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Good sources of scientific information on the internet?

J

JMountain

New Member
arg-fallbackName="JMountain"/>
I want to become more scientifically literate I understand the basics of things that are useful for debating creationists like evolution. Most of my knowledge of science has come from a few years of watching videos on the internet (like Dawkins, Tyson, Krauss, Sagan) but I feel I need to get more information and from sources other than people that I like to hear speak. So is there a single website or maybe a few different websites with reliable information about science? To give an example I tried to find out about different kinds of radiometric dating and besides the wikipedia article on it most of the sites that came up in google were creationist sites. Thanks in advance.
 
arg-fallbackName="nasher168"/>
The best quality stuff you're going to find will often be in books or on TV rather than the internet.

For an understanding of the scientific method (as well as an entertaining tour through the world of pseudo-scientific bollocks) I would very strongly recommend reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. If you don't want to order it and wait, you can order it for Kindle from Amazon (you can read Kindle books on your computer with the Kindle app from Amazon).

If you haven't already, watch Carl Sagan's Cosmos. You can probably find it on YouTube in its entirety. Put aside an evening for each episode.

Also, if you haven't already, watch Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking. In particular, watch the third episode, entitled "The Story of Everything." It does as it says on the tin. It is an easy-to-understand story of the history of the universe, from the Big Bang to now. This can also probably be found on YouTube, but I have to say as someone who owns it on DVD that watching it on TV is a far better experience.

I would also recommend following Neil Tyson, Brian Cox, Ben Goldacre and PZ Myers on twitter. They sometimes link to stuff of interest.
 
arg-fallbackName="kenandkids"/>
Go to your local university or community college, they have lists of resources and generally good access to publications and journals, many of which can be accessed off site.
 
arg-fallbackName="Squawk"/>
Some of the best reads I've had were reading debate threads over at the now defunct rdf forums. I've got an inkling they can now be found over at rat skep, but unfortunately when I just went for a peak the site was down for maintenance. I'll provide a link once it's back up if I remember. If I don't remember, poke me or hackenslash and I'm sure we can put you in the right direction. The debate on C14 and dendrochronology should be required reading for all IMO.

Other than that, books. Lots to recommend, the famous evolutionists are famous for a reason, they write good books on the subject. Go devour.
 
arg-fallbackName="Deleted member 619"/>
^^ Indeed. I learned more in the last three years in discussion with the members at RDF/Ratskep/Here than in 20 years of reading science beforehand.

Here's a link to the old boilerplate, which contains links to some of the best material from RDF. That should get you started.

Edit: Some of those links may not work, due to the urls being rejigged when the forum was shut down. If you come across a link that doesn't work, just change the url from 'richarddawkins.net/forum' to 'forum.richarddawkins.net' and it should work.
 
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