Best Citizen Science

Project Discovery: Human Protein Atlas was a citizen-science minigame introduced in EVE Online in 2016 through a collaboration involving CCP Games, Massively Multiplayer Online Science, and the Human Protein Atlas. Players examined fluorescence microscopy images and classified patterns showing where...

Foldit Standalone provides an engaging way for individuals to participate in scientific research. Developed by the University of Washington, this serious game challenges players to solve protein folding puzzles. Successfully predicting protein structures contributes to ongoing biochemical studies an...

Project Discovery: Exoplanets is a citizen science mini-game integrated into the massively multiplayer online game EVE Online in 2017. Developed in collaboration with the University of Geneva, it allows players to assist astronomers by analyzing and classifying real-world stellar light curves to hel...

Project Discovery: Flow Cytometry is a 2020 EVE Online citizen-science minigame whose players marked cell populations in data used for COVID-19 research.

Galaxy Zoo is a serious game designed for amateur astronomers and anyone interested in space exploration. Participants analyze images of galaxies captured by telescopes, contributing to real scientific research. This crowdsourced project utilizes citizen science to classify galaxy types and features...

Muki Haklay is a prominent geographer at University College London notable for co-founding the field of public participation GIS and advancing global citizen science.

MalariaSpot is a Spanish citizen-science game launched in 2012 that asks players to identify malaria parasites in digitized images of stained blood samples.

Sea Hero Quest is a citizen science mobile game developed by the studio Glitchers and released in 2016. Created in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom, University College London, and Alzheimer's Research UK, the project was designed to gather large-scale data on human spatial navigation. By recordin...

NeMO-Net is a citizen-science game developed with NASA involvement to help classify coral reefs and other shallow marine environments. Players identify and categorize features in three-dimensional ocean imagery, producing labeled observations that can assist machine-learning analysis. It is designed...

EteRNA is a browser-based citizen science game developed in 2011 by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University. The platform allows players to solve puzzles by designing RNA sequences that fold into specific shapes, similar to protein-folding games. Top designs submitted by pl...

Fraxinus is a British Facebook citizen-science game launched in 2013 that enlisted players to compare genetic sequences related to ash dieback disease.

Stall Catchers is a citizen science game developed by EyesOnALZ that engages volunteers in Alzheimer's disease research. Players examine video footage of mouse brain capillaries to identify 'stalls'—locations where blood flow is blocked or reduced, which researchers associate with Alzheimer's diseas...

Eyewire is a citizen science game developed at Princeton University’s lab, utilizing player input to map retinal neurons. The game employs data from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and has facilitated the tracking of approximately 6,000 neurons. With over 350,000 players as of March 20...

Mozak is a citizen-science game developed through the University of Washington in which participants help reconstruct the three-dimensional shapes of neurons from microscopy data. Players trace and refine branching neural structures, producing work that can support neuroscience research after approp...

2006 UC Berkeley citizen science project in which online volunteers searched aerogel microscope images for interstellar dust particles returned by NASA's Stardust probe.

Focuses on street-level surveillance and rapid reporting, often used in urban areas with high foot traffic.