Hey fam,
Have you heard of NASA’s 46 citizen science games that let anyone search for evidence of aliens in the universe, make a real backyard radio telescope to study Jupiter, or see which plants can grow in space to feed astronauts?
Apparently NASA scientists have been enlisting the help of regular people for decades to conduct cutting-edge science and make discoveries together, defining citizen science as a “form of open collaboration” for individuals and organizations to voluntarily participate in the scientific process (although a more modern name is community science since you don’t need any citizenship and can be anywhere in the world and any age to participate).
But beyond the incredible space games like discovering new comets close to the sun or how clouds work on mars, there are also projects all over Earth from tracking wildlife spotted on trail cameras in Wisconsin, to reporting landslides for emergency response to save lives, and comparing changes in Arctic freshwater ice.
Some have specific needs too: if you live near mountains you can help report if it’s raining or snowing when weather stations fall short, and they even have live events where professionals present their projects and invite us regular folks to participate.
The goal is to bring together scientists and the public to discover interesting things, and I think this is the perfect example of how humanity can put aside differences and work together on building a better future.
So go play one of these and let me know what you think.
What else is going right in the world
🧑🌾 A 76-year-old man named John Massey raised $675,000+ for charity by teaching himself how to garden, then building such an impressive one that people came from all over to come visit. Over 20,000 flowers, trees, and shrubs are now managed by 70 employees, and it’s open to the public every weekend with the small entry fee going to a rotating charity. I had the pleasure of speaking with John last year and wanted to share his inspiring story again!
💉 A new experimental cancer vaccine has early signs of working after a trial with over a thousand people, specifically an mRNA based treatment to help prevent melanoma from returning to patients that previously had it but got it removed through surgery, and more testing is needed but experts say it looks promising. (Joe McFadden|BBC)
🏥 A hospital just focused on saving seahorses that get caught in fishing nets has been rescuing the magical creatures since 2019. Seahorses are amongst the only species where the male gets pregnant and gives birth, after an elaborate courtship dance that ends with the female depositing eggs into a pouch on the male’s tail, where hundreds of babies emerge a few weeks later. Due to rising ocean temperatures and poaching for traditional but unproven medicine, there’s been a substantial decrease in their populations. Yet 8,000+ have been rescued and returned to the sea thanks to the marine biologists working in Italy’s Seamaster Seahorse Rescue Center.
🎓 Seattle will give free meals for all public students starting this fall thanks to a unanimous vote to take leftover money from an affordable housing complex that was cheaper than expected, and channel it into the program to make sure no students go hungry (Ryan Nguyen|Seattle Times)
🏆 The winner of the Invertebrate of the Year is… the leaf sheep! This mesmerizing animal is a tiny marine slug that photosynthesizes like a plant. If you ask me, it was a well-deserved win. (Patrick Barkham|The Guardian)
😮💨 A study found that London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, which blocks heavily polluting vehicles from the area, has led to children’s lungs growing bigger and stronger, restoring capacity in those that were previously stunted from pollution, in another example of how effective policies like this can be on our health (Damien Gayle|The Guardian)
Our community took action
🌱 medeajade from our community bought a bunch of native plants to turn their front lawn into a little prairie.
Lightning round
🛠️ Right to repair laws continue to spring up around the US.
⚡️ A fully electric plane flew for nearly half an hour on $5 of electricity, hinting at the future of aviation.
🤝 Australia returned more Land Back to native ancestral owners.
That’s it for this week. If you saw a good story that I missed, please leave it in a comment so we can keep learning and taking action together. Thanks for being here, and have a great weekend.
- Jacob
This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.
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