Mary Spiro, Baltimore Science News Examiner

Scientists and engineers can spend hours toiling away in their laboratories. When they emerge for a break, there are a host of fascinating and informative websites to enrich their lives. You don’t need to be a scientist to enjoy any of these sites, just be anyone interested in science or engineering topics. Below is a list of 20 great websites that every scientist, engineering, or geek-at-heart ought to know about. Some may be familiar, but I hope the majority on this list are new to you. This list is by no means comprehensive, so please add your favorites in the comments section below.

1. Scopus.com: The Scopus database contains more than 16,500 peer-reviewed journals from more than 4,000 publishers. You will need to go through an institutional website (.edu, .gov, etc,) to access the fully functional version, but the wealth of data found in Scopus surpasses most other research search engines.
2. Grants.net: You need money to conduct research. This clearinghouse of funding opportunities, complied by Science magazine, brings call for proposals together in one convenient place.
3. Science Commons.org: Following the same philosophy of the Creative Commons license for artists, Science Commons is the place to go to find research intended for free sharing, re-using and re-purposing. Science Commons encourages collaboration so that each researcher is not working in isolation. The result should be faster solutions, quicker cures, and more rapid innovations through cooperation among scientists.
4. Acronym Finder.com: Find the meaning of more than 750,000 acronyms. Terms are “human-edited,” which should improve the relevancy of your search results. Try it out, and you might just get through that regulatory document, if you really want to.
5. EurekAlert.org: Operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, this site lists current press releases from thousands of research centers and institutions. You must be a member of the media or a public information officer to access parts of the site, but most public press releases and announcements are easily searchable on any scientific topic from agriculture to space science.
6. eFunda.com (Engineering fundamentals): All the fundamental engineering principles you’ve probably forgotten can be found at this site. Included are formulas, unit conversion, a design center, and more.
7. Freepatentsonline.com: Think you’ve developed something patentable? This site is among the most powerful online patient search engines.
8. ResearchGate.net: Not quite Facebook for scientists, but a more “serious” looking interface offering social networking to the science community.
9. RedOrbit.com: If you are into science or technology, RedOrbit wants to be your home page. You can sign up for RedOrbit email, read the latest science headlines, check your local weather, and remember your mom’s birthday, all in one sleek, geek-inspired space.
10. Indeed.com: There are tons of job search databases and many science-oriented ones. But Indeed.com pulls job postings from hundreds of databases. You might have to wade through a few repeats but you will find jobs here that you probably would have never found otherwise.
11. Daniel Soper’s free online statistics calculator: Cal State professor Daniel Soper has created a fantastic free online statistics calculator. (Where were you when I needed you most, Professor Soper?) As the author states on the website, the calculators are “offered humbly in the hope that they will contribute in some small way to the advancement of science.” Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
12. MathGV.com: Along the same lines as the free stats calculator, MathGV.com provides a mathematical function graphing program for all types of common scientific and engineering applications. Created by independent software developer Greg VanMullem, this program is easy to use and very functional. It’s freeware now and the author seeks feedback and input to improve the product. Eventually, VanMullem hopes to publish a commercial version, so enjoy it while you can.
13. Plagiarism.com (Glatt Plagiarism Self-detection Test): Ever read some of your own writing and not recognize it? Maybe you didn’t write it and just forgot to put in the citation. Recently, scientific plagiarism is in the news. So if there is any question in your mind about where those eloquent words came from, you better check it out with the Glatt Plagiarism Self-Detection Test. It’s not a perfect tool, but it could spare you the humiliation of  being labeled a copy-cat or much worse.
14. The Knight Science Journalism Tracker: Science has its peer-review journals and so does science journalism. The Knight Science Journalism Tracker, operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, compiles a daily round-up of the best science writing.
15. ScienceBlogs.com: This site, operated by the magazine SEED, contains a list of several dozen of the best science blogs. It’s a subjective judgment, no doubt, but it is a good place to start if you want to approach science from different perspectives.
16. LabLit.com: At LabLit, you’ll find interviews, essays, short stories, cartoons, and even poetry, all in the name of science. You can even contribute something yourself.
17. Cooking for Engineers.com: I love the tag line, “Have an analytical mind? Like to cook? This is the site to read.” Lots of step-by-step photos and comprehensive instructions that not only tell you what and how, but why to make each dish. If Martha Stewart kept a lab notebook, this is what it might look like.
18. Sciencehumor.org. Sometimes dumb, sometimes ridiculous, the posts on this site will certainly lighten the mood of a blah day in the lab.
19. Calendar of Science (from the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington): What happened today in science? Find out here. Also on Twitter, @sciencecalendar.
20. “Which scientist should I date?” (from the Discovery Channel): This short quiz tells you whether your mystery date will be Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, or any one of several famous scientists from history. Silly, but fun.

Thanks to fellow Twitterers @dontgetcaught, @mselibrary, @sciencecalendar, and @BoraZ for their inspiration for this list. Follow me on Twitter: @Mary_Spiro.