Tag: crowdsourcing

Rusty Hudson grew up on the salt-laden docks of Daytona Beach, Florida. As a third-generation fisherman, he naturally took to the industry. When he was just 9 years old, Hudson started his first job as a bait boy aboard the Mako, a charter boat owned by his grandfather, Captain Jake Stone. By the late 1960s, […]

In 2016, a team of Alzheimer’s disease researchers at Cornell University hit a dead end. The scientists were studying mice, looking for links between Alzheimer’s and blood flow changes in the brain. For years, scientists have known that reduced blood flow in the brain is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. More recent research has also […]

By now, you’ve  almost certainly heard the news: Homemade sourdough is the  greatest thing since, well, sliced bread.  Being stuck in quarantine gives many of us more time to do things around the house, like baking. And stores are short on household staples, including bread, so, sure, might as well give breadmaking a try. But why sourdough […]

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 […]

By: Caitlin Larkin You probably remember when the Ebola virus became news in 2014, after it killed thousands of people. Erica Ollmann Saphire (pictured above), a structural biologist at The Scripps Research Institute, and one of the world’s foremost experts on Ebola, understood the molecular structure of the disease—and she knew its weak spots. She […]

By: Dr. Libby Ellwood Each year, millions of people flock to natural history museums to see examples of plants, animals, gemstones and more from places around the world. But what those visitors don’t get to see are the countless additional specimens behind the scenes. These specimen collections, housed at museums, universities, and other institutions, are […]

By: Alexei V. Filippenko and Hugh Hudson On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will trace a shadow over a narrow band of the United States from Oregon to South Carolina.  And if you own a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera*, you can become a part of scientific history by joining hundreds of other photographers […]

Public engagement is critical to address the challenges of climate change, a complex issue with environmental, social, political and economic ramifications. Common forms of public engagement include public events such as science festivals or café informal settings for experts to share their knowledge with the community. Or public policy forums where community members voice concerns […]

Nearly 50 million Americans live with one or more of 80 recognized autoimmune disorders, conditions in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells or tissues. Though widespread, the search for treatments for these conditions can be convoluted and frustrating. Autoimmune Citizen Science founder Vivek Mandan experienced this frustration first-hand as he struggled to deal […]

From shoveling the third heavy snowfall of winter to spotting the first crocus of spring, each day without fail we experience our environment. Meaning each of us is a potential wealth of information about our local environment. Information that if gathered could inform climate scientists about the local effects and potential indicators of climate change. […]