With iPhone, iListen, iLearn

By Meg Lowman

New personal digital assistants, or hand-held computers, are overwhelming consumers with their myriad sound bites, applications and jargon. As the proud owner of an iPhone, I must admit that its new, innovative uses (other than the conventional calling application) are not only addictive but seem to provide just about every service under the sun, except washing the dishes (maybe that is next?). My iPhone provides navigation to locate restaurants; files hundreds of addresses; updates weather reports for any city in the world; and houses photo albums, music, a "to-do" list, a calendar that can announce appointments and, of course, e-mail -- all in a pocket-size, battery-operated gadget.

Personalized research

PDA technologies offer downloadable applications (sometimes for free, other times for a nominal fee) that allow personalization of every hand-held device for professional uses, as well as hobbies. A recent cartoon in The New York Times (titled iPanic) provided a humorous downside of our growing addiction to applications, listing such hypothetical programs as "2 Late Now" (an application that creates a spreadsheet of all the things you wish you had never purchased) or "Never Mind" (calculates the cost of 1,000 popular vacations and the money saved by not going).

On a positive note, the diverse functions of PDAs represent sophisticated new tools for scientific research. Currently, engineers and geneticists are designing hand-held gadgets that will identify plants using instant DNA recognition. For nature lovers, the iPhone has applications that may revolutionize ecology. My all-time favorite is iBird Pro, an application storing more than 1,000 bird songs, range maps, photographs and encyclopedia entries for each bird. On a recent trip to Vermont, I was quickly able to differentiate the bird calls of the veery, hermit thrush and Swainson's thrush, all with the simple push of a button on my telephone that fit easily into my pocket. Apple, the maker of iPhone, has promised a similar field guide for plants in the near future, including a noxious plant guide so gardeners can eradicate Brazilian pepper, poison ivy and Australian pine without mistaking them for white pine or Virginia creeper.

A transformational gadget

Although technology is sometimes considered an intrusion to those of us in the baby-boomer generation who seek the solace of the natural world, I must confess that iBird is one of the more amazing and transformational gadgets advancing my profession of field ecology.

Only one caveat: Birders should use the iBird application cautiously to avoid fooling Mother Nature into a false sense of how many (real) birds occupy a given territory. Like bird feeders that can artificially alter the natural ranges of some songbirds, an overuse of iBird songs could confuse local populations into false competition for imaginary territories. With the numbers of songbirds declining so precipitously over the past few years, computer-generated information could jeopardize the behavior of remaining bird populations.

But the iBird application has the potential to transform bird-watching and advance science education. Christmas bird counts may become more accurate, since bird-call identification will not rely on human memories alone. In addition, young people who prefer virtual science education via computer screen may rediscover the joy of going outdoors, where they can now combine their love of technology with nature; iBird offers a unique integration of technology with natural history, and may convert citizens into birders more effectively than any hard-cover field guide.

Here's hoping that iPhone applications will inspire the next generation of ecologists with an acute knowledge of the natural world, as well as the technologies to conserve it.

Margaret Lowman is director of environmental initiatives at New College of Florida in Sarasota. For more information, visit www.canopymeg.com.