The rise of citizen science: can the public help solve our biggest problems?

In Darwin's era, people commonly participated in botany and archaelogy. Now a raft of new projects aim to harness their curiosity again

It is hard not to feel a thrill of excitement when you land on the Galaxy Zoo homepage and read the words Few have witnessed what you're about to see" looming out of a star-strewn black background.

The anticipation is justified when, in five quick clicks, you're asked to classify a galaxy as part of an online crowdsourcing astronomy project. The project is hosted on Zooniverse, a platform that aims to make cutting-edge research accessible to everyone.