Solar System Exploration
NASA's Solar System Exploration brings right to your desktop the planets, asteroids, comets and all the other celestial and man-made bodies in the sun's domain. Start with the informative articles on each planet, accompanied by astounding photos taken from space. From there, travel deeper into the site's myriad offerings, including videos, hi-res technology images and downloadable posters. Keep track of all NASA's current missions on detailed microsites, make a robotic exploration of space on an interactive timeline, or head for the kids' department, where little ones learn to build their own Mars orbiters.

Invent Now
The National Inventors' Hall of Fame Web site honors the country's most esteemed inventors with bios, photos and explanations of their inventions¿¿?impact on society. Meet such luminaries as agricultural chemist George Washington Carver, who developed crop rotation methods for conserving soil nutrients; and Patsy Sherman, inventor of the textile protector Scotchguard. Be sure to check out the NIHF's contest for collegiate inventors and don't miss the step-by-step tutorial on how to patent that brilliant idea you've been sitting on.

Einstein Light
Einstein spent decades trying to understand relativity. Thanks to the efficient folks at the University of New South Wales, you can do it in just five minutes. The site is divided into five sections: Galileo, Maxwell, Einstein, Time Dilation and E=mc², each featuring a one-minute (or less!) multimedia movie on a major player or principle of the spacetime game. Hosted by fast-talking physicist Joe Wolfe, the movies offer quick overviews and quirky animation, plus links to more in-depth articles on the topic at hand.

The Panda's Thumb
If it's in the media and related to evolution, you'll find it posted, dissected and debated on this lively and informative watchdog blog. Devoted to debunking all existing and nascent theories related to the anti-evolution movement, the site's contributors comprise a passel of the world's most vigilant and passionate biologists, geneticists, students and concerned citizens for whom stemming the tide of creationism and its offshoots is a full time job. The general public can join the fray in the "After the Bar Closes" forum, where political, religious and personal evolutionary arguments are given a full dressing-down by the site's rowdy, articulate devotees.

Real Climate
A refreshing antidote to the political and economic slants that commonly color and distort news coverage of topics like the greenhouse effect, air quality, natural disasters and global warming, Real Climate is a focused, objective blog written by scientists for a brainy community that likes its climate commentary served hot. Always precise and timely, the site's resident meteorologists, geoscientists and oceanographers sound off on all news climatological, from tropical glacial retreat to "doubts about the advent of spring."

Mind Hacks
For anyone who ever fell asleep in their own drool while trying to read a neuroscience textbook, welcome to Mind Hacks, Tom Stafford and Matt Webb's riveting companion blog to their book of the same name, which takes a decidedly fun approach to neuroscience. Emphasizing an empirical approach to understanding one's own brain, the site reports on the latest developments in such areas as reasoning, memory, attention and language, plumbing the depths of journals and magazines, obscure Web sites and personal experience. A hearty banquet results: the musings of a man mistaken for a sex bot, an interview with a software developer, and reflections on why we laugh are all on the highly unpredictable and entertaining menu.