Science & Technology Web Resources

Introduction

This is the official FSME Web Resources thread. It contains links to sites of interest for the Science & Technology section. Any additions or suggestions? U2U me, amantine. I'll keep it updated, so feel free to it to your favourites. New items have the emoticon behind them. Last updated: 19-8-2004

General

Arxiv - All your physics/math/astronomy preprint needs.

Google Directory: Science - Google has a great guide to all kind of science links. If you can't find it here, you probably can't find it anywhere.

Scirus - A scientific search engine. It's good for searching only in journals or educational sites.

Internet FAQ Archives - A database of Usenet FAQs. This includes a lot of scientific FAQs.

HowStuffWorks - This site has good explanations of all sorts of things.

MIT OpenCourseWare - "A free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world." Yes, 700+ free university-level courses for you to download.

Nature Journal - Probably the most well known scientific journal. There are some free articles on their site.

SparkNotes - Study guids for a lot of different subjects.

The Journal of Modern Problem Solving - "The journal provides a source of modern problem solving for students and teachers from grade school through grad school and beyond in all subjects that use mathematics for problem solving." This site offers a lot of great examples how to solve scientific problems. It has different sections for math, physics and chemistry. These sections are also mentioned in the other categories.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

Astronomy and Cosmology
My FSME-collegue cmdrkeenkid has made a Web Resources thread for the Space Exploration forum. You can find it here.

AstronomyWorld - This is Wolfram Research's encyclopedia for astronomy. It's not complete yet, but more articles are being added every day.

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy - I think this site is well known around here. It especially discusses the Lunar Hoax theory and Planet X really well. The forum is also worth checking out.

Chris Hillman's Some Scientifically Inaccurate Claims Concerning Cosmology and Relativity - I think the title explains this.

Foundations of Modern Cosmology - This tutorial uses the question/answer format. Most questions about cosmology or relativity can be found here.

Heavens-Above - Information about interesting astronomy events. For example, you can check the co�rdinates of meteor showers.

Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial - A undergraduate level tutorial in Cosmology. It features a lot of figures and is pretty easy to understand.
Ned Wright's Frequently Asked Questions in Cosmology - I think that everyone here should at least have read this article once. In the Science and Technology section there's always at least one Big Bang thread on the first page. Many of the people posting in those thread don't really seem to have a good idea what the Big Bang theory really is. This site should help them if they don't want to spend their time reading books or online tutorials as the one above.

Science at NASA - This is NASA's science site.

SpaceWeather - For all the amateur astronomers out there, but also for other people interested in astronomy.

Usenet Astronomy FAQ - A general FAQ from the sci.astro newsgroup.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

Biology and Medicine

Kimball's Online Biology Textbook - An great online biology textbook. The entire site is interlinked and has search functions. All the general information you want about biology is there.

Family Practice Notebook - "An ongoing compendium of the diagnosis and management of common medical problems seen in Family Practice." This site has a lot of information about a lot of diseases. The information is presently schematically and is interlinked, so you can quickly find what you need.

NCAHF - National Council Against Health Fraud - This site makes objective evaluations of alternative medicine in their Position Papers. They also provide a lot of links.

NCBI - The home of PubMed (a database of medical articles) and other searchable databases.

Quackwatch - A huge site with a lot of subsites about consumer protection in health. They have a lot of information of alternative medicine in their "Questionable Products, Services, and Theories" section.

The Skeptic's Dictionary - Alternative Medicine - The Skeptic Dictionary's section about alternative medicine.
The Skeptic's Dictionary - Cryptozoology - The Skeptic Dictionary's section about cryptozoology.

Talk.Origins Archive - A site about the evolution/creationism debat. Thanks to Byrd for suggesting it.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

Chemistry

WebElements - An online periodic table with a lot of other information about the elements as well.

ChemistryWorld - This is Wolfram Research's encyclopedia for chemistry. It's not complete yet, but more articles are being added every day.

Kevin Lehmann's Bad Chemistry - "The purpose of this page is to bring to light commonly mistaught concepts in the field of Chemistry." This site isn't very large, but the mistaught concepts do occur much.

The Journal of Modern Problem Solving - Chemistry - The Journal of Modern Problem Solving's section on chemistry. They explain very clearly how to solve the most general chemistry questions.
The Journal of Modern Problem Solving - More Chemistry - Additional examples.

NIST Chemistry Database - A very comprehensive databases of substances. Not really for the non-scientist, because there are a lot of terms.

Usenet Chemistry FAQ - A general FAQ from the sci.chem newsgroup.

Earth Sciences

GeoMan's Earth Science Websites - Links to all kind of Earth Science websites: tectonics, vulcanology, economic geology, etc.

Alistair Fraser's Bad Meteorology - Mistakes in meteorology explained and corrected.

USGS Maps and Aerial Photos - Get your free maps and aerial photos here.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

History

In the Hall of Maat - Weighing the Evidence for Alternative History - "The aim of this site is to provide a well reasoned case for the mainstream version of ancient history. We will present articles that validate our true heritage and that dispute the proposals used to support the belief in a lost civilization that seeded the familiar ancient cultures of the world."

Graham Hancock's Official Website - Graham Hancock is the main advocate of alternative history. Although I don't agree with his views, I added this anyway for people interested in other (unproven) theories about the history of mankind.

Paul Halsall's History Sourcebooks Project - This site has a lot of links to free, copy-permitted history textbooks. Their database is enormous.

Mathematics

MathWorld - The ultimate mathematics resource. Over 10000 articles are included in this interlinked and searchable database.
MathWorld - Functions - A resource of a lot of the functions used in math, physics, astronomy and chemistry.
MathWorld - Integrals - Automated symbolic integrator. It can do complicated integrations symbolically really fast. Handy if you don't have the time to do integrals yourself.
MathWorld - Graphics Gallery - A lot of nice 2d and 3d pictures and animations. This is not really educational, but some of those pictures are nice.

The Journal of Modern Problem Solving - Algebra - The Journal of Modern Problem Solving's section on algebra. They explain very clearly how to solve general algebra questions.

Algebra.help - This site has a lot of tutorials on all the different aspects of algebra.

Ask Dr. Math - Mathematicians answer questions emailed to them. You can also ask questions.

Hypermath - A handy overview of mathematics. Thanks to Quicksilver for pointing this one out.

Mathematical Atlas: A gateway to Mathematics - "This is a collection of short articles designed to provide an introduction to the areas of modern mathematics and pointers to further information, as well as answers to some common (or not!) questions."

QuickMath - Automic Math Solutons - This is basicly an online calculator, but it can also do algebra, differentials and intergrals.

The Glossary of Mathematical Mistakes - "A site dedicated to the listing of mathematical mistakes made over and over by advertisers, the media, reporters, politicians, activists, and in general many non-math people."

The MathServ Calculus Toolkit - Another online calculator that is similar to QuickMath.

The Prime Pages - The name says it all, a site about prime number research, records and resources.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

Physics

PhysicsWorld - This is Wolfram Research's encyclopedia for physics. It's not complete yet, but more articles are being added every day.

The Journal of Modern Problem Solving - Phyiscs - The Journal of Modern Problem Solving's section on algebra. They explain very clearly how to solve the most common physics problems.
The Journal of Modern Problem Solving - More Phyiscs Problems - Additional examples.

An introduction to Quantum Computing - What will quantum computers be able to do what current can't?

Andrew Hamilton's Falling into a Black Hole - What happens when you fall into a black hole?

Physics 1501 - An overview of the entire subject of physics from the University of Winnipeg.

Physics 2000 - An easier physics overview from the University of Colorado. Thanks to Kano for pointing this one out.

Physics Formulary - A reference of physics equations. It's 108 pages long and free to download in English and Dutch.

HyperPhysics - A handy overview of physics. Thanks to Quicksilver for pointing this one out.

Particle Data Group - A free online database of all information known about elemental particles. A lot of references to additional articles in scientific magazines.

Physics Booklist - An extensive list of recommended books on a lot of different physics subjects. All levels are included; graduate, undergraduate, interested layman, etc.

Quantum Mechanics Tutorial part 1 - This is a very good tutorial in the often-misunderstood field of Quantum Mechanics. It can be a bit difficult sometimes.
Quantum Mechanics Tutorial part 2 - Part 2 of the tutorial mentioned above.

The 'Official' String Theory Web Site - An explanation of Superstring Theory on two different levels.

The Particle Adventure - A nice introduction to particle physics. It explains a lot about the subatomic particles and their properties without much math.

The Hyperphysics Textbook - An online physics textbook.

Theoretical physics reviews and lectures - A compiled list of papers at the frontiers of physics.

Usenet Physics FAQ - A general FAQ from the sci.physics newsgroup.

Table of Nuclides - A list of all isotopes. It also has a list of a gamma-ray energies with corresponding decays.

Weird Science - Links to skeptic and non-skeptic sites about weird science (antigravity, cold fusion, etc.).

Physics: Relativity

The Journal of Modern Problem Solving - Special Relavity - A extra section about Special Relativity.

Andrew Hamilton's Relativity and Black Hole links - A nice collection of links about relativity and black holes.
Andrew Hamilton's Tour of Special Relativity - Andrew Hamilton explains special relativity simply and without much math.

Chris Hillman's Relativity on the World Wide Web - Very recommended. This site offers a lot of links to explanations, free books and free software.
Chris Hillman's Some of Expository Postings on Relativity - Chris Hillman answers common and non-common (usually mathematical) questions about relativity.
Chris Hillman's Some Scientifically Inaccurate Claims Concerning Cosmology and Relativity - I think the title explains this.
Chris Hilmann's Observational and Experimental Evidence Bearing on General Relativity - A comprehensive article about the evidence for relativity.

John Baez's General Relativity Tutorial - John Baez explains General Relativity mathematically. Warning: not for those weak in math.

Ned Wright's Relativity Tutorial - Ned Wright explains relativity completely mathless.

Relativity and Faster-than-Light travel - A very good explanation of special and general relativity that tries to explain the problems with faster-than-light travel and how these problems might be solved.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

Misc.

Artchive - All you wanted to know about art. There are pictures of art and detailed descriptions of styles and individual artists.

Arts & Letters Daily - Ok, so this is not really science. I still think it's worth adding. It has a lot of links to good articles on the internet, especially about philosophy, art and literature.

Biographies of Famous Scientists - Wolfram Research's site about famous scientists and their discoveries.

Encyclopedia Mythica - A huge encyclopedia on the different mythologies around the world.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - A free online encyclopedia of ancient and mordern philosophy. Ofcourse books are better if you want to learn philosophy, but it's a good reference if you need to find something fast.

Skeptical resources

Csicop: Free online articles - Csicop has in my opinion the best skeptical magazine. It is well referenced and best of all, there are free articles on their site.

Donald Simanek's Pages of Skepticism - A site with links to a lot of skeptical articles.

The Skeptic's Dictionary - This site has a well-researched response to almost all "Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions". The different articles all have links and book recommendations for further information. Some sections of this site are mentioned in other categories as well. I recommend that before you post a thread, you first check if the subject isn't mentioned here. That will keep this section free of the already discussed and debunked subjects.
The Skeptic's Dictionary - Alternative Medicine - The Skeptic Dictionary's section about alternative medicine.
The Skeptic's Dictionary - ETs & UFOs - The Skeptic Dictionary's section about ETs & UFOs.
The Skeptic's Dictionary - Cryptozoology - The Skeptic Dictionary's section about cryptozoology.
The Skeptic's Dictionary - Occult & Supernatural - The Skeptic Dictionary's section about Occult & Supernatural phenomena.
The Skeptic's Dictionary - Junk Science and Pseudoscience - A section of a above-mentioned site with information about some general pseudosciences.

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy - I think this site is well known around here. It especially discusses the Lunar Hoax theory and Planet X really well. The forum is also worth checking out.

Alistair Fraser's Bad Meteorology - Mistakes in meteorology explained and corrected.

NCAHF - National Council Against Health Fraud - This site makes objective evaluations of alternative medicine in their Position Papers. They also provide a lot of links.

Quackwatch - A huge site with a lot of subsites about consumer protection in health. They have a lot of information of alternative medicine in their "Questionable Products, Services, and Theories" section.

Snopes - An archive of urban legends.

The Klass Files - An archive of skeptic UFO and ET articles.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by amantine]

Here's a cool site that has links to other useful sites

To give you an idea, this is only one of the links, very interactive
www.ieee-virtual-museum.org...

Things I use in my job every day:

eFunda stands for engineering Fundamentals. Its mission is to create an online destination for the engineering community, where working professionals can quickly find concise and reliable information to meet the majority of their daily reference needs

www.efunda.com...

With over 11,000 standards in the collection, ASTM meets the needs of numerous industries and services, including ferrous and nonferrous metals, waste disposal, construction materials, petroleum, textiles, computer systems, medical devices and sports equipment. The annual ASTM Book of Standards contains many new and revised standards and updates that appear for the first time including specification documents, test methods, classifications, practices and guides.

global.ihs.com...

Engineering ebooks


www.memoware.com...!Engineering~!

Mil Specs

www.dscc.dla.mil...


Nasa Technical Standards

standards.nasa.gov...



Journal of Materials Science

www.mrs.org...

Material Property Data Search

www.matls.com...

Mod Edit: changed code tags to quote only.

[edit on 29-11-2005 by UM_Gazz]

Another useful link (thak you Jadette):

NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) Project Public Information Site.

www.lerc.nasa.gov...

Another link to add to the list:

A physics textbook.

www.motionmountain.net...

Also for Chemistry

www.aist.go.jp...

If you have any spectroscopic data that you need help interpreting, the Spectral Database for Organic Compounds is the place to go.

They have a HUGE spectral library which incudes entries for MS, IR, Proton NMR, CNMR, Raman, and ESR spectra.

You can search by Compound Name, Molecular Formula, Molecular Weight ranges, CAS Registry Number, as well as entered data from spectral results (e.g. you can type in you MS or NMR peaks and intensities and you will be given a list of best matches).

A million out of 5 stars.

[edit on 9-3-2006 by Ralph_The_Wonder_Llama]

Here is a link to the text of an important magazine article from 2002 I haven't seen discussed yet on ATS:

www.theatlantic.com...

I forwarded the article to a friend of mine who is a software development expert. He told me that the article was appropriately pessimistic. I guess that the CIA, NSA, et. al. are hoping that Mr. Budiansky's discussion piece won't attract too much of the wrong kind of attention.

The implications of this article are mindboggling, stating for example why the odds of non-detectability will remain with encryption code users/developers for the forseeable future.

PS: I looked over the Sci/Tech section and other areas of ATS for software forums but I didn't see them. Sorry if I missed a more appropriate thread.

Here are two sites which have helped me to learn calculus on my own, since both sites will give immediate answers to problems (once answer data is entered of course...you still have to figure out problems with pencil and paper first, or in your head, if you are so gifted...lucky you!):

cow.math.temple.edu..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">COW, Calculus on the Web

www.themathpage.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">TheMathPage

I just find both sites to give good examples and pretty good explanations of calculus, especially when you're trying to learn it yourself. And believe me, I've tried a few teach-yourself calculus books, with not much luck...so...
and these two sites give all the preliminaries too, like logs, trig, functions, graphing, polynomials, and so on...



[edit on 14-6-2006 by Astarfaraway]

For some reason, my links above won't work.
Here they are again:

cow.math.temple.edu... COW, Calculus on the Web

www.themathpage.com... TheMathPage

sorry...