"In its richest form, citizen science has the power to transform science and society... citizen science reshapes central notions of science and power: the roles of experts and the public, the accessibility of tools and data, and the kinds of questions that are worth asking."

-Darlene  Cavelier, Author, The Field Guide to Citizen Science

Enforced confinement and inactivity for hundreds of millions of people around the world helped scientists recruit armies of volunteers. Equipped with computers and gaming consoles or sometimes simply binoculars or cameras citizen scientists compiled and crunched data sets around the world to accelerate understanding of everything from climate change to brain science – and finding a cure for COVID-19.

Try it!

Put your computer to work to find a cure for COVID-19

Help the Allen Institute advance neuroscience by tracing neurons

Join the Zooniverse: People-powered research from Belugas to Space Fluff

Become a NASA Citizen Scientist

This is an installment in our series on Signals from the Future is based on our PRECOG framework for identifying the trends we think will define what's coming next.   For more information on PRECOG, check out the intro here.