A hobby that benefits science

Instead of heading to a bar or restaurant to celebrate the end of the work week, electrical engineer Chu Qing headed to Shanghai's Century Park to begin his "second job"-as a citizen scientist.

Armed with telemeters, Chu and his companions, a doctoral graduate and two college students majoring in biology, set out to locate 10 frogs that have been tagged with micro radio transmitters.

After tuning their telemeters to the same frequency as the radio transmitters attached to the frogs, the quartet listened intently to their earphones. The beeps would get louder when they got closer to their targets.

This citizen science project, which lasts until Sept 30, is just one of the many that the Shanghai Natural History Museum has launched in August.

"We want to learn the movement patterns of the Asiatic toad and Beijing gold-striped pond frog," says Zhang Wei, a researcher at the Shanghai Natural History Museum who is the head of this particular project.

"We actually know little about many animals that are thought to be common, and we need the help of the public to do so," he adds.