#Public Science

Citizen science is the ritual in which ordinary people, armed with smartphones instead of lab coats, promise to save the world without the scholar’s credentials. It masquerades as a scientific method but often degenerates into a carnival of hashtag experiments and anecdotal observations. While efforts to extract truth from piles of so-called data are praised, the final results are invariably staged on the grand platform of social media and public hearings. Undeniably, it is a democratic quest for knowledge—or at least for attention.