Category: Gaming

Human beings are remarkably capable animals when it comes to pattern recognition. The human ability to quickly and accurately recognize recurrent patterns is a skill that numerous citizen science projects have put to work on large, difficult data sets. Galaxy Zoo uses these skills to assist with the morphological classification of galaxies. Pattern recognition and […]

Tired of watching the kids race home from school just to play video games for hours? One-up them and make a significant contribution to science while YOU play games. (Warning: The kids might like these, too!) EyeWire EyeWire is a citizen science project aimed at mapping the neural connections of the retina. All you have […]

March may be ending, but March Madness is still in the air! Here are sixteen sweet projects in honor of the Sweet Sixteen: Cicada Tracker Families, armchair scientists and lovers of nature are invited to join in a bit of mass science: track the cicadas that emerge once every 17 years across New Jersey, New […]

Imagine something more mysterious than the trenches of the deep sea, more convoluted than the intricacies of the human genetic code, possibly even more infinite than the vastness of outer space. Meet the human brain. Memories, mental disorders, language capability, motor skills, and so much more are encoded in this singular organ. Yet, neuroscientists don’t […]

Scientific research aims to answer questions, progress disciplinary knowledge, and ultimately better society by providing new applications of technology and ideas toward common problems. But, over time, the products of our countless research projects, while potentially still useful, go unutilized, and can be forgotten in the basements of University libraries or the dusty archives of […]

Adolescents diagnosed with chronic illness have a lifelong responsibility to maintain and promote their health. Chronic illness can impact life in a variety of ways: pain, fatigue, inability to take part in physical abilities, and feelings of hopelessness. To help overcome these challenges, adolescents commonly look to counseling, social groups, and similar online activities. What […]

Could you come up with a new way to track submarines? Could you outsmart a submarine commander? If  you think you’re up to challenge, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) could use your help! DARPA is inviting citizens to get in the virtual driver seat of a new video game: the Continuous Trail Unmanned […]

Video games: Do you love them or loathe them? When I was a teenager, I couldn’t get enough of them. Nowadays, I find it difficult to get excited about whiling away an hour with a joypad. Now might be a time for a rethink… Recently, I wrote a post that reviewed a new generation of computer […]