AmSci Opportunities

For those of you United States citizens braving the wild northern hinterlands of Alaska, there is a new program for organizing citizen scientists through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Conservations Division.

This great partnership between the interested public and local professionals is a great opportunity for doing some particularly unique amateur research that would be entirely different from anything that the rest of the “lower states” can imagine.

Currently, the program is featuring projects on the habitats of wood frogs (and, how in the world do they survive the Alaskan winter!), the conservation of waterbird populations, and the study of the summertime habitat for the Alaskan bat (did you not think Alaska had any bats?).

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is now offering a new program to train state-wide citizen scientists with background knowledge to empower them to be more effective volunteer naturalists. The goal of the Nebraska Master Naturalist Program is to create a network of trained volunteers to focus on habitat conservation, environmental education, citizen science, outdoor skills and ecotourism.

If you live in Nebraska and are interested in joining this exciting new citizen science training program, link through below and contact the group today. Be sure to post your experiences back here on DPR Citizen Science!

You are one of millions and millions of human beings who are carrying a special research tool in your pocket or purse. It’s your cell phone, of course! And, with mobile technologies advanced to nearly the point that we now can have mini-computers resting in the palm of our hand, scientists are beginning to realize the untapped potential of world-wide data collection from citizen scientists.

There are many exciting potential uses for how the average cell phone user–nearly everyone of us!–can participate in important science studies where ever one might live. Local climate measurements, traffic conditions, and real-time observations via text messages are just an inkling of where cell phone citizen science can be used.

This opportunity for scientists has already been realized and an important study was completed out of UCLA, which describes how existing mobile technologies can be used to enhance citizen science participation. If you are interested in learning more, and even would like to find out how to get involved with your own phone, read the paper and see how you can connect as a mobile citizen scientist.

Prof. Mike Brown and colleagues from the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech have written a paper, and it is currently in its final editing stages prior to submission to a professional journal.

This isn’t a particularly special event, as thousands of other scientists across the country are working on their own draft versions of their own research at this very moment… but what is particularly interesting here is that Prof. Brown wants serious reviews from citizen scientists to assist with the editing process before making his submission final.

There has been growing indirect evidence that Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, has a planetary water cycle (or, hydrological cycle) much like Earth’s cycle with water continuously moving between land and air through evaporation and precipitation. Only on Titan, this cycle contains methane instead of water.

Using imaging from the Cassini spacecraft, this group of scientists claims to have observed fog at the southern pole of the moon. They argue that the appearance of fog on Titan can only be caused by the evaporation of liquid methane into the atmosphere, and therefore this provides the first direct evidence of an active hydrological cycle on the moon.

So, if you feel up to this important challenge for citizen science, carefully read and review the draft paper, and post your serious comments on Prof. Brown’s website… or send him messages directly.

If you take part in this review process, please let us know here at DPR about your experience!

The classic lady bug — or, Coccinellidae, the pretty red ones — is actually a farmer friendly little creature that is critical for reducing populations of annoying pests like aphids, or nasty plant-eating lice.

The population level of the lady bug seems to be declining in the Midwestern United States, and Dr. Mary Gardiner of Ohio State University wants to find out what is going on. She has setup a great new citizen science program called the Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz Volunteer Network, that is a perfect opportunity for Ohio residents to contribute in important ways to the local agricultural science. A new round of studies will begin again next summer, and required training for volunteers starts in February 2010.

If you live anywhere in Ohio and are interested in helping out next year with this important project, take a moment to learn more and consider taking the time to train…

This might be the greatest citizen science project to come along in 2009.

Although, this point would be debatable, it really doesn’t matter because we have access to a great new partnership called Citizen Sky from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) that has just been funded by the National Science Foundation. Citizen Sky is so exciting because it opens up an incredible opportunity for anyone interested in “looking up” to do real and very serious science.

In fact, this is not just a “fun” project that the AAVSO wants to offer to carve a few good karma, public education support notches in their belts… this project demands the use of citizen scientists because the high-tech astronomical equipment used by the professionals is not ideal for the observation needs of the data collection!

The project is looking at an odd behavior of the very large, and very bright star, Epsilon Aurigae (more). First observed back in 1821, it was realized that it’s brightness (and it is pretty bright) dims to nearly half its normal level every 27 years, and it remains dim for nearly 2 years! So something might be eclipsing the star, but it’s still odd and many hypothesis have been suggested… and scientists from the AAVSO need the help of citizen scientists to finally figure out the solution to this important observation of our universe.

Learn more about this wonderful new program, and consider taking part in what will be an historically important movement for the advancement and success of citizen science…