Through citizen science projects, anyone can be a scientist

He works in a garage, not in a lab or university, yet the Australian mechanic discovered a star system hiding in data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. Mr. Grey is one of millions of citizen scientists helping researchers to expand collective understanding. Ordinary people of all ages and backgrounds have been contributing to science for centuries on a small scale, but advances in technology have brought a higher level of democratization to science. "This is a collaborative endeavor that anyone could get involved in," says Chris Lintott, an Oxford University astrophysicist and cofounder of Zooniverse, a platform that hosts dozens of citizen science projects. Citizen scientists can contribute to breakthroughs in almost any field, from ecology to astrophysics.