Science Guide
Organizations
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The quintessential all-science org., and their EurekAlert news blog is timely.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
A lively site, and check out the star parties if you’re going to be in the area.
UK museum lets you explore nature online ; excellent online Mammal exhibition.
Resource for, among other things, some terrific science podcasts ( An Inquisitive Age, Balloon Madness, and Why Creationism is Wrong and Darwin is Right - to list only three); as well as Trailblazing - 60 historical papers presented between 1665 and 2010.
IUCN - The World Conservation Union
The IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species
Magazines
Website from the leading magazine of it’s genre.
Source of latest biology news.
Source of science, technology, health and environmental news. What are 101 amazing earth facts?
Nature magazine has their entire history of magazines archived online, going back to 1869.
“The ultimate science and technology website.”
Online resource for latest research.
“Science Special Issues” archives were most useful (accessible under “Collections”)
Magazine of the Life Sciences
Many interesting articles, plus check out their amazing picture gallery. For podcast lovers, there’s also 60 Second Science.
Here you’ll find a large collection of pictures, videos, multimedia, and trivia. What are the strangest things in space? Where is the rest of the universe?
Fields
Anatomy
3D human body that you can travel (like Google Maps but focused on anatomy).
Astronomy
European Space Agency has a collection of satellite images.
Help astronomers classify the gazillion galaxies photographed but not yet categorized.
Browse and observe the universe; including different wavelengths.
pdf of hacks created for Google Earth, Google Sky and Twitter; by Robert Simpson.
Database of all NASA images, from the folks at Internet Archive.
Largest interest group centered around space exploration; lots of pics, such as those taken from planetary spacecraft or geostationary satellites, as well as those of our solar system.
“The internet’s virtual telescope,” lets you view and download pictures.
National Geographic site helps you explore those bodies closest to us.
GIF image changes to show earth in relation planets in our solar system, then continues expanding in size.
The Nobel Foundation’s explanation of the life and death of stars; utilizes a game that includes images, animation, video and text.
Free downloadable “planetarium” for your desktop.
See images of rivers of molten gases and earth-sized sun spots.
Universe within 1 billion light years.
The Check out the draggable space model with constellations highlighted, learn more about distant stars or you can even see a model of the stars that are above you right now.
It’s a virtual telescope that uses real images taken by the Hubble and other telescopes, knitted together seamlessly.
Anthropology/Archaeology
The digital archaeology atlas of the holy land; first try spatial search, or the Palestine Exploration Fund Historic Maps, or by time period or ancient empires of the area.
Penn Museum has a great collection on online exhibits; consider Glass Making in Roman Times or Origins/Ancient History of Wine.
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Films; Expedition to Tikal; 1000 mile road trip across America; Catawba Indians.
Biology
Journal of Visualized Experiments
Hundreds of peer reviewed video protocols demonstrating experimental techniques in the fields of neuroscience, cellular biology, developmental biology, immunology, bioengineering, microbiology and plant biology.
Open a door to the wonder of the microscopic world - recreate some of the excitement and wonder that the earliest biological researchers found as they discovered another world all around them; Features; Galleries.
The human immune system; watch the Neutrophil Chemotaxis, Neutrophil chasing a Bacterum. Human Granulocytes Kill Cervical Cancer Cells,
The Secret Social Lives of Bacteria (TED video / Bonnie Bassler)
Top 10 Amazing Biology Videos (Wired).
The Genius of Charles Darwin (video of interview by Richard Dawkins of Stephen Pinker).
Ask Nature is the project of the Biomimicry Institute; Featured Pages is a good starting point.
Botany
The Linnean herbarium at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm comprises some 4000 herbarium specimens, several of which are types formally designated by various experts.
Chemistry
Great resource for chemists, molecular biologists, and others.
Wired’s pick of the 10 most amazing chemistry experiement videos of all time.
University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry collaboration covers all 118 elements.
Theodore Gray’s periodic table is awesome.
A look at the elements and how they got their names.
Ecology
Online review articles about ecology, natural history and the environment.
Geography
Plate tectonic development of the ocean basins and continents over the last 1110 million years.
Geology
American Geological Institute’s resource, includes interactive timeline and photo image bank.
Illustrated descriptions/explanations of everything from earthquakes and glaciers to volcanoes.
The Virtual Museum of Minerals and Molecules, from the University of Wisconsin.
US Geologic Society focuses on biology, geography, geology, geospatial information, and water.
Genetics
Interactive chart; slide the bar at the bottom and zoom into a hidden world.
Genetic Science Learning Center
University of Utah; learn about stem cells, gene therapy, epigenetics and heredity. You can even study chronic addiction.
Meterology
Live lightning strike map of U.S. (last 60 minutes).
Discovery Channel site with good interface lets you see the dynamics of weather and climate.
Tornado Videos Net is now streaming live; you can now be notified of a chase in progress (top left chase notification); or just watch Reed Timmer of Storm Chasers.
Neuroscience
Videos from leading brain researchers explain what scientists have learned about the workings of the mind - and how they made their discoveries.
Live storm chasing action can be found here. Impressive technology.
Paleontology
Stephen J. Gould
The Official Stephen J. Gould Archive (still under development, but includes two of his books and his Harvard course online); the Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive, includes a video archive;
Physics
Free Phisics Video Lectures Online
The Mechanical Universe…and Beyond is a critically-acclaimed series of 52 thirty-minute videotape programs covering the basic topics of an introductory university physics course - each program opens and closes with Caltech Professor David Goodstein.
Spotlighting exceptional research; expert-written viewpoints; topical-interest trends; synopses summarizes important papers meriting wider attention.
Monthly magazine of news, features and reviews.
Good source of latest physics and astronomy stories, references and directories.
Photons, Corpuscles of Light. Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics. Lectures on Electricity and Magnetism.
Professor Julius Sumner Miller
A large collection of the physics professor in action on YouTube.
Resources
Database of ageing and life history of animals
David Attenborough’s Life of Birds on YouTube.
Atom
The Clash of the Titans, The Key to the Cosmos, The Illusion of Reality. Three wonderful hours of BBC science.
This tenth century manuscript is the unique source for two of Archimedes Treatises, The Method and Stomachion, and it is the unique source for the Greek text of On Floating Bodies; the project to preserve, image and study the document; the manuscript.
Site covers bloggers posts on basic concepts in science.
General definitions, background information and examples from biology, chemistry, physics and math.
Beyond Belief Enlightenment 2.0: video(s) of the five sessions of the 2007 Beyond Belief conference on science and religion (each approx. 4 hours long).
Break The Science Barrier
Originally broadcast on Britain’s Channel 4 in 1996, Break the Science Barrier follows the Oxford Biologist Richard Dawkins as he meets with people who have experienced the wonders of science first-hand: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Cafe Scientific helps you locate where the upcoming meet will take place- the rise of science cafes. Founded in London, the global network of Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings take place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.
E.O. Wilson of Harvard “Lord of The Ants” (PBS) 5-Part Series.
Medical search and data visualization rolled into one.
The complete works of Darwin online.
Molecular Visualization of DNA is a short YouTube video with amazing visuals
Collection of moving diagrams illustrate basic planetary science and geographic related data.
Resource of known meteor impact sites by continent.
University of Texas site lays out lessons on electronic circuits.
Aims to detail all 1.8 million known plant and animal species in a net archive. Individual species pages will include photographs, video, sound and maps, collected and written by experts.
Searchable database of equations, constants, symbols and SI units, arranged by field.
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. Richard Feynman fan has lots of company. More Feynman videos here. And here. And here, too. Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman (pdf).
Free Science Videos and Lectures
Listing of all frogs, including pictures and sounds.
The Mathematician and the Pied Puzzler; Gathering For Gardner Foundation; Puzzle Craft.
A site that helps you “explore, create and share intelligent maps.”
Database contains over 8 million geographical names, including over 6 million unique features.
Access hundreds of geographic sites from around the world; source of maps.
Information and links about space-related hobbies, including amateur astronomy, satellite design, and rocketry for both beginners and experts.
Listen to the sound of silence at the last great American river; or, visit the Western Soundscape Archive.
How To Think About Science (CBC Radio).
If science is neither cookery, nor angelic virtuosity, then what is it? Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything was subject to science, but science itself largely escaped scrutiny. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Historians, sociologists, philosophers and sometimes scientists themselves have begun to ask fundamental questions about how the institution of science is structured and how it knows what it knows. David Cayley talks to some of the leading lights of this new field of study.
Amazing stargazing. Here’s their entire picture gallery.
Wellcome has a stunning interactive site allowing users to cruise the human heart; learn just about anything you want, while being stunned by the amount of time and effort that went into this amazing site.
Dr. Kay Holekamp’s site; hyena pictures; The Hyena Pages.
Lectures from leading scientists on such topics as stem cells to HIV to Biofuel.
The Journal of Visualized Experiments helps you see actual experiments.
Website brings together images and insights on science and culture.
National Geographic: where you can learn more about our solar system.
International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge: 2008 Winners.
Virtual map journey of modern mankind over the last 160,000 years (3 minutes).
Science talks for non-experts; hit the more button for much more.
Visual of all known objects in our solar system larger than 200 miles in diameter.
The history of science and invention, from the 18th Century to present (UK Science Museum).
Medical PhotosWellcome Trust releases 2000 years of medical photographs
News and research on nanotechnology, by the Pew Charitable Trust and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
A resource for people learning anatomy.
15 minute online course that will help you identify constellations, stars and planets and help you navigate at night.
Kid site from the American Museum of Natural History that helps kids study the ologies, like biology, geography, astronomy, etc.
Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology
POSTnotes are brief summaries prepared for members includes topics like HIV, power storage and next generation broadband access.
All about understanding penguin response to climate change.
Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham)
Physical and astronomy reference.
During the Mesozoic period, prehistoric marine reptiles roamed the ancient oceans.
Eames (their work) famous documentary that explores the expression of systems and connections; Cosmic View, the universe in 40 jumps (the book that underpinned the film written by Kees Boeke.
Blog from several climate scientists and geophysicists; searchable and browsable
Links to general and subject-specific animations.
A science video search engine where all videos have been prescreened by scientists as to accuracy.
Epact is a joint electronic brochure of Medievil and Renaissance science instruments; Instruments For Natural Philosophy is another cataloging early physics instruments.
Science images searchable by category.
Web portal to science research and scientific journals.
Chronology from 7th millenium BC to present.
Partnering with the Public Library of Science, the National Science Foundation and the San Diego Supercomputer Center, SciVee is a platform allowing scientists to share their research through any combination of text, video, audio, and online discussions.
Science Visualization Challenge - 2006
Winners of the 200s science and engineering challenge are presented, as well as an archive of past winners.
Eric Weisstein’s World of Science covers the basics like astronomy, chemistry, physics and biography.
Eric’s Slide Rule Site has everything you need to know about slide rules, and how to get one.
Star Sizing
Snow Crystals is all about snow structure and snowflakes.
Who knew VY Canis Majoris was so large, and our sun so small.
Timeline of Evolutionary Thought
History of evolutionary thought through a few of the key thinkers, from Aristotle to Alfred Wegener.
Talk on Death By Black Hole
Often the shortest route is a straight line between two points, unless of course you live on a sphere. (Unless, of course, you wanted to dig a really big hole.)
Water anomalies and water structure.
Microscopic videos help you peer into such things as Hair, Concrete and Steel.
Wildlife Disease Information Node
US Geological Survey in partner with University of Wisconsin site tracks news of disease outbreaks in wild and domesticated animals.
One of the best writers of science; What is a species? Expressing our individuality, the way E. Coli do. Devious butterflies, full-throated frogs and other liars.
Science Talks
Dr. Richard Hamming’s talk centered on his observations and research on the question “Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run?”
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.
Eugene Wegner’s talk focuses on two observations: The first point is that mathematical concepts turn up in entirely unexpected connections. Secondly, just because of this circumstance, and because we do not understand the reasons of their usefulness, we cannot know whether a theory formulated in terms of mathematical concepts is uniquely appropriate.
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics.
Dr. Richard Hamming’s response to Eugene Wegner’s talk.
Ivan Sutherland (pdf).