MadSci Network

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The MadSci Network is a website known primarily for its Ask-A-Scientist forum where users can ask questions to a panel of volunteer scientists. Each question, submitted via a Web interface, is reviewed by a volunteer moderator. If the question is intelligible, not a homework assignment, and has not been answered previously, it may be answered directly by the moderator, or forwarded to one of hundreds of volunteers---teachers, university faculty and graduate students, engineers, medical doctors, and other professionals. The moderators match each question to a volunteer's area of expertise. After answering the question, the volunteer sends it back to the moderators than review the answer prior to posting it on the web site. The moderator may ask the scientist to edit answer or provide references for information. Thereafter, the majority of questions and answer are made publicly available in the extensive archives, which date back to 1996.

The MadSci Network also hosts the Edible and Inedible Experiments Archive, a unique collection of easy science demos, and a guided tour of data from the Visible Human Project.

MadSci gets approximately 600,000 unique visitors and roughly 3 million page views per month (Stats). It is a non-profit ask-a-scientist site with over 700 scientists distributed globally and has been cited in academic publications, web awards, sites/portals like yahoo.com, etc. (MadSci Awards). The principals are Lynn Bry and Ricky J. Sethi (Organization and Personnel).