Citizen Science projects

Over at Intel's Life Scoop site, I posted about several fascinating citizen science projects, from a photo app to monitor Redwood trees to a mobile platform enabling anyone to participate in field biology research. From my intro:

In 1900, the National Audubon Society invited amateur birdwatchers to count the birds they saw on Christmas. Still an annual event, the Christmas Bird Count, a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere, is probably the longest-running large-scale citizen science experiment in history. The phrase "citizen science" is used to describe projects in which individuals volunteer their minds, or as is often the case these days, their microprocessors, to tackle big scientific challenges. Here are a few citizen science projects online that aren't just opportunities to contribute to the greater good of scientific research. They're also surefire ways to spark your sense of wonder in your world.

"Citizen Science: Feed Your Curiosity"

• [tylerkaraszewski]

  Project Noah looked like it might be cool, but a lot of the identifications that people have put up there are really super general (i.e., beetles identified as “ladybird” or birds identified as “owl”) to the point of not answering the question being posed (yes, I know it was an owl, I want to know what *kind* of owl). I see potential in it, but only if people with some decent knowledge are the ones contributing the IDs for various species.

  This isn’t to say anything negative about a “citizen science” project. When you start looking into it, there are a *lot* of questions out there that science hasn’t answered, not because it couldn’t but because nobody has bothered to take the time. I’ve done my own little science projects, trying to test things that nobody else seems to have bothered with (or at least, they haven’t published their results anywhere).

  But when you start delving into things, you may find you’re in the position to learn something new, that nobody has ever tried before. You might see a pair of birds building a nest in your backyard and think “I wonder how long it takes for their eggs to hatch?” Well, keep track, it’s possible that no one else has ever taken the time to watch, and nobody knows how long it takes that species of bird’s eggs to hatch. You could be the first person to know (probably not with birds though, birds are pretty well-studied).

  I am married to a biologist, and the number of questions I come up with about plants and animals to which the answer is “I don’t think anyone knows” is higher than you’d think. There are so many things to study, and scientists haven’t studied them all. You might be the first.

• [Susan Oliver]

  I am married to a biologist, and the number of questions I come up with about plants and animals to which the answer is “I don’t think anyone knows” is higher than you’d think.

  I love this – thanks!