I’ve been seeing this image collection of Root System Drawings around the Internet, and they’re so cool and beautiful I feel compelled to continue sharing them widely. I don’t know much about the university or research behind it, other than they are located in the Netherlands, and that the drawings are the result of 40+ years of root system excavations across Europe. There is something about the symbolism of trees, plants and roots that I can’t put into words but resonates deeply, fostering a connection to both the Earth and my spirit. — CD 

An ecosphere is a self-contained world that contains plants and animals inside a completely sealed container. They can live for decades, without ever opening it up to feed or clean. The algae make food for the tiny brine shrimp, and the shrimp make carbon dioxide for the plants. Together they make a circle of life. I’ve had ecospheres on my desk for 30 years. Until I inadvertently killed it, one of mine lasted 25 years. I’ve bought small ecospheres and “repotted” them in larger vessels, but even small ones can last many years. A good deal for a small ecosphere is Shrimp Bubble, which comes with an internal magnet to clean the inside glass without opening it. — KK

I spend too many hours a day watching YouTubes. Many of the channels I subscribe to produce content as good as or better than anything produced by PBS, cable TV, and your average documentary. For free. For a fantastic example of world class content on YouTube watch this Veritasium episode on Blue Lasers. Turns out blue lasers were “impossible” to create, but after decades of an insane amount of work by one crazy guy in Japan, they are now possible and all the cheap screens we have in our lives now are due to him. Veritasium tells this amazing human story, with heaps of illuminating technical detail on why blue lasers were nearly impossible and how they work, all in a brilliant 33 minutes. — KK

I have been researching the state of space technology, and the current ambitions of various countries and companies for space exploration and settlement. By far the best source for official plans, programs in progress, and technological breakthroughs has been a stellar YouTube channel called The Space Race. It’s fun, visual, clear, insightful, succinct, and highly informative. Its back list of hundreds of videos have answered all my “future of space” questions. — KK

New York Times Magazine made this interactive guide to the James Webb Space Telescope and it was awesome to see all the new images and new discoveries made about our Universe. My jaw dropped and I got chills when I saw the image of 94,000 galaxies now made visible by Webb. I recommend viewing this on your desktop. — CD 

Often science documentaries these days are fluffy with wiz-bang graphics, slick re-enactments, endless repetitions, and fancy hosts, but Doug’s Geology Journal, a series on Amazon Prime, has none of those. Doug is a regular-guy geologist who draws his own graphics with pencil, and carries his own camera as he trudges across the landscape, giving the big picture of what has happened to shape the land, and how that shapes the culture on it. He gives you the right level of details, at the exact place on the land, which makes the big picture visible. He’s my favorite geology teacher. — KK

I got a clearer picture of present and future technologies thanks to Time’s list of the Best Inventions of 2023. There are 200 inventions listed and some consumer products you can even buy now. This may be silly, but I can’t wait until you can buy these reusable interlocking cup and plates at the store. — CD

This week a annular solar eclipse crossed a good swath of the US, but this “ring of fire” eclipse was not a total eclipse. The difference between an annular eclipse and a total eclipse is night and day. The next total eclipse in the US will be April 8 next year. The best source for tracking its path, with expected cloud coverage, duration of totality, and ideal viewing spots is this wonderful website, The Eclipse Company. — KK

Like the previously recommended SciHub, Libgen (Library Genesis) is a shadow library offering free scientific papers online. But in addition to journal articles, this Russian-based site also offers magazine articles, books, and especially full textbooks often required for school. I use it to find scientific papers. Scientific and academic information is often very hard to get, especially in the developing world, so Libgen is extremely valuable everywhere, despite the fact that US-based publishers consider it a pirate site they are trying to take down. I was disappointed my own books were not included in Libgen; I’d be thrilled if they were. — KK  

Science explainers on YouTube are a whole new genre. My two favorite YouTube science explainers are Steve Mould and Derek Muller at Veritasium. Both take an unusual phenomenon and explain it using clever demos, visits to experts, and intricate experiments. Veritasium in particular will stage elaborate productions just to memorably demonstrate a single point. Veritasium excels at weighty counter-intuitive propositions such as “electricity doesn’t move”, while Steve Mould likes to start with small oddities and curiosities that have larger consequences. Both have been releasing videos for years and have deep archives of hundreds of visually compelling, fun explanations. — KK

I have a small collection of mid-century science books for young adults, and one of my favorites is The Human Body: What It Is and How It Works. Published in 1959, this beautifully illustrated book describes how our muscular, reproductive, digestive, endocrine, respiratory, skeletal, nervous, and circulatory systems work in simple English. Out of print but inexpensive used copies are easily found online. — MF

This Space Elevator is another playful and cute project by Neal.fun. Scrolling up will take you on a trip to Space while exploring the atmosphere and its many layers, past high-dwelling animals and cruising altitude for aircrafts and different types of clouds. There's even a press play button for elevator music along the way as you ascend. I don't know if this is meant for children, but it's fun and educational for me too. — CD 

One of the best books I’ve read recently is Mendeleyev’s Dream: The Quest for the Elements, published in 2019. Although it is not a long book, there are 3 books coursing through it. One theme is the slow discovery of the primeval chemical elements. That story would be enough for most books. A second is the convoluted and incredible story of alchemy, which was amazingly persistent throughout the birth of chemistry. And the most important story is the slow emergence of science, and how difficult its birth was. I found news and insight on nearly every page, and am shocked at how little I knew about the most basic stuff that our world is made of. Highly recommended. — KK

NASA has a page dedicated to their Citizen Science Projects where you can volunteer to help make scientific discoveries, like mapping bird diversity, cloud gazing, tracing patches of kelp, or identifying celestial objects in search of Planet Nine. Currently, there are 30 projects open to anyone in the world, and most can be done with just a cellphone or laptop. — CD

When I was 12 I built a chemistry lab in my basement and have been doing chemistry since. But I learned more about chemistry from reading this trio of books by Theodore Gray than anything ever learned in school. That’s surprising because these volumes appear to be photo books, full of pictures of metal chunks, high-speed shots of chemical reactions, and photos of everyday stuff. But woven through these unusual photographs are the best explanations of how and why chemistry works. The best looking of the three is The Elements, a hundred portraits of our universe’s true heroes; the most informative and fun for me is Reactions, which reveals why matter works. Advance onto Molecules if you like these. I read them all with wonder. — KK

This website lists the astronauts in space right now, with links to their Wikipedia entries. They’re all in the International Space Station and come from Russia, China, the United States, and the European Union. — MF

The best source I’ve found for small samples of very pure elements – such as scandium, dysprosium, holmium, terbium, yttrium, uranium – including, yes, cubes of pure tungsten ($14), is Luciteria. Very reliable, thorough, and extensive catalog of all available common and exotic elements. I’ve been amassing a full collection of these universal atoms. — KK