Technology and Scientific Information

Western Governors University

Technology can be used to acquire scientific information in many ways. Using a computer to access the internet is one way that technology can be used. The internet has a wide variety of scientific information available. There are many websites dedicated to every facet of science from Astronomy to Zoology. The internet is readily accessible from home computers, libraries, and even mobile phones. Statistical information for many areas of science can also be accessed on the internet. Scholarly scientific papers can also be accessed via the internet as can research and findings. Most scientific magazines have websites and can be accessed online.
Another technology that provides access to scientific information is television. Television stations such as PBS provide access to scientific information. Discovery channel is another avenue for scientific information.
Since the internet has so much scientific information, it can be overwhelming. Much of this information is also written without any evaluation and can be erroneous. It is for this reason that the information must be assessed and analyzed. There are many criteria that should be used to assess the validity of information on the internet. The same internet can be used to do this. One major area of assessment is to determine the author of the article. Once this has been determined, it is necessary to find out if the author is credible and trustworthy. This can be done on the internet as well.
Another area to consider is the website where the information was found. The website should be recognized in the scientific community. The website can also be looked up to determine the hosting server. This information can be used to make sure that the host is authentic.
The information should also contain references to other well-known and published information. It should contain a bibliography and the information in the article should be verifiable. The article could also provide links to the referenced information.
The information found on the internet should also contain a published date. Old or outdated information could also be erroneous. For scientific information, currency is important because most areas of science are constantly changing and growing.
Communicating scientific information using the internet has a specific advantage in that it is instant. Technology such as email can be used to communicate scientific information. This form is limited to the recipients and does