the ‘just science’ app for iPhone presents the results of the expansive ‘berkeley earth surface temperature’ (‘BEST’) research study

‘just science‘ a free app for iPad and iPhone designed by the novim nonprofit research group, presents the results of the ‘berkeley earth surface temperature‘ (‘BEST’, or ‘berkeley earth’) study in a graphic and interactive format.

the ‘berkeley earth’ study integrates all major existing databases of the land and sea surface temperature record from 1800 through 2009, including data from over 39,000 temperature stations. based around a heat map of the world, the ‘just science’ application lets users interact with this data, zooming in to particular geographic regions, changing the playback speed of the visualization, and comparing temperature changes across different years.

the ‘berkeley earth’ project suggests another possible mode of research in the future in its efforts to publish their complete data set and software code, providing a kind of opensource framework for researchers. combined with the ‘just science’ app, the project suggests an interesting way to bring the often-esoteric discourse of science research into everyday discussion.

video demo of ‘just science’

just science climate change app screenshot of the ‘iPad’ version of the app