Citizen science empowers communities

Dr. Andrew Maynard of ASU’s Risk Innovation Lab recently published an article in The Conversation, which also appeared in Christian Science Monitor.  In the article, he discusses an emerging trend in which citizens work with experts to accomplish scientific advances that are useful to the everyday person and their community, not just valuable from an academic perspective, or useful to some unknown third party. 

These types of partnerships can have a far-reaching impact, and in some cases can even result in changes to policy.  This is called Extreme Citizen Science, which empowers people to deal with the problems they face in their everyday life.  It enables communities of different cultures, means, and locations to take science into their own hands and drive research that matters to them.