Suppose, if you will, that alien scientists came down to Earth and began to study the local lifeforms. But let's suppose that these aliens arrive by the side of a busy expressway, and stay there. Our extraterrestrials might conclude that cars are the dominant inhabitants of Earth.
Cars clearly exhibit intelligent behaviour, being able to navigate around obstacles and follow complex instructions on road signs. How, the aliens may wonder, do the cars manage this? What is the seat of car int ...read more
Slavery from Space is a citizen science project that allows users to further the antislavery movement by mapping the locations of activities in which people are frequently found to be enslaved.
How many slaves do you think there are in the world? You might be surprised. In 2016, the International Labour Organization estimated that 40.3 million people were enslaved globally, of which 28.7 million are women and girls and 24.9 million are in forced labor. To put those numbers into perspectiv ...read more
Citizen science has been around as long as science, but innovative approaches are opening doors to more and deeper forms of public participation.
Below, our editors spotlight a few projects that feature new approaches, novel research, or low-cost instruments. They all provide opportunities to act upon issues you may care about.
Cheers!
The SciStarter Team
Colony B
Unravel the secrets of microscopic life! Colony B is a mobile gaming app developed at McGill Universit ...read more
Whether your preferred pint is crisp or hoppy, fruity or caramelly, you owe a lot to the single-celled fungus doing the important work of putting the booze in your brews. Hops may get most of the love on the craft beer scene, but yeast is an overlooked heavy-hitter when it comes to giving beer flavor.
“Cool people are obsessed with yeast,” says Simon McConico, co-owner of Milwaukee’s Vennture Brew. “It’s because hops are sexy; yeast is a bit more nuanced.”
H ...read more
White dwarfs are weird objects. These dense cores of dead stars pack as much mass as the Sun into a body about the size of Earth. They're left behind when a small- to mid-sized star ends its life by ballooning into a red giant and blowing off its outer layers in a series of explosive pulses. Although these puffs of ejected material eventually create a beautiful and expansive cloud of glowing gas called a planetary nebula, the process unfortunately tends to wreak havoc on any planets re ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine