Popular opinion and the reception of the microbiome as an emerging field according to data mining on Twitter

The study of the human microbiome is a relatively new field of science. One that has launched a new understanding about the prevailing obesity epidemic and unveiled clues as to the origins of diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. While scientists publish research on links between colon cancer and our native microbiota, how is public opinion evolving?

I chose to use this question as the foundation of my Twitter data mining project. Fair warning: the audience and the posters on Twitter do not represent a random or an accurate sample of the population. Nevertheless, we can extract some interesting information about what this particular sample cares about.

First I wrote a script to live stream and capture tweets using the Twitter API, Tweepy and StreamListener (you can find full documentation on my GitHub account). A short snippet of my script:

Electric fields and low temperatures for the treatment of cancer

Motivation 

Cancer is the 2nd most leading cause of death in the United States. This is one of the many reasons it is paramount to pursue focal tissue ablation techniques. Current techniques include radiofrequency ablation, HIFU, radiation/brachytherapy, chemotherapy as well as countless others.

A clock that displays the weather

I designed a clock that wakes you up with the sites and sounds of the weather for your day. The Sunrise clock will wake you gently, so you can emerge from deep sleep slowly and naturally.

Wearable device

I worked on a wearable device that straps onto your wrist and measures reaction time. One application for this device is to monitor cognitive decline. This is because out of all neuropsychological tests, reaction time is the most sensitive to dementia.

Motion sensing inflatable hip protector

The elderly are vulnerable to falls. These accidents often can break their hips and the resulting hospital stays can lead to complications, such as infections and death. In fact, falls are responsible for 70% of accidental deaths in people 75 and older. To prevent this, I worked on a project to build an inflatable hip protector.