SCIENCE

Backto 1997 EDUCATIONAL LINKS... by Nanis

Jet Propulsion Lab

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
If you are a budding astronaut with an interest in spacetravel you can get access to NASA press releases, flightinformation and pictures from this NASA maintained Web server.News stories may be obtained as they break by finger tonasanews@space.mit.edu
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The Armchair Scientist

http://www.areacom.it/html/ita/loris/armchair.html
Remember those boring science lessons spent staring aimlesslyat the periodic table and unintelligible chemical formulas? Well,the Armchair Scientist promises science full of curiosity andfun. The colourful cartoons and exciting pictures lure thebrowser and you can also view the pages in French and Italian.The sections themselves, alas, are not too inspiring - StrangeChemistry at High Pressures, Anti-Hydrgoen, Palaeolithic CavePaintings and the Technology Show. What pictures there areenliven the site no end, but all too often you are faced withpage after page of heavy scientific jargon. This is a site fortrue boffins and the Science Jokes archive could only amusesomeone in the know, although I did get one about saline on theseven seas! 
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Scientific American

http://www.sciam.com/
Everything about Scientific American smacks of quality, fromarticles by leading academics to glorious photographs andillustrations. But as a monthly title, its news is always old hatto readers of more frequent publications. Until now, that is, asthe US's longest-running magazine has gone on the Web with aweekly edition. News on the latest AIDS research and genesplicing techniques, for example, is presented along withcomprehensive links to other sites, and weekly readers' questionsare answered by experts. A lot of the printed magazine is upthere too, including the fascinating '100 years ago' section withits batty inventions. And big features have links to a glossaryof scientific terms. Superb.
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RDS

http://www.uel.ac.uk/research/rds
We all like the think the days of smoking beagles and shovingshampoo into small creatures' eyes are completely gone, but fromcalves in crates to genetically engineered mice, the battle linesare still drawn. There's a propaganda war in progress between theanimal rights organisations and those involved in animalresearch. RDS (might be worth mentioning what it stands for, eh?)are on the side of science and are attempting to set the recordstraight . Quite frankly, you are hard put to know what to think.Amongst some of the subjects these pages set out to explore isthe exploding of medical research myths, putting researchexperiments in context and some basic facts and figures of whatis done to what (percentage of fluffy bunnies, fish, rats,monkeys and so on). However, a singularly tasteless link towww.peta.org does nothing to support their case. This is a cruelplay on the acronym for People for the Ethical Treatment ofAnimals and is in fact People Eating Tasty Animals (for those whoenjoy eating meat, wearing fur and leather, hunting and thefruits of scientific researchî). Unremarkably, this group iscurrently immersed in a slanging match with the aforementionedanimal rights organisation. To include such clearlyconfrontational material in what purports to a credible documentdoes much to undermine everything RDS says it's doing.
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New Scientist: PlanetScience

http://www.newscientist.com/
New Scientist's appointments section is arguably the bestplace to find a science job in the UK and is still the mostuseful part of its Web site. However, Planet Science has nowexpanded to include collections of features on questions such as'what is consciousness?' and 'what came before the big bang?'Leading pop-science author Paul Davies' article on the beginningof time stimulated excited debate amongst readers, whose lettersyou can read, but unfortunately not reply to, online. Davies nowlives in Australia, which is explored in an eco-tourencapsulating the best and worst of Planet Science. It's reallyfascinating stuff but there are too few pictures.
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National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Commonly found nestling amongst dog-eared piles of Punch andHello magazines in waiting rooms the world over, NationalGeographic almost makes a trip to the dentist worthwhile. Withoutreading a single word, its brilliant photography inspires aspirit of romantic adventure in even the most frequent flyer. Themagazine's Web site almost, but not quite, lives up to itsprinted cousin. Shout 'shiver me timbers' like a ham actor as youtour a Spanish galleon from the perspective of a Spanish sailorlooking for lost treasure, with the RealAudio mainsail creakingin the wind. Guaranteed to keep you occupied for ages.
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MICSCAPE

http://www.demon.co.uk/micscape
OK, so a magazine on microscopy and biology doesn't sound allthat scintillating but actually it's very good. Each month thereare really cool images to view up close and general articles onanything from blood diseases to the wasp sting. It includesreviews of microscopes and specimen preparation techniques andthere's more than enough to occupy you, including a Kid's Corner.
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Invention Dimension

http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/org/i/invent/
These pages are sort of like an extension of a Prize Programbased at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which isawarded each year to someone who has a achieved 'outstandinginventiveness'. It's a site which celebrates the accomplishmentsof American inventors past and present and includes an Inventorof the Week, details of hot research and development happening inlabs across the US, links to information on copyrights, patentsand resources for the inventor (including a patent FAQ) and allthe top stuff going on at MIT. It's pretty cool in a CaractacusPotts kind of way and at the kind of level that most of us canunderstand.
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Explosives on the Web

http://www.breworld.com/explosives.html
Unlikely to cause much of a big bang in the Internet world,Explosives on the Web is primarily for professional pyrotechnictypes - people who bulldoze rocks and blow up tower blocks for aliving. Each month the site includes the editorial, one featureand a competition from Explosives Engineering Journal (muchmusing on powders and cluster weapons). Some broken links makeviewing a bit frustrating, but it's nonetheless suitable forfeeding a harmless adolescent gun fetish!
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Chemicool Periodic Table

http://the-tech.mit.edu/~davhsu/chemicool.html
Swotty herberts use Chemicool for their chemistry homework, acolour-coded image map of all 103 elements in the periodic table.Enter a symbol or click on an image and blimey, it's all there -the ordinary stuff you have to memorise for exams and thendetails on states, energies, oxidation, appearance,characteristics, reaction, conductivity and its abundance in theuniverse. And finally, if you're a subscriber to the EncyclopediaBritannica, a link to relevant articles in there.
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ArchNet

http://www.lib.uconn.edu/ArchNet/
Skulls, fossils, broken tiles and old arrowheads are the verystuff of this site. ArchNet is a superb archaeology resource forprofessionals and amateurs alike. It brings together links fromall over the world and is fully searchable, although it's alsoindexed by archaeological region, academic department and subjectarea. Museums, journals, newsgroups and ListServ lists - they'llall explained and linked to. For theoretical research andpractical examples, ArchNet cannot be bettered.
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MacTutorHistory of Mathematics Archive

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/index.html
This provides a top tutorial for anyone interested in doingsums! Included are short biographies of famous mathematicians;various topics discussed in their historical context, forinstance the rise of calculus, the beginning of set theory andthe quantum age begins; a clickable map of Europe with a load ofmathematicians' birthplaces marked; and an index of famouscurves. It's an approach that makes maths for the uninitiatedslightly more accessible, but don't be fooled into thinking it'sfor any old Tom, Dick or Harry. Anyone for Newton's parabolas? Agreat history lesson with advanced theorem thrown in.
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The Principlesof Protein Structure

http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/PPS2/
Coming out of the University of London's Birkbeck College andpiloted in 95, professor types are currently recruiting for anundergraduate course in, yes, Principles of Protein Structure.Having been the first international multimedia science educationcourse to be taught entirely via the Internet and the World WideWeb, its success looks set to grow and grow.
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Nanothinc

http://www.nanothinc.com:80/NanoHome.html
Quite frankly this nano-business is all a bit beyond Internetmag. Either it's something out of Mork and Mindy or it'ssomething extraordinarily weeny and small. OK, so it's thelatter. Nanothinc is essentially an information service directedprimarily at the scientific community. Stuff on supramolecularchemistry, protein engineering, molecular design, modellingsoftware and nanoscopy can be found in NanoSci. Two otherplatforms, NanoWorld and NanoMarket, are for plebs and businesspeeps respectively. The future looks small.
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Planet Science

http://www.newscientist.com
Predictably near-perfect transition from paper to pixel of apublication that's always accessible in its coverage ofscientific matters, the New Scientist.The Web content has beenadapted to reduce the number of long features, so the informationcomes in screen-manageable form. This also means that extensivearchives can be kept without taking up too much space. PlanetScience.
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Planetary Rings Node

http://ringside.arc.nasa.gov/
Congratulations to Amanda Bosh and Andrew Rivkin who havediscovered four new possible satellites of Saturn. This fullyillustrated catalogue of information (including press releases)on what there is to know about planetary rings is an excellentway to disseminate scientific data.
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Institution ofElectrical Engineers

http://www.iee.org.uk/
Judging by the lectures, publications and group activitieslisted, this is a rather vibrant organisation concerned with thepromotion of the advancement of electrical, electronic andmanufacturing science and engineering. Er...shocking!
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ION Science

http://www.injersey.com/Media/IonSci/
Did you know that reading children's stories to elderlypeople can help them relieve stress? Or that mushrooms may be toblame for sick building sydrome? ION is a weekly update ofscience and natural world news. It's accessible, interesting andeasy to understand.
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Mind Tools

http://www.demon.co.uk/mindtool
Designed as an aid to optimise the performance of the mind,to help you achieve your ambitions and your dreams. Articles onproblem-solving, memory techniques, communication skills andpyschometric testing use a load of trixie psychology solutions.it's great material for management courses.
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Sexshuttle

http://www.hooked.net/alex/people/chuck/sexshuttle.html
Just a little excerpt from Nasa document 14-307-1792, apostflight summary of Experiment 8. Best described as anattempt to study sexual intercourse in the zero-G orbitalenvironment of a shuttle mission or, put more directly, sex inspace. Is this for real?
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InterLab

http://www.interlab.co.uk/interlab
Well wha'd'y'know? The first laboratory event on the Web. Anever-growing list of exhibitors showcase the latest developmentsin anything from pathology to pharmacology, biotechnology to foodscience. It's a way of plugging the products and at the same timemaking sure the rest of the science industry is keeping up.
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Royal Society ofChemistry

http://chemistry.rsc.org/rsc/
The news pages are completely cool as they deal with some ofthe more comprehensible developments in science and chemistrytoday. For those who've always got their scientist head on, thefull range of RSC services and information can be accessed. Watchout for cybersurfing chemists.
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Welding Group

http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/public/sims/weld/
The Cranfield Institute of Technology, coincidently one ofthe world's welding centres of excellence, supplies an industrialstrength selection of on-going projects and research.
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Earth Viewer

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html
View the Earth in space and time with this clever simulator.Maps are generated in real time so you can see the currentpositioning, lighting and shadows.
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Northern Lights-Aurora Borealis

http://www.uit.no/npt/homepage-npt.en.html
If you're ever lucky enough to see the aurora borealis duringa solar storm, you'll never be able to look skyward with the samenonchalance again. It will challenge your paradigm of the visibleuniverse and it's relative stasis. This Norwegian planetariumdoes a commendable job in explaining a polar phenomenon that veryfew people understand.
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EarthView

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/EV/EarthViewHome.html
Find out where it's quaking in the USA or link to otherseismological stations around the world.
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NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/
This is the top level of NASA's mighty presence on the Web.You can get to all its projects and databases via the virtual mapof the USA, plus statements on its policies, missions anddiscoveries, at this site. If you lived through the first moonmissions in the late 60s, some of the images are sure to bringback vivid memories of mankind's greatest step. Check out theKennedy Space Center for the latest on the shuttle or go to theheadquarters in DC to find out its employees' foreign travelallowance loadings for an insight into both ends of the spaceglamour spectrum.
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Entomology Image Gallery

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~entomology/ImageGallery.html
If pictures and movies of lice, ticks, mosquitos and potatobeetles turn you on, you'll leave this area feeling very aroused.
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Myers-Briggs Test

http://sunsite.unc.edu/jembin/mb.pl
This eerily accurate personality test will confirm just whata beast you really are.
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Pi

http://cad.ucla.edu/repository/useful/PI.txt
If you've ever wondered what Pi calculated to a zillion tothe gillionth digits is, here's the answer.
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Volcano World

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/
Volcanic intelligence, images, and educational materialcourtesy of NASA. There's no better place on the Web to monitorthe latest eruptions, look at photos of every major volcano inthe world, virtually tour an Hawaiian smokey or to shop in aVolcano Mall.
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JointInstitute of Nuclear Reasearch

http://www.jinr.dubna.su/
Interested in nuclear research proposals and progress? If so,maybe you can make sense out of this joint venture by Communistand former Communist states.
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Stars and Galaxies

http://www.eia.brad.ac.uk/btl/
This comprehensive multimedia guide has been taken from theCD-Rom Earth and Universe and provides audio, images and movieswith an aim to demonstrating how stars behave, how their energyis generated and a clue about their origin and life cycle.
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Marine Geology andGeophysics

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/aboutmgg/wdcamgg.html
This site houses the World Data Centre for Marine Geology andGeophysics and is maintained by several US depatments with verylong names. It's primarily responsible for all types of data fromthe seafloor, including both in-situ measurements such asseafloor cores, and remotely sensed data such as marinemagnetics, gravity, seismic reflection/refraction and bathymetry.This includes fully searchable inventories, slide sets, posters,relief data and CD-Roms for download or ordering. MGG personnelare available to answer questions by email.
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CICA Projects

http://www.cica.indiana.edu/projects/index.html
These are details, images and results (in some cases) ofprojects undertaken at the Centre for Innovative ComputerApplications. It's not limited to any particular scientificstrain and there are experiments in linguistics, feminism,biology, geometry, fluid flow, geology, 3D, basketball,kinesiology and more. If you have an enquiring scientific mind,you'll surely find something fascinating here.
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Siamese Fighting FishProject

http://www.cica.indiana.edu/projects/Biology/index.html
In this project, animated videos of Siamese fighting fishwere shown on a monitor next to a fish tank to test the behaviourof the real fish. You can download the images and animatedmovies, but at this stage results are not available.
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Space Calendar

http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/calendar.html
A guide to upcoming anniversaries, rocket launches, meteorshowers, eclipses, asteroid and planet viewings, occultations andother space happenings in the intergalactic calendar. Many of theentries have links to pictures, pages and further information.
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Chicago UniversityPhilosophy

http://csmaclab-www.uchicago.edu/philosophyProject/philos.html
This is a forum set up to mediate the scholarly discussion ofphilosophical works. You can join in and voice your opinions onsuch vital subjects as Nelson Goodman's theory of metaphor, thelanguage of thought hypothesis, counterfactuals and Kripke. It'sall fairly basic really and you should be able to bluff your waythrough.
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Known Nuclear Explosions

Gopher:wealaka.okgeosurvey1.gov/
Technical details, coordinates, results and other informationcompehensively recording the use and testing of nuclear devices.There's also access to earthquake catalogues and otherseismological data.
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Space EnvironmentLaboratory

http://www.sel.bldrdoc.gov
If you've been involved in long distance wireless communicationor aviation, you are probably aware of the effects of solaractivity. Otherwise, you may be baffled by the significance ofthe research on these pages. The Space Environment Agencyprovides current space weather, sunspot levels, solar images,research information and a brief explanation of its purpose thatwon't leave you too much wiser.
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The Geometry Centre

http://www.geom.umn.edu/welcome.html
Located at the University of Minnesota, the Geometry Centreaims to develop, support and promote computational tools forvisualising geometric structures in order to stimulatecommunication between mathematicians and the general public.There are forums, geometric software, pictures, workshops andother resources for advanced and novice mathematicians. This isalso the focus site for experiments with WebOOGL, the format fordistributing and linking 3D and higher objects across the Web.
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Web-Elements

http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/Table/index.html
An interactive periodic table allows you to click on anelement and find out more about its properties. There's links toa fairly useless element percentage calculator and an entirelyuseless isotope pattern calculator.
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Behaviour AnalysisHome Page

http://www.coedu.usf.edu/behavior/behavior.html
This page produced by the University of South Floridasupplies links to journals, mailing lists, FTP sites and academicaddresses concerned with behaviour analysis and psychologicalstudies. It's still under construction.
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Robotic Tele-excavation

http://www.usc.edu/dept/raiders
Before you can climb into the cockpit of this interactiveexcavation robot, you'll need to pass a short quiz and,occasionally queue. Once aboard, you have full control and canzoom around a site littered with unknown objects. By aligning thecamera and air blasting the terrain, you get to uncover things...
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Royal Observatory,Edinburgh

http://www.roe.ac.uk/
The main attraction for the layperson here is the superbcollection of photographs from telescopes around the world.Detailed pictures of constellations and nebulae, usually thepreserve of academics, are made publicly available. Some save youtime by providing thumb nail previews before loading the fullhigh resolution image. The home page claims it gets over 5,000visits each week from over 30 countries. This superbly designedsite should please professional and amateur astronomers alike.
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Space Systems Laboratory

http://www.ssl.umd.edu
A brief overview of studies into the applications oftelerobotics in space, carried out at the University of Maryland.Better still, use the link to NASA to get a more coherent andcomprehensive presentation of the scope of these projects.
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The Solstice Home Page

http://solstice.crest.org
This site lists Internet resources in alternative energy andsustainable IT. It includes discussions of such issues asnon-motorised vehicles in Asia and a tour of photo-voltaicinstallations in Switzerland.
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National ScienceFoundation

Gopher:nic.merit.edu:70 /1/.nsf-info
Historical statistics of traffic traversing the NSF Net,which are easily loadable into spreadsheet format.
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The Magellan Missionto Venus

http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/
Here you'll find news releases and historical footage takenfrom the first planetary spacecraft launched from a spaceshuttle. There are enough images, animations and technicaldocuments on Venus and the project itself to satisfy even themost ardent astrophile. However, don't bother if you're lookingfor evidence of extraterrestrial life forms. Apparently thosephotos are kept in a secret vault called the X files. The missionrecently concluded with the craft resting in pieces on thesurface of Venus.
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