About Prometheus
“Prometheus”: PROtocols, METHods, Explanations and Updated Standards, is a web-based, free-content resource project based mostly on volunteer contributions. Prometheus protocols is designed for researchers in the fields of ecological and environmental plant physiology to easily access and share protocols and to provide a forum for discussion and debate on different practices. Science moves most rapidly when the majority of researchers use similar methods and can easily repeat and build upon each other’s discoveries. There is a strong need for standardizing in ecological and environmental plant physiology. According to Ancient Greek mythology, Prometheus was the Titan who first bestowed fire, at the time the greatest standardized technology.
Traditionally, information about protocols has been communicated either through conventional scientific peer-reviewed publications, or through word-of-mouth interactions and protocol sharing between specific lab-groups. The former is slow and formal while the latter is inefficient in what is now a global field. The impetus for this project arose from a desire to provide an up-to-date, centralised resource, using new technology to facilitate contributions from research groups across the globe.
Prometheus seeks to build a new method of communication about methods within the research community.
Citation
Sack Lawren, Cornwell Will K., Santiago Louis S., Barbour Margaret M., Choat Brendan, Evans John R., Munns Rana, Nicotra Adrienne (2010) A unique web resource for physiology, ecology and the environmental sciences: PrometheusWiki. Functional Plant Biology 37, 687-693.