A conservation group established in 1970, the Peregrine Fund attempts to conserve wildlife and educate the next generation of conservationists by focusing on birds. The Web site, "made possible in part by Exxon," will tell you everything you want to know about the group, as well as give you numerous opportunities to apply for membership or buy some of the wares hawked by the Peregrine Fund. If you're more interested in birds than in the Fund, you won't find much here, although the Field Notes section contains some information of interest to ersatz ornithologists. - Mike Hase
InfoMine doesn't provide a gentle introduction to any scientific topic, but it does greatly help researchers filter some of the noise out of the Internet. One of many InfoMine sections from the University of California, this one contains "scholarly Internet resource collections" on the biological, agricultural, and medical sciences. Providing access to more than 2200 resources, including texts, subject guides, and databases, InfoMine aims to become a one-stop site for those attempting to do serious, university-level research via the Internet. Given the pearls-in-the-mud nature of the Internet, sites such as this are invaluable to those trying to access reliable information. - Mike Hase
A "large family comprising mostly tropical herbs and shrubs [including] many popular cultivated ornamentals, such as gloxinias and African violets." Such is a Gesneriad. It is also a topic with which Ronald Myhr, a psychologist by day, is completely obsessed. His Gesneriad page is an excellent resource for anyone interested in this beautiful family of flowers. The hundreds of images are cataloged both alphabetically and by genre, allowing you to quickly find a picture of your chosen flower, read a short note about it, and then follow a link to a discussion of its genus. Scholarly articles on Gesneriad botany, Chirita taxonomy, and links to other Gesneriad pages round out the site. - Mike Hase
The Optical Microscopy Division of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory brings us a somewhat bizarre Web site. Michael Davidson, head of the division and world renowned for his colorful and stunning photomicrographs, will apparently stick anything under the microscope and take its picture. Many of these photos look like high art and, indeed, Davidson's photos have hung in numerous galleries and graced the covers of several prestigious journals. The Web site contains an eclectic collection of these photomicrographs, including shots of beers from around the world, several different cocktails, DNA, moon rocks, and ice cream. The pictures are breathtaking, although you seldom know exactly what you're looking at. - Mike Hase
Visiting the NCBI made my head hurt. A joint project of the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine, the NCBI catalogs gigabytes of information on DNA, provides numerous mechanisms for searching its databases, and furnishes tools for analyzing the data. The NCBI Web site, an invaluable resource for geneticists around the world, furnishes easy access to this staggering volume of genetic data. If you're a molecular biologist or a biotechnology researcher, you probably have a daily need for this site. Mere mortals, on the other hand, will simply grow confused by delving into this site's offerings. - Mike Hase
The name says it all. Produced by the University of Texas at Austin Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, this site contains QuickTime movies of organic reactions, an MPEG periodic table, and some info on high-temperature superconductors. The organic reactions section contains schematic movies (using multicolored balls to represent atoms) of several chemical reactions. While the MPEG periodic table is incomplete, it's particularly interesting. Clicking on Li, for example, brings up a menu of possible reactions to view, such as lithium with air, lithium with acid, and so on. These MPEGs show pictures of the actual reactions (i.e., chemicals in beakers) taking place. - Mike Hase
The Miami Museum of Science serves as another fine multimedia educational spot on the Science Learning Network. The state-of-the-art Web site primarily targets children; it lets visitors take cybertours of shipwrecks, hurricanes, and a host of other things. Its CyberCity, a particularly useful spot at the site, not only exhibits many interesting Internet sites, it also provides a tutorial for children on how to navigate the Web. The site is chock full of ideas for educators, and most of the pages can be accessed en Espaûol. - Mike Hase
Life, the Universe and the Electron lives up to its ambitious title. Designed to complement an exhibition of the same name at the Science Museum in London, the site celebrates the centenary of J.J. Thomson's discovery of the electron. By touring this online exhibit, you'll learn scientific facts about the electron, see stunning examples of electron microscopy, and learn about how the electron figures in our daily lives. You can also replicate Thomson's original experiment online via ShockWave or view a QuickTime movie about the electron's discovery. All of the material contains links to outside sources for those who want to learn more. - Mike Hase
I get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I visit one of NASA's Web pages; would that all government agencies made so much information publicly available. The Center for Mars Exploration (CMEX) continues NASA's fine tradition with a Web page on all things Martian: Martian manuscripts, Martian maps, Martian microbes, Martian missions, and on and on. NASA's roving vehicle should returna wealth of data, all accessible from CMEX. Whatever your interest in Mars, from the possibility of life to hard scientific data, you'll find it at CMEX. - Mike Hase