Coast Guard Museum NW. Citizen scientists have been invited to help transcribe logbooks from legendary American vessels like the Bear, which plied Arctic waters for four decades for the United States Revenue, the precursor of the Coast Guard.

An interesting historical take on a newfangled trend (click the image above to go to the source):

For many years now, volunteers working from home —people like you— have been able to help scientists with important problems.

In the first wave of these “citizen science” projects, people simply lent their computers to help solve problems that could be farmed out in pieces to thousands of machines. Continue reading →