Using Twitter To Tap Into The Mood Of The Planet

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Right now, armies of marketers, pollsters and social scientists are trying to figure out what Americans are thinking about — issues like global warming or Lady Gaga's latest outfit. Surveys are only so good: It's hard to get a big enough sample to be sure of the results. That's particularly vexing for social scientists who want a high standard of accuracy.

But now they have a new window on the world: Twitter. Normally, if social scientists wanted to design an experiment on how peoples' moods change during the course of a day, for example, they'd recruit some of their students. But statistically, what 50 college kids do doesn't really reflect the American public.

Scientists need lots of people to make solid conclusions about human behavior. That's why Scott Golder went to Twitter, where millions and millions of people express themselves daily.

"This is the stuff of daily life," Golder says. "Whether you're doing that with diaries from a few hundred years ago or you're doing it with the tweets of today, you're still looking into the personal lives of regular people, and that is very revealing."

This is the stuff of daily life. Whether you're doing that with diaries from a few hundred years ago or you're doing it with the tweets of today, you're still looking into the personal lives of regular people, and that is very revealing.

- Scott Golder, graduate student, Cornell University

What Golder and his colleagues at Cornell University wanted revealed is: How do peoples' moods go up and down — positive or negative — through the day? That might then reveal how much and when your biorhythms or your environment control the way you feel.

The researchers used a common computer program that scans text for key words in tweets that reflect the writer's mood, or, as psychologists call it, affect. These are words like aching, afraid, cynical, fear, mad and fury, Golder says. These words fall into the "negative" category.

On the positive side, Golder looked for words including agree, definitely, fine, outgoing, paradise and pleasing. And, of course, this being the Twitter generation: "Awesome. Awesome is an awesome word."

Golder, who's a graduate student in social and computer science, spent months with a team of researchers scanning tweets by more than 2 million people in 84 countries — more than a half-billion tweets.

"We found there are two peaks in positive affect during the day. One occurs first thing in the morning and one occurs late at night," he says.

Of course, you say, the dip in the middle is when you go to work. But Golder says no. "The shape of the rhythm — when it peaks and valleys — is the same on the weekend as during the week."

Golder doesn't know why mornings and evenings tend to be brighter than the rest of the day. A night's sleep could explain the morning bump-up. Biochemicals associated with a person's circadian rhythm could also be at work, and certainly what happens to you during a day would have an effect.

A New Dimension In Research

While the results might not be terribly surprising, they point to a new "social media" wave in academic research.

When it comes to research, "we've really been in flat Earth over all these years, and suddenly we've discovered there's a third dimension," says David Lazer, a practitioner of both political and computer science at Northeastern University.

We've really been in flat earth over all these years, and suddenly we've discovered there's a third dimension.

- David Lazer, associate professor of computer science, Northeastern University

Though tweets are public, Lazer says, academic institutions should be writing up ethics standards for the use of data from social media. He emphasizes that scientists should be careful about what they conclude from the data.

"I mean, these are not scientifically designed instruments to collect under pristine circumstances; it's often difficult to tell what's causing what," he says.

But Twitter certainly can reveal peoples' views. Kent Cavender-Bares is an environmental scientist at the University of Minnesota.

"I see it as a great way to get a pulse of what's going on in the country," he says. Cavender-Bares plans to monitor tweets about climate and then produce educational material to answer the most common questions.

He says you still need people to double-check computerized language scanners — after all, computers don't recognize sarcasm or some words with more than one meaning, like "blizzards."

"Real quickly you find out that people are tweeting about Dairy Queen Blizzards — an ice cream, rather than a snowstorm," he says.

The Cornell research appears in the journal Science.

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Here Come The Suns: New Planet Orbits Two Stars

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R. Hurt/NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a planet that circles two stars instead of one. The planet, shown as the black dot in this artist's illustration, is similar to Saturn, though it is more dense and travels in a 229-day circular orbit around its two stars.

A trillion is a huge number — when you're talking dollars or euros. But a trillion miles is not so much in the cosmic scheme of things. Astronomers say they've now found a planet that orbits two suns a mere thousand trillion miles from here. It's yet another example of a weird solar system being discovered around nearby stars.

Two years ago, NASA launched the Kepler observatory to look for Earth-like planets beyond our own solar system. It has found more than 1,000 apparent planets around distant suns.

This animation shows the Kepler-16 system from an overhead view. The two stars in the center twirl around each other every 41 days while the planet, shown as the small white dot, makes a full circle around the stars every 229 days.
(Note: This video has no sound.)

This graphic requires version 9 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player.Get the latest Flash Player.

This animation shows the Kepler-16 system from an overhead view. The two stars in the center twirl around each other every 41 days while the planet, shown as the small white dot, makes a full circle around the stars every 229 days.
(Note: This video has no sound.)

Now, for the first time, it has found a planet in orbit around a double star. Laurance Doyle from the SETI Institute in California says these twin stars are 200 light-years away from us in the constellation Cygnus, and each one has a slightly different hue.

"You have an orange star that's 69 percent the mass of the sun, and it is basically dancing with a 20-percent-the-mass-of-the-sun red star," he says. "And they go around each other every 41 days."

Doyle and his many collaborators looked closely at this system and watched as the stars temporarily dimmed with a predictable pattern — a sure sign that a planet was passing in front of them. Astronomers had previously seen strong hints of planets around twin stars, but this is the first direct observation, according to their report in Science.

'A Giant Laboratory'

The planet, named Kepler-16b, orbits in a big circle every 229 days. It's a frozen world, about the size of Saturn, and it's likely a ball of gas with a rocky interior. But Doyle imagines the sunsets would be dramatic.

"I remember from Star Wars — Tatooine. Luke Skywalker was watching a double sunset. But in this case, sometimes you get a sunset where they're far apart and maybe the red star sets first, and maybe the next month the orange star sets first," he says. "And sometimes they set touching each other, sometimes they set eclipsing."

More dramatic to astronomers is that they can learn a lot about the stars and the planet as they dance around one another. The junior star in this system, for example, is the smallest normal star ever discovered, Doyle says. And the bigger star is outright perplexing.

"It rotates slowly, which indicates it's old, but it has large starspot activity, which is an indicator of youth," he says. "So the whole place is a giant laboratory."

One of the biggest conundrums is understanding the very existence of planets around twin stars, "because they shouldn't be there," says Dave Charbonneau, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University. He says the standard story is that planets form from a pancake-shaped disk of material that's left over after a singleton star coalesces.

"When you have a binary star — two stars that orbit each other — that pancake of material could be easily disrupted. And so we have a harder time actually figuring out how to make a planet so that it can be born and stably orbit two stars," Charbonneau says.

A New Horizon Of Twin Stars

Charbonneau was not involved with this particular discovery, but he says it shows clearly that planets can form around binaries. That opens up a whole new horizon in the search for planets because most stars are actually born as twins.

"So actually the sun is somewhat of a rarity from that perspective," he says. "Now what we want to know is: Do most binary stars have planets just like we now think that most single stars do? And I think the future data from the NASA Kepler mission is going to help sort that out."

In fact, Doyle estimates there are 2 million solar systems around twin stars in our galaxy. He's been hunting for them for 20 years, and all of a sudden, the Kepler observatory has made his quest so much easier. "Now that we know how to find them, I think within the next few months we're going to find a few more," he says. "It's a gift, you know. After 20 years, the universe finally said, 'Try this one.' "

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Here come the Suns: new planet orbits two stars

R. hurt/NASA / JPL-Caltech
The Kepler mission NASA has discovered a planet, the two stars instead of a circle. Saturn is similar to the planet, as the black point in this artist's figure, although it more dense and travels in a 229-day circular orbit around the two stars.
A large number - is a trillion if you speak, dollars or euros. But a trillion miles is not so much in the cosmic order of things. Astronomers say that they have now found a planet orbiting two Suns a mere thousand trillion miles from here. It is yet another example of a strange solar system around nearby star discovered.
Ago launched to search two years NASA Kepler Observatory for Earth-like planet beyond our solar system. It has found more than 1,000 obvious planets around distant suns.
This animation shows the Kepler-16 system from an overhead view. The two stars in the Center Vortex around each other every 41 days during of the planet, as the small white point, makes a full circle around the star every 229 days.
(Note: this video has no sound.)
This graphic requires version 9 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player.Get the latest Flash Player.
This animation shows the Kepler-16 system from an overhead view. The two stars in the Center Vortex around each other every 41 days during of the planet, as the small white point, makes a full circle around the star every 229 days.
(Note: this video has no sound.)
Now, it has found a planet in orbit around a star for the first time. Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute in California says these two stars are away in the constellation Cygnus 200 light years from Earth, and each has a slightly different color.
"You have an orange star, which is 69 percent, with the mass of the Sun, and it basically is the 20-percent-the-mass-of-the-sun red star dance", he says. "And they go all 41 days to each other."
Doyle and his this system closely looked many employees and saw how the star temporarily with a predictable pattern dimmed - a sure sign that a planet to them was passed. Astronomers had seen strong evidence of planets around two stars before, but this is the first direct observation, their report in science.
"A giant laboratory"
The planet, called Kepler-16 b, encircled in a big circle all 229 days. It is a cold planet, about the size of Saturn, and it is probably a ball of gas with a rocky Interior. But Doyle introduces himself, that the sunsets would be dramatic.
"I remember from Star Wars - Tatooine." Luke was Skywalker watch a double sunset. But in this case sometimes a sunset where they are far apart, and perhaps the first, and perhaps first sets Red Star sets the orange star in the next month, the, "he says." "And sometimes you put into each other, sometimes they eclipsing."
More dramatic opened astronomers is that they learn dance a lot about the stars and planets as they to each other. The junior star in this system is, for example, the smallest normal star that ever discovered, says Doyle. And the larger star is downright confusing.
"It slowly rotates, which means, it is old, but it has great Starspot activity, which is an indicator of the youth," he says. "The whole place is as a giant laboratory."
One of the greatest puzzles the existence of planets around two stars, understand "because she should be there", says Dave Charbonneau, Professor of astronomy at Harvard University. He says that is the standard history of this planet from a pancake-shaped disk of material left after a singleton star coalesces.
"If you have a star - two stars orbiting each other - the pancakes material could easily be disturbed." "And so we have a harder time actually find out, like a planet, so that they can be born and stable orbit two stars", Charbonneau says.
A new horizon of two stars
Charbonneau was not with this specific discovery, but he says that it shows clearly that the planets around binary files can make. She opened a whole new horizon in the search for planets, because most stars are actually born as twins.
"So actually the Sun a little is a rarity from this perspective," he says. "Now we want to know: the most double stars have planets as we now think that do single stars?" "And I think that the future data from NASA Kepler mission will help to clarify."
In fact, Doyle estimates that there are 2 million solar system to two stars in our galaxy. He has for them is hunting for 20 years, and suddenly, the Kepler Observatory his search so much easier. "Now that we know how to find, I think in the next few months are we a couple to find more," he says. "It is a gift, you know." After 20 years the universe finally said, 'try this one.' "

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