Why are scientists excited about distributed sensor networks?
They’re excited to observe things they just can’t see right now. Water contaminants are one example, but there’s also the whole issue of land use that’s starved for data. Often you’re making policy decisions without real insight. If the land use is too fragmented, then you can’t protect an environment or species you’re trying to help. Right now, we’re planting forests in exchange for carbon-distribution rights. It’s poorly understood because we only have models of CO2 coming off the top of the forest, but it’s coming off the sides of forests as well. Or we can do structural monitoring of bridges and buildings and know when joints are losing their integrity or beams and floors are torquing. These things are hard to observe without measuring many more points. Sensor networks are like the ability to run a CAT scan on the body instead of just doing a blood test. Q: How far along are we in developing these kinds of systems? A: We have some very exciting prototypes around where we’re making
