Zooniverse
Real research that needs human eyes: classify galaxies, transcribe ships' logs or count penguins, and end up in a published paper.
Opens in a new tab. We do not control this site and it may have changed since we catalogued it.
How to get the most from it
Zooniverse sits in Crowd Experiments under Weird, filed as coffee break.
- Set aside five to fifteen minutes and give it your proper attention.
- It works on a phone or a desktop, so open it on whatever is nearest.
- It works with the sound off, so it is fine on a train or in a quiet office.
- No account needed — you can start without signing up.
- Go in expecting something brainy, wholesome and useful.
About this category: Shared spaces where everyone acts at once. Sometimes it becomes art, usually it becomes a mess, and the mess is the interesting part.
Good for
- Filling a coffee break properly
- Giving your brain a workout
- Something kind-hearted
- Getting something practical done
- A quiet break at your desk
- Killing time on your phone
- Trying it with zero commitment
Zooniverse: quick answers
Is Zooniverse free?
Yes. Zooniverse is free to use and needs no account.
Do I need an account to use Zooniverse?
No. You can use Zooniverse without signing up for anything.
Does Zooniverse work on a phone?
Yes. Zooniverse works on phones as well as desktop browsers.
Is Zooniverse safe for work?
Yes, we file it as safe for work. It also works muted.
How long does Zooniverse take?
We file it as "Coffee break": Five to fifteen minutes of proper attention.
More in Crowd Experiments
All 13 in Crowd ExperimentsTelephone played with drawings: describe a picture, draw a description, and watch the chain derail over twelve steps.
- 10 min
Infinite pixel canvas anybody can paint on live, with no undo, no brief and no moderation queue worth mentioning.
- 10 min
Draw a horse, then watch it gallop off to join the herd of terrible horses drawn by everybody else.
- <1 min
One piano keyboard shared by everybody currently online, producing either a Chopin nocturne or an immediate car crash.
- <1 min
- Sound on
- Desktop
Same mood: brainy
All brainy sitesFly out through a mapped model of our stellar neighbourhood until the Sun is one unremarkable dot among thousands.
- <1 min
- Desktop
The Myers-Briggs-flavoured test everybody has taken, with a four-letter verdict and profile pages that are unnervingly specific.
- 10 min
The original tile-merging game, written in a weekend and responsible for an enormous amount of lost 2014.
Grant Sanderson's maths lessons, plus the written versions of the animations that made linear algebra look like geometry.
- 10 min
- Sound on
Keep exploring
Category
Time and mood
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