Internet users with no scientific training have helped discover a new type of galaxy and crack a problem in protein biochemistry that stumped experts, thanks to the power of the internet.

Networked science, also called open science, makes use of collaborative tools such as wikis, blogs, online databases, and games to tap the collective talents or intelligence of many people, including non-scientists — sometimes hundreds of thousands of them — in the pursuit of scientific discoveries.

"It's about the idea that we can use online tools to actually speed up the process of scientific discovery and really transform the way we make discoveries," said Michael Nieslen, author of the new book Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science.

Nielsen spoke to CBC's Spark about about the success of the Galaxy Zoo website. It recruited 250,000 people to classify 150 million galaxies photographed by a robotic telescope, and ended up discovering an entirely new class of galaxy, known affectionately as "green peas."

"What an amazing thing to have done," he said, "[and] it was done by a group of amateurs."