Using blockchain technology to enable reproducible science
Nicholas J. Pritchard
15 October 2021
Author Verified?
true
High School Summary
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a really big telescope that uses radio waves to study space. It's a big project that involves a lot of scientists and computers. The scientists need to make sure that their work can be checked and repeated by other people, so they came up with a way to use computer programs to make sure their work is reliable and accurate. They also created a special method, inspired by blockchain technology, to check the quality of their computer programs. This is really important because it helps scientists make sure their work is good and can be trusted by others.
University Summary
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a very large radio telescope that presents challenges for scientists who need to process the vast amounts of data it produces. In this study, researchers propose using computational workflows as a tool to facilitate reproducible science, where experiments can be repeated and verified. They define tests to determine if a workflow is reproducible in terms of hardware, scale, and software. They also propose using a blockchain-inspired implementation to verify the scientific quality of these workflows. This would help ensure that scientific research done using the SKA is reliable and can be replicated by other scientists.