This page lists organizations and resources of use to scientists/naturalists, especially amateurs. Organizations and resources listed here have a global or non-regional scope of activity. For organizations/resources that have a local or regional focus, please contribute to the Local Organizations page.

To add a new entry, just add another line onto a list (beginning with an asterisk), add a link, the organization/resource name, and a short (<200) character description. To add a new category, create a new heading ("+ …") and start a new list.

DIY science

Instructables: "Instructables is a place that lets you explore, document, and share your creations."-From Instructables "about" page.
Public Lab: "Public Lab is a community where you can learn how to investigate environmental concerns."-From Public Lab website. They have designs for sophisticated devices you can build yourself.

Oceanography

NOAA products: Tide predictors, historical records, currents, meteorological data, etc.
Tide predictor

Microscopy

FunSci.com: Has a nice set of articles about how to build one's own microscope cheaply.
Microscopy-UK: A great resource for people who care about microscopy, especially novices.
Microscopy Resource Center: Olympus' site is quite helpful for improving one's understanding of how different microscopy techniques work.
MicroscopyU: Nikon's site is quite helpful for improving one's understanding of how different microscopy techniques work.

Biology

Developmental Biology

SDB CoRe: "SDB Collaborative Resources (CoRe) is an online reference database of peer-reviewed images, movies, and diagrams for learning and teaching developmental biology from the Society for Developmental Biology."— SDB CoRe website.

Marine biology

Compendium of Physiological Solutions: media for use with marine organisms, by the Biological Bulletin

Organisms

The Bryozoan Home Page: Resources about bryozoans.
Manchester Fly Facility: Resources on Drosophila, one of the most accessible model systems for genetics, developmental biology, evolution, etc.
EchinoBase: Echinoderm genome resources.
SpBase: Sea urchin genome resources.
Slime Mould Collective: A user group for people interested in slime molds (for art, science, engineering, or other).
Siphonophores: Introduction to a fascinating group of animals.

Protocols

Open wetware, protocols: A collection of biology protocols.
Protocols: A platform for sharing, improving, and annotating protocols, created by ZappyLab, Inc.
Protocol Online: A collection of biology protocols (mostly molecular/cellular).

Taxonomy

Encyclopedia of Life: "Global access to knowledge about life on Earth."-From EOL website.
iNaturalist: A useful tool for finding out about species and ranges from shared observations.
WoRMS: "The aim of a World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, including information on synonymy."— WoRMS website.

Texts, free

Data processing

The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing by Steven W. Smith, Ph.D.: Digital signal processing techniques are useful for analyzing images, time series, sound, etc. This free textbook provides a readable introduction using minimal math.

Electronics

All About Circuits electronics textbook series by Tony R. Kuphaldt (with community contributions?), and a forum.
Electronics Tutorials.

Mechanics:

Many of these texts require comfort with vector calculus.

Continuum mechanics website by Bob McGinty, PhD, PE: Online introduction to continuum mechanics.
Mechanics of materials modules: MIT's modules on topic in the mechanics of materials.
Solid Mechanics Lecture Notes by Dr Piaras Kelly. Solid and continuum mechanics.
Applied Mechanics of Solids by Allan F. Bower. Online textbook on solid mechanics (may not display properly on some browsers).

Statistics

Handbook of Biological Statistics

Tools for finding other projects

SciStarter: Lists citizen-science and other science activities that people can participate in.

Igor

Independent Generation of Research

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