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Scientific American's The Amateur Scientist 2.0
A treasury of well over 1000 extraordinary science projects fully described on one easy-to-use CD-ROM.

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The Citizen Scientist runs articles by both amateur and professional scientists. Our features cover a broad range of scientific subjects, and other areas related to the practice and impact of science in everyday life.
We are always interested in clearly-written, articulate and informed articles for publication in The Citizen Scientist. If you have an idea for an article, please send a query to our Editor. Please review our Author's Guidelines for more information about submitting articles.

 

"Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall" by Peter Turchin, Princeton University Press, 2003.
Reviewed by Kevin T. Kilty

Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius by Bob Iannini Reviewed by Sheldon Greaves, Ph.D.

The Sun and Sky Monitoring Station by Forrest M. Mims III.

The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh.

Engines, Energy, and Entropy: A Thermodynamics Primer by John B. Fenn.

Instruments of Amplification. Fun With Homemade Tubes, Transistors, and More by Peter Friedrichs

Voice of the Crystal. How to Build Working Radio Receiver Components Entirely from Scratch

The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley

Bebop to the Boolean Boogie. An
Unconventional Guide to Electronics by Clive Maxfield

Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson

A Field Guide to the Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer

Mathematics From the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg

The Universal History of Numbers. From
Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer by Georges Ifrah

The Oxford Guide to Library Research by Thomas Mann
Updated 23 December 2005

Amateur Science for Profit!

Reginald Smith

In order to be an amateur scientist, you must have fun doing what you do. Most amateur scientists need no financial incentive to invest time comparable to an actual job into their pet projects. More

The Blister Beetle and Cantharidin

Richard Haynes

Epicauta pennsylvanica, a black blister beetle described in my previous article ("The Blister Beetle," The Citizen Scientist, 23 September 2005), synthesizes cantharidin. More

Does Sunlight Regulate Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)?

Forrest M. Mims III

In 1995 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) sent me to Cuiaba, Brazil, to measure the ozone layer during the peak of the annual burning season. More

The Space Weather Information Monitor (SWIM)

Mike Dziekan
Vice-President of Engineering, Connecticut Analytical Corporation

Many readers of The Citizen Scientist already know how the Sun affects weather on Earth and the entire solar system. Amateur scientists can perform various observations to study solar activity, and you can even get direct APT transmissions of weather satellites. More

Algorithms for Mental Conversion between the Fahrenheit and Celsius Scales

Robert A. Warren

Yes, quick mental conversions can be made between the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales, using the algorithms presented in this paper. But before these algorithms are presented, some background material is needed. More.
 
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Proceedings of the SAS Virtual Conference on Informal Science Education Spring 2004

A Quick Guide to Building Bots: Rapid Prototyping Techniques for the Novice Robot Hobbyist
Sonoluminescence: The Ultimate Water Hammer Confronts a New Generation
Yuri Artsutanov and His 1960 Space Elevator Proposal in Pravda
The Quest for a 21st Century Prototyping Board
Mystery Geomagnetic Event Observed Around the World
Dust Storm on Mars
Jim Scanlon Part 1. Citizen Scientist
Jim Scanlon
Part 2. International Citizen Scientist
How to Analyze Digital Images
The Steam Battery: A Low-Cost Science Experiment Performed with Ordinary Materials
The Blister Beetle
Observing the 2005 Mars Opposition
The Speed of Sight: Measuring Differences Between Conscious Visual Response Times of Human Eyesight using LEDs and Simple Electronics
A Visit to Hawai'i's Kilauea Volcano
Making Calcium Oxide and Calcium Hydroxide
Haidinger's Brush: A Little Known Polarization Sense in Human Vision
The Digital Modeling of a Simple RC Low Pass Filter
The Sun & Sky Monitoring Station's Calculation Worksheets
Evolution of Ultraviolet Meters at Solartech Inc.
Lab Preparation of Ferrous Sulfate
Sideways Gravity in the Basement: Norman Scheinberg's Cavendish Experiment
Inverted Music
Four Degrees of Separation: Research on the Science of Networks
SAS Sponsors Rocketry Team
Reflecting on "The Pro-Am Revolution"
One More Round with the Coriolis Force
STUDYING METEORS BY RADIO
Making Lead Acetate
One More Round with the Coriolis Force
A Visit to Fanning Island
Why an Ultraviolet Monitoring System Should Be Established on the Ground in the Andes Mountains
Letters from Jim Scanlon
The Acoustic Laser
The Bone Bed: Excavating Dinosaur Remains in Wyoming
A Tool That Counts: Basic Statistics for the Amateur Scientist
Updating the Bikram Era Calendar of Nepal
Reverberation Time
A Tool That Counts: Basic Statistics for the Amateur Scientist
A Tool That Counts: Basic Statistics for the Amateur Scientist
The Mammoth Hunter: David Wasion's Quest for Pre-Clovis People in North America
The Resume of David Wasion
Astronomical Accuracy Running New Milford's John J. McCarthy Observatory is Hard Work
The Momentous Discovery of Avocational Archaeologist David Wasion
Measuring Sound Attenuation David Wasion
Secrets of a Theorist 3: Computer Models
The Momentous Discovery of Avocational Archaeologist David Wasion
The finer points an Introduction to Powerpoint
Airship Hindenburg: Experimental study of the involvement of the outer covering paint (dope) in the disastrous final fire
Why is My Cup Two-Tone?
Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
A radio astronomy system for observing the sun
Remembering Mount St. Helens
A closer look: Crystals
How to rear a plankton menagerie
Hugo Gernsback: The man who invented the future, Part 3. Merging science fiction into science fact
Hugo Gernsback: The man who invented the future, Part 2. Writing, publishing and inventing
Hugo Gernsback: The man who invented the future, Part 1
Radio astronomy Part 2: Spinoffs, discoveries and resources
A Closer Look: Spice
The Song of the Stadium
Where there's smoke, there's (not always) fire: An inside look at Smoke Detectors
A Remarkable Storm
My account of the 23 June 2004 Madison, Wisconsin, tornado
Where there's smoke, there's (not always) fire: An inside look at Smoke Detectors,
Where there's smoke, there's (not always) fire: An inside look at Smoke Detectors
A Closer Look: Paper currency
The Weather and the Moon
Notes on the Transit of Venus: 8 June 2004
Inside a standing wave
The Transit of Venus
Direct Reception of Satellite Weather Images
Photographing insects in flight with a high- speed flash
Why there are no five-color plane maps: An essay on graphs, maps and coloring
The Helmholtz Resonance
Calling All Martians! The Viking Mission Labeled Release Experiment and the Search for Martian Life. Part III
Measuring Dust on the Red Planet: Muscle Wires On Mars
Leaping Headlong Toward an Uncertain Future
A Closer Look: La dybug
The Strange Red Film on Fish Lake
Research Opportunities in Lightning Protection for Amateur Scientists
The Leduc Plants: An Example of Amusing Science from the History of Science
A Closer Look: Pictures
How to Keep a Scientific Notebook
The Doppler Shift
Hardcore Field Notes for the Serious Naturalist
A Closer Look: Salad
Calling All Martians! The Viking Mission Labeled Release Experiment and the Search for Martian Life: Part II
A Navigation Problem Revisited
Secrets of a Theorist Part 2: Units - How to Check the Validity of an Equation
Sound Velocity from Standing Wave Resonance
Secrets of a Theorist, Part 1: How to Understand an Equation
Tessellation Doodles
Radioactive Random Number Generator
Calling All Martians! The Viking Mission Labeled Release Experiment and the Search for Martian Life: Part I
Some Notes on an Owl Pellet
Ancient Observatories and the Solstice
Scanning the Night Sky in Nepal
Sound Velocity from Interference Observations
Cultivating Tomorrow's Robot Creators: Student Robotics in China and the United States
Mars Update
Resources for Analyzing Data from Interplanetary Space Missions
The Latest from Mars
Sound Frequency and Sound Pitch
Toward a Paideia of Curiosity
Experimental Techniques and the Treatment of Data
Sound Amplitude and Loudness
The Scientist in Society
   
Copyright 2005 by Society for Amateur Scientists