Hopefully you'll find here something that will pique your interest, something to provide fodder for a debate, or something that enables you to make an educated guess on a topic science-related. 

Lately, I've been discovering free college courses, drinking beers at a lab bench in Cambridge, and reading about the vaccine debate.  Its time again to use my geek status to suggest to you some things to read, watch, visit, do, browse...and now things to listen to, and the wild-card 'Why Not?' section.

Read: Take a look at the latest on the vaccine debate, from magazines and blogs:

1. Read the coverage from Wired magazine here:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/

2. Then read the coverage from Atlantic Monthly here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1

3.  Then read a science blogger's take on the Atlantic Monthly article here:

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=2495

 4.  Finally, take a look at the CDC's FAQ page (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/index.html), THEN have a debate with a friend now that you're armed with some of the latest and best information.

Watch: Take a look at the recently aired PBS series on the National Parks: America's Best Idea (directed by Ken Burns), and renew your interest in an outdoors adventure.  The unique climates and ecologies of the USA provide a wide variety of possibilities to wander the woods, explore a mountain, or paddle a lake.  While you're there (or while you're watching the PBS series), maybe you'll also learn something about the biology of the great outdoors.

http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/

Visit:  Find a Science Spot around the world by visiting my custom-made Google Map (regularly updated).  To find, visit Google Maps webpage, click 'show search options' and choose 'related maps' from the drop down menu, then search Science Spots (the map is created by Aliquot). (Or see the realllllly long URL below).

Do: Take a free college course online.  Yale and MIT now offer free open-course-ware (I will provide more extensive coverage of these resources in a future post).  Right now I'm taking this exciting course on the Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food:

http://oyc.yale.edu/psychology/the-psychology-biology-and-politics-of-food/content/downloads

Browse: You can't view the entire magazine online without a subscription, but point your browser here and read a little bit of Harper's regular feature on their final page, called Findings:

(http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/01/0082358)

This fantastically hilarious compilation of real scientific findings reminds me of the IgNobels, but its much more impressive to think about how someone wrote this.

Listen: Take a listen to indie band, We Are Scientists.  They may not actually be scientists, but their music is worth investigating.

http://www.myspace.com/wearescientists

Why Not? Why not debunk an example of pseudoscience for yourself?

How about starting here (this is a softball):

http://www.whatthebleep.com/crystals/

 LEGEND (excerpted from my original post):

Read: book suggestions, magazines, articles (on line and in print), etc.

Watch: TV, movies, web-based videos, etc

Visit: Exhibits, landmarks, places, locations, etc

Do: hands-on suggestions

Browse: recommended web-resources

New sections:

Listen: music, podcasts, etc

Why Not? Science suggestion of the week

Link to Science Spots on Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&cd=4&geocode=Fd0qHwMdj_NKAA&sll=31.578535,-85.429687&sspn=43.342423,87.978516&hl=en&ie=UTF8&z=2&msid=106636207703027511976.000478ab487f0554ed357