Citizen Science Is For Lovers!

For Valentine’s Day, we’re delving into the romance of citizen science which, at first glance, might not appear to require much delving. But at second glance, you’ll realize that citizen science is possibly the most romantic endeavor imaginable! Then at third glance, you might say, “nah, what was I thinking?” But then– stay with me here– at fourth or maybe fifth glance, you’ll say, “wait, maybe there actually is something to this ‘citizen science is for lovers’ idea!”

After all, any partner who participates in a citizen science project with you is likely to be intellectually curious and adventurous, and having that in common is a great place to start. Also, if you’re into birds, or bugs, or space exploration wouldn’t it be nice to be with someone who shares that interest?

Finally, whether you enjoy staying indoors and being online, or like going outside and exploring the night sky, or prefer hiking in the forest, or even exploring far-flung locales, there’s a citizen science project for you and your new friend/potential soulmate.

In this spirit, our latest podcast explores the romance of citsci and offers some possible date projects. Aspirational relationship counselor and SciStarter Advisor Caroline Nickerson jumps in to help, along with astronomy enthusiast Don Ficken and Carrie Seltzer from iNaturalist.

Projects and programs included in this month’s podcast

Globe at Night– As Don Ficken mentions in this podcast, Globe at Night was a key player in the new study published in the journal Science on how light pollution is increasing far more rapidly than was thought. (full study here; accompanying news story here)

iNaturalist– This massive citizen science platform immerses you in a global community of citsci enthusiasts.

Science Near Me– This new NSF-supported web portal let’s you input your location and science interest and find science experiences like museums, science centers, clubs and events near you that match your science interests.

Library Telescope Project– Did you know that at some libraries you can check out telescopes as well as books?

Great Backyard Bird Count– One of the largest annual citizen science activities, the Great Backyard Bird Count runs for four days in February, during Presidents’ Day Weekend in the US and Family Weekend in Canada.

Never Home Alone– In this project run by North Carolina State University you go on a wildlife safari in your home, documenting all the little non-pet species that share your living space.

Budburst– Flowers are an important food source for insects and birds, and showy indicators of climate change; report on what’s flowering in your location to help researchers monitor our changing environment.

Stall Catchers– Help medical researchers understand how clogged blood vessels contribute to Alzheimer’s Disease by playing a game in which you view and annotate short videos of mouse brains.

Health eHeart– Researchers need one million adults (over 18 years old) from all over the world to report on their heart health every six months in this ambitious study to get to the root of heart disease.

Audio Podcast:

https://citscipod.podbean.com/e/citizen-science-is-for-lovers/

Video Podcast:

https://citscipod.podbean.com/e/citizen-science-is-for-lovers-video/

SciStarter S4E2: Citizen Science Is For Lovers!

[THEME MUSIC]

 Bob Hirshon, Host

Welcome to Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together. Brought to you by SciStarter! In this episode, we explore the romance of citizen science: how through citsci you can not only find birds, bugs, plants, and stars but also new friends and just maybe that special someone.

[THEME MUSIC OUT]

Bob

It’s February here in my science nook and everywhere else, and February is when we have Valentine’s Day, and it’s also the month of the astrological sign Aquarius, which is when Love will Steer the Stars, according to the old song. And I bet there’s at least a couple of other reasons why February is related to love and romance, but why bother looking! We just want to do this theme, so here we go.

Many years from now, when people ask how you fell in love with your spouse, are you going to be stuck saying “well, we went to this restaurant” or “we met at nightclub” or some other lame encounter that will have everyone yawning before you even finish the sentence?

Or will it be “It was Valentine’s Day and we went out on a clear, frosty evening, gathering night sky data for NASA” or “we got together to monitor and protect whale sharks, the world’s largest fish” or maybe “we worked together for environmental justice in our community.” Remember, you only get one of these cute first meeting stories (hopefully) so you want to make it good!

Or if you already have a significant other and want to do something new this year or just want to get together with some fun, science-curious people, we have you covered for that, too. And to help out, we have with us SciStarter’s own Citizen Science Advice Columnist, Caroline Nickerson!

Bob

Hey, Caroline, so great to have you with us our official citizen science relationship advisor.

Caroline 

Oh, my gosh, I’m honored. Yeah. Happy to be here.

Bob 

Great. So could you tell us a little bit about how citizen science could sort of, you know, help bring people together, maybe, maybe even lead to a relationship or romance?

Caroline 

Yeah, well, the thing about citizen science is it’s great for community building. And this is true, whether you’re participating in your home, or whether you’re participating outside. I think the best thing about citizen science is it allows you to be part of something bigger than yourself. So let’s say you’re doing an outdoor project like iNaturalist, you can go on a nice walk with a loved one, with a new friend, and discover things about the world together, help collect data, document the world around you, and hopefully create some bonds at the same time. But if you’re doing a project where you’re at home, you’re still part of the global community, because you’re impacting research, you’re participating. And with many of the online events we have on SciStarter, you can actually communicate with other people via Zoom, in the chat, or however; we have different message boards. We’re getting up for Citizen Science Month, this coming April. And even if you’re just at home, and you’re participating in online project like Stall Catchers, where you’re classifying blood vessels for Alzheimer’s researchers, you’re still part of a big community, and you can still communicate with people and be part of this awesome group of people who want to turn their curiosity into impact. But I actually prepared some projects that have different Valentine’s Day themes. If you want me to go,

Bob 

Oh, yeah, yeah, that would be great!

Caroline 

I think that’s the number one thing I hear at SciStarter, people sometimes get a little overwhelmed with all the different options. So let’s say you wake up, it’s the morning of Valentine’s Day, you want to make an impact on science.  Here are my recommendations for what you get started with. And you can do them by yourself. You can do them with a loved one. You can, you know, however you want to do this, this works. There’s the Healthy Heart Study. That’s a pretty popular project people are, you’re able to answer questionnaires about your heart. And you’re helping researchers understand some of the specific specific predictors of heart disease. If you do this project with a loved one, you know, you’re sitting next to each other and you’re both filling out these questions at the same time, you might learn something new about your heart, and what better time to do it then Valentine’s Day?

Bob 

Okay, great.

Caroline 

Valentine’s Day is a great time for flowers. So rather than just buying flowers for your Valentine at the store, I recommend that you, if you’re in a place where flowers are starting to spread, I know in Florida, I’m seeing the first few flowers come back after our very mild winter. So I’m going outside–

Bob 

Even here in Maryland, we have like no winter, we already are seeing like crocus’s and snow drops and stuff even though it’s like February.

Caroline 

Oh my goodness!

Bob 

Yeah, it’s crazy.

Caroline 

Well, you could go out and do BudBurst with your Valentine this Valentine’s Day.

Bob 

I could! All right.

Caroline 

So that’s, that’s a project that’s based at the Chicago Botanical Garden. But you can do it anywhere in the United States. And you can study phenology for this project, or how plants change with the seasons, by submitting observations of plants around you, especially flowering plants. And if you’re not in the States, you could potentially do Nature’s Notebook, which I think is based in the States but is relevant to some other countries, too, or, of course, iNaturalist is a project where you can document beautiful flowering plants anywhere on Earth.

Bob 

That’s great. And the great thing about this is, as opposed to going out to a dinner where you’re like facing each other, and it’s kind of, I don’t know, it can be intimidating, and you don’t know what to say. You’re you’re focused on something else and and sharing that experience. And it just seems a little bit easier to have conversations when you have something that you’re doing together.

Caroline 

Definitely. And let’s walk through this right. So let’s say the first day is Valentine’s Day, you participate in BudBurst together, you’re going on a walk, you’re monitoring those flowering plants. Maybe you do iNaturalist as well, and help study the species distribution of these plants. Let’s say you get a second date, you could do the Great, the back, Great Backyard Bird Count. It’s global. It takes place from February 17 to the 20th. So it’s really, yeah, so you can help. It’s one of the largest citizen science projects in the world. And you just share pictures of birds yourself others birdwatching, in your yards or your favorite birding spots in your community. You can bird in urban area yours as well. And it’s a great way to track different bird species. And it’s one of the most cited citizen science projects as well, in terms of understanding how species are changing in response to climate change and other environmental factors. So if you get that second date, definitely do the great backyard bird count February 17, through the 20th.

Bob 

That is great. Any any other particular projects that you you want to highlight?

Caroline 

I mean, I think a big thing to highlight is you can do citizen science from anywhere, any day of the year. And I want people who aren’t might be spending Valentine’s Day by themselves to know that if you do a citizen science project, you’re still part of a big community. And it’s just a great way to give back to the world. What better way to commemorate Valentine’s Day, a holiday that celebrates love.

Bob 

Great. All right. Thanks, Caroline. Great advice. Thank you.

So Caroline mentioned nature walks and healthy hearts and flowers. Our next guest specializes in another potentially romantic citizen science activity: stargazing. Don Ficken is with the St. Louis Astronomical Society and is founder of the Missouri Chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association.

Bob Hirshon 

Don, thanks for joining us.

Don Ficken 

Of course.

Bob

Now, you’ve been stargazing and involved in astronomy for a long time. And I’m just curious why you find it so compelling?

Don 

Well, I think for me, at least, I had so many years at work. And in business, I really didn’t have a chance to go outside and actually enjoy the night sky. And when I go outside, it’s like I’m connecting with other people in the world and through my ancestors, and who doesn’t love to go out and look at the Milky Way, or Orion or something fascinating, or, frankly, more recently, Jupiter, Saturn, they’re just amazing to look at, and particularly through a telescope. It’s just, it’s just terrific.

Bob 

And you’re not daunted by the fact that it might be cold or dark, or, or whatever, because you’re kind of out in the elements.

Don 

Well, yeah, it can be I mean, obviously, if you dress ahead of time, I mean, if you go out with, you know, not really a light coat on is going to be bad. But then there’s also summer, there’s other times of the year, but this time of year, you know where I live, sometimes it can be very cold, but just dress for success. And when you go outside– by the way, you don’t have to stay out that long. A lot of the telescopes that we use, for example, for the library telescope program, I can literally set this up, go outside, five minutes, look at a Jupiter or Saturn and come back inside, and I won’t even get cold. I mean, it’s just that quick. So it’s amazing to me.

Bob 

Okay, and then you touched on something I was just going to ask: what if people don’t have a telescope? What’s the library– could you explain how that works?

Don 

Yeah, so I’m part of– I live in St. Louis, and we have a fairly robust program here to where you can check out telescopes from a library just like a book and even binoculars. But this is worldwide, we have a website called librarytelescope.org. It has a worldwide map, if you’re in a particular state, you can pull up the US, click on your state. And we’ll list what libraries that we know that are participating in the program. We have well over, I think 900 libraries. We’re actually in Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, Netherlands, so it’s all over the place. And typically, it’ll be a one to three week checkout kind of thing. And it’s free. It’s just part of your library service.

Bob 

And what happens if you don’t have can you still get involved? Even if you don’t have either a telescope or a library near you?

Don  

Absolutely. First of all, binoculars are underrated. They are very, very good. There are many things surprisingly, that you might not think about that you can better see with binoculars than you can with telescopes, for example, the Pleiades which I when I was a little kid, I thought that was the Little Dipper, right? It’s called the Seven Sisters, very pretty looks like a little bitty dipper in the sky. If you put a telescope on that, what you’re going to find is you see a couple of stars, but you put binoculars on there, just normal binoculars, it’s gorgeous. It’s just very, very pretty. And because binoculars will gather a little more light than your eyes, you’ll be able to see the stars a little bit better. So even in light, polluted skies, you might be able to see it pretty well.

Bob 

Okay, and now I understand you’re also involved with Globe at Night. Yes. What, what… and that’s a citizen science project. Can you tell us what that’s about?

Don 

Yeah, so Globe at Night is actually a very interesting; it’s very much a citizen science thing. So in fact, there was a big release that just came out recently: scientists, when they look, when they look up the sky, they’ve been measuring the sky brightness for many years, they they estimated that roughly, the growth is 2% per year global. That’s the amount of light pollution. So what I mean is when you look up in the sky, when it gets brighter and brighter, you can see fewer stars. Now, we might say that that’s important, you know, we might either love star gazing or not love star gazing, but it really does affect light on earth. All the animals, all the frogs and butterflies and birds are all impacted by that light at night. So what Globe at Night does is this recent study that came out, they said, “Well, we think that light pollution is increasing at 2% per year.” And that was taking satellite views from you know, space down to earth. But here’s the thing. People all over the world have been taking actual observations from the ground, okay. And what’s happening is the light, is the satellites are not picking up the sideways lights that are coming from buildings. And the human eyes pick up a different spectrum than those satellites do. So here’s what they came up with: about the last 10 years it’s increasing 10% per year, and they’re expected to double every eight years. So a person involved in citizen science right now can actually make a real difference. This might actually change policymakers saying “oh, this is really not very good. Not just for stargazing, but for human health, for nature for other things like that.”

Bob 

So how do we get involved? Do you need any special equipment or not?

Don 

No, the really good thing about as you go to SciStarter and you can look up the Globe at Night Project in there, or you can go to SciStarter.org/darksky we have a bunch of dark sky project in about measuring light. And literally all you have to do is look up in the sky if you follow the instructions. And right now, for example, you would look at Orion in just a few days. You look at Orion and you count the number of stars, and you match that against the picture. And the more stars you see, the better, you know the darkness is, it’s less bright. If you see very few stars, it’s not very good. And but you can tell from that how it matches up, and you report what you see and where you saw it. And so yeah, you have to do it when there’s no moon, which is coming up pretty soon here. And so. And what they do is they put that into a worldwide database of other measurements. And that’s when scientists actually tap in and make real good use of that, which was the result of this study.

Bob 

Wow, that’s great. So–

Don 

It is good, you can make a real difference.

Bob 

It’s a great combination: And so there’s the enjoyment of actual the stargazing. They’re seeing things you never saw before. There’s there’s groups, too, that do this: clubs and things.

Don 

Oh, yes, right.

Bob 

So you learn more from other people. And while you’re there, you can also contribute to this light pollution research.

Don 

That’s right. And I think even better, boy, what fun it is to go out with your significant other and just explore the sky together. You’re working on maps together, you’re pointing to the stars, you’re thinking about all the big worldly things, is there life out? I mean, you have all those wonderful conversations. You know what, you’re not going to get that in front of the computer. You’re not going to get that in front of your TV. What a way to go out and have a good time.

Bob 

That is so great. All right. Thanks so much, Don.

Don 

All right. Awesome. Thank you.

Don mentioned stargazing events led by astronomy clubs and if that interests you, you can go to the website sciencenearme dot org and just put in your location and the search term “astronomy” and you’ll get a list of astronomy events and clubs near you. And really, you can search any science term at science near me dot org.

Another fun citizen science activity you can do with friends or significant others or not yet significant strangers is just exploring nature. And iNaturalist is an amazing online community that can help. We have with us Carrie Seltzer. Carrie has a PhD in Ecology and worked for National Geographic and the National Science Foundation, before joining iNaturalist as their stakeholder engagement strategist.

Bob   

Hey, Carrie, thanks for being with us.

Carrie Seltzer 

Hey, Bob. Thanks for the invitation.

Bob 

Yeah. All right. So for this special edition of the podcast, we’re almost like relationship counselors here, we’re helping, we’re letting people know that citizen science is a great way to meet new people. A great way to get to know somebody, a great way to see about your shared interests and curiosity. And I think iNaturalist, your, your platform, is perfect for that. Because you can go searching for the sorts of projects that interest you, and possibly someone else.

Carrie 

That’s right. So iNaturalist is a way to share your encounters with biodiversity in the natural world. So you don’t even need to search for any specific project. But I know that can be helpful to give you a sense of direction. It can be a little bit overwhelming to know that you can walk out your door or not even walk out your door, and take a photo or record a sound of any wild plant or animal you see. I don’t generally recommend recording sounds of plants, though, those aren’t usually very identifiable, you can’t tell–

Bob 

No, really, they’re, they’re shy.

Carrie 

Or they don’t say a whole lot with words, at least.

Bob 

Yeah, and if you’re an indoor person, you can find a project that you can do at home without even setting foot outside. If you’re an outdoor person, you can find ones like that. You can find, if you’re a night owl, there’s things at night. And I know a lot of them are sort of solitary, but a lot of these projects are group related. You go out with a group, or you know, either small or large. So if people want to meet people that are interested in things that they are interested in, how might they go about that with iNaturalist?

Carrie 

Yeah, that’s a great question. So there’s meeting people on the internet, and then there’s meeting people in real life. Right. So let’s talk first about meeting people on the internet.

Bob 

Okay.

Carrie 

Posting observations of the things you find that you think are super cool. And posting identifications, if you’ve got expertise to help identify things in your area or beyond. Adding identifications is another way to interact with people on iNaturalist and a great way to give back to the community if you’ve really enjoyed getting identifications on your own observations.

Bob 

So iNaturalist is like, just for people who aren’t that familiar with it, it’s very image based, right? You’re you’re sharing pictures of things or organisms or phenomena, and other people are helping you identify them. And sometimes it’s very broad the things are looking for, and sometimes they’re really really really specific. Right?

Carrie 

Yeah, so when you post a photo of something that you see, let’s say, you go out for a walk and you see a weed, perhaps it’s flowering, it caught your attention. You never noticed that before. You take a picture, you post it to iNaturalist you’re sharing it with, you’re sharing it publicly on the internet, including including your location, keep that in mind. But then other people in the community can help you identify what it is, or if you happen to already know what it is, they can confirm the identification. So this is a cool way, especially if you observe something that’s like kind of rare or really exciting to find other people who think it’s cool and exciting. And there are some great examples of little sub communities on iNaturalist that have developed around some things that haven’t gotten as much attention as really charismatic groups like birds, for example. So one example of a group that has a lot of enthusiasts and a growing group of enthusiasts on iNaturalist is galls, so–

Bob 

Galls?

Carrie 

Galls: G-A-L-L-S. Okay, galls are these growths that form on plants. And they’re, they’re induced by some other kind of organism. So it’s evidence of something other than a plant, interacting with that plant. And the kinds of growth that they make can be very easily identified to species, once you’ve got enough scientific expertise and description of these different species. There are lots of different things that can make galls, but some of the most common gall-forming organisms include a lot of wasps, and galls on iNaturalist, there’s some projects for them. But probably the best way to get your observation of a gall noticed is to add something called an annotation. And you can add an annotation, even if you don’t know at all what it is, you can add an annotation for gall, and that will help people who are looking to identify galls, find your observation, and hopefully be able to identify it more more finely, if not to species, maybe to genus, maybe to family. But there’s increasingly a lot of gall enthusiasts on iNaturalist. And so that can also be a really great thing to look for at this time of year. Because even if you’re, if you’re in the northern hemisphere, it’s sort of you know, mid late winter, there’s not a whole lot happening outside right now. And you might think, Oh, why would I even bother trying to post observations right now, but galls, on woody plants especially, can persist over the winter. And so you can still find like, sometimes they look like a little lump on the stem, or you might find a little lump that’s on a dead leaf on the ground. So keep your eyes out for galls, this is still a good time of year to find them.

Bob 

Yeah, they can’t get away; they don’t run around. And so basically, some organism is tricking a plant into making a food source or a little home, or a little place for it to lay its eggs where it will be safe. And the plant, you know, is being used for that purpose. And, you know, in some cases, I guess they’re bad for the plants. In some cases, it’s neutral, right?

Carrie 

I mean, there’s there’s an energetic cost to the thing that the plant has to grow. But it’s it’s not common to see a plant totally over overrun by by gall formers or so. Okay. I think the –

Bob 

So there’s, so I bet, you know, when you’re talking about how you met your significant other, very few other people are going to be, are going to have the same story as you that you met over identifying galls. Probably.

Carrie 

That’s right.

Bob 

That’s going to be a unique “meet-cute” story.

Carrie 

That would be a sweet one.

Bob 

Yeah.

Carrie 

I also want to point out that you don’t even have to leave home to post observations to iNaturalist. There is a whole project called Never Home Alone. And the point of that project is documenting the organisms that we, I would say unintentionally share our homes with. It’s not for posting your pets; like that’s an intentional choice. But it is for the spiders you find in your shower or hopefully not. Hopefully not some of the least savory things that you might encounter in your home like lice–

Bob 

So you go exploring your house for other animals living there?

Carrie 

Do I personally?

Bob 

No, I mean that’s that’s the idea behind Never Home Alone?

Carrie 

Yup.

Bob 

You go see go see and hey, who else is living here, rent-free?

Carrie 

Right? That’s right. Yeah, that’s right.

Bob 

So if that’s a date you better really know or be very confident before you go exploring for other living things.

Carrie 

Maybe that’s not a first date…

Bob 

What?

Carrie 

Well, that’s probably not a first date.

Bob 

That’s not a first date. That’s exactly yeah. You gotta be pretty far along to have that kind of confidence. Wow, okay.

Carrie 

I hope nobody out there finds finds bedbugs but if you do there’s a project for that.

Bob 

Oh, there is? Okay, all right.

Carrie 

I mean, the Never Home Alone project, assuming…

Bob 

Oh, yeah, I get it. Well, then there’s another project, but it probably isn’t on iNaturalist but involves chemicals and or something.

Carrie  

That’s right.

Bob 

All right, so anything else? What other encouragement can you give people to make iNaturalist their destination to not just indulge their own curiosity, but to kind of meet other folks with similar interests?

Carrie 

I think it can be a great thing to build a tradition around. So for example, maybe you go on a date, you make it a thing, every date, you go, and you each try to make one iNat observation while you’re out on a walk around the neighborhood or at home. But, you know, building that sort of, that just tradition, that it’s a thing that that you can do together to explore and, and, and you know, the cool thing about going out and making iNaturalist with observations with other people is that people notice different things. And so you almost always see more when you’re out with someone else than you would see on your own because you somebody’s looking up and somebody’s staring at the ground. I’m one of the people who’s usually staring at the ground, and so maybe totally oblivious to what’s happening with birds, but, you know, I’ll find a cocoon on the ground or something cool like that. So I think it’s just a great way to build a tradition.

Bob 

Cool. All right. Thanks so much, Carrie.

Carrie 

Thanks, Bob.

Bob 

Great.

Bob

Before we wrap up, I want to check back with Caroline Nickerson to get her impressions and any final advice.

Bob 

Okay, so thanks for coming back with us, Caroline. We’ve heard from Don Ficken about stargazing and Carrie Seltzer about iNaturalist and some of the other projects, Never Home Alone. What do you think?

Caroline 

That was awesome. I definitely want to go stargazing. That’s Valentine’s Day.

Bob 

That’s a good one, yeah.

Caroline 

Well, Globe at Night, the constellation this month is Orion, which is so easy to spot. So you know, you’re really you, you need to do it. If you like stargazing at all, this is a great time to document light pollution. So thank you, Don, for that awesome idea. And I mean, Carrie, I mean, Never Home Alone. That’s one of the greatest projects.

Bob 

I don’t know if I’d want even someone I’ve I am in a relationship with to go digging around looking for bugs and things in in my house, but in the house. But if you’re comfortable doing that, I think go for it.

Caroline 

Yeah, we got, you know, our six-legged eight-legged friends living in our homes right alongside us. So yeah, always a good time.

Bob 

Yeah. And and there’s fungi. And there’s all sorts of things that if you look close enough, you’ll find them in any house.

Caroline 

Exactly.

Bob 

All right. And I want to tell our listeners and viewers at home, feel free to email us after, after Valentine’s Day or whenever to tell us your stories, to see if you did any of this stuff. If you met anybody. And you know, anything you want to share about your citizen science relationships.

Caroline 

Yeah, I know, on my end, that’s one of the best parts about being able to work with SciStarter: hearing about the way citizen science makes a difference in your lives. So if you learn something new, if you got outside, after, you know, not really engaging with your community for a while and you help document a bee or a butterfly that you spotted to contribute to the global scientific enterprise, if that, you know, helps improve your day in some way or helped you engage with the people around you in some way. That always makes me really happy to hear. So please don’t hesitate to get in touch and let us know.

Bob 

Great. All right. Thanks, Caroline.

Caroline 

Thanks, Bob. Talk to you soon. Okay, bye.

Bob

Is that enough inspiration? Now it’s all up to you. Go find the citizen science activity that most inspires you, and maybe you’ll find a kindred spirit to join you!

For SciStarter. I’m Bob Hirshon.

[THEME MUSIC]

Bob

This podcast is brought to you each month by SciStarter, where you will find thousands of citizen science projects, events and tools. It’s all at SciStarter.org. That’s SC I S T A R T E R dot ORG. SciStarter’s founder is Darlene Cavalier. And thanks so much to you, the listener and citizen scientist for getting involved and making a difference. If you have any ideas you want to share with us, and any things you want to hear on this podcast, get in touch with us at info at SciStarter.org. Once again, our email address is info at SciStarter.org Thanks again and I’ll see you next time.

[THEME MUSIC OUT]