Citizen Scientists Strike it Lucky

[renormalised]

This is something that I like to see, the encouragement of science amongst the general populace. The Planet Hunters (http://planethunters.org/) online search site has just submitted its first journal paper (to MNRAS) outline the detection of two planet candidates that have survived the elimination process. They now have the paper also submitted to arXiv.org (http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4621).

Just think, most of the people cited as authors of this paper have no scientific qualifications, yet with their efforts science has moved one small step forward. It's great to see:)

[mishku]

exciting news for us armchair scientists, carl!!

[mswhin63]

I received an e-mail about this I am very surprised that this the organisation has taken the effort to commend people that have found the planets.

[renormalised]

I'm not....the people running the program are fair minded scientists and would duly acknowledge those that contributed to the study. If they didn't, it could be cause for a legal minefield. It has been known for people who've been slighted to retaliate legally over intellectual property rights and recognition, in scientific research.