You, Scientist

PLATFORMS

Zooniverse
https://www.zooniverse.org/
[5]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/
[6]The general-audience science magazine maintains a detailed project listing for various disciplines, from evolution to space.

 

BOINC
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php
[7]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/ [8] (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] [9]
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/
[10]Donate idle computer time to search for pulsars. Hosted by BOINC.

 

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

 

Be a Martian
http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/
[12]Tag and analyze photos from Mars. Hosted by NASA [13].

 

BIOLOGY

Foldit
http://fold.it/ [14]
Compete to find stable structures for medically relevant proteins.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

eBird
http://ebird.org [18]
[19]Share bird sightings to help map migration patterns. (For the holiday season, consider the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count [20].)

 

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

 

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

 

HEALTH

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

 

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

 

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

 

HUMANITIES

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

 

Curarium
http://www.curarium.com/ [27] (launches 2014)
View and analyze digitized museum collections from around the world.

 

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

 

PSYCHOLOGY

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

 

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

 

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

 

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