How does her garden grow? From fertile dirt with rusty nails, beer, and bacteria. At least according to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Now that spring has arrived, green thumbs are itching to get out and get planting, and this hands-on science museum in California has put together a Web site for experienced and budding gardeners alike. Watch, for instance, as one farmer reveals the secrets of compost and neighbors transform a median strip into a lush garden full of edible plants.Go to: www.exploratorium.edu/gardening.

Rachel Carson aficionados will recognize The Sense of Wonder as the title of one of that environmentalist's books. The Environmental Protection Agency is using that title to invite people young and old—literally and collaboratively—to explore that sense in poetry, essays, and photography. It's inviting submissions from intergenerational teams "that best express the 'Sense of Wonder' that you feel when observing the sea, the night sky, forests, birds, wildlife, and all that is beautiful." Contest deadline is June 16. For rules . . .Go to: www.epa.gov/aging/resources/thesenseofwonder.

These children's tunes, produced in the late '50s and early '60s have a certain nostalgic innocence. At least some are traditional tunes given new expository lyrics. They deal with astronomy (like the "Constellation Jig"), energy ("Ultra Violet and Infra Red"), experimentation ("Vibration"), weather ("Warm Fronts, Cold Fronts"), and nature ("What Is a Mammal?" and "How Does a Frog Become a Frog?"). Be forewarned: A small sample goes a long way.Go to: www.acme.com/jef/singing_science.

Phenology may not be a word that trips off your tongue, but it may be one you want to consider adding to your vocabulary. It has the same root as phenomena, and in fact deals with biological events linked to climate—such as bird migrations and plant germination. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research has set up a program to collect data from the public on the first appearances of buds, leaves, seeds, and fruits in everything from trees to weeds. These events will help map how changing climate is affecting terrestrial ecology.Go to: www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburs...

A native prairie grass shows promise as a substitute for corn in the production of fuel ethanol—an additive to stretch fossil-fuel resources for transportation. University of Tennessee researchers have produced a video on the science and prospects of switchgrass ethanol that is available in a 26-minute version and an abbreviated form. For those who don't have the computer bandwidth to handle video well, there's also a text-only format.Go to: www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/partners/ fueling_america.html for the long video, www.scivee.tv/node/4813 for the short video, and www.csrees.usda.go...

On Feb. 26, the Encyclopedia of Life went live. This site hopes to become the definitive place to find information on every living species—millions and millions of them. The first extensive sets of entries will include fish and members of the potato and tomato families. But more species will be added all the time—offering basic information geared to needs of the public and experts alike, including photos.Go to: www.eol.org/.

Through March 8, an organization known as GLOBE at Night is asking for help tallying celestial bodies in the constellation Orion. Designed as a teaching aid, this star-counting program aims to emphasize the loss-of-darkness throughout the globe, a problem which hinders ground-based astronomy. Students, families, and the general public can report their results online by comparing their view of the constellation against images on the program's website. "Our 2007 results convinced us that a citizen-science campaign like GLOBE at Night is a great way to find dark-sky oases in or near our cities," ...

Keep track of the ever-expanding list of newly discovered planets orbiting distant suns at PlanetQuest 2.0, a revamped Website developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It has images, "planet system visualizations," movies and games that simulate interstellar exploration, and even lets you install a desktop planet counter so that your computer always displays the latest tally.Go to: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov

The federal Geographic Names Information System lists 14 sites around the nation named Valentine—Including Alta Mills, Kan., and Bedison, Mo., for which Valentine is an alternate moniker. You can search for locations that may share your name, a name associated with some holiday (like Santa Claus, Ind.), or the name of an object of your affection—such as Pansy (W. Va.), whose alternate name is, believe it or not, Mouse. The database, which is used for local transportation planning, regional planning, and emergency preparedness, was established in 1947 to "maintain uniform geographic n...

As bubbles in the ocean burst, they release entrained microorganisms and other marine materials. As they're spewed into the air, these particles can serve as the basis of cloud particles. Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego explain the phenomenon in this Jan. 8 mini-video and even speculate on the health implications.Go to: http://www.scivee.tv/node/4833

You can become an online participant in tests of how the mind uses and processes words at this several-month-old site, administered by Harvard University's Cognition and Language Laboratory (with collaborators at other institutions). Alternatively, you can just read the results from earlier experiments. They're quick, fun, and sometimes embarrassingly challenging.Go to: http://coglanglab.org

Three major business schools have teamed up to map some 20,000 sources of industrial pollution. You can search for polluters in a particular region, in a designated industry, or those associated with a named company, then probe their emissions by type and quantity, look at how their pollutant trends have changed over time, and compare their emissions to others in the same industry. Recommendation: The several-minute video tutorial offers an effective way to quickly get up to speed on using this clever site.Go to: http://mapecos.org

Colorful and compelling, this science-rich, 15-minute video offers an up-close glimpse into the weird world of segmented worms—from nightcrawlers and leeches to feathery coral-dwelling dazzlers.Go to: http://www.scivee.tv/node/2751

With the new year, people start thinking about dieting and developing better overall health habits. Want to know which regions of the nation started out the year as the most and least healthy—and by what measures? Turn to new maps prepared by the Agriculture Department and click on the state(s) of interest. Agency scientists have mapped—by state (and the District of Columbia)—indicators of nutritional health as compiled from nationally representative survey data for everyone from infants to adults. For easy comparison, each state's values appear next to those for the nation as a...

Although the United Nations has officially designated 2008 as the International Year of Planet Earth, the 3-year celebration actually began a year ago and will continue through December 2009. The program's ultimate goal: "to build safer, healthier and wealthier societies around the globe" through a better appreciation for and harnessing of Earth sciences. The UN describes this focus on the interrelatedness of climate, natural resources, and living communities as helping to support its mission to foster sustainable use of Earth's materials and "better planning and management to reduce risks for...