Celebrating Citizen Science Month with new government-sponsored projects

The federal government spends a lot of money on scientific research and projects, but even so, it can’t do everything without a little help. That is where the concept of citizen scientists comes into play, with people working hand in hand with government agencies to help make important discoveries that might change the world one day. Perhaps the best example of this is the citizen science projects sponsored by NASA, which we first reported on back in 2023. Since then, the program has expanded to include quite a few new projects, while others have been completed thanks to the tireless efforts of people working on them all around the world.

And NASA is really doubling down on its citizen scientist recruitment efforts. To celebrate April being designated as Citizen Science Month, the agency is contributing to the One Million Acts of Science event, which is sponsored by Arizona State University and SciStarter. That effort seeks to encourage people to participate in various scientific projects with the goal of racking up one million individual contributions by the end of the month.

The SciStarter project pages have quite a few ways that budding citizen scientists can help out, with projects covering everything from counting caterpillars to spotting wild pigs in need of assistance. And for a more indoor-focused assignment, the National Archives and the National Park Service are collaborating on a special project to transcribe the records from pension and bounty-land warrant applications filed by soldiers who served during the Revolutionary War.

And it’s not just humans who can participate in Citizen Science Month this year. Those who own dogs and cats can now let their furry friends contribute to projects that are attempting to improve both the quality of life and the lifespan of our beloved pets. For example, The Dog Aging Project, which is sponsored by 14 universities — including the University of Washington, Tufts University and Texas A&M — is asking pet owners to complete a short survey that includes basic information about themselves and their dogs. Once completed, the project will potentially have more assignments for human and dog teams in the months and years to come. For cat lovers, the Darwin’s Cats project encourages people to register their felines and talk about their behaviors. Ultimately, people can also have their cat’s DNA sequenced for inclusion in a global database that could one day be used to help manufacturer cures for common feline ailments.

Another really interesting project that anyone can participate in this year is called ZomBee Watch, which is sponsored by the San Francisco State University Center for Computing for Life Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The project aims to get a handle on a potentially devastating problem where honeybees are being infected by a so-called zombie fly, whose actual scientific name is Apocephalus borealis. Infected bees act more like moths, meaning they fly around at night and can be found buzzing around streetlights and other bright places instead of tending to their hives and making honey.

The zombie fly infections were first discovered in California, but scientists want to know if they have spread to other parts of the country. To find out, they are distributing capture kits that can be checked out from local libraries in every state. The kit includes a battery-powered light bulb and a small trap-like cup to capture infected honeybees. While uninfected bees will not be impacted, those that have been hurt by the zombie fly will be attracted to the lightbulb glowing in the dark all night and will eventually fall into the trap. Participants then need to report how many bees they find each morning. Project officials say that even if no bees show up and get trapped, recording those findings is still critical because it could help provide evidence that the infection has not spread to the local area.

Back at the NASA citizen science pages, several new projects have popped up in recent months, while many old favorites are still going strong. One of the newest projects is Cloud Spotting on Mars, which started last year as more data from that planet became available from sources like the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft. MAVEN is capturing lots of images, and help is needed to examine and categorize them for future scientific study. Those participating in the Cloud Spotting on Mars project will first learn to identify different types of Martian cloud formations. Once trained, they will then be asked to examine photos taken by MAVEN to identify and classify any cloud formations.

Another NASA project that people can help out with, and one that is eligible for the One Million Acts of Science event, is called Daily Minor Planet. It aims to find some of the potentially millions of uncategorized and undiscovered asteroids hiding in the sea of space. NASA has collected millions of images of the heavens, and even used AI and other software to identify potential asteroids. The challenge is that the overwhelming majority of the potential asteroids that have been identified by AI are simply noise or other disruptions in the photographs. 

NASA needs people to help pour over those images to help determine which of the flagged asteroids really exist. They can do that by looking for telltale signs. For example, if a person examines the same area over time in subsequent photographs, a real asteroid will shift position as it floats through space in a straight line. So, if a potential anomaly actually moves, then there is a good chance that it’s actually an unidentified asteroid that should be categorized and tracked.

And some NASA Citizen Science projects that were previously worked have already achieved a lot of success or even been successfully completed. One of those is MAPPPD, which stands for Mapping Application for Penguin Populations and Projected Dynamics. It challenged people to count penguin populations hidden in photographs of Antarctica and also to help identify their habitats. Thousands of people participated in that effort. While most of the data has now been collected, citizen scientists can still pour over photos looking for anything that might have been missed. 

If you want to help reach the goal of a million acts of science before the end of April, or more importantly contribute to groundbreaking research that might make the world a better place, NASA currently has 33 active projects looking for help from talented citizen scientists. Between those and the dozens of other innovative projects available through SciStarter, there are plenty of ways that anyone and everyone can help out.

John Breeden II is an award-winning journalist and reviewer with over 20 years of experience covering technology. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group that creates technological thought leadership content for organizations of all sizes. Twitter: @LabGuys