Cronodon, a fictitious planet, is the home of a “curator”of a “museum of the future.” And let me tell you, even though still a diamond in the rough, his brainchild is fantastic.
The curator, who anonymously calls himself “Bot,” to the best of my knowledge, for I am a human and hence an earthling, probably has many experts on a team. The details are a little murky though.
Its primary areas of treatment are biology, quantum physics, and astronomy. I have also found some topics treated as diverse as chemistry, meteorology and even some urban planning stuff.
The biological coverage is excellent, especially in the areas of botany, invertebrate zoology, and microbiology. Alas, the only vertebrates covered are cetaceans, a group of marine mammals that includes, you guessed it, dolphins, porpoises, and whales. But the cover almost every single kind of invertebrate. It contains extremely rich detail yet makes it very readable, a rare marriage. And some pages are still readable even when it could get technical (in other words, you can skip those portions of the page and still get the general message).
A central feature woven throughout the site is its robust programming base. You may even learn to program yourself through certain pages. In fact, many of the images are made through these methods. Cronodon also welcomes constructive criticism (be it positive or negative), and in fact often offers a link to do so on a particular article.
Some of the downsides:
-It adds much pseudoscience to the mix, such as alchemy and certain “dark side” philosophies. As a creationist Christian myself, the old-earth/evolution base in the biology pages could count, but since one side of the never-ending creation/evolution debate will consider the other as pseudoscientific, this leads to a draw. Besides, personally, I typically substitute my beliefs for what is presented when I read an evolutionary material.
-Printing directly from the site is an ordeal because many of the images overlap with the text. The extent of this depends on the browser used, e.g., Chrome and Opera have a less severe overlap of images than Firefox, etc. I recommend that you copy it to a word processor (e.g., MS Word, Google Docs), though things can be disorganized at times upon copying. Alternatively, you can just read it directly from the website (sometimes enlarging the text can allow for better concentration and comprehension)
-Finally, it has a British tone to the writing, so you should be aware of certain vocabulary differences. But if you’re already British, this makes no difference!
Aside from those issues, Cronodon is a great place to learn about “science for science’s sake.” For a Christian like me, this means getting to know this awesome world and universe God has placed us in. I highly recommend it for any sufficiently educated adult who wishes to learn more about our beautiful cosmos. The website is simply cronodon.com.
Enjoy your explorations all around!
The Adventures of a Christian Bookworm 