Microcosm Log
The open-source atlas of tropical microscopic life
Website · Docs · Roadmap · Contribute
Tropical freshwater microbes are hugely diverse yet poorly documented in open datasets.
Microcosm Log crowdsources high-resolution images, metadata, and field notes so researchers, teachers, and citizen-scientists can:
- monitor biodiversity & climate trends
- train machine-learning models on openly licensed images
- learn microscopy without expensive equipment
Everything is released under CC-BY 4.0 (images) and MIT (code).
| ✔︎ | Module | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🔍 | Searchable species guide | curated references, markdown content |
| 📸 | Crowd observations | sample date, GPS, magnification, imaging method |
| 🗂 | Supabase Storage | originals + thumbnails |
| 🗳 | Community vote QA | ⬆️ “looks good” / ⬇️ “doubtful” per observation |
| 🗺 | PostGIS geospatial queries | fast “show everything within 10 km” |
| 🗨 | Threaded discussions | gear talk, ID requests, general chat |
| 🔒 | Row-Level-Security | fine-grained perms for every table |
| ⛓ | Optional Web 3 provenance | IPFS CID + on-chain hash (coming soon) |
| Layer | Tech |
|---|---|
| Database | Supabase Postgres + PostGIS + pgcrypto |
| Auth | Supabase email / magic-link • wallet login optional |
| API | auto-generated Supabase REST & Realtime |
| Front-end | Next.js 14 + Tailwind CSS |
| Images | Supabase Storage (private & public buckets) |
| Deployment | Supabase (DB) · Vercel (web) |
The full schema lives in /docs/schema.md.
| Key table | Purpose |
|---|---|
| observations | crowd data (sample date, geo, magnification…) |
| observation_images | CC-BY images + SHA-256 hashes |
| observation_votes | one vote / user ⬆️ or ⬇️ |
| species_references | curated taxonomy cards |
| Milestone | Status |
|---|---|
| MVP v0.1 – public search & upload | ✅ May 2025 |
| Community voting + admin dashboard | 🟡 WIP |
| Mycology module (phone mushrooms) | ⬜ Planned Q3 2025 |
| On-chain provenance + POAP badges | ⬜ Planned Q3 2025 |
| Open API / CSV export | ⬜ Planned Q4 2025 |
Track progress in the Roadmap board.
We welcome code, images, and feedback!
- Fork and create a feature branch.
- Run
pnpm lint && pnpm testbefore committing. - Open a PR — fill the template.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines.
- Code — MIT
- Images & data — CC-BY 4.0
Made with 🔬 & ❤️ in Costa Rica