Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction

by Mary Ellen Hannibal

Citizen science might just be our last, best chance to fight extinction. But is there really hope for threatened species? Mary Ellen Hannibal needed to find out.

Hannibal, an award-winning writer and emerging emissary from scientists to the public, sets out to become a citizen scientist herself. In search of vanishing species, she wades into tide pools, follows hawks, and scours mountains. The data she collects will help environmental research—but her most precious discovery might be her fellow citizen scientists: a heroic cast of volunteers devoting long hours to helping scientists measure—and even slow—today’s unprecedented mass extinction.

A consummate reporter, Hannibal digs into the origins of the tech-savvy citizen science movement—tracing it back through centuries of amateur observation by writers and naturalists. Prompted by her novelist father’s sudden death, she also examines her own past and discovers a family legacy of looking closely at the world. Her personal loss only fuels her quest to bear witness to life, and so she ultimately returns her gaze to the wealth of species still left to fight for.

Combining research and memoir in impassioned prose, Citizen Scientist is a literary event, a blueprint for action, and the story of how one woman rescues herself from an odyssey of loss—with a new kind of science.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Environment, Climate Change, Biology, Ecology

432 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ 50%. What a slog.

I am a great fan of citizen science, and I use it daily in my work as a scientist. I even have a scientific publication coming out soon, using iNaturalist data. So needless to say, this book looked interesting to me.

But the book annoyed me to no end. The writing is very flowery, with whimsical words that are barely used in day to day life. While I do love nice language, it doesn't work in a non-fiction book that tries to convey a lot of information. References in the sentences are confusing, using "this" a lot, while it's not clear what it refers to. There's also a mix of first and last names of people being used, even within a paragraph, which makes it really hard to follow who the author's talking about.

There are a lot of side stories, also about the author's personal life, that are quite unrelated to citizen science. In such a big book, this only distracts. In my opinion it's not clear why these stories are relevant to the topic. I feel a bit like an ass saying this, because for example the death of the author's father is discussed. But still, better it could have been left out of this book.

I was really curious to learn more about citizen science, but this book did not deliver on that, unfortunately..

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a great concept and really shows how important citizen science is. I am a scientist, and dedicated volunteers (citizen scientists) are more important than ever with what seems like less and less money every year to study or protect species and our environment.

Overall, this book is okay. Portrays the role of citizen science well, but also gets heavily side tracked with her personal life. This book would have been much better if it could have just covered citizen science. I really wish it could have been what the title is, because there might not be anything more important in conservation than what the title alludes too.

[Jake MacLean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the idea and the content. The stories were mostly pretty interesting. It definitely supports the citizen science community and is informative of important projects and new technology being used. I just couldn’t get past the authors writing style. To me it seemed like she loved to name drop and insert herself into stories where I felt it wasn’t necessary. Definitely took away from my overall feeling about a great idea of a book.

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw Hannibal speak before I read this book, and that probably contributed to me not liking it. Hannibal writes well, but the science in this book is hard to pick out between the literature references and phrases that are beautiful, but maybe better served in poetry. Honestly, I found Hannibal annoying when I first saw her and I couldn't get over that.

This book isn't bad, but I didn't care for it. If you aren't much of a science person, you might really like this. Those with a more robust science background might enjoy the book if they don't expect it to be scientific.

[Angus Jansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5,,, timely read for me shouts out and big ups Dino. Loved all the California and pac grove mentions this shi comes naturally to us. Also overlapped with hope in the dark read for me also nice looking at the science, social, and political at the same time. Really enjoyed learning more about Steinbeck and Ricketts, kinda criminal of me to be so deprived of these guys reads will do something bout that asap. Few ideas aligned directly with my thesis points too which was fun. Good case studies was really weaved a lot with her own personal happening which you know good for her I bet she loves the product she put out, I could’ve used a little more concise, succinct, other words that mean shorter book. Gonna get my dad into hawk watch think that’s his destiny post dentistry. Included quite a bit of links and talked about programs I couldn’t track down a bit disappointing, generally probably not a great idea to put a url in a book imho. I like it! I did, she had some bars no there too, great reflections, and props to her for getting after the work. Would recommend

[Keygan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Find my full review, with deeper analysis and specific notes, on my blog, The Inner Scientist: https://theinnerscientist.wordpress.c...

Mary Ellen Hannibal’s Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction is a book that encompasses a depth of ponderings and a wealth of rich detail. It is one great emotional journey composed of myriad smaller ones, crossing history and the world. It is a work of literature as well as a science book, a memoir and a set of profiles. In short, it is an ambitious work and left me deeply satisfied.

Hannibal’s broad goal with this volume is right there in the subtitle: she is on a hunt for the heroes of citizen science: those citizen scientists whose lives fulfill some aspect of the Hero’s Journey as defined by Joseph Campbell, and for hope for the future in a time when the natural world is in a state of diminishment.

Hannibal uses as an anchor her own personal interactions with citizen science. Over the course of writing, she gets involved with a number of projects (from a seashore life inventory to a migratory hawk count program) and writes about the vibrant personalities she encounters as well as the notes of history that run deep beneath the different kinds of work she does. While visiting her own experiences, she touches back frequently on the central relationship of the book: that between her and her now-deceased father. That relationship, specifically the end of it, reflects the larger story: of our relationship to a suffering natural world.

Much of the book consists of interweaving narratives: with Hannibal’s experiences as the jumping point for forays into the lives of so-called “heroes” both modern and historic. In some cases, she probably doesn’t spend enough time defining why her featured subjects fit Campbell’s “hero” mold, and occasionally goes on tangents concerning other people who are related to the topic but not “heroes” themselves. This made the book a bit information-heavy at times, but the general goal is still fulfilled.

I recommend the book to anyone looking to link personal narrative, history, and the progression of natural science together. It truly is a fantastic journey.

[Hind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and eye opening book. I picked it up mostly for the citizen science, but there’s a lot more going on here and Hannibal manages to weave a good deal of history, intros to various branches of ecological science, and personal memoir into a single book. It’s all over the place, but in a good way.

[Trenchologist · Rating 3 out of 5]

2+ I'll damn this book with all around faint praise, I think. I also know I read it too late--as in it's very dated, although I don't mean it's aged badly.

Most of the front-line "citizen science" efforts Hannibal covers are now well known, so very little of what's discussed was new or gone into deeper to be of deeper interest to me. While other efforts have gone terribly off the rails. Imagine still being optimistically dewy-eyed about what silicon valley bros and their tech are going to do in pursuit of conservation and climate change mitigation!

I expected profiles of individuals doing citizen science, and overviews of their work and its impact, in specific places and specific ways. We sort of got that.

We got a lot of more well known scientists/figures and their efforts, how that can be see as a type of citizen science, and then dabblings in people Hannibal mostly personally knows so she could chat them up to include in this work. I feel this could be a better book if the author had shifted fully to telling the story of how the natural world impacted Steinbeck and his compatriots, instead of having that be a thru line that mostly served to water down both narrative efforts.

There's also anecdotes that mostly fit because it's "science" or "scientist," but have that energy of she had to tell someone, somehow, so she worked them in here. Which, fine. Getting a little stolen audience with EO Wilson would make many people want to steal a few pages to retell the event.

Given the title, I realize she's looking both for "heroes" and for "whys" of their actions, so I understand the Joseph Campbell thru, including his relationship with Steinbeck &co. But it gets worn way too thin--and for my measure never quite suited at all--so every time Campbell gets brought up *again,* I had less and less patience for it.

Hannibal losing her father over the course of the book is poignant, and well observed. And possible a second, and better, theme to hinge this work on than what it became (and it became so much more about his death because that happened while she was writing... a less expansive / kindly / tolerant editor might have been called for to at some point bring the book back into focus).

There are also glimmers of Hannibal having a certain privilege (economic, and then, social) and the advantages that come along with that. She doesn't address it; I figure she's not fully cognizant to realize maybe she should bother. She should bother because she's ostensibly profiling scrappy folk surviving on a patchwork of grants and funding for their small bit of science, and that's an important and resonant aspect of the challenges of these studies. It also matters in that ten years ago, she could spend a lot of time in tide pools and looking for hawks and going to lectures, all while 'researching' and maybe filing a well-paid story or two. Quite the difference to today -- unless you're well off, natch.

I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it. Buying it from the library sale made it an easy "sure why not" read for me and I got enough out of it for that $1/bag. But if I passed it along I'd tell whomever took it to measure their expectations, look for some lovely turns of phrase and interesting tidbits, but treat it as a lighter read in an expansive subject with a few pithy moments and a lot of personal filler.

[Joe M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkably encompassing book about the citizen science movement in ecology. This book is focused on the author's experience in citizen science projects mostly around the San Francisco Bay area.

I found the book an enjoyable read, albeit in need of a little more discipline and structure. I did not find it objectionable that the author included details from her personal life; the central conceit of the book is connecting the personal to science and I thought her approach served it well. I did find it a little jarring in some of the middle chapters that she would repearedly switch back and forth from reminiscences about her family to conversations with scientists. I also found the ending a little abrupt, especially after her repeated citations of Campbell's "hero's journey" when describing individual scientists.

Even with those quibbles, I think the book was well worth the time it took me to read and gave me a greater sense of how citizen science can advance conservation and help cultivate respect for the natural world.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I'm well versed in the general topics and thought it would be an interesting read, and parts of it were. But the parts that weren't interesting almost made me quit reading the book. It was a chore.

It felt as if the author, after saying everything relevant to the subject, still needed to meet an established word count, and so filled it with personal stories (including a lot of name dropping), and literary references that just didn't work for me. I honestly skimmed and skipped several sections where the chapter was not well focused on the subject.

In all, there were several chapters that I did enjoy, such as the discussions of then current citizen science projects and how to get involved. But as a whole, the book did not feel cohesive, and parts seemed like the author's attempt to make sure the memory of her father lived on somehow, even if it wasn't clearly relevant to the book.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the premise of this book, and really wanted to like it, but I think there were too many topics covered. The author covers many interesting areas such as those mentioned by other reviewers: Steinbeck, Joseph Campbell, and using GPS mapping information to track climate change. At the same time, the author is weaving in the story of the last months of her father's life. I ended up skimming over parts of the book when the author switched to yet another new topic. Also, I am familiar with Joseph Campbell and with certain approaches to doing conservation biology, so large parts did not seem like new ideas or new connections to me.

I think a shorter book focused on a few key citizen scientist approaches would have worked better. The book is well-written by an accomplished writer, but I just did not buy into how it all was supposed to fit together.

[Jessica Kraft · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Are we about to watch something horrendous unfold?" questions Hannibal in this wildly important book that toggles between global climate change, species decline, and the author's father's death. Taking us on adventure after adventure, charting Pacific sea star populations, reliving Ed Ricketts' and John Steinbeck's voyage to the Sea of Cortez, and gazing up at elegant raptors over the Golden Gate, Hannibal issues a call to join the brigades of everyday observers. Citizen scientists will be the ones keeping an eye on ecology as grand climate changes sweep through, and they will also be the ones offering the most compelling stories to back up their science. Surprisingly and redemptively literary, this is a book worth relishing for its poetry and its philosophy. Taking Joseph Campbell to heart, Hannibal tells us: "You are the hero of 1000 faces when you participate in citizen science."

[Sheila Tarbet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book. Would like to read again, in fact, but must return to the library now. This book makes clear that citizen science is essential to monitoring our biodiversity. With species quickly going extinct, this biodiversity is threatened. But some threats to biodiversity may be alleviated if we have some idea of what they are and where our various species stand. Only citizens can provide a worldwide view of where species are and how frequently they can be observed. Hannibal traces the history of citizen science; she makes clear no less significant thinkers than Darwin and Steinbeck fall into the category of citizen scientist. She is eloquent, literate, and knowledgeable.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a chore to complete. I couldn't decipher who the intended audience was meant to be. If it was, indeed, everyday citizen scientists, then the book sorely missed the mark. It read as a namedrop, braggy show of mostly California based projects; effectively leaving out the rest of the worldly potential citizen scientists. If the audience was intended to be the degreed/working science community then it was a basic list of ongoing environmental counts with very little actual data to discuss. The references to iNaturalist and eBird would be the exceptions to my criticism, as they were a good addition that remained on the topic of Citizen Science.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contained some good content, but it lacked flow. It was interspersed with memoir and biographical information where the connection to the subject was vague at best.

The book also gave greater focus to citizen science projects unique to the California area, likely due to the author’s involvement with these specific projects. There was some discussion about iNaturalist and eBird, but as someone not from California, it would have been nice to have even more information on projects and platforms that are less tied to a geographic region.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir, part call to action, part ecology text. Descriptions of citizen scientist projects that allow environmental and ecology studies to occur on a larger and more meaningful scale than earlier studies which did not include citizen scientists. Descriptions of how the app inaturalist enables these citizen scientists. Interesting biology and ecology facts interspersed with author's life and interests. An engaging argument for why science would benefit from inclusion.

[John Middle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked her writing style. It felt fresh and she expresses her thoughts very well. I am a lot more informed about the work being done by ordinary people who have a passion to make a difference in the world. I enjoyed the book.

[Dan Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got me turned on to Zooniverse, iNaturalist, and Nature's Notebook and so it was worth it to me!

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, easy to read and spiritual.

[Matt Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit bland and basic for my tastes. But do get involved into what Mary discusses. It’s our only hope.

[Kelly Guilbeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit scattered, with lots of interesting stories. I'm not sure I learned too much about citizen science, to be honest.

[Cass · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to force myself to finish it..

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book about a subject I knew very little about but I had trouble staying interested. The book felt very shallow to me. I also never got a sense of how everything fit together.

[Taran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent. Helpful for work. Very ‘literarily’ written

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting chapters including:
redwoods
eco damage tracked by satellite data
steinbeck - J. Campbell - Ricketts connection
EO Wilson - 'keep half the world natural, prevent extinction of plants and animals - that will save us from climate change

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Ellen Hannibal is a Citizen Scientist. Many of us are or would like to be. I participate in the annual weekend Audubon walks in the spring for 6 weeks, I contribute to ebird, and I also run a Celebrate Urban Birds count every Thursday in Akron. I am curious as to what else I can do along these lines, and intend to do more after retirement.

I suppose I should clarify what a citizen scientist is or does before I go further. A citizen scientist is a participant who helps to provide data for, or interacts with, scientists in their studies of nature, space, climate, weather, oceans, physics, geology, or any other scientific study. If you participate in Project Feederwatch, a Christmas Bird Count, a breeding bird study, count dead birds that have died because of window strikes, tally deaths of creatures by feral or free roaming cats, you are a citizen scientist. There have been some pretty famous examples of these people. Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson, and Ed Ricketts are a few.

Hannibal weaves her own activities as a citizen scientist around the imminent death of her father, her love of the writer Joseph Campbell, and a history of citizen science and its contributions to the body of knowledge.

Hannibal, whose primary focus is California, searches tide pools to count the presence of sea stars to add her tallies to others to map the current status of the species, when she begins to talk of Charles Darwin, a man who had only one job on the Beagle - that of keeping the leader company. Darwin's diary of the expedition and his observations of natural history and his collecting of species was encouraged despite the ship having an official naturalist. Darwin was not a scientist, but while on board read books by other naturalists that led to his own education.

Thomas Jefferson was also interested in scientific study when the Lewis and Clark expedition was formed and given its direction. The California Academy of Sciences was supplied with specimens and knowledge by the citizen scientists of its early years. Many of us know of John Steinbeck and his character Doc in Cannery Row. That "Doc" was Ed Ricketts who collected ocean invertebrates for selling to laboratories and schools for study. Steinbeck and Ricketts worked together initially in Steinbeck's Log of the Sea of Cortez. Ricketts was not a scientist, but yet another citizen scientist who worked steadily to add to our knowledge. In more recent times, Rachel Carson observed that there was a decrease in yearling eagles in the data from the counts at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Her studies eventually led her to the culprit - DDT - and resulted in the banning of this dangerous pesticide.

The issue I had with this book other than time was Hannibal's constant weaving of her thoughts of Joseph Campbell into her stories. One chapter - the chapter with Ricketts and Steinbeck - includes Campbell because he was involved with this group of characters before he began his studies of mythology. Because of this, Chapter Nine "Innocence and Experience," was my least favorite and the least informative of her history. Because I am a fan of Steinbeck, this was a disappointment. I am not comfortable with the many faceted ways of writing histories I have been running into lately. They just tend to throw me off the track of the book's intent.

This book was challenging for several reasons. First, because I just do not have the time I used to have for reading. Second, because the topic - although of interest to me - was not presented in a way I am accustomed to. I really struggle these days to get even 10 minutes to read.

If you are interested in becoming a citizen scientist, there are countless projects in every field available just by searching the internet. Some of them do not even require leaving your home.

I recommend this book for the history of this important arm of science, just warning you that she does tend to get off track.

[Lizz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of scattershot. Tries to do too many things and eventually gets hard to follow.

[Andrea Sand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given our current Administration, books such as Citizen Scientist are vital to our planet’s well-being. I salute Mary Ellen Hannibal for the intelligent manner in which she opens our eyes to the fragility of life – not by bludgeoning us over the head with a screed, but by a much more nuanced and beautifully written invitation to observe, accommodate and support the animals and plants all around us, our “fellow travelers on one heroic journey.”

In describing the gift of witnessing the unfolding of her father’s death, Ms. Hannibal throughout the book impressively marries the intimate with the world at large.

Ultimately what I brought away from reading Citizen Scientist was hope. The author recounts how in the midst of a downward spiral over the thought of mass extinction, she was yanked from her gloom while visiting a California state park. The park provides sanctuary for marine mammals, including the huge and hugely impressive elephant seals, hunted to fewer than a hundred animals at the turn of the last century, but making a comeback. Upon Ms. Hannibal’s approach, a seal opened it hose-like mouth and howled at her. “I am here!” it proclaimed.

[Wendy Feltham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Citizen Scientist is a well written book that encourages the reader to become involved and make a difference. This book covers a lot of ground, as Mary Ellen Hannibal writes of the contributions of historic citizen scientists, from Charles Darwin to Ed Ricketts to Rachel Carson, and several current projects and interesting people gathering data about species facing extinction. I really enjoyed reading about Hannibal's participation in citizen science projects on Mt. Tamalpais, low tide, and raptor banding. I especially liked reading about the success of iNaturalist and eBird, since I'm involved in both, especially iNaturalist. It was also fun to get the inside scoop on Steinbeck's wife's relationship with Joseph Campbell. Some unexpected threads recur throughout the book, such as the life and work of Joseph Campbell and the death of the author's father. I think Hannibal focuses too much on citizen science projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I kept wishing she would include more than a few brief mentions of projects in other parts of the country or world.

[Ilana · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and well documented investigation into the merits of citizen scientist. 'Knowing with better accuracy what we are looking at is a virtue of citizen science'. It is a new trend that as in the case of 'citizen journalism' it has the merit of involving more human resources and diverse backgrounds into the scientific investigation. Such an approach, can, for instance, contribute to a comprehensive research into the case of endangered species. It is written simply yet with poignant scientific references, that as in the case of 'H is for Hawk' inserts personal memories into the narrative. An interesting lecture for both scientists and anyone with an interest for serious science.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange of an honest review