Ideas that change the world can be few and far between, so it's nice to learn about this fine digital collection from The Huntington Library. Designed to complement the renovated Dibner Hall of the History of Science at the Library, this site peers into the world of astronomy, natural history, medicine, and light. After reading a brief overview about the exhibit, visitors should click on over to...

What can science do for us? Perhaps a better question is what can science not do for us? These are but a few questions posed by the NPR blog, "Cosmos and Culture". The contributors to the blog include a range of scientists, including a theoretical physicist, a biologist, and an astrophysicist. The goal of the blog is "to engage in a discussion with each other'and you'about how science has shaped...

The new online exhibit, Explore the Universe, is provided by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The site "presents the major discoveries that have given us our current scientific view of the universe, illustrates how the universe is taking shape and probes the mysteries that remain." The exhibit, which is especially interesting when viewed with necessary browsers and multimedia...

Scout staff and readers ponder the same questions about the cosmos that many great minds have sought to answer long before us. This resource is a collection of items that look into the lives and minds of the great thinkers in the field. They range from Galileo and Copernicus to Carl Sagan. With the release of the television series "Cosmos," we feel that we are unofficially in the year of Carl...

Located on the summit of Mount Hamilton in the Diablo Mountain Range, the Lick Observatory is a tremendous astronomical facility. This digital collection from the University of California-Santa Cruz offers up some of the records culled from this facility's history. Here visitors can find historical photographs that document life at the Observatory, along with images of telescopes, lenses, and some...

Visitors can learn astonishing facts in historical astronomy, astrobiology, astrophysics, space missions, and many more space science topics at this comprehensive website. David Darling, a British astronomer and science writer, provides straightforward explanations of seemingly difficult concepts. In addition to an easily navigable alphabetical list and a keyword search, the encyclopedia is...

Maintained by The Museum of the History of Science, the Oxford Virtual Science Walk Web site explores "some of the most important and interesting historic scientific sites in Oxford, from the time of the founding of the University in the 13th century and the work of Friar Bacon to advancements in modern science such as the development of penicillin." Visitors visit thirteen sites and view an...

Humans have been closely observing the sky for millennia. This exhibit from the Library of Congress, entitled “Understanding the Cosmos: Changing Models of the Solar System and the Universe” includes primary sources from the ancient Greeks to the Medieval Arabic astronomers, and beyond. All files are available by HTML and for free PDF download. Begin with the astonishing 15th century Arabic...

The University of Oklahoma Libraries have done a wonderful job with their history of science collections. Visitors to the site will find seven collections here to keep their minds busy. Their number includes "Copernicus's De revolutionibus" and "Scientific Instruments and Historical Artifacts." Of course this first volume is nothing less than a classic, presenting Copernicus's evidence and...