Clearing the Air in the Historic West End
Equipped with air quality sensors, an African American neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, is trying to reverse decades of environmental injustice.
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Citizen Science is for Lovers this Valentine’s Day!
By Bob Hirshon (@Bob Hirshon) It’s almost Valentine’s Day. Cuddle up with these five projects–and one book–that we love! They are waiting for you with open arms. Xoxo, The SciStarter Team Health eHeart You’re probably science-savvy enough to know that the seat of love is in the brain, not the heart. But do you really want to send a romantic card that says “I (brain) you!” We thought not. So follow your heart to the Health eHeart (get it?) project, where you and your SO can share data that will…
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Five Ways to Prepare for SuperbOwl Sunday
By Bob Hirshon @BobHirshon Sunday, February 2 is the most exciting day of the year for owl-lovers all over the world: SuperbOwl Sunday! This is the day when the ornithologically-inclined brave the elements to admire owls near them, photograph owls and/or, for some reason, stay indoors and watch football. No matter who you’re hooting for this Super Bowl Sunday, you can celebrate SuperbOwls and citizen science. Get started with the projects we’ve spotlighted, below. Cheer for science…like 49ers cheerleader Kelly! Cognitive neuroscientist and San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush Cheerleader Kelly…
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Book Review: Field Guide to Citizen Science
By Devon Moriarty @devmoriarty Darlene Cavalier, Catherine Hoffman, and Caren Cooper. The Field Guide to Citizen Science: How You Can Contribute to Scientific Research and Make a Difference, $7.60 Kindle, $11.99 Paperback The Field Guide to Citizen Science is currently available for pre-order. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case, the front of The Field Guide to Citizen Science: How You Can Contribute to Scientific Research and Make a Difference effectively communicates the essence of this book. A simple black, blue, and yellow…
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Phendo: Understanding Endometriosis
In 2016, Noémie Elhadad and her lab at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center created the Phendo, or “phenotyping endometriosis,” app, to better understand and identify symptoms of endometriosis. Endometriosis is a painful condition that causes overgrowth of the endometrium, or inner lining of the uterus, such that it grows outside the uterus and into other places in the body. Their goal is to fill in the gaps of knowledge about how individuals experience the disease on a day-to-day basis. The app invites anyone over the age of 13 who has…
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Regular People Are Changing How We Monitor Air Quality
Low cost, high impact: How access to sensors is changing everything in air quality research. Air quality: It’s about us The ways we hear about air pollution can make us think it’s not about us. Large industrial stacks, smoky skies, and cities far away — filled with people we’ve never met, in places we don’t expect to be. Articles on the front pages of major news outlets describe air pollution in India, China, and Bangladesh, and they don’t always make the connection with people like me who live in the…
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Nuclear Radiation, Citizen Science, and Civic Engagement
In Japan after a nuclear radiation disaster Book Review: Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima. By Aya Hirata Kimura. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. Nuclear Radiation and Food Safety In March 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a tsunami that would result in a tragic loss of life. Water overtook the seawalls at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and damaged critical systems. These events resulted in one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Survivors near…
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Cultural Heritage and Citizen Science
Citizen science for your ears The latest episode of Citizen Science, the podcast from SciStarter, is the first of two episodes about how regular people help cultural heritage institutions like archives, libraries, and museums do scientific research, like uploading photographs to iNaturalist or eBird, or volunteering with a local water organization to monitor stream and river quality. Co-host Justin Schell shares how natural history museums and libraries encourage everyday people to take part in local, national, and global science projects. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County In the…
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Caterpillars Count
From big to small, we all count. Even caterpillars. Caterpillars are important Caterpillars are familiar to us. When a butterfly flutters past you, you know that it was once a caterpillar. Now it’s time to count the caterpillars and arthropods (creatures, like insects, with segmented bodies) that you see to help scientists understand how their populations are changing. You can get started today with the Caterpillars Count! project. Even though this project doesn’t just focus on caterpillars, who can resist a good alliteration? In 2015, Dr. Allen Hurlbert of North…
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Boston is Wicked Hot: Here’s What They’re Doing About It
Want to learn more about this initiative? Check out the Wicked Hot Boston series, Parts One and Two. Want to address climate hazards in your community? Head over to SciStarter.org/NOAA to find a citizen science project. Wicked Hot Boston It’s true: the world is getting hotter, and Boston is becoming WICKED hot. This past summer, the Museum of Science, Boston (MOS) team and local citizen scientists began to measure extreme temperatures. They used sensors provided by CAPA Strategies to make an ambient air temperature map of Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline,…
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