For the Love of the Game

Unless you’re stuck in an airport like Tom Hanks in that movie, you’re a citizen of somewhere. So pointing out that someone is a citizen is kind of a non-starter. Yes, they are also made of molecules, they are a mammal, what of it? But for some reason, we keep finding ourselves in conversations where people pull out the term “citizen science”. What is that adjective doing there, Timmy? What is it doing? In most cases, adjectives are looped in on a noun to add some information. A car may be red, but we call it a red car when we want to distinguish it from other cars. A red car is not green, blue, white, etc. What information does “citizen” add, what other scientists are we distinguishing them from? If “blue” is a non-red car, what is a non-citizen scientist? Just look at all that citizenship We’re tired of having conversations about “citizen science”. First of all, “citizen science” is incoherent. Pointing out that science was done by “a citizen” is like pointing out that it was done…