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Ethnobotanical Research 101- starting from scratch Torsten and I are running a workshop on Laboratory Experiment Design at EGA 2017 We want to share our love of citizen-science. To convince you all to partake in the formal, logical process that can answer so many of the phytochemical/ ethnotoanical questions you've asked over the years. Wonder no more! Act! Workshop's for beginners and wrinkly old lab-hands alike. Anyone, literally- anyone can design a simple, robust protocol which gives solid results and contributes to the sum of human knowledge. Those of you with extensive practical experience in experiment design are very welcome to share the ( sometimes bitter yet hilarious in hindsight ) fruit of your work with us huddled masses. It's not rocket surgery. Lab experiment design is a simple checklist, a bit of planning, some thorough checking and the resilience to simultaneously accept and critique the data as it falls. Carn, we all talk about experiments we'd like to see done. Or exceptions to established practices we've seen work. Shared variants or refinements of new teks. Wanted to know why. Or wondered why the hell something didn't work out after we ( mostly ) followed the instructions. Workshop's interactive. Which means we need your input. Some of which can start here on the forums- reply with some pointers about your experiences or plans. During the workshop we'll welcome your thoughts, interjections, inspirations. Keep 'em coming, keep it moving Workshop's practice-based. Inasmuch as we're pointing at issues around design of theoretical experiments involving the legendary ethnobotanical Dragibus curiosa. Not sure what kind of experiment yet. Help us decide. A simple germination experiment? Optimal fertiliser requirements? The virtues of rhizobial inoulation? A cost/benefit comparison of propagation practices? Testing storage parameters for volatile compounds in the dry product? Determining genetic markers for drought tolerance? We'll settle the best questions on the day It'll be lighthearted. There *will* be lollies. Like all good laboratory-grade successes, some of them may be thrown at you, randomly. Some you must earn. Fate favours the prepared, apparently. It's serious business, experiment design-but that's no excuse not to have fun Bring your questions, your experience, your weird attitudes and your sense of humour.