Year: 2019

At the start of World War I, thousands of soldiers were coming down with a baffling condition: they became blind, deaf, lost their memory, or developed uncontrollable shaking despite no obvious physical injury. Even stranger, this malady could be triggered by memories of the war even after the fighting had ended. At the time, doctors […]

A team of researchers at the Human Computation Institute and Cornell University seek to understand what causes a 30% reduction of blood flow to the brain in Alzheimer’s patients. Preliminary findings from the Schaffer-Nishimura Biomedical Engineering Lab suggest that restoring blood flow to the brain could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and restore cognitive functioning. […]

We present to you a graphic-designed version of the month of May from our “Year in Citizen Science” Google Calendar. You can add to the Google Calendar whenever you wish, to any month in the year, by emailing Erica Chenoweth at EricaC@SciStarter.org. Each month, Erica will release a printable version of the calendar featuring some of […]

Lead water pipes have been a fixture of modern civilization for more than two thousand years.  Ancient Romans channeled water into homes and bathhouses through lead piping. In fact, the Latin word for lead, plumbum, is where we get the English word “plumbing.” Yet we have also long recognized that lead can have a serious […]

SciStarter and Science Connected are partnering to produce a new blog platform: Citizen Science Connected. Citizen science is a way for regular people to do real research, and the Citizen Science Connected platform is a place to tell those stories. The fields that citizen science advances are diverse: ecology, astronomy, medicine, psychology, linguistics, genetics, engineering, […]

Starting last night, on April 29, PBS began their American Spring LIVE show. As they describe on their website, “Spring is one of nature’s greatest performances – a time of rebirth, renewed energy and dramatic transformations. For three consecutive nights, Monday, April 29 – Wednesday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local […]

Calling all tree lovers! This Arbor Day, help scientists study trees near you with TreeSnap, an easy-to-use app. Are you a tree lover with a smartphone? If so, you can help out scientists who are trying to breed stronger trees. Like all living beings, trees face a variety of challenges and illnesses. In addition to […]

What if everyone had access to powerful tools for scientific learning and problem solving? Scientific discovery tools — from telescopes to magnetometers — help us answer questions and generate knowledge. But many powerful tools are too expensive or too difficult for non-experts to use. Tool Foundry by Luminary Labs Earlier this month, Luminary Labs launched […]

Citizen Science is a podcast from SciStarter. This show spotlights the many different ways that individuals and communities are exploring and changing the world around them through public participation in science. Episodes feature conversations between project developers and volunteers, with subjects ranging from climate change to biodiversity to Alzheimer’s research to community science projects focused […]

In Nebraska, scientists working for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission are increasingly relying on casual researchers and citizen scientists to better understand three creatures in particular: spotted skunks, salamanders, and regal fritillary and monarch butterflies. Why? The populations of these species have either declined or are in jeopardy, and scientists want to get a current population […]