Masters in Science

1. Stumbleupon is not just for blog-surfers. Research scientists can set Stumbleupon to peruse funding and grants websites and scientific journals to keep up to date on the latest opportunities and discoveries.

2. Grants and Funding website: This is your one-stop resource to find funds for research and training in the sciences. This service is completely free.

3. Science Mag.org has articles on the latest news for every branch of science. Even mad scientists need some fun reading once in a while, and here you can find out how massive a quark really is, read a cheery piece titled “Death by Necroptosis,” and check in on the status of Madagascar’s forests and China’s sustainability efforts.

4. If you’re ready to leave academia and make some money, NewScientistJobs.com is a great job search engine to start with. Upload your resume, browse by discipline, find out who is recruiting or just check out the old-fashioned job search.

5. Lab Support is a job placement website specifically for scientific, engineering and preclinical professionals. The jobs range from contract, contract-to-hire and direct hire opportunities in areas like lab work, Environmental, Health & Safety etc.

6. Kelly Scientific is another job placement website, but with a global scope and offices nation-wide. You can find temp jobs and permanent positions all over the world, and you can use the search for free.

7. For tips on how to research online effectively check out this very scientific article, written by a librarian, specifically for scientific researchers.

8. Scirus is the most comprehensive scientific research tool on the web. With over 370 million scientific items indexed at last count, it allows researchers to search for not only journal content but also scientists’ homepages, courseware, pre-print server material, patents and institutional repository and website information.

9. INFOMINE is the search engine to go to when you need to find databases, electronic journals, online library card catalogs, articles and directories of researchers.

10. Intute is a similar free online search service from the UK that specializes in helping people find the best websites for academic research. Browse by subject – like Agriculture, food and forestry; Geography and environment; physical sciences; and Mathematics and computer science to find articles by top researchers. 

Science nuts come in more flavors than peanuts, walnuts, chestnuts, macadamia nuts and all other nuts combined. There’s just so much to read about, learn, contemplate, and enjoy when it comes to science. And the proliferation of science information on the Internet has only exacerbated the situation for the committed philomath.

Here we present 5 free online web apps for science nuts out there. Hopefully these will help expand our understanding of things and will stimulate the thinking juices of the many budding Einsteins out there.

1. Schoolr – This search engine is a researcher’s delight. It is a great reference resource for information on the many things that a science nut frequently needs. Citations for book reports, plain old search, search on Wikipedia, and even image search. The site links to Wolfram, which is considered by many to be the most ambitious project ever undertaken on the Internet. Wolfram hopes to one day cover all the knowledge that can be systematically computed.

2. Periodic table of the elements – All science students, regardless of their specialization, are exposed to the periodic table. This application is a beautiful one for all science aficionados. It is a superb interactive information source on elements. A simple click takes you from the history of elements to the geology section where clicking any symbol opens up information on the geology of the element. Check it out, even guys who dreaded the periodic table will fall in love with this one.

3. Online Conversion – Simply the mother of all units’ conversion sites online. You can convert just about anything to anything here. You have more than 5000 units and over 50,000 conversions. At some point in time everyone has had to face a conversion conundrum, whether it’s converting weight from kilogram to pounds or checking out your height in meters. The site goes way beyond what you would expect of a conventional conversion resource. All scientific and daily use conversions that you can possibly think of. Informative, educational and also a worthy companion when sitting for exams.

4. Earth Live – A great visual tool for understanding the state of the earth. A beautiful application for all of us, more so for the serious students of environmental science. You can view almost real-time satellite data of the earth’s cloud cover, ocean temperatures, and the water vapor levels. You can remix the elements to get your own worldview and a better perspective of the living earth. You can track events such as the migration path of birds, butterflies, and animals. You can find out what the ocean currents are looking like at any point in time; there is so much more – for the armchair earth warrior to the committed scientist.

5. Health Map – A global disease alert map, ingenious use of information available on the net. The application collates information from different authority sources and brings them together in a global map. You can form your own opinions on the outbreak of infectious disease and their effect on human and animal health based on the information from news sources, personal accounts, and official alerts from organization such as WHO. The information is of great use to the science enthusiast, public health officials, and international travelers. You can search maps of N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, and the World.

These five free web apps are just the tip of the proverbial information iceberg. Here’s a superb resource to search for some outstanding free and paid web applications of tremendous utility for science teachers, students, grads, undergrads, dads and grand-dads. Finally, here’s a funny page for scholastic science nuts. Simpletons like me can chuckle once they figure out what the joke was.