Highlight Talk: Recent Results from VERITAS

VERITAS is a state-of-the-art ground-based gamma-ray observatory that operates in the very high-energy (VHE) region of 100 GeV to 50 TeV. The observatory consists of an array of four 12m-diameter imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located in southern Arizona, USA. The four-telescope array has been fully operational since September 2007, and over the last two years, VERITAS has been operating with high efficiency and with excellent performance. This talk summarizes the recent results from VERITAS, including the discovery of eight new VHE gamma-ray sources

Crowdsourced science: sociotechnical epistemology in the e-research paradigm

Recent years have seen a surge in online collaboration between experts and amateurs on scientific research. In this article, we analyse the epistemological implications of these crowdsourced projects, with a focus on Zooniverse, the world’s largest citizen science web portal. We use quantitative methods to evaluate the platform’s success in producing large volumes of observation statements and high impact scientific discoveries relative to more conventional means of data processing. Through empirical evidence, Bayesian reasoning, and conceptual analysis, we show how information and communication technologies enhance the reliability, scalability, and connectivity of crowdsourced e-research, giving online citizen science projects powerful epistemic advantages over more traditional modes of scientific investigation. These results highlight the essential role played by technologically mediated social interaction in contemporary knowledge production. We conclude by calling for an explicitly sociotechnical turn in the philosophy of science that combines insights from statistics and logic to analyse the latest developments in scientific research

Galaxy Zoo: CANDELS Barred Disks and Bar Fractions

The formation of bars in disk galaxies is a tracer of the dynamical maturity of the population. Previous studies have found that the incidence of bars in disks decreases from the local Universe to z ~ 1, and by z > 1 simulations predict that bar features in dynamically mature disks should be extremely rare. Here we report the discovery of strong barred structures in massive disk galaxies at z ~ 1.5 in deep rest-frame optical images from CANDELS. From within a sample of 876 disk galaxies identified by visual classification in Galaxy Zoo, we identify 123 barred galaxies. Selecting a sub-sample within the same region of the evolving galaxy luminosity function (brighter than L*), we find that the bar fraction across the redshift range 0.5< z < 2 (f_bar = 10.7 +6.3 -3.5% after correcting for incompleteness) does not significantly evolve. We discuss the implications of this discovery in the context of existing simulations and our current understanding of the way disk galaxies have evolved over the last 11 billion years