Author: Lily

Have you ever thought of yourself as the sum of your actions? What about the sum of years you’ve been alive, the number of hairs on your head, or how many times a day you brush your teeth? Our lives can be broken down into endless categories of quantifiable data. With these tiny, incremental details, what could an outside observer piece together to learn about the big picture that is your life?

With  Hurricane Sandy looming large, weather’s the nation’s top news story.  In case you’re at home sitting out the storm like the bulk of the SciStarter team, we’ve got you covered (no pun intended) with plenty of weather-related citizen science opportunities to help researchers and advance science. Bonus: here’s a weather-appropriate, musical supplement to your […]

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” –Victor Borges Aristotle posed that laughter is what sets humans apart from other species. Think about it. We love to laugh—at jokes, movies, at each other. We laugh to ease tension, because others are laughing, or simply just because. All right, Aristotle may not have been completely […]

We couldn’t have asked for a better citizen science project to start off October, a month often associated with Halloween and all things spooky. Introducing Bat Detective, a project that enlists citizen scientists to screen sound recordings of bats to classify their distinct calls. Bats are nocturnal, making them very difficult to spot with the […]

A painter cannot paint without brushes. Similarly, a scientist cannot work without tools. PLOTS, the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, is dead set on carrying out a mission to equip people with the proper tools for research. SciStarter and PLOTS are working together to help connect PLOTS tools and innovations to the growing […]

While Hallow’s Eve has you captivated by the curios, be sure to stay curious too! With these citizen science projects, it’s all treat, no tricks.

Curiosity Kills Cat, Leads Us to Red Planet Imagine for a moment that you are floating through space—dark, desolate, and deep. Months have passed since you left Earth. You’re millions of miles away from home, far removed from any comfort you’ve ever known. Then slowly, out of that interminable blanket of nothingness emerges a luminous […]

Honeybees. Apis mellifera. Innocuous, diligent workers with only one mission in mind: to survive and provide for the hive. You would hardly ever come across a honeybee taking a break or straying from routine. Why, then, are honeybees in California and South Dakota suddenly abandoning their hives at night? Some seem to wander and stumble […]

Temperatures are on the rise. The days are growing longer. Ice cream trucks make their rounds. The Earth tilts on its axis toward the sun (well, if you live in the northern hemisphere). In other words, summer is here! Lucky for you, we have some exciting citizen science projects that you can participate in while […]

What do you think of when you hear about archaeology? Perhaps your mind jumps to Indiana Jones’ arduous search for the Holy Grail. Maybe you imagine Howard Carter’s incredible reaction to the “wonderful things” he spotted at first sight of King Tutankhamen’s tomb. Or if you’re as big of a dork as I am, you […]