You, Scientist

PLATFORMS

Zooniverse
https://www.zooniverse.org/
The citizen-science platform began with a single project, Galaxy Zoo, in 2007; it now hosts projects from all disciplines, from classification of whale calls to the transcription of old ship logs.

 

Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/
The general-audience science magazine maintains a detailed project listing for various disciplines, from evolution to space.

 

BOINC
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php
The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing allows citizen scientists to donate idle computer time to projects ranging from protein-folding to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

 

Curio
http://www.crowdcurio.com/ (launches early 2014)
A general crowdsourcing platform for citizen science; the three inaugural projects will draw from botany, medieval history, and organic chemistry.

 

ASTRONOMY

[email protected]
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/
Donate idle computer time to search for pulsars. Hosted by BOINC.

 

Galaxy Zoo
http://zoo1.galaxyzoo.org/
Classify telescope images of galaxies by shape. Hosted by Zooniverse.

 

Be a Martian
http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/
Tag and analyze photos from Mars. Hosted by NASA.

 

BIOLOGY

Foldit
http://fold.it/
Compete to find stable structures for medically relevant proteins.

 

eteRNA
http://eterna.cmu.edu/web/
Design molecules of RNA, a molecular cousin of DNA.

 

Phylo
http://phylo.cs.mcgill.ca/
Compare DNA sequences to help determine the tree of life.

 

Eyewire
https://eyewire.org/
Analyze images to map connections in the human brain.

 

 ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

eBird
http://ebird.org
Share bird sightings to help map migration patterns. (For the holiday season, consider the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count.)

 

Nature’s Notebook
https://www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook
Track backyard flora and fauna to contribute data on climate change.

 

Project Lab
http://publiclab.org/
Learn to collect and analyze your own environmental data.

 

HEALTH

Cell Slider
www.cellslider.net
Analyze microscope images of tumor samples. Hosted by Zooniverse.

 

Personal Genome Project
http://www.personalgenomes.org/
Donate your genome and health data to scientific research.

 

American Gut Project
http://americangut.org/
Donate samples of the bacteria living in your gut.

 

HUMANITIES

Valley of the Khans
http://exploration.nationalgeographic.com/
Analyze satellite images to search for the tomb of Genghis Khan.

 

Curarium
http://www.curarium.com/ (launches 2014)
View and analyze digitized museum collections from around the world.

 

Ancient Lives
https://www.zooniverse.org/project/ancientlives
Help digitize ancient Greek and Latin papyri manuscripts. Hosted by Zooniverse.

 

PSYCHOLOGY

Test My Brain
http://www.testmybrain.org/
Take behavioral-psychology tests and receive personal feedback.

 

Games With Words
http://www.gameswithwords.org/
Participate in experiments on the nature of language, with performance feedback.

 

Lab in the Wild
http://labinthewild.org/
Contribute to research on cultural variance in design aesthetics.

 

Project Implicit
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Assess unconscious biases and perceptions.