How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com

Ever wonder how a plasma display works, or a coffee maker, or a diesel engine or even a mortgage? Want to know what to do when your car’s “check engine” light comes on? If so, this is the site for you. It’s run by a private company and contains advertising and marketing for its own products, but it’s loaded with clear and accurate information.

Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu

This site is run by the San Francisco Exploratorium, a non-profit organization which has more than 650 science and arts displays at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. The site has more than 15,000 web pages explaining the science behind music, sports, weather, cooking and many more subjects and also offers live webcasts. The site gets more than 15 million visitors a year.

Try Science
http://www.tryscience.org

This site is a partnership between IBM, the New York Hall of Science and the Association of Science-Technology Centers. It has dozens of experiments you can do at home, on-line interactive adventures, a guide to many science centers and science field trips, and live cams from many science and technology centers worldwide.

Nova
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova

The web site for the award-winning Public Television series lets you watch or read transcripts of hundreds of programs and offers interactive material to go with each program. Programs can be searched by category. It also has teacher’s guides for the programs and sells DVDs and videos of programs.

SETI Institute
http://www.seti.org

Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI.org). This site includes many articles, photos, teachers’s guides and other materials concerning radio-astronomy and the search for other intelligence in the universe. It also tells how you can use your home PC to aid the search by analyzing data from the Arecibo Radio Telescope–thousands of PCs are already using the free screensaver/software.

Periodic Table of the Elements
from the American Chemical Society
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/80th/elements.html

This is the web version of a special edition of Chemical and Engineering News which featured short and interesting essays about every element, written by distinguished scientists. Professor Shakhashiri wrote the essay on lead–you can take a shortcut to it by clicking on the picture of Bucky Badger on our home page.

The Why? Files
http://whyfiles.org

This site was started by the National Institute for Science Education and is now run by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School. It has a new science article every week–there are now hundreds in the archives as well as many images and interactive features. The articles are accessible but not dumbed down, and the site has won many awards.

Engineer Girl!
http://www.engineergirl.org

Engineer Girl, from the National Academy of Engineering. This site offers lots of information for girls, of course, but also for anyone interested in an engineering career. It gives a good idea about how to go about becoming an engineer and also has topics like “fun facts” and “great achievements.”

Science NetLinks
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com

Science Netlinks, run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It consists of links to sites reviewed by the editors to support standards-based learning and teaching.

Genetic Science Learning Center
http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu

Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah. This site does an excellent job of explaining genetics from the basics to somewhat advanced material. It has neat things to do like extracting DNA from any living thing and it also deals with legal and social controversies in a balanced manner.

The Particle Adventure
http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure

The Particle Adventure, from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Supported by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, the site offers an interactive tour of sub atomic particles. From basic to rather advanced material, it’s an excellent, comprehensive treatment of the subject.

PBS Kids ZOOM
http://pbskids.org/zoom

PBSKidsZOOM. This site has lots of experiments and activities to do at home, from the PBS kids show.

Physics Central
http://www.physicscentral.com

Physics Central, from the American Physical Society. This site has lots of interesting articles from the acoustics of laughter to the physics of computers and building a better turkey. It also has profiles of people in physics, including women and minorities, and great pictures.

What's That Stuff?
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff.html

What’s That Stuff? Home page of the on-line version of Chemical and Engineering News. Great articles on 40 common items from baseballs to jell-o to kitty litter!

Nobel e-Museum
http://www.nobel.se

The site has information about the prizes, biographies of all the winners, many articles by Nobel winners, and articles about their discoveries. It also has games about many science topics (you need flashplayer 6).

Cool Science for Curious Kids
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience

Cool Science for Curious Kids, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has several interactive lessons designed for grade school kids.