Out with the Old...In with the New

I've been away for a few weeks so let's start off with a quick recap.  Some may see this as good news/news.  But I like to think of it as good news just in different ways.

First off, the OldWeather project has recently expanded with new data arctic weather data sets.  Taken from National Archives records of US Navy and Coast Guard ships, the weather logs in this set date back to 1850 and offer unique polar data unable elsewhere.  The research team can't do this alone and needs the help of everyday people to transcribe all the handwritten log information; leaving a great opening for citizen scientists and readers of this blog.

Second, two distributed computing projects we've been following are drawing to a close. Just announced last week, the Computing for Clean Water and Help End Muscular Dystropy will no longer be sending users data to analyze. Instead we've all done all the number-crunching needed by the scientists and they are now actively analyzing the reams of data. But that's what happens when projects are successful; the data collection ends and the discovery begins. It's also the start of publishing the data for the whole world to see. So despite the loss of a citizen science project I still consider it a very good thing.

Finally, you may have noticed that my "Citizen Science Supports the Smithsonian" campaign has been extended longer than initially planned.  Although I haven't had as many takers as expected, donations do keep coming in and I want to continue supporting the museums and science centers across the country.  So please consider even a small donation. 

I'll even make a matching contribution for each donor as an incentive!  Won't you help too?