By Bruce A. Love
From time to time, I like to share some of my favorite Web sites with readers. This week, I present some science and nature Web sites that I am sure most readers will enjoy.
From a very young age, space has captured my interest and imagination. This fascination may have something to do with growing up during the 60’s and 70’s when our country was flying missions to the moon. My interest in space really took off, however, when my parents bought me my first model rocketry kit. Soon afterwards, the size and sophistication of the rockets grew, and my brother, sister, and neighborhood friends began launching rockets too. We had spectacular successes and failures, but most of all, we had great fun. I drifted away from rockets as I grew older, but now I find myself visiting the high power rocketry Web sites such as www.tripoli.org. The Tripoli Web site is definitely for grown-ups who want to play with larger versions of the rockets they built as kids. This Web site has plenty of pictures, videos, and information about how to join the fun and excitement of high-power rocketry!
Speaking of the final frontier, if you are a space enthusiast you will want to put www.nasa.gov on your list of favorite Web sites. NASA has links to all their current, past, and future missions. It’s also a great resource for school-aged science buffs who are preparing for the next science fair. Click on the tab for Multimedia, select images, and view the Image of the Day gallery for some out-of-this world photographs! You can also view NASA videos and animations.
You don’t have to leave this world to see beautiful images and appreciate all that we have around us. If you like birds and other wildlife, visit Steve Kerr Nature Photography (home.att.net/~hsk3). H. Stephen Kerr is a wildlife photographer who is also a friend of mine since the tenth grade. On his web site, you can view many dozens of birds in categories such as Waterfowl, Raptors, Owls, and Vireos and Warblers. If birds are not your thing, the site also has pages for Reptiles and Amphibians, Wildflowers, Insects, and Whales. Each photograph is labeled for easy identification, and every photo is has an appropriate resolution for good PC viewing and reasonable download speeds. Most images on these pages are also available in higher resolution for purchase.
As a child, I enjoyed perusing the pages of my dad’s Popular Science magazines. The magazines often previewed technologies that were on the verge of becoming realities. Each issue helped us stretch our imaginations further by describing what scientists were striving for in the future. Today, popular science has a Web site (www.popsci.com). This is a must for anyone who wants to glimpse the future of cars, gadgets, military, aviation, entertainment and gaming, and the environment. I found one article on “Warships of Tomorrow,” and another on flying “green” at Mach 5. Wow!
If you have some favorite science and nature sites, share them with me and other bloggers at blog.loveconsulting.com. If you are planning to launch some really big rockets, don’t forget to invite me!
