Natural Sciences: Websites

The BEN Portal provides access to education resources from BEN Collaborators and is managed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Over 20,601 reviewed resources covering 77 biological sciences topics are available. BEN resources can help you engage student interest, shorten lesson preparation time, provide concept updates, and develop curricula that are in line with national standards for content, use of animals and humans, and student safety.

The United States' National Science Digital Library (NSDL) is an open-access online digital library and collaborative network of disciplinary and grade-level focused education providers. NSDL's mission is to provide quality digital learning collections to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education community, both formal and informal, institutional and individual. NSDL's collections are refined by a network of STEM educational and disciplinary professionals. Their work is based on user data, disciplinary knowledge, and participation in the evolution of digital resources as major elements of effective STEM learning.

Resource types available via NSDL include instructional materials, activities, lesson plans, audio/video materials, images, web sites, simulations, visualizations, tools, and services. NSDL also provides annotation collection and paradata (usage data) collections: comments, ratings, or usage information attached to existing resources in the NSDL.

WorldWideScience.org is a global science gateway—accelerating scientific discovery and progress through a multilateral partnership to enable federated searching of national and international scientific databases and portals.

OAIster is a union catalog of millions of records representing open access resources that was built by harvesting from open access collections worldwide using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Today, OAIster includes more than 30 million records representing digital resources from more than 1,500 contributors

An index of science websites.

The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world.[2] It aims to build one "infinitely expandable" page for each species, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text.[3] In addition, the Encyclopedia incorporates content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which digitizes millions of pages of printed literature from the world's major natural history libraries.

The Cell: An Image Library™ is a freely accessible, easy-to-search, public repository of reviewed and annotated images, videos, and animations of cells from a variety of organisms, showcasing cell architecture, intracellular functionalities, and both normal and abnormal processes. The purpose of this database is to advance research, education, and training, with the ultimate goal of improving human health.

ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database providing fast text and structure search access to over 35 million structures from hundreds of data sources.

ChemWeb.com provides access to the information chemists need to enhance their research, product development, self-development, education, and/or their businesses in Chemistry and related disciplines. Easy access to abstracts, papers books, conferences, news, forums and the Alchemist newsletter makes ChemWeb.com useful to their members.

A web-based molecule drawing tool.

OnePetro.org is a multi-society digital library that provides access to a broad range of technical literature related to the oil and gas exploration and production industry.

PubChem is a database of chemical molecules and their activities against biological assays. The system is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a component of the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH). PubChem can be accessed for free through a web user interface. Millions of compound structures and descriptive datasets can be freely downloaded via FTP. PubChem contains substance descriptions and small molecules with fewer than 1000 atoms and 1000 bonds.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library is a searchable collection of selected images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video, most of which are in the public domain.

The NOAA Photo Library has been built so as to capture the work, observations, and studies that are carried on by the scientists, engineers, commissioned officers, and administrative personnel that make up this complex and scientifically diverse agency.

With this evolving OBIS database repository, users can identify biodiversity hotspots and large-scale ecological patterns, analyze dispersions of species over time and space, and plot species' locations with temperature, salinity, and depth.

The Census of Marine Life (CoML) is a research program that seeks to assess the diversity, distribution and abundance of ocean life and to explain how it changes over time. The portal provides access to a global network of researchers in more than 45 nations engaged in this ten-year marine life initiative. Includes three major projects: Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), the History of Marine Animal Populations project (HMAP), and the Future of Marine Animal Populations project (FMAP). Seven studies have been initiated to collect data for these projects: Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems (ChEss); Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMaR); Gulf of Maine Program (GoM); Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems Project (MAR-ECO); Natural Geography in Shore Areas (NaGISA); Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Program (POST); and Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP).

This site is a single place to find a vast selection of EPA data sources, organized into topics such as air and water that are in easily downloadable formats.

Access to several EPA databases provide information on environmental activities that may affect air, water, and land anywhere in the United States. An important source of data. With Envirofacts, you can learn more about these environmental activities in your area or you can generate maps of environmental information.Another portal for environmental data maintained by the U.S. EPA.

The mission of the USGS is to provide "reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life."

Online USDA database of botanical information, images, and links on plants in the USA, including crops and invasives.

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the U.S. Forest Service provides the information needed to assess America's forests.

The Animal Diversity Web is an online database and encyclopedia of animal natural history, built through contributions from students, photographers, and many others.

It is a rich and flexible resource designed both as an encyclopedia for exploring biodiversity and for use in formal, inquiry-based education.

FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish species (specifically finfish) It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. (source - Wikipedia)

The Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) aims to increase awareness about invasive alien species and to facilitate effective prevention and management activities. It is managed by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) of the SSC- Species Survival Commission of the IUCN -International Union for Conservation of Nature. The GISD was developed as part of the global initiative on invasive species led by the Global Invasive Species Programme GISP and was/is supported through partnerships with the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research and the University of Auckland.

The GISD focuses on invasive alien species that threaten native biodiversity and natural ecosystems and covers all taxonomic groups from micro-organisms to animals and plants in all ecosystems. Species information is either supplied by or reviewed by expert contributors from around the world.

This website is NatureServe Explorer, an authoritative source for information on more than 70,000 plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States and Canada. Explorer includes particularly in-depth coverage for rare and endangered species.

The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists and nature enthusiasts from around the world. On more than 10,000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about biodiversity, the characteristics of different groups of organisms, and their evolutionary history (phylogeny).

Healthfinder is a Web site from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. It provides an extensive searchable database of reliable online health publications, clearinghouses, Web sites, self-help groups, government agencies, academic centers, and nonprofit agencies.

This website from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is designed for individuals, including children and teens, and families, as well as practitioners, researchers, and educators. Information is available by health topics from A to Z or by body location or systems.

Written by talented UI Hospitals and Clinics staff, their comprehensive library features articles and patient guides covering common health topics ranging from special procedures to general wellness.