CITIZEN SCIENCE SALON

Right at Home with Citizen Science

Explore one of the least scientifically studied places on the planet: your home!

Our editors picked these five projects to help you and scientists learn more about indoor air quality, microbes, tap water pipes, and living things lurking in your home!

Find more projects you can do at home here.

Cheers,The SciStarter Team

Never Home Alone: The Wild Life of Our Homes

Document the arthropods in and around your home and help make discoveries about the bi …

IMAGEO

Smoke from Canadian wildfires now covers millions of square miles — and is visible from a million miles away

As of the morning of May 31, 2019, smoke from Canadian wildfires covered millions of square miles of North America.

Yesterday, I published a story featuring satellite views of wildfires burning in northern Alberta: Striking satellite imagery reveals multiple wildfires blazing across northern Alberta

Since then, things have gotten worse, with one blaze — the Chuckegg Creek fire — exploding to nearly 1,000 square miles by this morning, up from 580. That means the fire has now scorched  …

D-BRIEF

NASA Announces Three Private Companies to Land Science Experiments on the Moon

Intuitive Machines is one of three companies announced today that will land NASA science experiments on the moon within the next two years. (Credit: Intuitive Machines)

During a NASA press conference Friday, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, introduced the first three of nine companies awarded contracts to deliver payloads to the moon over the next few years.

Those companies are Astrobiotic of Pittsburgh, Intuitive Machines from Housto …

OUT THERE

What Flavor is Your Solar System?

I spend a lot of time on science Twitter. It’s a great source of breaking research news (as long as you curate your Twitter feed carefully), but also a fascinating peek into the human psyche. People who love astronomy naturally connect it to the other things that they are passionate about: politics, family, cats, science fiction…and food. Lots and lots of food.

It’s strange that there aren’t any constellations dedicated to food, considering how readily the human mind makes the connection. ( …

D-BRIEF

From the Gut to the Womb — How the Microbiome Shapes Our Health

(Credit: lanatoma/Shutterstock)

The microbes that live in and on our bodies are fundamentally involved in our well-being. How they affect our health, though, is largely unknown due to the number of different bacteria that call us home and the complexity of our interactions with them.

A project from the National Institutes of Health, the Integrated Human Microbiome Project (iHMP) is attempting to dive into those interactions and understand the nitty-gritty of how the microbiome affects h …

D-BRIEF

Study in Mice Says Gut Microbes Might be Directly Linked to Autism

(Credit: PhotoUG/Shutterstock)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects at least 1.7 percent of 8-year-olds in the U.S., and it can make social communication like talking and interactions with others difficult. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a hard time at school and often engage in repetitive behaviors.

Now, researchers show the collection of bacteria and other microorganisms in the gut known as the microbiome contributes to autism-like behaviors such as decreased social …

NEUROSKEPTIC

A PTSDodgy Genetic Test

A dubious paper just published in Molecular Neurobiology makes the suggestion that all military recruits should be offered genetic testing to assess their risk of PTSD. According to the authors, Kenneth Blum et al.,

We hypothesize that, even before combat, soldiers with a childhood background of violence (or with a familial susceptibility risk) would benefit from being genotyped for high-risk alleles (DNA variants). This process may assist us in identifying potential military candidates who  …

D-BRIEF

Ammonia on Pluto’s Surface Points to Liquid Water Underground

Signs of ammonia on Pluto’s surface may hint at liquid water underground. (Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI)

The New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto in 2015, is still making new findings. Most recently, researchers used its data to find traces of ammonia on Pluto’s surface. Intriguingly, the ammonia lines up with a cracked region called Virgil Fossae, which has mounds of water ice and shows signs of past tectonic activity. Because ammonia is eventually destroyed in environments like Plu …

IMAGEO

Striking satellite imagery reveals multiple wildfires blazing across northern Alberta

A satellite view of the Chuckegg Creek wildfire near High Level, Alberta in Canada on May 26, 2019.

With unusual heat refusing to loosen its grip on Western Canada, ten out-of-control wildfires are now burning in northern Alberta.

Thanks to the hot, dry weather and rising winds, officials in Alberta were concerned on Tuesday (May 29) that the Chuckegg Creek fire near High Level, Alberta could lead to “blow-up fire behavior.” The fire has already scorched 580 square miles — an area larg …

ROCKY PLANET

Dealing with the Hazards from Tornadoes and Eruptions

EF3 tornado from an 2017 tornado outbreak near Washburn, Illinois. Wikimedia Commons.

I live in Ohio and one thing I’ve had to get used to here that I didn’t experience most places I have lived are tornadoes. This week, parts of western Ohio got hit by some big and destructive tornadoes and in total, at least 17 tornadoes were confirmed across the state. This is part of a larger tornado outbreak across the central U.S. Tornadoes are a lot like volcanic eruptions: they’ve highly destructive a …