Thread: where is a good cheap/free science encyclopedia on the web?

Hello I am new and want to know where I can find a really good science encyclopedia to know more stuff.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Yeah. Google and Wikipedia are your best friends.

If you find something new you want to know about, jump into Wikipedia. That's not the defacto source, but it's a starting point that will at least introduce you to a subject and give you ideas on how to proceed.

Unfortunately there are no free science-specific encyclopedias on the web. I second Wolf's statement. Google, Wikipedia - and journal articles. Some are free online, some you can get by asking people in different online science communities, some you can get by emailing the authors.

The thing with Wikipedia is that you may not always be getting the whole story.

The trick is to scroll down to the bottom of a page and check out the links section. That will show you where the original page author got his/her information from, or what they believe is also good information. That will tell you whether or not they're up a tree.

Sometimes you can find out what a subject IS on Wikipedia, and then you follow the links to actual sites/forums/blogs/etc where you get the full story.

It's all part of learning.

There isn't actually a science encyclopedia (free or not) that will tell you everything you need to know.