8 Awesome Science Resources That You Can Access for Free Online

Richard Feynman, Credit - Wikimedia CommonsThere's nothing worse than wanting to expand your knowledge, satisfy your curiosity, or just confirm some weird historical fact, and getting blocked by a paywall or the sad reality that what you need is tucked away inside a book that you have to go to an actual library to find. You know, outside, away from the comfort of your computer. Fortunately, the custodians of content are finally figuring out that if you give people easy access to the things they want (for free if possible, please), everybody wins, and if not, well, someone will probably find a less 'legal' way to get it out there instead. Knowledge is everything, and we want all of it, now, and who can blame us?

You might not be ready to ditch your Netflix account so you can just sit there and pore over Einstein's Archives for hours (kudos to you if that's your thing, you're a better person than us), but just knowing where to go to get that particular resource for free right when you need it is everything. So we've come up with a list of great, free online repositories that offer everything from historical documents by your favourite scientist to beautiful sci-fi posters to put on your wall. If you've got suggestions for other online resources, email us or post a comment on Facebook so we can spread the (free) science love!

1. Millions of science papers are available for free online via Sci-Hub

Nicknamed the 'Pirate Bay of Science', Sci-Hub is the brainchild of neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, who's positioned herself as something of a Robin Hood figure in the endless 'push-and-pull' of paid journal access. Want to look up a quote in a scientific paper? That'll be $40 to read a single, digital paper, please...