Amazing Scientific Discoveries Made by Ordinary People

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Published 2022-12-22
Amazing scientific discoveries aren't always made by renowned scientists! Here's a few examples of times ordinary people unlocked some incredible discoveries! Let's' check it out!

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Sources:
doi.org/10.2193/2006-501
doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2013.818935
   • A sneaky bird swipes hair from a racc...  
   • A snoozing fox meets a plucky little ...  
   • Bird Steals Fur from Dog  
   • Bird plucking fur from sleeping Labra...  
   • Bird stealing hair for nest  
   • Titmouse gathering hair for nest  
docs.google.com/document/d/1SafxVOb6smNzzU_G39Vlp4…
doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3501
doi.org/10.1029/2020av000183
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/20…
news.agu.org/press-release/scientists-discover-wha…
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aaq0030
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01577-3
www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(22)006…
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-woman-is-a-…
www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-22630813
www.academia.edu/31430226/_Ancient_Roman_hairdress…
www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873249002045782…
todayinconservation.com/2020/02/june-12-frank-chap…
www.audubon.org/news/the-119th-christmas-bird-coun…
www.audubon.org/conservation/history-christmas-bir…
www.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count-bibliography

Image Sources
tinyurl.com/yc8w9m6r
tinyurl.com/2v4785e7
tinyurl.com/mrn78s4r
   • World Series of Birding Scouting  
tinyurl.com/yy3y64c7
tinyurl.com/3k5nc77c
tinyurl.com/yeymf2r5
tinyurl.com/3ww64bj8
   • Bird pulling Charley's fur out  
   • instead of bird watching a tufted tit...  
   • Titmouse is building a nest  
tinyurl.com/52c9ys27
   • Aurora borealis timelapse - polar ref...  
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Optical_Steve.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Buscemi_(414…
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Arc_160507.…
   • What Is an Aurora?  
   • The Aurora Named STEVE  
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Starr_030807-0064_…
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regional_map_of_SE…
tinyurl.com/kf58c4pt
tinyurl.com/2jt35b9v
tinyurl.com/yx75257v
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penariiban.jpg
tinyurl.com/ydtv4yae
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Female_portrait_Louvre_…
   • Empress Sabina: Ancient Roman Hairdre...  
tinyurl.com/22ur7wa2
tinyurl.com/4r7j8mpu
tinyurl.com/3htkf7v8
   • Empress Sabina: Ancient Roman Hairdre...  
tinyurl.com/y7w8bkn7
tinyurl.com/432a55rr
tinyurl.com/2p8unc4j
tinyurl.com/28d6vbvr
tinyurl.com/bdd6362x
tinyurl.com/ywx2ah52
tinyurl.com/mr24jaea
tinyurl.com/5db2mkp3
tinyurl.com/2p97ep2m
tinyurl.com/2teakjwz
tinyurl.com/yck6v3za
tinyurl.com/32btprj3
tinyurl.com/59y3zd59
tinyurl.com/2p826xxe
tinyurl.com/2s9rs6ak
www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/mystery-of-purpl…

All Comments (21)
  • @SciShow
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  • @Gladpants
    That story about the hair dresser is absolutely amazing. As a Marylander, and one that lives right outside of Baltimore this story gave me some immense pride.
  • @auroracp7994
    I have personally been researching (for the fun of it and because no else else has done it before here) the diversity of ant species in my town located in Spain. As a way to store all of my observations in a nice neat place, I uploaded all of the observations of ants to iNaturalist. To my surprise, I found out a month or so ago that some of my data was actually used for an actual research article on new observations of one invasive ant species here in Spain, the which I was quite happy to find out that my work has helped someone else with their own research.
  • A few thoughts from a geologist 1. Almost none of the science I do involves working in a lab and producing papers. 2. Never trust someone wearing a clean lab coat... 3. Communication of what we do is fundamental to the job. We provide data to engineers who are doing mine designs, and we also need to communicate info to equipment operators so they can more cleanly extract ore. 4. Information collected from non geologists can be useful but needs to be verified carefully before using.
  • I'm a medical laboratory scientist. I love introducing myself as a scientist, because people are always like what's your job though? What's your degree or certification? Well my job title is Medical Laboratory Scientist, my degree is in Medical Laboratory science, and my certification is, you guessed it, Medical Laboratory Scientist. Our field is little known, but is very interesting! I would love if scishow did a piece on it, I think if more people knew about it we would have a lot more interest in this field.
  • @imberrysandy
    I recently attended a Native Plant Conference where academic researchers and speakers encouraged people who don't have college degrees be citizen scientists. They couldn't stress how important having people in their communities to observe interactions, collecte data and surveying.
  • @piplupcola
    All you have to do to be a scientist is love exploring the world, asking questions and loving science. As they always say a "experiment is just a game that you wrote down the results to". Go out. Learn about the world. Ask good questions and have solid facts. Anyone can be a scientist.
  • INaturalist is a good app that you can use to document your wildlife sightings and the observations can be used to study wild populations of pretty much any animal. You also have other users who can verify your sighting and add details. It's really cool and I love using it.
  • Steve is a great name! It's awesome that you can give something scientific a fun name.
  • Bravo to the lady the unearthed the Roman hair styling methods, what an achievement 👏
  • big props for that photographer who call the phenomenon as steve and not trx-16 or something
  • I remember seeing a sparrow pulling fur off our collie mix while he was sleeping. He didn’t notice.
  • @ericf9479
    I love them naming the aurora steve, please name things regular names
  • Citizen science and experimental archaeology in one video? This exceeds my expectations! I'd just like to mention projects like iNaturalist and Zooniverse where people can participate in all different kinds of citizen science as well
  • @davetoms1
    Now I want to discover a new bird species so I can name it Steve
  • As a land surveyor, I recently came across an endangered species of tortoise. I told my boss about it, and he told me to not say ANYTHING about it, as it would shut down the entire jobsite. (This parcel of land is going to become a subdivision) I reported it anyways, and have yet to see results. However, I still hope to one day work in the favor of natural life even though I can't afford a conventional degree.
  • @thisisme1999
    Late one winter I was out birding, and I spotted a Common Raven plucking hair from a camel. This was not in the middle east but in Western Canada where an animal trainer had a family of camels. The camel was not happy about this Raven on its back and kept turning around and yelling at it. After the one Raven got its beak full and flew away another jumped on board and did the same thing.
  • The fact that birds steal hair has to be known by some people at least given that birds are doing it for thousands of years. But it might have never occured to those who saw it, that this is something science didn't know.