Natural beauty is not out of reach even in the most urban of spaces. The Mystic River Watershed is the most populated watershed in Massachusetts, with 7% of the MA population living on 1% of its land. Extending from Cambridge north to Arlington and Winchester, the story of the Mystic River is one of extensive […]

Dear Librarian, Libraries and similar venues are public spaces where community members, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, economic level, or education level, can engage in a variety of activities.  May we suggest citizen science, which enables ordinary people to advance real scientific research?  Professional scientists need your help, and connecting through citizen science projects offers […]

For more than a hundred years, the United States government has paired university scientists with local farmers to study how best to feed the world. These extension programs helped to more than double agricultural production in the U.S. between 1948 and 2001 by sharing knowledge between farmers and university researchers. These extension programs—which bring knowledge […]

Mary Ellen Hannibal, Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction, New York, NY: The Experiment, 2016. 432 pp. $29.95 hardcover, $17.95 paperback. Mary Ellen Hannibal’s Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction is a beautiful collection that explores a wide range of stories. From the […]

Who doesn’t like playing games? What if you could play fun games online and in the process make the world a smarter place? That’s the idea behind LingoBoingo. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Linguistic Data Consortium and department of Computer and Information Science, the University of Essex, Queen Mary University of London, the Université […]

Our editors found 12 projects related to the 12 Days of Christmas jingle. Ok, some are a stretch, but we hope you enjoy our holiday edition! We have some exciting developments on the horizon. Will you please take a moment to update your dashboard settings so you can really make the most of the new features in […]

Check out the Blue Water Task Force on SciStarter! The Surfrider Foundation is pleased to announce its participation in the first ever open data standard for the automated exchange of recreational water quality data. Recreational waters at ocean and freshwater beaches, lakes and rivers are monitored for harmful bacteria and pathogens that can threaten human […]

Post by Ruthanna Gordon, Ph.D. She is a steering committee member of the Federal Community of Practice for Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science. One strength of citizen science is in its ability to gather granular, hyper-local data—and to bring that data together into a big-picture understanding of what’s happening nationally or globally. How are patterns of rainfall shifting […]

The genetic modification of crops (GMOs) and the concept of designer babies (thanks to CRISPR technology) may be two of the most recognizable, yet controversial, topics related to the field of genetic engineering. At its core, genetic engineering, also known as bioengineering, is the genetic modification of an organism. Some view genetic engineering as an […]

As a gift to the citizen science community, this holiday season, SciStarter created a beautiful citizen science calendar!  This calendar was developed with the help of a lot of people. The Citizen Science Association Listserv and Jill Nugent compiled an awesome collection of events, and then Erica Chenoweth took this list and created a Google […]