Nebraska Earth Science Education Network
The Nebraska Earth Science Education Network has as one of its objectives to promote and enhance K-12 earth science education. The Web site provides lesson plans on various subjects including astronomy, geology, mapping, soils, water, and weather. Each submitted lesson gives a recommended grade level and contains objectives, materials needed, procedures, and conclusions, depending on the activity. The site is a great resource that provides unique and original information from teachers for teache
High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network
The High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) is creating, demonstrating, and evaluating a non-commercial, prototype, high-performance, wide-area, wireless network in three counties in California. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, has installed backbone nodes at the UC San Diego and San Diego State University campuses, and a number of "hard to reach" areas in remote environments. The HPWREN is used for network analysis research and offers high-speed
British Geomorphological Research Group
The British Geomorphology Research Group (BGRG) developed this website addressing its "aim to provide a community and services for all those involved in teaching or research in geomorphology." Visitors will find geomorphological news as well as information and links for upcoming international conferences and seminars. Educators can find assistance in promoting geomorphology in schools. The website provides downloads of recent newsletters, which discuss various geomorphological meetings and studi
NASA: Basics of Space Flight
This online training module created by Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) discusses the concepts related to deep space missions. Through a series of animations and quizzes within the eighteen chapters, visitors can learn about the solar system's environment, flight project details, and flight operations. The website is equipped with an astronomical glossary and a Units of Measure page. Although originally developed for JPL operations people, students and educators interested in interplane
Nuclear Physics Group
This website features the Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Birmingham's research related to understanding nuclei properties by studying the behavior of their constituents. Visitors can learn about the investigations undertaken by the five subgroups: Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions, Exotic beams studies, Laser Spectroscopy of Unstable Isotopes, Positron Emission Tomography, and Nuclear Power Energy. Students and educators can discover how under high temperature and density a quark is
ATM Technology: The Foundation for Broadband Networks
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), one of the key technologies in the transition to broadband telecommunications, is used to transmit "data, video and voice at ultra high speeds." This home page for the ATM Forum is a good place to learn about the technology and its many applications. For people unfamiliar with ATM, the Beginner's Guide to ATM explains some of the basic principles involved in digital communication. More informed readers can download specifications, white papers, case studies, or
Project54
As part of the CATlab project at the University of New Hampshire, Project54 is an integrated system of electronic devices that allows police officers "to interact with equipment such as lights and siren, radar, etc. using speech input and feedback." This website offers a detailed description of the system and its purpose, an image gallery, and several publications and project proposals. Visitors to the site who complete a brief registration can download an interactive demonstration of the Projec
Palm Power
Military equipment often requires significant amounts of electrical power, and it is important for power supplies to be portable and to have large capacities. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency realizes this need for efficient power sources, so it is investigating alternatives to conventional batteries. High energy fuels are the primary focus of the Palm Power project. This Web site discusses the details and goals of the project in introductory sections. More specific information can
Computational Science Center
The Brookhaven Computational Science Center is a collaborative project among researchers in biology, chemistry, physics, and medicine working with applied mathematicians and computer scientists "to exploit the remarkable opportunities for scientific discovery which have been enabled by modern computers." The Center is filling a need for upgrading the computing infrastructure within the Brookhaven National Laboratory and making "the most advanced systems available to researchers throughout the sc
Seville Game Theory Group
Jesus Mario Bilbao Arrese, a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Seville, heads the Seville Game Theory group (SGT). On this website, visitors will find a selection of publications by members of the group, including papers, preprints and PhD theses. The Blackboard section includes various position papers, mostly in Spanish, which address issues such as the value of using scientific methods to understand, design and analyze complex voting systems. The website also provides links
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition
In what looks to be an incredibly successful partnership, the universities of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon have teamed up in an "investigation of the neural mechanisms that give rise to human cognitive abilities..." This site, the online home for the center is packed full of interesting resources for researchers, prospective students, and graduate students alike. The Research section is immensely well organized and fruitful. There is even a way to search for research based on Methods, Topics,
ALICE: A Large Ion Collider Experiment at CERN LHC
This website features the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) collaboration's aim to "study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where the formation of a new phase of matter, the quark-gluon plasma, is expected." The Public section of the website features the construction plan for the detector located at CERN, which will be optimized for heavy-ion physics. Visitors can learn how the collaboration, consisting of one-thousand members from twenty-seven countri
Human Evolution
The first Web site is an article from the New York Times (1) detailing some recent fossil discoveries that are shaking the paleontological world (free registration is required). Another relatively recent article from Guardian Unlimited (2) discusses a scientific debate surrounding the question of whether "a Western lifestyle now protects humanity from the forces that used to shape Homo sapiens." The third resource (3) includes a likely timeline of events in the history of hominids and a tour of
Human Identification at a Distance
The Georgia Institute of Technology is conducting research on Human Identification at a Distance, with an emphasis on gait recognition. Supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project's development of gait recognition systems and algorithms is "an example of an activity-specific biometric: a method of extracting some identifying properties of an individual or of an individual's behavior that is only applicable when a person is performing that specific action." Sev
Earthguide
Earthguide is an educational resource for students and teachers developed by the California Space Institute at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego. Features include in-depth stories, brief topics, and news -- all related to a variety of oceanic and atmospheric science subjects. The section of links and resources is quite valuable, with a large number of links organized by topic, many with brief descriptions.
Deep Content: Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet
This outstanding website is, without question, one of the most comprehensive online resources for learning efficient Internet search techniques. The guide begins with some fairly non-technical background about the Internet and explains why searching such a massive amount of information is more complex than it seems. The general process used by search engines to rank webpages is described. After covering the fundamentals of search engine operation, the guide discusses some best practices to use w
Laboratory of Michael Blades
Located within the Chemistry Department at the University of British Columbia, the Laboratory of Michael Blades studies the "development, characterization, and application of optical and mass spectroscopic methods for chemical analysis." Visitors can download posters to learn about the group's work involving two and three laser ion trap mass spectrometry and fluorescence spectroscopy. The website discusses the group's creation of atmospheric pressure plasma on a chip as a new way of forming an a
Base Valued Numbers
Most basic math classes are taught using the decimal number system, but the concept of number systems that use a base value other than ten is rarely mentioned. This educational website attempts to shed light on this overlooked theme by illustrating some common number systems that have practical value or historic significance. The material is very well presented, helping the reader to understand how numbers are represented in binary, octal, hexadecimal, and many other number systems. It also demo
Quaternary Studies
First, the Irish Quaternary Association (IQUA) website publicizes its aim "to promote Quaternary studies in Ireland through its publications, and the organization of field meetings and conferences" (1). Visitors can learn about the importance of quaternary studies as well as find out the latest news and upcoming meetings. At the second website, the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes the current and recent studies dealing with "basic and applied problems in glacial geology, surficial geolo
The Common Cold
When winter rolls around and we begin to spend more time indoors, the common cold becomes an unfortunate reality for many of us. But for something as common as the cold, misconceptions about it are remarkably common as well. The following collection of Web sites provides an in-depth look at the cold and the cold virus.The first site (1) comes from the Common Cold Care Center of Cardiff University in Wales, and offers a thorough and highly readable introduction to the common cold, including secti
