Hi there,

I'm delighted to let you all know that we have two brand new, and very different Zooniverse projects for you this week. As always, the research teams behind these project cannot achieve their goals without your help! Therefore, they will be very grateful for any assistance you can give them with their research. Find out more, and learn how to get involved in these new projects below:

Drawing Knowledge

Are you interested in drawings and the arts?

The J. Paul Getty Museum is excited to announce the launch of their first crowdsourcing project Drawing Knowledge.

In this project, volunteers–– like you––will take the lead in describing and interpreting drawings from the Getty Museum’s extraordinary collection which includes works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh. Participants will be presented with a random selection of drawings from over 1000 individual sheets and will be asked to share their knowledge and observations. Drawing Knowledge also seeks to foster an online community built around a shared appreciation of the drawings and hopes to spark lively discussions among participants and curators.

Your contributions will help us improve the experience of future visitors both in gallery and online. The collected data will inform the interpretation of drawing and improve the search functionality of the website by providing subject-tags, making the collection more accessible.

It’s time to “Getty” involved and give this project a try!

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/babkluna/drawing-knowledge


Drones for Ducks

Ever wanted to get a bird’s eye view…of birds?

Now you can, with the launch of Drones for Ducks! In this joint project from the University of New Mexico and US Fish and Wildlife, you’ll tag migratory birds in drone photos from wildlife refuges in New Mexico.

Every year, biologists count populations of migratory birds that spend the winter at wildlife refuges. They need to know how many birds there are to ensure there are enough resources to go around for everyone, and to track changes in the population over time. Migratory birds are important not only to one ecosystem but many as they complete their seasonal treks. Understanding impacts to their populations can help us understand environmental problems that span vast regions, even continents!

Our goal is to develop a whole new way of surveying wildlife populations that is less disruptive and more accurate than surveying on foot: using drones!

But we have one big problem—the large number of images that come from the drones makes counting birds by hand an overwhelming and time-consuming task. To get around this, we are developing an algorithm that can scan the images and automatically count and identify the birds for us. To work, the algorithm needs a large number of examples provided by humans of what each kind of bird looks like so that it can learn how to detect them on its own.

This is where you come in! By labeling ducks, geese, and cranes our drone imagery, you will help make that library of examples the algorithm needs to identify the birds. No birding experience required! At the project site, you can find a short tutorial that will teach you to identify ducks, geese, and cranes. You can also connect with the researchers on Talk, as well as on Twitter and Facebook!

Learn more, and join us at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/rowan-aspire/drones-for-ducks


Thanks so much for your continued efforts on the Zooniverse!
Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

In this weeks' Zooniverse newsletter I bring you news of a brand new project, a recently launched project that needs more help, and a virtual conference on NASA citizen science projects. Enjoy!


Woodpecker Cavity Cam

Researchers in Minnesota need your help to learn about the fascinating world of red-headed woodpecker nest cavities!

Red-headed woodpeckers are a striking, charismatic bird found in the Midwest and Eastern United States. Unfortunately, the species has experienced dramatic regional declines over the last 50 years. Scientists at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, home to one of the densest breeding populations of red-headed woodpeckers in Minnesota, are studying this species to learn more about nest success and survival, habitat use, migration, movement patterns and competition with other wildlife species.

Red-headed woodpeckers excavate holes in trees for nesting. These cavities are also a vital resource for other animals, including bats, squirrels, tree frogs, and birds like nuthatches, blue birds, and chickadees which do not create cavities themselves but depend on their availability for breeding and roosting. Through the Woodpecker Cavity Cam Project, we hope to gain a better understanding of the diverse wildlife that compete for these cavities, and how they use them throughout the year. Using trail cameras installed at our red-headed woodpecker cavities, we are capturing video clips of the behaviors and interactions of the community of animals that depend on these holes. Midnight sneak attacks by flying squirrels, foiled egg and bird predation attempts, parents bringing insects to baby birds and sharing childcare duties…..our cameras document it all! With your help classifying video clips, our team of scientists and community members will advance our understanding of red-headed woodpeckers and the role they play in their community!

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/elwest/woodpecker-cavity-cam


Climate History Australia

Australia is no stranger to extreme weather and climate—from drought to bushfires, heatwaves and floods. We need to look at the past to better understand the future.

This project, run by the Australian National University (ANU) is a new citizen science project that aims to create Australia's longest daily weather record, beginning in 1838. We need volunteers to help close an eight-year gap in the daily weather of Adelaide, South Australia, from 1843 to 1856.

The ‘comments’ and ‘wind’ workflows are ideal for those who like working with words, and for those who like numbers there’s instrumental variables including attached thermometers, air temperature and air pressure. We’ve created 'Easy' sections for beginners, and you can work up the levels as you want more of a challenge!

These journals are over 170-years-old, and are some of the oldest weather records in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s amazing that these observations haven’t been transcribed or used in climate change research yet.

Our team is also preparing weather rescue projects for other regions in Australia, such as Perth, later this year. So this is your chance to get involved in the first of hopefully many more projects run by the team at Climate History Australia.

Find out more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/caitlinhowlett/climate-history-australia

One last thing:
CitSciCon, a two-day celebration of NASA citizen science projects and people will be taking place on Friday and Saturday (May 21-22). This event features a series of Zoom-based talks and events, and features a keynote presentation by our very own Zooniverse PI Chris Lintott on Saturday, 22 May 2021 at 12-1:30pm US Eastern time! Register/RSVP for that event, along with many other great sessions, by visiting the CitSciCon website, or tune in to the live stream on the Citizen Science Association's YouTube page.


As always, thanks for all your help!
Grant and the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

I hope you are doing well. I just wanted to let you know that the Zooniverse has recently added three exciting new projects! Read more below to find out about the research these three teams are carrying out, and why they really need your help with it:

Davy Notebooks Project

Imagine being in the room with the early nineteenth century’s ‘foremost man of science,’ Sir Humphry Davy. Around you are the remnants of experiments in the biological, geological, chemical, and electrical sciences – all fields coming into their own at this moment. On the table in front of you, a notebook contains developing theories that will come to define the ways we understand the physical world – but there are also private notes, fragments of poetry, and sketches that give you insights into the private workings of this exceptional mind.

We need your help bringing Sir Humphry Davy’s notebooks – some 75 of them – back to light. Many of the pages of Davy's notebooks have never been transcribed before. We know that they contain poetry, experiments, philosophical speculations, and more. Yet, to a large extent, we don't know what these notebooks contain, and what studying them might reveal. We need your help to explore the fascinating - and sometimes surprising - connections between poetry and science, and help us to better understand Davy's life, work, and ideas.

We’re looking for volunteers to work alongside researchers from Lancaster University, University College London, the University of Manchester, and the Royal Institution of Great Britain to digitally preserve these notebooks by producing transcriptions that, after editing, will be published online alongside images of the notebooks on a free-to-access website as part of Lancaster Digital Collections.

By contributing to this project, you will be helping us make these 200-year-old notebooks newly accessible for readers and researchers, driving forward understandings of how poetry and science could co-exist today.

Start transcribing today at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/humphrydavy/davy-notebooks-project


Plastic Litter Project: Coastal Litter Mapping

In a relatively short period of time, the attributes of plastic initially perceived to be positive characteristics - convenience and longevity - have shifted to pose a widespread environmental problem. Within the marine context, millions of tonnes of plastic enter our oceans annually. The economic cost to marine natural capital alone is estimated to range from $3300–$33,000 per ton of plastic per year.

The Marine Remote Sensing Group (MRSG) is using drones to acquire images from a series of coastal zones with high-resolution optical sensors. Using the power of 'deep learning', the team trains AI algorithms that can map and quantify the marine litter washing onto beaches.

In their project, volunteers help identify images containing marine litter. You will help them create a dataset for their deep learning algorithms and help their team to map marine litter accumulation. The more images you classify, the better the machine learning algorithms get!

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/moutzouris/plastic-litter-project-coastal-litter-mapping.

NOTE: This project is also available on the Zooniverse mobile app! You can download the Zooniverse app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. You'll find the Plastic Litter Project in the 'Climate' section.


HMS NHS: The Nautical Health Service

Get your sea legs ready! Join us on an historical journey into the medical side of seafaring....

Beginning in 1826 on a worn out, leaking wooden warship, seafarers of all nations entering the busy port of London were treated at the Greenwich Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital for over a hundred and fifty years. What does their combined data tell us about the health of the seafaring community, the risks they faced and how medical theory applied at sea?

Royal Museums Greenwich is setting sail on a project to transcribe the hospital admission registers, to provide answers to these questions and many more. When completed, the project will provide statistical data on the health of the maritime world, the prevalence of all kinds of medical complaints and show which posed the greatest risks to health at sea. It will also provide an almost unlimited number of case studies on common injuries, their treatments and recovery times. If you enjoy deciphering old handwriting or have an interest in the history of medicine, this project is for you.

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/msalmon/hms-nhs-the-nautical-health-service.

Thanks so much for your continued efforts on the Zooniverse!
Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

Please help us test a potential new Zooniverse project - Stories of St James's Burial Ground

What the researchers say:
"High-Speed Rail 2 (HS2) is a major infrastructure project connecting cities across the UK with faster train lines and services. In London, contractors Costain Skanska Joint Venture (CSJV) are managing work near Euston Station where construction is taking place on the site of St James’s Burial Ground, a major 18th-19th century cemetery site. Ahead of this work over 100 archaeologists and specialists from MOLA Headland Infrastructure were brought in to excavate and record over 40,000 burials, the largest archaeological excavation of its kind ever undertaken in the UK. While this is giving us unique insight into the people who lived in London during a time of rapid growth and social change, much more still needs to be done. We need your help!

We are seeking volunteers to assist with the transcription of burial records in order to create a searchable digital archive. These records contain information about the thousands of ordinary Londoners buried at St James’s, including their names, addresses, occupations and more. With your help we can begin to understand the everyday details of who these people were and how they lived, contributing to an unprecedented record of Georgian and Victorian urban life in London. All contributions can be made online, no previous experience is needed and you can choose to do as much or as little as you like."

How to help out:
Try it out now at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/mola/stories-of-st-jamess-burial-ground and give us your feedback via this form https://forms.gle/VxMrvHLuJDBj1nJj9 (which you can also reach by clicking the link on the project itself).

Thanks for all your help!

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

No two snowflakes are alike, right? The Zooniverse's latest project - Snowflake ID - is trying to learn more!

Each and every snowflake is shaped by its atmosphere as it forms and falls. For example, a humid environment can cause a more intricate snowflake design. Because of the relationship between snowflakes and their atmosphere, scientists can look at the unique shape, size, and density of a snowflake to make predictions about what type of cloud it fell from and where it fell. This is critical information for understanding climate change. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that accurate representation of snow particles is one of the most important factors for accurately predicting climate change.

Here’s where you come in- we have thousands of photographs of snowflakes from all over the world and we need your help classifying them. When you classify a snowflake in Snowflake ID, you’re actually helping devise a set of rules (aka training a supervised classification algorithm) that we’ll use to classify more snowflakes in the future. With enough help from citizen scientists like you, we’ll eventually be able to automatically classify every type of snowflake. This valuable information could eventually be incorporated into global climate models to better understand and predict the impact of snowflakes on climate change. Anyone can participate!

Sound interesting? Come check out the wonderful world of snowflakes at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/fitch09/snowflake-id


Thanks so much for your continued efforts on the Zooniverse!
Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

Please help us test a potential new Zooniverse project - Windrush Generations

What the researchers say:
"It is estimated that between 1946 and 1970, around half a million people migrated from the West Indies to live in Britain. Members of this wave of migration have become known as the ‘Windrush Generation’, and their valuable contributions, to every facet of British life, in the face of unparalleled challenges, have indelibly shaped Britain’s society and culture.

Despite their impact, much remains unknown about those pioneering individuals who left behind all they knew and set out to make a new life in a new country. In some cases, even their arrival in the country is disputed, leading to the Windrush Scandal and the persecution of British citizens with every right to remain in Britain. For the majority, their arrival in Britain marked the beginning of a new phase in their life and the beginning of a new phase in British History. It is vital that we understand that as fully as we can.

The aim of the Windrush Generations project is to transcribe the passenger lists of people arriving in Britain on ships from the West Indies.

Building a dataset of information about individuals who arrived in Britain from the West Indies in the period 1946 to 1960, will provide a far more detailed picture of post-war migration from the Caribbean. It will allow us to investigate themes including: community development; occupational influences and clusters; kinship groups; and trends and patterns in the volume and nature of migration."

How to help out:
Try it out now at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/lewlewwaller/windrush-generations and give us your feedback via this form https://forms.gle/jWDZEYTiwLBrfMyg6 (which you can also reach by clicking the link on the project itself).

Your feedback is extremely important to us when deciding whether to approve or reject a project. To date you have helped launch over 350 Zooniverse projects!

Thanks for all your help,

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hello Bursts from Space volunteers,

My name is Mike - I’m the scientist leading Bursts from Space. With your help, we’re trying to understand the origin of mysterious signals from outside our galaxy called Fast Radio Bursts.

Together, you’ve analysed over 35,000 faint signals to find more of these mystery bursts.

I’m excited to announce that, buried in that pile, you’ve successfully found hundreds of possible bursts. All of them would have been lost without your help. Thank you.

Now, the scientists at CHIME (the radio telescope recording these signals) can carefully investigate the possible bursts you found to confirm which are from space and then share them publicly with researchers around the world to help work out what’s causing them.

But you’ve done more than just find more bursts; you’ve found bursts that are unusual and exciting. One I particularly like is a possible double burst. This burst was one of many that were too faint for the CHIME team to review - but you searched and found it!

Thanks to the success of your hard work, the CHIME team has agreed to start sending Bursts from Space brighter signals. These bright* signals are extremely scientifically important because they can show fine details within the pulse that give clues about their origin. They are rare enough that CHIME experts look at all of them, and now you can as well. We expect a few bright signals per day; look out for them in each weekly batch.

Over the coming months, I hope to share more cool results and introduce you to the folks at CHIME. For now, join the conversation on our Bursts from Space Talk forum.

Thank you again,

Mike

*The strength of a signal is measured as “signal-to-noise”, defined as the brightness of the signal divided by the variation in the background noise (read more at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/astrophotography-signals-noise/). A higher signal-to-noise means the signal stands out more against the background. CHIME experts review signals with a signal-to-noise of 8.5 or more, and Bursts from Space reviews the (many more) signals with a signal-to-noise between 7.8 and 8.5. Thanks to your success, CHIME will start sending Bursts from Space signals with a signal-to-noise of up to 10.

Hi there,

Please help us test a potential new Zooniverse project - Planet Hunters NGTS

What the researchers say:
"The Next-Generation Transit Survey have been searching for transiting exoplanets around the brightest stars in the sky. We need your help sifting through the observations flagged by the computers to search for hidden worlds that might have been missed in the NGTS team's review. Most of the planets in the dataset have likely been found already, but you just might be the first to find a new exoplanet not known before!"

How to help out:
Try it out now at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/mschwamb/planet-hunters-ngts and give us your feedback via this form https://forms.gle/rQMsgV42R6v3ZjXE7 (which you can also reach by clicking the link on the project itself).

Your feedback is extremely important to us when deciding whether to approve or reject a project. To date you have helped launch over 350 Zooniverse projects!

Thanks for all your help,

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

In the seven years since the last large-scale Zooniverse survey was conducted, the number of projects has substantially increased and millions of new participants have joined the Zooniverse community. Now, we are conducting a new “Survey of the Zooniverse” to learn more about our growing community and we need your input. Your participation in this survey will help us understand what makes projects successful, what factors encourage or discourage participation in Zooniverse, and more. We hope this new research will help guide the development of better people-powered research projects in the future.

Survey Link: 2021 Survey of the Zooniverse

If you would like to participate please complete the survey by October 5th 2021. The survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

This survey is being conducted as part of a collaborative investigation by Zooniverse, researchers at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the USA, and the University of Nottingham in the UK. Your results will be kept confidential. This study has been approved by the UW-Madison Institutional Review Board (IRB Approval No. 2021-0581).

As a token of our gratitude, after completing the survey, if you choose to, you will be entered in a raffle for a chance to win a $100 (or equivalent value) gift card.

Thank you very much for your time and kind participation. We really value your input.



Best regards,

Corey B. Jackson, Ph.D.
Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow
The Information School
University of Wisconsin, Madison


Liz Dowthwaite, Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute
University of Nottingham

Hi there,

I hope this newsletter finds you well! I just wanted to let you know that we have launched two brand new projects today, and the research teams running them would be really appreciative of any help you could give them. Find out more below:


Spyfish Aotearoa

Ready to dive into New Zealand waters?

Jump into Spyfish Aotearoa and help researchers count and identify fish in underwater videos. The New Zealand Department of Conservation and Wildlife.ai are using cameras to estimate fish abundance inside and outside marine reserves. The underwater cameras are baited to attract marine species like blue cod, snapper, sharks, and many more without disturbing them. There are thousands of videos so they need your help to classify what you see.

The underwater footage will transport you into the depths of unique marine reserves from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Be part of research showing the effectiveness of marine reserves, the impacts of climate change and plastic pollution in our oceans. Your participation will guide marine management efforts to protect the taonga (treasured) species of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/victorav/spyfish-aotearoa.


Frog Find

Frogs need our help!

Following bushfires, floods and a host of other threats including water pollution and disease, our frogs really have their backs against the wall.

Frog Find uses frog sounds recorded from streams, ponds and wetlands to work out who is calling where. Researchers have put recorders in places where frogs were historically detected and new places where we might expect to find them. Now they need your ears to help them in this detective work!

In just 30 seconds you can identify whether there is a threatened frog calling at one of the sites. Thanks to the help of local community groups the research team has been able to increase our monitoring programs to include areas in and around national parks and even right in people’s backyards!

Frog Find has been developed by the Conservation Science Research Group at the University of Newcastle, working to preserve frog populations now and into the future. Information gathered from Frog Find will help researchers identify immediate threats to frog survival and how populations respond to these threats. This will help shape conservation efforts.

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/ollibruuh/frog-find.


Thanks so much for your continued efforts on the Zooniverse!

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

Please help us test a potential new Zooniverse project - Meteororum ad Extremum Terrae

What the researchers say:
"Meteororum ad Extremum Terrae (Meteorology of the End of the World) aims to recover weather and oceanic data record in Argentina since at least the beginning of the XIXth Century. The first known records date back to 1801. Other than the Oficina Meteorológica Argentina, later Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, many public and private organizations have registered weather data. Argentine Navy ships, lighthouses, railway stations, "estancias" are among many data sources. It is necessary to recover and digitize them. Tackling Climate Change requires that the past be understood. We invite you to volunteer for this task to recover the past."

How to help out:
Try it out now at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/acre-ar/meteororum-ad-extremum-terrae and give us your feedback via this form https://forms.gle/yqy6xUCxY8aSJEr1A (which you can also reach by clicking the link on the project itself).

Your feedback is extremely important to us when deciding whether to approve or reject a project. To date you, our beta testers, have helped launch over 350 Zooniverse projects!

Thanks for all your help,

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

Get ready to travel in time and space, by land and sea, to the End of the World.

Through Meteororum ad Extremum Terrae (MET – "Meteorology of the End of the World") you will participate in the digitization of 19th and 20th Century weather observations for stations in Argentina, from the edge of the Tropic of Capricorn, stopping by at the End of the World lighthouse, and across Drake Strait into Antarctica. You will participate in digitizing records from ship logbooks navigating around Southern South America, the South Atlantic, Antarctica, occasionally even around the Globe.

The images in MET come from printed and hand-written documents, which we are continuously imaging. MET introduces them in a simplified format for greater ease in your volunteer work. As the imaging work advances work we will add new workflows to MET. There is a huge, ever increasing treasure trove of weather records for this part of the world, which can only be made available for climate research with your help. As we share with you the images we will carry out research with the your digitizations and present it with you in MET. Recovering historic weather data for the Southern Hemisphere is essential for understanding the climate system.

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/acre-ar/meteororum-ad-extremum-terrae.

NOTE: MET is available both in English and Spanish versions.


Thanks so much for your continued efforts on the Zooniverse!

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

I hope November is treating you well so far. I just wanted to let you know that here at Zooniverse we have recently added two new projects to our official list. They couldn't be more different in terms of research goals, but they both share one big thing in common - they need your help!

GWitchHunters

This new project aims at improving the performance of current Gravitational Wave detectors in the experimental study of the Universe. Such instruments have reached extraordinary sensitivities to accomplish this task, but they are also very delicate and prone to spurious disturbances of non-astrophysical origin. The goal here is to better understand these disturbances and find new solutions to them.

The project is led by a team of researchers devoted to this very challenging task, involving state of the art technologies and analysis methods. It is not a simple one though, because of the extreme complexity of the apparatuses and their interconnections. For this reason, they need your help!

Join them in the exciting endeavour of Gravitational Wave research at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/reinforce/gwitchhunters.


Scarlets and Blues

Come and take a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of people at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London around the time of the First World War. Scarlets and Blues provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of women workers and hospital staff, and the care given to injured veterans. We’re asking participants to transcribe a set of meeting minutes from the Board of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, drawn from The National Archives’ WO 250 series. Scarlets and Blues also features a brand new Zooniverse indexing tool, allowing you to choose your own path through the records available to transcribe.

These transcriptions will provide new information for The National Archives’ catalogue of historical records, while also permitting investigation of research questions around how the hospital was organised, plus medical, women's, and social history in wartime. Your contributions will feed into the project Engaging Crowds: citizen research and heritage data at scale, which aims to enrich understanding of online citizen research in the cultural heritage space.

Engaging Crowds is part of Towards a National Collection, an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded research programme which is focused on opening up and making connections between the UK’s cultural heritage. The project is led by The National Archives and delivered in partnership with Zooniverse, the National Maritime Museum and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

If you’d like to explore the records of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, contribute to historical research and be one of the first to try out the new Zooniverse indexing tool, please join us.

Start transcribing today at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/bogden/scarlets-and-blues.


Thanks so much for your continued efforts on the Zooniverse!

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hi there,

I hope you're doing well! I'm just writing this week to let you know that we have launched a brand new project, and also that one of the Zooniverse's longest-running projects is in need of boost, and could really use your help:

Planet Four

This classic space project aims to explore the Martian climate by mapping dark seasonal fans and blotches in images taken from orbit around Mars. The fans and blotches are formed by carbon dioxide jets breaking through a thawing ice sheet. The fans are tiny weather stations measuring the wind direction and speed on Mars at the time that the fans were created. If you can spare a minute, help explore the weather on Mars by mapping seasonal fans and blotches today at https://www.planetfour.org


Prickly Pear Project Kenya

Prickly pear cacti (Opuntia sp.) are one of the worst invasive plants in East Africa. This project is run by a team of researchers from Durham University (UK) and Mpala Research Centre (Kenya) using camera traps to understand how Opuntia affects the habitat use of medium to large mammal species. This research has important implications for human-wildlife conflict and the future spread of the cactus.

By classifying the animals in our camera trap photos, you are helping these researchers to understand the impacts of Opuntia so that they can predict and manage them more effectively. You'll also see some up-close and candid images of amazing animals along the way!

Learn more, and get involved at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/peter-dot-stewart/prickly-pear-project-kenya

Thanks so much for your continued efforts on the Zooniverse!

Grant & the Zooniverse Team

Hey there,

Please help us test a potential new Zooniverse project - PRINT

What the researchers say:
Welcome to People, Religion, Information Networks, and Travel – Migration in the Early Modern World (PRINT). This project is a collaborative effort to trace the communication networks of early modern European religious minorities and the ways they shaped the dynamic patterns of migration in the Atlantic world. Housed at the University of Central Florida, PRINT seeks to create a database of correspondence and then visualize the complex connections that arose in response to religious persecution and missionary work. Our goal is to work with archives and citizen transcribers to provide access to documents not readily available and to create tools to foster new textual and network analysis.

How to help out:

Try it out now at PRINT and give us your feedback via this form: https://forms.gle/FAEk3Jwk7h3zPC9J9 (which you can also reach by clicking the link on the project itself).

Your feedback is extremely important to us when deciding whether to approve or reject a project. To date you have helped launch over 350 Zooniverse projects!

Thanks for all your help,

Mary & the Zooniverse Team

Hey there,

Happy Tuesday! Today we have just one exciting launch to share; introducing Killer Whale Count. Read on below to find out how you can give them a hand.

The Pacific Northwest marine ecosystem is home to many species, including the endangered Steller sea lion. The Steller sea lion experienced drastic declines, which led to their threatened status in 1990 under the Environmental Species Act (ESA). In 1997, the population was split into an eastern and western distinct population stock (DPS) and the western stock was relisted as endangered due to particularly steep regional declines of 94%. The eastern DPS has experienced 30 years of recovery and is no longer listed as threatened, however the western DPS is still experiencing active declines. What is leading to these declines? One hypothesis is that killer whale predation could be impacting their recovery. Killer whales are an apex predator and have the potential to impact other trophic levels, such as Steller sea lions.

The results of Killer Whale Count will increase our understanding of the potential impact of killer whales on endangered Steller sea lions in the western Aleutian Islands. We are focused on an ecotype of killer whale called the transient (Bigg’s) killer whale. Transient killer whales consume other marine mammals, such as Steller sea lions, and therefore have a direct impact to their population. How can we determine the extent of this impact? One of the first objectives is to determine killer whale visitation patterns across various endangered Steller sea lion colonies. To do this, we need your help in identifying and counting killer whales in our image database, which consists of over 1 million images. The results, in combination with other data sources, will help determine what extent killer whale predation has on the endangered Steller sea lion, which will benefit the recovery of the endangered Steller sea lion.

Help us out at: Killer Whale Count

That's all for today! Hope you have a lovely rest of the week.

Take care,
Mary & the Zooniverse Team

Hey there,

You're invited to explore a comet with our latest project, Rosetta Zoo. Read on below to learn how you can lend the researchers a hand.

The Rosetta spacecraft's exploration of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko was one of the great triumphs of space exploration, as the European probe became the first to orbit a comet, watching its icy surface change as it swung around the Sun. Now the Rosetta team need your help to understand how the heat and light of the Sun affected the comet's surface. Comparing images from Rosetta's high resolution cameras, we need you to spot collapsing cliffs, moving boulders and newly formed craters.

Creating a catalogue of these changes will help the team understand how comets - the most unpredictable of celestial objects - behave, and to understand how to interpret what they tell us about the origins of our Solar System.

You can read more about the project in this European Space Agency article, or head straight to the project itself. Happy classifying!

Take care,
Mary & the Zooniverse Team

Hey there,

Happy Valentine's Day from the Zooniverse! While most everyone can relate to the search for love, the researchers behind today's project launch ask you to help them search for something a bit more... other-worldly. Check out more from the researchers below, or head straight to Are we alone in the universe? to begin searching for extraterrestrial civilisations.

Are we alone in the universe?
Join us to help answer one of science’s most important questions: "Are we alone in the universe?"

We are thrilled to launch a new project to search for evidence of other civilizations in the universe by analyzing images of radio signals. The images are provided by UCLA SETI, which uses the largest fully steerable telescope on Earth to detect extraterrestrial radio beacons. So far, we have observed 42,000 stars and detected 64 million radio signals. Automated algorithms eliminate over 99.5% of these signals as anthropogenic radio frequency interference, but that still leaves thousands of signals to be examined.

You can help us. By viewing and matching images of radio signals to common classes of radio frequency interference, your contributions will help UCLA SETI identify the most promising signals. Your classifications will also be used to develop artificial intelligence tools to accelerate the search.

Join the search at http://arewealone.earth from your laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Humanity's most important telegram could be just a few clicks away.

Love,
Mary & the Zooniverse Team