

South Africa

Electronic monitoring as a pilot project was started in March 2012, involving 150 offenders, mostly prisoners serving life terms. The project was rolled out to reduce the South Africa's prison population. It consequently would also reduce the taxpayer's burden on correctional facilities. South Africa locks up more people than any other country on the continent.

Wildlife observation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_observation 

 

Hobby photographers taking pictures of wildlife at the Chobe River / Botswana (2018)

Wildlife observation is the practice of noting the occurrence or abundance of animal species at a specific location and time, either for research purposes or recreation. Common examples of this type of activity are bird watching and whale watching.

The process of scientific wildlife observation includes the reporting of what (diagnosis of the species), where (geographical location), when (date and time), who (details about observer), and why (reason for observation, or explanations for occurrence). Wildlife observation can be performed if the animals are alive, with the most notable example being face-to-face observation and live cameras, or are dead, with the primary example being the notifying of where roadkill has occurred. This outlines the basic information needed to collect data for a wildlife observation; which can also contribute to scientific investigations of distribution, habitat relations, trends, and movement of wildlife species.

Wildlife observation allows for the study of organisms with minimal disturbance to their ecosystem depending on the type of method or equipment used. The use of equipment such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more commonly known as drones, may disturb and cause negative impacts on wildlife. Specialized equipment can be used to collect more accurate data.

History

Wildlife observation is believed to have traced its origins to the rule of Charles II of England when it was first instituted in 1675 at the Royal Observatory in present-day Greenwich, part of London. In modern times, it has practiced as an observance of wildlife species monitored in areas of vast wilderness.

Importance

Through wildlife observation, there are many important details that can be discovered about the environment. For instance, if a fisher in Taiwan discovers that a certain species of fish he/she frequently catches is becoming rarer and rarer, there might be a substantial issue in the water that fisher is fishing in. It could be that there is a new predator in the water that has changed the animal food chain, a source of pollution, or perhaps even a larger problem. Regardless of the reason, this process of observing animals can help identify potential issues before they become severe problems in the world.

Additionally, through animal observation, those who participate are also actively participating in the conservation of animal life. Oftentimes, the two subjects go hand-in-hand with one another because through the observation of animals, individuals are also discovering what issues animals around the world are currently facing and if there are any ways to put up a fight against them. With more observation, fewer species of animals will become extinct.

Research

Before one can get started observing wildlife and helping the environment, it is important to research the animal they are choosing to observe. If one simply went into the observation process and skipped the crucial process of obtaining knowledge about the animals, it would be difficult for them to determine if anything was out of the ordinary. Before observing, it would be wise to find out simple information about the animal such as:

• What the animal eats - Is the animal a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore?
• What animals prey on the animal?
• Where does the animal live?
• Is the animal dangerous?
• Is it endangered?
• Does the animal travel in packs or alone?
• What are the animal's sleeping habits? 

Projects and programs devoted to wildlife observation

Projects

There are a variety of projects and websites devoted to wildlife observations. One of the most common projects are for bird observations (for example: e-bird). For those who enjoy bird watching, there are a variety of ways one can contribute to this type of wildlife observation. The National Wildlife Refuge System has volunteer opportunities, citizen science projects, and if one is limiting in time; could purchase a Federal Duck Stamp that donates money to the wildlife refuge lands. In the past few years, websites dedicated to reporting wildlife across broad taxonomic ranges have become available. For example, the California Roadkill Observation System provides a mechanism for citizen-scientists in California to report wildlife species killed by vehicles. The Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch allows reporting of observations of both dead and live animals along roads. A more recent addition to wildlife observation tools are the web sites that facilitate uploading and management of images from remote wildlife cameras. For example, the Smithsonian Institution supports the eMammal and Smithsonian Wild programs, which provide a mechanism for volunteer deployment of wildlife cameras around the world. Similarly, the Wildlife Observer Network hosts over a dozen wildlife-camera projects from around the world, providing tools and a database to manage photographs and camera networks.

Monitoring programs

Monitoring programs for wildlife utilize new and easier ways to monitor animal species for citizen scientists and research scientists alike. One such monitoring device is the automated recorder. Automated recorders are a reliable way to monitor species such as bird, bats, and amphibians as they provide ability to save and independently identify a specific animal call. The automated recorder analyzes the sounds of the species to identify the species and how many there are. It was found that using the automated recorders produced larger quantity and even more quality data when compared with traditional, point-count data recording. While providing better quality, it also provides a permanent record of the census which can be continually reviewed for any potential bias. This monitoring device can improve wildlife observation and potentially save more animals. Using this device can allow for continued tracking of populations, continued censusing of individuals within a species, and allow for faster population size estimates.

Live watching and observation

Birdwatching

One of the most popular forms of wildlife observation, birdwatching, is typically performed as a recreational pleasure. Those looking to birdwatch typically travel into a forest or other wooded area with a pair of binoculars in hand to aid the process. Birdwatching has become all the more important with the amount of deforestation that has been occurring in the world. Birds are arguably the most important factor in the balance of environmental systems: "They pollinate plants, disperse seeds, scavenge carcasses and recycle nutrients back into the earth." A decrease in the total number of birds would cause destruction to much of the environmental system. The plants and trees around the world would die at an alarming rate which would, in turn, set off a chain reaction that would cause many other animals to die due to the environment change and habitat loss.

Birdwatchers on a beach

One of the ways that birdwatching has an effect on the environment as a whole is that through consistent birdwatching, an observer would be able to identify whether they are seeing less of a certain species of bird. If this happens, there typically is a reasons for the occurrence, whether it be because of an increase in pollution in the area or possibly an increase in the population of predators. If a watcher were to take notice of a change in what they typically see, they could notify the city or park and allow them to investigate into the cause a bit further. Through this action, birdwatchers are preserving the future for both animal and human life.

Subsequently, by taking children birdwatching it is allowing the future generation to understand the importance of animal observation. If children learn at a young age how the environmental system works and that all life is intertwined, the world will be in much better hands. These children will be the ones pioneer conservation movements and attempt to protect the habit for all animals.

Livestreams

Live streams of animal exhibits at various zoos and aquariums across the United States have also become extremely popular. The Tennessee Aquarium has a webcam that allows online viewers to take a look into the happening so their Secret Reef exhibit which consists of reef fish, sharks, and a rescued green sea turtle.

Perhaps the most popular animals cams in the United States though come from, naturally, the largest zoo in the United States: The San Diego Zoo. The San Diego Zoo features eight live cams on their website – A panda, elephant, ape, penguin, polar bear, tiger, condor, and koala. The purpose of the live streams is to help educate the public about the behaviors of several different animals and to entertain those who might not be able to travel to a zoo.

The other notable zoos that have webcams are the National Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, Houston Zoo, and Atlanta Zoo.

Additionally, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has opened a butterfly and plant observation pavilion. Visitors walk into a large tent and experience a one-of-a-kind situation in which hundreds of rare butterflies from all across the world are inches from their faces.

Collecting data

As is the case with a majority of subjects, one of the best and most effective ways to observe live animals is through data collection. This process can be done through a livestream or in the wild but it is more useful if the data is collected on animals that are in currently in the wild. The ways the data can be collected are endless and it really just depends on what purpose an individual has as to what data would be the most useful.

For example, if someone is interested in how deer interact with other animals in a certain location, it would be beneficial for them to take notes and record all of the animals that are native to the area where the deer are located. From there, they can describe any scenarios in which the deer had a positive or negative interaction with the other species of animals. In this instance, it would not really be helpful for the observer to collect data pertaining to the types of food the deer eat because the study is only focusing on the interaction amongst animals.

Another example of how collecting data on wildlife would be useful is keeping track of the total number of a certain species exists within a forest. Naturally, it will be impossible to get a definitive number but if an accurate approximation can be made, it could be beneficial in determining if there has been a random increase or decrease in the population. If there is an increase, it could be due to a change in the species migration habits and if there is a decrease, it could be due to an external factor such as pollution or introduction of a new predator.

Deceased wildlife observation

An example of a wildlife crossing sign

Online systems and mobile apps

Many states have already begun to set up websites and systems for the public. The main purpose behind the movement is so that they can notify other individuals about road-killed wildlife. If enough people fill out the forms located on the websites, the government will become notified that there have been occurrences of a loss of animal life and will take the steps required to prevent it. Typically, the step that is taken is the posting of a wildlife crossing sign that, in turn, allows the public to know where there are common animal crossings. Maine and California are the states that have been the pioneers of this movement and this process has become particularly important on heavily traveled roads as no one would like endanger the animals or themselves.

Currently, there is an app (available on both iPhone and Android devices) made specifically for the purpose of identifying road-kill called “Mobile Mapper.” The app is a partner of the HerpMapper website. The purpose of the website is to use the user recorded observations for research and conservation purposes.

On average, the cost of repairing a car that has been damaged by a deer or other medium to large-sized animal is $2,000. Even though there is no way that accidents involving animals can completely be prevented, placing more signs about possible animal crossings zones would cause drivers to drive more carefully and therefore have fewer accidents. Economically, this means that more families will be saving money and it could be used in a different way to help contributed to society as a whole.

Issues leading to the extinction of animals

Climate change

Climate change is one of the most heavily discussed topics around the world today, both politically and scientifically. The climate that Earth is currently experiencing has been steadily changing over time due to both natural causes and human exploitation. Climate change has the potential to be detrimental to wildlife across the world, whether that be through rising sea levels, changes in temperatures through the years, or deforestation. These are just a few of the examples of the contributing factors to climate change.

Climate change is not something that citizens can entirely prevent from happening even if they wanted to. There are many natural causes such as volcanic activity and the Earth's orbit around the sun that are strong contributing factors to the phenomena. There are, however, prevention measures that can be taken to prevent climate change from happening as quickly. The primary way to prevent climate change is for society to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are present in the atmosphere. This can be done through the improving of energy efficiency in many buildings, the stoppage of deforestation so more carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere, and mode switching.

Rising sea levels

One of the more notable effects climate change has on the environment is the rising of sea levels around the world. Over the past 100 years, the sea level has risen approximately 1.8 millimeters each year. The steady rise in sea levels can be attributed to the steadily increasing temperatures the Earth faces each year which causes the ice caps and glaciers to melt. This increase in sea level is detrimental to the coastal ecosystems that exist around the world.

Polar bear hunting for food

The increase in sea level causes flooding on coastal wetlands, where certain animals will be unable to survive due to saltwater inundation. The increase in the total amount of saltwater present in these wetlands could prove to be problematic for many species. While some may simply have to migrate to other areas, smaller ecosystems within the wetlands could be destroyed which, once again, influences the animal food chain.

Polar bears are animals that are specifically affected through the process of rising sea levels. Living near the Arctic region, polar bears find their food on ice caps and sheets of ice. As these sheets continue to become fewer in quantity, it is predicted that the polar bears will have a difficult time sustaining life and that by the year 2050, there could be less than 20,000 on Earth.

Coral reefs are the primary ecosystem that would be affected through a continuing increase in the sea level:

"The coral reef ecosystem is adapted to thrive within certain temperature and sea level range. Corals live in a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae need the sunlight in order to produce the nutrients necessary for the coral. Sea level rise may cause a decrease in solar radiation at the sea surface level, affecting the ability of photosynthetic zooxanthellae to produce nutrients for the coral, whereas, a sudden exposure of the coral reef to the atmosphere due to a low tide event may induce coral bleaching."

Coral reef with fish

The loss of coral would have a subsequent effect on the total number of fish that exist within these ecosystems. In the Indo-Pacific coral reefs alone, there are in-between 4000 and 5000 different species of fish that have a relationship with the species of coral. Specifically, the numerous different species of butterfly fish that feed on coral within these reefs would be affected if the coral was unable to live due to an increase in sea level. Referring back to the food chain topic, this would then subsequently but directly affect species of snappers, eels, and sharks that use butterfly fish as a primary source of food. If the snappers cannot find any butterfly fish to eat because the butterfly fish are dying due to the lack of coral, it means that the snapper population will decrease as well.

The rising of sea level has the possibility to be catastrophic to the coastal ecosystems.

Pollution

Pollution is another crucial threat to animal life, and human life, across the world. Every form of pollution has an effect on wildlife, whether it be through the air, water, or ground. While sometimes the origin and form of pollution is visible and easy to determine, other times it can be a mystery as to what exactly is causing the death of animals. Through constant and consistent observation of habitat analysis, humans can help prevent the loss of animal life by recognizing the early signs of pollution before the problem becomes too large.

Ocean and water pollution

Map of the area where fishing was affected because of the BP oil spill

Pollution can enter bodies of water in many different ways - Through toxic runoff from pesticides and fertilizers, containers of oil and other hazardous materials falling off of ships, or just from debris from humans that has not been picked up. No matter what the form of pollution is, the effects water pollution has on animal life can be drastic. For example, the BP oil spill which occurred in 2010 impacted over 82,000 birds, 6,000 sea turtles, approximately 26,000 marine animals, and hundreds of thousands of fish.

While the observation of how animal life was and has been affected by this spill is unique and definitely on the larger scale, it still represents an accurate depiction of how observation can be crucial to animal lives. For example, by observing that a certain species of sea turtle was affected by the oil spill, zoologists and their teams would be able to determine the effects the loss of that sea turtle would have.

Another prominent example is how if one day a fisherman goes to a lake that he/she frequently visits and notices two or three dead fish on the surface. Knowing that that frequently does not happen, the fisherman tells his local city officials and park rangers about the occurrence and they find out that a farmer has been using a new pesticide that runs off into the lake. By simply observing what is common and what is not, the effects of some water pollution can be stopped before becoming too severe.

Air pollution

Smoke coming from a factory

Air pollution is commonly associated with the image of billowing clouds of smoke rising into the sky from a large factory. While the fumes and smoke previously stated definitely is a prominent form of air pollution, it is not the only one. Air pollution can come from the emission of cars, smoking, and other sources. Air pollution does not just affect birds though, like one may have thought. Air pollution affects mammals, birds, reptiles, and any other organism that requires oxygen to live. Frequently, if there is any highly dangerous air pollution, the animal observation process will be rather simple: There will be an abundance of dead animals located near the vicinity of the pollution.

The primary concern of air pollution is how widespread the pollution can become in a short period of time. Acid rain is one of the largest forms of pollution today. The issue with acid rain is that it affects literally every living organism it comes in contact with, whether that be trees in a forest, water in an ocean or lake, or the skin of humans and animals. Typically, acid rain is a combination of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are emitted from factories. If it is not controlled in a timely manner, it could lead to loss of life due to the dangerous nature of the composition of the rain.

Deforestation

Deforestation has become one of the most prevalent issues environmentally. With a continuously growing population and not having the space to contain all the humans on Earth, forests are frequently the first areas that are cleared to make more room. According to National Geographic, forests still cover approximately 30 percent of the land on Earth but each year large portions are cleared.

With deforestation, there are numerous subsequent side effects. Most notably, the clearing of entire forests (in some instances) destroys the habitat for hundreds of species of animals and 70 percent of the animals that reside in the forest will die as a result. Additionally, deforestation causes a reduction in the total canopy cover which leads to more extreme temperature swings on the ground level because there are no branches and leaves to catch the sun's rays.

The way to combat the severe effects on the loss of animal life would be to stop cutting trees and forests down. While this is unlikely and almost impossible to happen, there is another solution: the partial removal of forests. Removing only portions of the forest keeps the environment of the entire forest intact which allows the animals to adapt to their surroundings. Additionally, it is recommended that for every tree that is cut down another one be planted elsewhere in the forest.

Economic effects of animal observation

Costs of observation

Typically, the costs of animal observation are minuscule. As previously stated, animal observation can be done on a small or large scale; it just depends what goal an individual has in mind. For example, animal observation can be performed in the backyard of a house or at a local state park at no charge. All one would have to do is take a notepad, phone, or other device to write down their data and observations. On a larger scale, animal observation could be performed at an animal reserve, where the associated costs would be those associated with keeping the animals happy inside the reserve.

While it is impossible to pinpoint exactly how much the zoos across the world spend on live streaming, it is estimated to be in the $1,000 range for every camera that is set up.

Costs that observation prevents

Referring back to the example from the "Deceased Wildlife Observation" section, it becomes apparent how animal observation can save families and the government money. With the average cost of repairing a car that has damage from a large sized animal being $2,000, families and the government could save money by making the public aware that they should proceed with caution in areas where animals have been hit.

Water pollution at Maracaibo lake

Additionally, approximately $44 million of the $4.3 billion spent on water purity is spent each year on protecting aquatic species from nutrient pollution. It is encouraging that the government is willing to spend the money to help save animals' lives, sometimes the effects of the pollution take effect before they are able to stop them entirely. One million seabirds and hundred thousand aquatic mammals and fish that are killed as a result of water pollution each year and that has its economic effects, both directly and indirectly.

Directly, the loss of aquatic mammals and fish has a direct impact on the sales of food. The EPA estimated recently that the effects of pollution cost the fishing industry tens of millions of dollars in sales. Indirectly, the loss of birds causes humans to spend more money on pest control because the food chain is out of order. The small rodents and insects that some birds prey upon are no longer being killed if the birds die. This means more of these pests find their ways into homes which causes more people to call exterminators, therefore setting off a chain reaction. The exterminators then must use insecticides to kill the animals which can have harmful runoff into the ground and local water systems, instead of allowing it to be done naturally by the animal food chain.

Field research

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_research 

 

Biologists collecting information in the field

 

Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct field research may simply observe animals interacting with their environments, whereas social scientists conducting field research may interview or observe people in their natural environments to learn their languages, folklore, and social structures.

Field research involves a range of well-defined, although variable, methods: informal interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the group, self-analysis, results from activities undertaken off- or on-line, and life-histories. Although the method generally is characterized as qualitative research, it may (and often does) include quantitative dimensions.

History

Field research has a long history. Cultural anthropologists have long used field research to study other cultures. Although the cultures do not have to be different, this has often been the case in the past with the study of so-called primitive cultures, and even in sociology the cultural differences have been ones of class. The work is done... in "'Fields' that is, circumscribed areas of study which have been the subject of social research". Fields could be education, industrial settings, or Amazonian rain forests. Field research may be conducted by ethologists such as Jane Goodall. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown [1910] and Bronisław Malinowski [1922] were early anthropologists who set the models for future work.

Conducting field research

The quality of results obtained from field research depends on the data gathered in the field. The data in turn, depend upon the field worker, his or her level of involvement, and ability to see and visualize things that other individuals visiting the area of study may fail to notice. The more open researchers are to new ideas, concepts, and things which they may not have seen in their own culture, the better will be the absorption of those ideas. Better grasping of such material means a better understanding of the forces of culture operating in the area and the ways they modify the lives of the people under study. Social scientists (i.e. anthropologists, social psychologists, etc.) have always been taught to be free from ethnocentrism (i.e. the belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group), when conducting any type of field research.

When humans themselves are the subject of study, protocols must be devised to reduce the risk of observer bias and the acquisition of too theoretical or idealized explanations of the workings of a culture. Participant observation, data collection, and survey research are examples of field research methods, in contrast to what is often called experimental or lab research.

Field notes

Main article: Fieldnotes

When conducting field research, keeping an ethnographic record is essential to the process. Field notes are a key part of the ethnographic record. The process of field notes begin as the researcher participates in local scenes and experiences in order to make observations that will later be written up. The field researcher tries first to take mental notes of certain details in order that they be written down later.

Kinds of field notes

Field Note Chart

Types of Field Notes	Brief Description
Jot Notes	Key words or phrases are written down while in the field.
Field Notes Proper	A description of the physical context and the people involved, including their behavior and nonverbal communication.
Methodological Notes	New ideas that the researcher has on how to carry out the research project.
Journals and Diaries	These notes record the ethnographer's personal reactions, frustrations, and assessments of life and work in the field.

Interviewing

Another method of data collection is interviewing, specifically interviewing in the qualitative paradigm. Interviewing can be done in different formats, this all depends on individual researcher preferences, research purpose, and the research question asked.

Analyzing data

In qualitative research, there are many ways of analyzing data gathered in the field. One of the two most common methods of data analysis are thematic analysis and narrative analysis. As mentioned before, the type of analysis a researcher decides to use depends on the research question asked, the researcher's field, and the researcher's personal method of choice.

Field research across different disciplines

Anthropology

See also: Off the verandah

In anthropology, field research is organized so as to produce a kind of writing called ethnography. Ethnography can refer to both a methodology and a product of research, namely a monograph or book. Ethnography is a grounded, inductive method that heavily relies on participant-observation. Participant observation is a structured type of research strategy. It is a widely used methodology in many disciplines, particularly, cultural anthropology, but also sociology, communication studies, and social psychology. Its aim is to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, or sub cultural group, or a particular community) and their practices through an intensive involvement with people in their natural environment, usually over an extended period of time.

The method originated in field work of social anthropologists, especially the students of Franz Boas in the United States, and in the urban research of the Chicago School of sociology. Max Gluckman noted that Bronisław Malinowski significantly developed the idea of fieldwork, but it originated with Alfred Cort Haddon in England and Franz Boas in the United States. Robert G. Burgess concluded that "it is Malinowski who is usually credited with being the originator of intensive anthropological field research".

Anthropological fieldwork uses an array of methods and approaches that include, but are not limited to: participant observation, structured and unstructured interviews, archival research, collecting demographic information from the community the anthropologist is studying, and data analysis. Traditional participant observation is usually undertaken over an extended period of time, ranging from several months to many years, and even generations. An extended research time period means that the researcher is able to obtain more detailed and accurate information about the individuals, community, and/or population under study. Observable details (like daily time allotment) and more hidden details (like taboo behavior) are more easily observed and interpreted over a longer period of time. A strength of observation and interaction over extended periods of time is that researchers can discover discrepancies between what participants say—and often believe—should happen (the formal system) and what actually does happen, or between different aspects of the formal system; in contrast, a one-time survey of people's answers to a set of questions might be quite consistent, but is less likely to show conflicts between different aspects of the social system or between conscious representations and behavior.

Archaeology

Field research lies at the heart of archaeological research. It may include the undertaking of broad area surveys (including aerial surveys); of more localised site surveys (including photographic, drawn, and geophysical surveys, and exercises such as fieldwalking); and of excavation.

Biology and ecology

In biology, field research typically involves studying of free-living wild animals in which the subjects are observed in their natural habitat, without changing, harming, or materially altering the setting or behavior of the animals under study. Field research is an indispensable part of biological science.

Animal migration tracking (including bird ringing/banding) is a frequently-used field technique, allowing field scientists to track migration patterns and routes, and animal longevity in the wild. Knowledge about animal migrations is essential to accurately determining the size and location of protected areas.

Field research also can involve study of other kingdoms of life, such as plantae, fungi, and microbes, as well as ecological interactions among species.

Field courses have been shown to be efficacious for generating long-term interest in and commitment for undergraduate students in STEM, but the number of field courses has not kept pace with demand. Cost has been a barrier to student participation.

• 

  A biology class studying flora at a prairie, College of DuPage, USA

Earth and atmospheric sciences

In geology fieldwork is considered an essential part of training and remains an important component of many research projects. In other disciplines of the Earth and atmospheric sciences, field research refers to field experiments (such as the VORTEX projects) utilizing in situ instruments. Permanent observation networks are also maintained for other uses but are not necessarily considered field research, nor are permanent remote sensing installations.

Economics

The objective of field research in economics is to get beneath the surface, to contrast observed behaviour with the prevailing understanding of a process, and to relate language and description to behavior (e.g. Deirdre McCloskey, 1985).

The 2009 Nobel Prize Winners in Economics, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, have advocated mixed methods and complex approaches in economics and hinted implicitly to the relevance of field research approaches in economics. In a recent interview Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom discuss the importance of examining institutional contexts when performing economic analyses. Both Ostrom and Williamson agree that "top-down" panaceas or "cookie cutter" approaches to policy problems don't work. They believe that policymakers need to give local people a chance to shape the systems used to allocate resources and resolve disputes. Sometimes, Ostrom points out, local solutions can be the most efficient and effective options. This is a point of view that fits very well with anthropological research, which has for some time shown us the logic of local systems of knowledge — and the damage that can be done when "solutions" to problems are imposed from outside or above without adequate consultation. Elinor Ostrom, for example, combines field case studies and experimental lab work in her research. Using this combination, she contested longstanding assumptions about the possibility that groups of people could cooperate to solve common pool problems (as opposed to being regulated by the state or governed by the market.

Edward J. Nell argued in 1998 that there are two types of field research in economics. One kind can give us a carefully drawn picture of institutions and practices, general in that it applies to all activities of a certain kind of particular society or social setting, but still specialized to that society or setting. Although institutions and practices are intangibles, such a picture will be objective, a matter of fact, independent of the state of mind of the particular agents reported on. Approaching the economy from a different angle, another kind of fieldwork can give us a picture of the state of mind of economic agents (their true motivations, their beliefs, state knowledge, expectations, their preferences and values).

Business use of field research is an applied form of anthropology and is as likely to be advised by sociologists or statisticians in the case of surveys. Consumer marketing field research is the primary marketing technique used by businesses to research their target market.

Ethnomusicology

Fieldwork in ethnomusicology has changed greatly over time. Alan P. Merriam cites the evolution of fieldwork as a constant interplay between the musicological and ethnological roots of the discipline. Before the 1950s, before ethnomusicology resembled what it is today, fieldwork and research were considered separate tasks. Scholars focused on analyzing music outside of its context through a scientific lens, drawing from the field of musicology. Notable scholars include Carl Stumf and Eric von Hornbostel, who started as Stumpf’s assistant. They are known for making countless recordings and establishing a library of music to be analyzed by other scholars. Methodologies began to shift in the early 20th century. George Herzog, an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, published a seminal paper titled "Plains Ghost Dance and Great Basin Music", reflecting the increased importance of fieldwork through his extended residency in the Great Basin and his attention to cultural contexts. Herzog also raised the question of how the formal qualities of the music he was studying demonstrated the social function of the music itself. Ethnomusicology today relies heavily on the relationship between the researcher and their teachers and consultants. Many ethnomusicologists have assumed the role of student in order to fully learn an instrument and its role in society. Research in the discipline has grown to consider music as a cultural product, and thus cannot be understood without consideration of context.

Law

Legal researchers conduct field research to understand how legal systems work in practice. Social, economic, cultural and other factors influence how legal processes, institutions and the law work (or do not work).

Management

Mintzberg played a crucial role in the popularization of field research in management. The tremendous amount of work that Mintzberg put into the findings earned him the title of leader of a new school of management, the descriptive school, as opposed to the prescriptive and normative schools that preceded his work. The schools of thought derive from Taylor, Henri Fayol, Lyndall Urwick, Herbert A. Simon, and others endeavored to prescribe and expound norms to show what managers must or should do. With the arrival of Mintzberg, the question was no longer what must or should be done, but what a manager actually does during the day. More recently, in his 2004 book Managers Not MBAs, Mintzberg examined what he believes to be wrong with management education today.

Aktouf (2006, p. 198) summed-up Mintzberg observations about what takes place in the field:‘’First, the manager’s job is not ordered, continuous, and sequential, nor is it uniform or homogeneous. On the contrary, it is fragmented, irregular, choppy, extremely changeable and variable. This work is also marked by brevity: no sooner has a manager finished one activity than he or she is called up to jump to another, and this pattern continues nonstop. Second, the manager’s daily work is a not a series of self-initiated, willful actions transformed into decisions, after examining the circumstances. Rather, it is an unbroken series of reactions to all sorts of request that come from all around the manager, from both the internal and external environments. Third, the manager deals with the same issues several times, for short periods of time; he or she is far from the traditional image of the individual who deals with one problem at a time, in a calm and orderly fashion. Fourth, the manager acts as a focal point, an interface, or an intersection between several series of actors in the organization: external and internal environments, collaborators, partners, superiors, subordinates, colleagues, and so forth. He or she must constantly ensure, achieve, or facilitate interactions between all these categories of actors to allow the firm to function smoothly.’’

Public health

In public health, the use of the term field research refers to epidemiology or the study of epidemics through the gathering of data about the epidemic (such as the pathogen and vector(s) as well as social or sexual contacts, depending upon the situation).

Sociology

Pierre Bourdieu played a crucial role in the popularization of fieldwork in sociology. During the Algerian War in 1958–1962, Bourdieu undertook ethnographic research into the clash through a study of the Kabyle people (a subgroup of the Berbers), which provided the groundwork for his anthropological reputation. His first book, Sociologie de L'Algerie (The Algerians), was an immediate success in France and was published in America in 1962. A follow-up, Algeria 1960: The Disenchantment of the World: The Sense of Honour: The Kabyle House or the World Reversed: Essays, published in English in 1979 by Cambridge University Press, established him as a major figure in the field of ethnology and a pioneer advocate scholar for more intensive fieldwork in social sciences. The book was based on his decade of work as a participant-observer with Algerian society. One of the outstanding qualities of his work has been his innovative combination of different methods and research strategies as well as his analytical skills in interpreting the obtained data.

Throughout his career, Bourdieu sought to connect his theoretical ideas with empirical research, grounded in everyday life. His work can be seen as sociology of culture. Bourdieu labeled it a "theory of practice". His contributions to sociology were both empirical and theoretical. His conceptual apparatus is based on three key terms, namely, habitus, capital and field. Furthermore, Bourdieu fiercely opposed rational choice theory as grounded in a misunderstanding of how social agents operate. Bourdieu argued that social agents do not continuously calculate according to explicit rational and economic criteria. According to Bourdieu, social agents operate according to an implicit practical logic—a practical sense—and bodily dispositions. Social agents act according to their "feel for the game" (the "feel" being, roughly, habitus, and the "game" being the field).

Bourdieu's anthropological work was focused on the analysis of the mechanisms of reproduction of social hierarchies. Bourdieu criticized the primacy given to the economic factors, and stressed that the capacity of social actors to actively impose and engage their cultural productions and symbolic systems plays an essential role in the reproduction of social structures of domination. Bourdieu's empirical work played a crucial role in the popularization of correspondence analysis and particularly multiple correspondence analysis. Bourdieu held that these geometric techniques of data analysis are, like his sociology, inherently relational. In the preface to his book The Craft of Sociology, Bourdieu argued that: "I use Correspondence Analysis very much, because I think that it is essentially a relational procedure whose philosophy fully expresses what in my view constitutes social reality. It is a procedure that 'thinks' in relations, as I try to do it with the concept of field."

One of the classic ethnographies in Sociology is the book Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations & Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by Jay MacLeod.^{[citation needed]} The study addresses the reproduction of social inequality among low-income, male teenagers. The researcher spent time studying two groups of teenagers in a housing project in a Northeastern city of the United States. The study concludes that three different levels of analysis play their part in the reproduction of social inequality: the individual, the cultural, and the structural.

Natural experiment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_experiment 

A natural experiment is an empirical study in which individuals (or clusters of individuals) are exposed to the experimental and control conditions that are determined by nature or by other factors outside the control of the investigators. The process governing the exposures arguably resembles random assignment. Thus, natural experiments are observational studies and are not controlled in the traditional sense of a randomized experiment (an intervention study). Natural experiments are most useful when there has been a clearly defined exposure involving a well defined subpopulation (and the absence of exposure in a similar subpopulation) such that changes in outcomes may be plausibly attributed to the exposure. In this sense, the difference between a natural experiment and a non-experimental observational study is that the former includes a comparison of conditions that pave the way for causal inference, but the latter does not.

Natural experiments are employed as study designs when controlled experimentation is extremely difficult to implement or unethical, such as in several research areas addressed by epidemiology (like evaluating the health impact of varying degrees of exposure to ionizing radiation in people living near Hiroshima at the time of the atomic blast) and economics (like estimating the economic return on amount of schooling in US adults).

History

John Snow's map showing the clustering of cholera cases in Soho during the London epidemic of 1854

One of the best-known early natural experiments was the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak in London, England. On 31 August 1854, a major outbreak of cholera struck Soho. Over the next three days, 127 people near Broad Street died. By the end of the outbreak 616 people died. The physician John Snow identified the source of the outbreak as the nearest public water pump, using a map of deaths and illness that revealed a cluster of cases around the pump.

In this example, Snow discovered a strong association between the use of the water from the pump, and deaths and illnesses due to cholera. Snow found that the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company, which supplied water to districts with high attack rates, obtained the water from the Thames downstream from where raw sewage was discharged into the river. By contrast, districts that were supplied water by the Lambeth Waterworks Company, which obtained water upstream from the points of sewage discharge, had low attack rates. Given the near-haphazard patchwork development of the water supply in mid-nineteenth century London, Snow viewed the developments as "an experiment...on the grandest scale."^[5] Of course, the exposure to the polluted water was not under the control of any scientist. Therefore, this exposure has been recognized as being a natural experiment.

Recent examples

Family size

An aim of a study Angrist and Evans (1998) was to estimate the effect of family size on the labor market outcomes of the mother. For at least two reasons, the correlations between family size and various outcomes (e.g., earnings) do not inform us about how family size causally affects labor market outcomes. First, both labor market outcomes and family size may be affected by unobserved "third" variables (e.g., personal preferences). Second, labor market outcomes themselves may affect family size (called "reverse causality"). For example, a woman may defer having a child if she gets a raise at work. The authors observed that two-child families with either two boys or two girls are substantially more likely to have a third child than two-child families with one boy and one girl. The sex of the first two children, then, constitutes a kind of natural experiment: it is as if an experimenter had randomly assigned some families to have two children and others to have three. The authors were then able to credibly estimate the causal effect of having a third child on labor market outcomes. Angrist and Evans found that childbearing had a greater impact on poor and less educated women than on highly educated women although the earnings impact of having a third child tended to disappear by that child's 13th birthday. They also found that having a third child had little impact on husbands' earnings.

Game shows

Within economics, game shows are a frequently studied form of natural experiment. While game shows might seem to be artificial contexts, they can be considered natural experiments due to the fact that the context arises without interference of the scientist. Game shows have been used to study a wide range of different types of economic behavior, such as decision making under risk and cooperative behavior.

Smoking ban

In Helena, Montana a smoking ban was in effect in all public spaces, including bars and restaurants, during the six-month period from June 2002 to December 2002. Helena is geographically isolated and served by only one hospital. The investigators observed that the rate of heart attacks dropped by 40% while the smoking ban was in effect. Opponents of the law prevailed in getting the enforcement of the law suspended after six months, after which the rate of heart attacks went back up. This study was an example of a natural experiment, called a case-crossover experiment, where the exposure is removed for a time and then returned. The study also noted its own weaknesses which potentially suggest that the inability to control variables in natural experiments can impede investigators from drawing firm conclusions.'

Nuclear weapons testing

Nuclear weapons testing released large quantities of radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere, some of which could be incorporated into biological tissues. The release stopped after the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which prohibited atmospheric nuclear tests. This resembled a large-scale pulse-chase experiment, but could not have been performed as a regular experiment in humans due to scientific ethics. Several types of observations were made possible (in people born before 1963), such as determination of the rate of replacement for cells in different human tissues.

Vietnam War draft

An important question in economics research is what determines earnings. Angrist (1990) evaluated the effects of military service on lifetime earnings. Using statistical methods developed in econometrics, Angrist capitalized on the approximate random assignment of the Vietnam War draft lottery, and used it as an instrumental variable associated with eligibility (or non-eligibility) for military service. Because many factors might predict whether someone serves in the military, the draft lottery frames a natural experiment whereby those drafted into the military can be compared against those not drafted because the two groups should not differ substantially prior to military service. Angrist found that the earnings of veterans were, on average, about 15 percent less than the earnings of non-veterans.

Industrial melanism

With the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, many species of moth, including the well-studied peppered moth, responded to the atmospheric pollution of sulphur dioxide and soot around cities with industrial melanism, a dramatic increase in the frequency of dark forms over the formerly abundant pale, speckled forms. In the twentieth century, as regulation improved and pollution fell, providing the conditions for a large-scale natural experiment, the trend towards industrial melanism was reversed, and melanic forms quickly became scarce. The effect led the evolutionary biologists L. M. Cook and J. R. G. Turner to conclude that "natural selection is the only credible explanation for the overall decline".