“The Power of Citizen Science – Citizen science is the involvement of the public in scientific research – whether community-driven research or global investigations. The Citizen Science Association unites expertise from educators, scientists, data managers, and others to power citizen science.
Throughout history, nearly all the major breakthroughs advancing science were attained through citizen scientists, not through heavily burdened bureaucratic governmental or contract agencies. There is nothing new about citizen science.
Across all the PracticePreparedness and PracticeSurvival related websites we have included, and often featured, citizen scientists. They have moved science forward throughout millennia, often against "recognized science".
There was a great article published in 2012 on the website science 2.0 entitled, “A Brief History of Citizen Science”. The article is one of many that touch on the subject (click here to read).
I know that there may be some people who will get angry at the previous sentence, but hear me out. People do not understand that when we are having this conversation it is important to understand terms. Terms such as government agencies versus scientists working for governmental agencies. Scientists working in those agencies are often some of the greatest in the world. The toil tirelessly in the quest of scientific data and facts. The fact that government agencies have proven themselves, in general, to be bloated ineffectual, bastions of red tape does not help when lay people are trying to decide to trust.
If you are still twisted about the assertion that citizen science is superior to organizational science, I offer the following:
- Nicolaus Copernicus 1573-1543
- Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was instrumental in establishing the concept of a heliocentric solar system, in which the sun, rather than the earth, is the center of the solar system. Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was instrumental in establishing the concept of a heliocentric solar system, in which the sun, rather than the earth, is the center of the solar system.
- Read More about him here
- Benjamin Franklin
- Celebrated scientist, inventor, philosopher, author, and politician
- Nikola Tesla
- Developed the alternating current electricity supply system
- He developed hundreds of scientific breakthroughs on his own
- Marie Curie – Best known as Madame Curie
- Physicist and chemist
- Two Nobel Peace Prizes in Science
- Conducted pioneering research on radioactivity
- Polish and naturalized-French
The list goes on and on.
It is important to state; thanks to citizen scientists we have broadened our minds, our world, changed the way we live, and advanced man’s understanding of the world which surrounds us. Some like Copernicus and Tesla were shunned by the “established scientific community.” They defamed both and many others. Thankfully they were dedicated to their callings and persevered. None of them are perfect, Currie suffered from depression, others from phobias, but all were brilliant, disrespected, and misunderstood.
There is a citizen scientist today, whom we reference regularly; DutchSinse is brilliant, quirky, he bloviates a little too much, but he has broken ground in the science of predicting earthquakes that has infuriated the “established science community”. They have attacked and mocked him. He persists. I highly recommend that you checkout his YouTube channel (click here) and his website (click here). He does weekly earthquake forecasts that you do not want to miss.
