It turns out, every time you watch a new meme of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video, you are actually participating in something much bigger than a trending Internet sensation; you are participating in science. Tuesday night, a biologist, an artist and a digital librarian sat down together to discuss how the connectivity power of the Internet is changing the way we take part in science as a part of Hunt Library’s Creativity and Technology Symposium.

Rob Dunn, a professor and writer in the Department of Biological Sciences at NC State, discussed both his research projects and his experience writing about them. Dunn, who has researched everything from mosquitos to the biodiversity of belly buttons, has been able to take his research and turn it into articles and books that are understandable and entertaining to the public, not just scientists.

“The very best science writers understand better the field that they’re writing about than the scientists,” Dunn said. “That requires being able to understand the details of each subfield and explain those in simple words, which really means you have to get what’s happening and why it matters.”

Dunn explained that one of his favorite joys of science is allowing communication between different groups of people. Through his writing, he is able to connect both scientists and nonscientists over issues that are a part of each of our daily lives.

Owen Mundy, an assistant professor of art at Florida State University, discussed the impact that his popular website “I Know Where Your Cat Lives” has had on both the Internet and social media users. The website, intended to be a data experiment, takes photos from public image hosting sites, most commonly Instagram, that have been tagged with the word “cat” and displays them on a Google Map according to the location embedded in the post. The catch is that anyone has access to this website, meaning anyone can see where someone’s cat lives.

“Most people don’t understand how your data is collected … and so what I’ve done is put a bunch of pictures that people want to look at into a friendly interface in order to make you think about the way the Internet is collecting your data,” Dunn said.

Since Dunn’s project went viral in 2014, almost 600,000 people have gone back and removed the location on their cat photos, meaning they have realized the impact that their simple post has had. In response to the project, Instagram added a layer of protection so that when people try to publish posts, they are asked if they are sure they want to post their current location. 

Amanda Brennan, a member of Tumblr’s Content and Community team, talked about her experience with how websites such as Tumblr create a sense of community on the Internet.

“You can find a community for literally anything,” Brennan said before explaining that there were communities based around everything from ball-jointed dolls to fans of the popular Sims games.

Brennan also talked about how Tumblr encourages people to understand science. She displayed a post of a Circus Tree, a tree that had been braided and shaped into an interesting design. This post gained much attention on Tumblr, allowing the “science side” of Tumblr to explain to people that when trees grow, they do not reject tissue from others trees, allowing them to weave within one another. 

“I think the positive quality of the Internet, especially students and professors, is the ability to bring people together,” said David Crowell, the event’s moderator.