This Web site, created by Caltech physicist Kenneth G. Libbrecht, is all about snow crystals and snowflakes. With many beautiful images, it provides a guide to snowflakes, information on growing snowflakes, an introduction to the physics of snowflake formation, and ideas for snow and ice activities.Go to: http://www.snowcrystals.com/

The Web site of the International Osteoporosis Foundation offers information for health professionals and the public about osteoporosis, a disease that reduces the density and quality of a person's bones. It includes a 1-minute osteoporosis risk test, patient stories, facts and statistics on the disease, articles, and more.Go to: http://www.iofbonehealth.org/

The Federal Trade Commission has launched a blog associated with its public hearings on "Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade," held Nov. 6-8, 2006. The hearings examined how evolving technology will shape and change the habits, opportunities, and challenges of consumers and businesses in the coming decade. It featured experts from the business, government, and technology sectors, consumer advocates, academicians, and law enforcement officials. The blog features interviews with experts and covers topics that complement the hearing sessions. Members of the public may comment on the blog en...

This site describes itself as the online community for academically talented youth. Developed by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, it provides timely news articles about scientific advances, profiles of researchers, information on summer programs and academic competitions, book reviews, and even a humor section, with items gathered from a wide variety of sources. Now in a beta-testing phase, the site is undergoing final tweaks before launch.Go to: http://cogito.org/

The Encyclopedia of Earth is an online source of environmental information that features objective, authoritative articles written and reviewed by an international community of experts. Topics range from absorption of toxicants and biodiversity to wind farms and zero-point energy. Entries often include images and references.Go to: http://www.eoearth.org/

Psychology professor David Yager of the University of Maryland has focused his research on the evolution of hearing. In the course of this work, he has produced extraordinary, close-up portraits of a variety of insects. His image of a Cuban cockroach recently won second place for photography in the National Science Foundation's annual Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.Go to: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/ release.cfm?ArticleID=1351 and http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cebh/yagerlab/

Physicist Stephen Hawking visited the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in late September 2006. The CERN Web site offers a glimpse of Hawking's visit and video of two lectures that he presented, one for a general audience on the origin of the universe and the other for a specialist audience on the "semi-classical birth of the universe."Go to: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/ Releases2006/PR13.06E.html

This site, created by biomedical engineer Celeste Baine of Eugene, Ore., offers material and access to resources to help motivate teachers, counselors, and students to learn about and consider pursuing careers in engineering.Go to: http://www.engineeringedu.com/

Updated daily, this Web site provides news of activity in the sun-Earth environment, including solar wind, sunspot, and solar flare data, along with information on near-Earth asteroids, geomagnetic storms, and more.Go to: http://www.spaceweather.com/

This Web site from the U.S. National Library of Medicine offers an interactive introduction to toxic chemicals and environmental health risks that people might encounter in everyday life and in everyday places. The site includes many links to additional information and a section for teachers.Go to: http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/