Complex research made simple. We translate the latest scientific discoveries into clear, actionable insights for citizen scientists worldwide.
Groundbreaking research reveals how casino lighting and smartphone screens may be literally rewiring our brains to take more risks. Scientists found that blue-enriched light reduces loss aversion - making people more willing to gamble...
Read the full story →Pocket Science's Black Hole Finder app now features live robotic telescope integration. When 6+ experienced users identify candidates, Las Cumbres Observatory's global telescope network automatically observes targets and generates scientific reports...
See Live Telescope Activity →From pocket-sized spectrometers to global robotic telescopes - discover how Pocket Science bridges citizen science with professional research infrastructure. Real-time telescope triggers, automated follow-up observations, and scientific impact...
Watch Live Discoveries →New AI tools are helping citizen scientists analyze massive astronomical datasets more effectively, with machine learning algorithms assisting in species identification and data validation across multiple platforms...
Read more →The SETI Institute's Unistellar citizen science program achieved 10,000+ observations in 2024, with 2,500 global observers making discoveries including binary asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects...
Read more →Over 2,000 volunteers from 105 countries made 20 official astronomical discoveries through the Kilonova Seekers project, including supernovae and variable stars. Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society...
Read more →Pocket Science's iSPEX transforms any smartphone into a precise spectrometer for atmospheric research, water quality testing, and environmental monitoring. See how citizen scientists worldwide are making discoveries with pocket-sized instruments...
Explore iSPEX →From smartphone sensors to global water quality databases - discover how Pocket Science's Mini Secchi disk enables worldwide environmental monitoring through citizen science participation and real-time data collection...
Learn About Mini Secchi →From April 25-28, 2025, citizens worldwide documented urban wildlife through iNaturalist, contributing to real-time ecosystem tracking. Participants photographed wild plants, animals, and fungi in cities from New York to Nairobi...
Read more →Galaxy Zoo incorporated hundreds of thousands of new JWST images from the COSMOSweb survey, with AI assistant Zoobot helping identify galaxies needing human classification. Over 500,000 galaxy images now available...
Read more →Recent discoveries include new cicada and grasshopper species, endangered weevil population rediscovery in New Zealand, and Himalayan honey bee range expansion. Over 4,000 research papers now cite iNaturalist data...
Read more →During Citizen Science Month 2025, Pocket Science's Black Hole Finder app achieved top 10 status among the most active projects. Volunteers worldwide helped identify cosmic events using BlackGEM telescope data from Chile...
Read more →Pocket Science's Black Hole Finder received major coverage from The Verge, Space.com, and Popular Science in August 2024. The app expanded to 8 languages, helping citizens identify kilonovae and potential black holes...
Read more →With 7,123 observations already recorded, this international citizen science campaign uses smartphone apps to measure night sky brightness. Available in 28 languages with real-time data submission...
Read more →Baker's pioneering work in protein design and citizen science gaming was recognized alongside advances in AI protein prediction. FoldIt players have designed 56 stable proteins with potential medical applications...
Read more →Analysis of 150 bird species using eBird citizen science data shows 110 species aren't migrating early enough to match accelerated spring conditions. 200+ million annual observations power climate research...
Read more →With 500,000 daily users across 200+ countries, PlantNet has become one of the world's largest biodiversity observatories. Available in 24 languages, contributing tens of millions of observations annually to GBIF...
Read more →Projects like LASS in Taiwan deploy 12,000+ AirBox devices, while PurpleAir networks provide hyperlocal pollution data. AI and IoT integration enhance data quality and real-time monitoring capabilities...
Read more →University of Miami's citizen science program has led 100+ expeditions, restoring over 10,000 coral colonies. Participants retain knowledge and develop strong coral stewardship after 8-year program involvement...
Read more →GLOBE Observer app expands with Civil Air Patrol collaboration for atmospheric studies. Citizens contribute cloud observations, land cover data, and tree measurements to complement satellite missions...
Read more →June 25, 2025
What if the lighting around you could literally change how you make financial decisions? A groundbreaking new study published in Scientific Reports reveals that blue-enriched light—the kind found in casino lighting and smartphone screens—actually reduces our brain's natural aversion to losses, making us more willing to take risks.
We all know that light affects our sleep and mood, but this research shows it goes much deeper. Dr. Alicia Lander and her team at the University of the West of England discovered that different types of light can actually influence our financial decision-making by affecting something called "loss aversion."
Loss aversion is our brain's natural tendency to feel losses more strongly than equivalent gains. Normally, losing $100 feels worse than gaining $100 feels good. It's an evolutionary survival mechanism that keeps us from making dangerous gambles with our resources.
The researchers tested 15 participants aged 18-27 in a carefully controlled experiment. Each person completed the same gambling task twice—once under blue-enriched light and once under blue-depleted light, with both conditions having identical visual brightness.
The results were shocking: Under blue-enriched lighting, people became significantly less loss averse. The statistical analysis showed a clear effect (β = −.43, 95% CI [−.82, −.04], p = .03), meaning blue light literally changed how people's brains processed potential losses.
Think about where you encounter blue-enriched light every day:
This isn't just about psychology—it's about biology. Blue light affects our circadian photoreception system, which influences hormone production and brain chemistry. The researchers believe this biological pathway is what's causing the change in decision-making behavior.
Interestingly, this effect happens even when the lighting appears identical to your eyes. The visual brightness was the same in both conditions, but the spectral composition—the specific wavelengths of light—made all the difference.
The researchers suggest this discovery could lead to new approaches for gambling regulation. If lighting can influence risk-taking behavior, should there be regulations on the types of lighting used in casinos and betting establishments?
For individuals, this research suggests some practical protective strategies:
This study opens up fascinating questions about how our modern light-rich environment might be affecting human behavior in ways we never imagined. From LED streetlights to smartphone screens, we're surrounded by artificial light with specific spectral properties that could be influencing our decisions without our conscious awareness.
The research team emphasizes that this is just the beginning. More studies are needed to understand the full implications of circadian photoreception on human decision-making, but the initial findings are clear: light doesn't just help us see—it helps shape how we think.
This research shows how environmental factors we rarely think about can influence human behavior. It's a perfect example of why citizen science is so valuable—by studying the world around us systematically, we can uncover hidden influences on our daily lives and make more informed decisions.
Original Research: Lander, A.C., Burge, M.T., Thomas, B.G. et al. "Circadian photoreception influences loss aversion." Scientific Reports 15, 13051 (2025)
August 15, 2024
The Kilonova Seekers citizen science project has achieved remarkable success, with over 2,000 volunteers from 105 countries contributing to 20 official astronomical discoveries. This groundbreaking initiative demonstrates the power of global collaboration in advancing our understanding of the universe.
Launched publicly on Zooniverse on July 11, 2023, Kilonova Seekers received 1,000 classifications within the first 30 minutes. The project asks volunteers to play 'spot the difference' using data from two Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) telescopes located on La Palma, Spain and Australia's Siding Spring Observatory.
During the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4a observing run, the project received over 600,000 classifications from approximately 2,000 volunteers across 105 countries. The United States led participation with 1,284 users, followed by the United Kingdom with 615 users, while Portuguese volunteers were the most active per capita.
In six months, Kilonova Seekers reported 29 objects to the Transient Name Server, with 20 being official first discoveries:
The project's success has been documented in a paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, highlighting how citizen science creates 'gold-standard' training sets of 17,682 detections for augmenting deep-learned classifiers.
Sources: University of Portsmouth • MNRAS Journal
December 2024
The Unistellar citizen science program, a collaboration between the SETI Institute and Unistellar, achieved a remarkable milestone in 2024 by surpassing 10,000 citizen science observations. This achievement was made possible by a dedicated global community of around 2,500 observers collaborating via digital platforms.
The network's 2024 discoveries included several groundbreaking observations:
The Unistellar Network combines smartphone-connected telescopes with collaborative observation planning, allowing citizen scientists worldwide to contribute to professional astronomical research. The network's success demonstrates how modern technology can democratize scientific discovery.
With ambitious goals for 2025 and continued observations planned to confirm potential discoveries, the Unistellar Network showcases the ongoing impact of citizen contributions to professional astronomy and space science.
Source: SETI Institute
June 15, 2025
Artificial intelligence is transforming how citizen scientists analyze astronomical data, with machine learning algorithms now helping identify cosmic phenomena and validate observations across multiple platforms. This technological integration is making citizen science more accessible and scientifically robust.
Modern citizen science platforms increasingly integrate AI to support volunteer efforts:
AI tools are being deployed across various citizen science domains:
As AI continues advancing, citizen science projects are evolving from simple data collection to sophisticated collaborative research partnerships. This symbiosis between human observation and machine learning is creating new possibilities for scientific discovery and public engagement.
April 28, 2025
The City Nature Challenge 2025 brought together citizens worldwide from April 25-28 to document urban biodiversity through the iNaturalist platform. This global event invites participants of all ages to explore and photograph wild plants, animals, and fungi in their urban surroundings, contributing to real-time ecosystem tracking.
The event engaged community scientists, nature enthusiasts, and everyday observers from cities spanning from New York to Nairobi, Moscow to Melbourne, and Brasilia to Bangkok. Participants contributed to tracking biodiversity changes in urban environments, helping scientists understand how city ecosystems evolve and adapt.
By sharing photographs of urban wildlife through iNaturalist, participants help scientists better understand planetary ecosystems and advance wildlife conservation efforts. The data collected during these events provides crucial insights into urban wildlife distribution, adaptation strategies, and conservation needs.
The challenge leverages smartphone technology to make biodiversity documentation accessible to everyone. Participants simply use the iNaturalist app to photograph and identify species, with AI assistance helping with species identification and community experts providing verification.
Source: Planetizen News
May 8, 2025
Galaxy Zoo relaunched with hundreds of thousands of new images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope through the COSMOSweb survey. This represents a major milestone in citizen science astronomy, bringing the universe's most distant galaxies to volunteer classifiers worldwide.
Thanks to Webb's unprecedented light collecting power, there are now over 500,000 galaxy images available on the Galaxy Zoo website. These images reveal galaxy structures and formations from the early universe, providing insights into cosmic evolution that were previously impossible to obtain.
Galaxy Zoo has incorporated Zoobot, an AI algorithm that sifts through images first to label simpler cases, while showing complex or faint structures to human users for classification. This collaborative approach between artificial intelligence and human pattern recognition can accurately classify limitless numbers of galaxies.
Since July 2007, Galaxy Zoo has generated 125 million galaxy classifications resulting in 60 peer-reviewed academic papers from at least 15 different projects. Notable discoveries include Hanny's Voorwerp, Green pea galaxies, and objects known as 'Yellow Balls'.
ESA and Euclid consortium scientists have partnered with Galaxy Zoo for ongoing classification work. Euclid will release its first data catalogues to the scientific community starting in 2025, with citizen scientists playing a crucial role in galaxy shape classification.
Sources: NASA Science • Galaxy Zoo
May 2025
iNaturalist has reached approximately 230 million observations as of March 2025, with 290,007 users active in the previous 30 days. This massive citizen science platform continues to drive significant biodiversity discoveries and conservation efforts worldwide.
The platform has facilitated numerous recent discoveries:
As of January 2024, more than 4,000 research papers have cited iNaturalist research-grade observations hosted on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), particularly in ecology, conservation, and climate change research.
The "Spot the Species 2025" year-long challenge invites participants to record as many unique species as possible, from tiny fungi to majestic birds, celebrating biodiversity exploration and documentation worldwide.
Sources: iNaturalist Blog • Spot the Species 2025
January 2025
The Globe at Night international citizen science campaign has set an ambitious goal of 20,000 light pollution observations for 2025, with 7,123 observations already recorded early in the year. This campaign raises public awareness of light pollution impacts by inviting citizen scientists to measure and submit night sky brightness observations.
The program offers multiple participation methods requiring no special tools. Citizens can submit observations using smartphones, tablets, or computers through a webapp now available in 28 languages. Advanced users can optionally provide data from handheld sky quality meter (SQM) devices.
DarkSky International's 2025 research database now contains over 5,000 references, growing at 15% annually. Recent research highlights the urgent need for better light pollution monitoring, with existing techniques limited in spectral and spatial resolution.
Citizens can also participate in the Cities at Night project, mapping photos of cities taken from the International Space Station, and use smartphone apps like Dark Sky Meter and Loss of the Night for specialized measurements.
Sources: Globe at Night • DarkSky International
October 2024
David Baker, creator of the FoldIt protein folding game, won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for advances in computer-assisted protein design and structure prediction. This recognition highlights the significant contribution of citizen science gaming to biological research.
Baker has evolved FoldIt beyond structure prediction to protein design, where players create entirely new proteins. Scientists tested 146 proteins designed by FoldIt players in laboratories, finding 56 to be stable—demonstrating that gamers can produce realistic, functional proteins.
FoldIt's first major success came in 2011 with the resolution of a monomeric retroviral protease structure, where player groups were featured as co-authors. The platform has enabled citizen-designed proteins that are as good as expert or computer-generated designs while being more structurally diverse.
FoldIt players now tackle applied protein design problems including:
Sources: Quanta Magazine • FoldIt
Spring 2024
A significant 2024 study using eBird citizen science data revealed that migratory birds are failing to keep pace with earlier spring conditions caused by climate change. Analysis of 150 bird species showed 110 species aren't migrating early enough to match accelerated spring green-up timing.
The study found that most bird species were more synchronized with past long-term averages of green-up than with current conditions, suggesting birds may not be flexible enough to adapt to rapidly changing climate patterns. While other studies show many species are migrating earlier, this research demonstrates it may not be sufficient.
eBird serves as one of the largest biodiversity science projects globally, with birders contributing more than 200 million annual sightings. This massive dataset enables state-of-the-art species distribution modeling and climate impact research through the Cornell Lab's eBird Status & Trends project.
Researchers use eBird data to:
Sources: Audubon • eBird Science
2024
Pl@ntNet has achieved a remarkable milestone by collecting over one billion plant images, making it one of the world's largest biodiversity observatories. With 500,000 daily users across 200+ countries and 24 languages, the platform demonstrates the power of AI-assisted citizen science.
Available in 24 languages, Pl@ntNet collects tens of millions of plant observations every year from millions of contributors. App usage has been doubling annually since 2015, with expectations to reach several hundred million documents in the coming years.
The platform uses artificial intelligence to facilitate plant species identification and inventory. Users who create accounts can share observations for community review, with data used to improve AI recognition capabilities. Only observations reaching sufficient confidence levels are added to public databases.
Pl@ntNet has become one of the biggest contributors to the GBIF international database. The platform emphasizes GPS coordinate sharing for species mapping, crucial for understanding plant distribution patterns and supporting conservation efforts.
Supported by four French research organizations (CIRAD, INRAE, Inria, and IRD), Pl@ntNet represents a major advancement in botanical citizen science, combining community participation with cutting-edge AI technology.
Sources: PlantNet • PlantNet Documentation
2024
Citizen-based air quality monitoring has seen steady growth in 2024, with projects using low-cost sensors to complement official monitoring networks. These initiatives build partnerships, knowledge-sharing platforms, and community resilience to air quality issues.
Modern citizen science air quality devices can detect various pollutants including particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and formaldehyde. AI and IoT enable better tools for monitoring and managing air quality in smart cities.
LASS Taiwan: Has deployed more than 12,000 AirBox devices across Taiwan, with data used for digital assistance tools and complementing the Environmental Protection Agency's monitoring network.
PurpleAir Networks: Wi-Fi-connected laser particle counters provide real-time readings displayed on online maps, offering hyperlocal pollution data with street-level precision.
Unlike traditional monitoring stations covering larger regions, hyperlocal data offers detailed views of pollution sources and variations. However, low-cost sensors can be sensitive to weather conditions and may require data cleaning and calibration relative to regulatory monitors.
The EPA's Air Sensor Toolbox provides comprehensive guidance on collecting, analyzing, and interpreting air quality data from sensors, demonstrating institutional support for citizen science efforts.
Sources: EPA Air Sensor Toolbox • European Environment Agency
2024
The University of Miami's "Rescue a Reef" (RAR) program has led over 100 citizen science expeditions with more than 1,000 participants, successfully restoring over 10,000 coral colonies. This initiative builds community and coral resilience through public engagement, education, and hands-on restoration work.
Research shows that after 8 years of citizen science programming, participants largely retained their knowledge on coral reef topics and were significantly more knowledgeable than control groups. The program successfully developed a strong sense of community, coral stewardship, and ongoing support.
With nearly half of the Great Barrier Reef's corals lost to climate change in recent decades, coral restoration has become a critical management tool. The field has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, with many programs adopting citizen science approaches for outplanting and monitoring.
Current methods include:
NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program uses resilience-based management approaches, while restoration programs worldwide are adopting regular coral health monitoring tools to increase efficiency and public engagement.
Sources: University of Miami • Frontiers in Environmental Science
2025
NASA selected 25 new citizen science proposals for funding in 2024, leading to new projects and results expected throughout 2025 and beyond. The GLOBE Observer app continues expanding with enhanced collaborations and new measurement capabilities.
The app enables citizens to contribute various environmental observations using smartphones:
NASA's Science Activation Program collaborates with the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) for the 2025 Aviation Weather Mission, where CAP cadets help scientists study atmospheric conditions using GLOBE Clouds observations.
Citizens worldwide contribute to multiple NASA missions including the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), improving vegetation structure and biomass models through tree measurements in tropical regions.
GLOBE Observer supports water quality research by enabling citizens to monitor nitrogen concentration and identify pollution sources in local watersheds, contributing to national water quality standards maintenance.
Sources: NASA Science • GLOBE Observer