SciStarter Newsletter
Newsletter #4: January 11, 2012

Last year was an exciting year for SciStarter! We launched our new website to make it easier for people to find, learn about, and get involved in citizen science projects. And we partnered up with the National Science Foundation, Discover Magazine and NBC to bring citizen science to more people through the Changing Planet series of televised town hall events.

To kick off the New Year, we've compiled the 11 most popular citizen science projects from the past year, based on the number of views in our Project Finder. You can see the top three below. Visit our blog for the complete list!

Thank you for choosing to be part of our growing community and happy 2012. Keep experimenting!

-The SciStarter Team
Laser Harp

Laser Harp

Location Anywhere

#3. Build your own laser harp

We first found out about Stephone’s harp in an issue of Make magazine that was devoted to build-them-yourself, high-tech musical instruments. Sounds awesome, huh? After building your laser harp, you’ll coax out the computer-generated sounds by waving your hands to break the light beams and change their lengths.



EteRNA

EteRNA
Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University.

√   Online, Biology
LocationAnywhere

#2. Solve puzzles for science

EteRNA, a collaborative online game, allows ordinary citizens to help biologists take a crack at solving a challenging RNA mystery: what are the rules governing RNA folding? Players who assemble the best RNA designs online will see their creations synthesized in a Stanford biochemistry lab!



Mastodon Matrix Project

Mastodon Matrix Project
University of Illinois

LocationAnywhere

#1. Help paleontologists study past environments

The Mastodon Matrix Project needs citizen volunteers to analyze actual samples of fossil matrix (the term for the material in which a fossil is found) from a mastodon fossil excavated in New York.Volunteers sort through the matrix to find ancient shells, bones, pieces of plants, and rocks from the time when the mastodon lived and died. The discoveries will be sent back to the Paleontological Research Institution, where they will be cataloged and further analyzed by paleontologists to help scientists form a true picture of the ecology and environment in which the mastodon lived.