The field of Home Automation is expanding rapidly as electronic technologies converge. The home network encompasses communications, entertainment, security, convenience and information systems. This category holds sites of broad scope on the topic.

Computer programming is the art of writing software, instructions for computers to follow. At the base level, as understood by the computer, these instructions are written in machine code, or binary, pure numbers, quite difficult for humans to read and write. At a slightly higher level, these codes correspond to assembly language, short mnemonics for individual computer operations, that still correspond one to one with what the machine actually does. This is still unstructured, terse, and difficult to read or write in. Most programming is done in higher level, compiled languages, or even interpretedthat look like a cross between English and Algebra, and allow various abstractions depending on the language, such as encapsulation, function calls, data hiding, and more, to enable people reading and writing programs to deal with the vast quantity of information that the computer actually handles. Respectively, a compiler program translates these languages to machine code to be executed directly, or a separate interpreter program itself takes these statements and executes them as an intermediary.

Robotics is a term coined by Isaac Asimov to describe the field of science involving robots and related technologies. So what is a robot? The word comes from a 1923 Czech play called R.U.R. and described autonomous, humanoid robot servants. The original Czech word was robota, which means "servitude or forced labor". According to the Syrius Cybernetics Corporation of Douglas Adams' Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a robot is "your plastic pal who's fun to be with". A more conventional definition is, "A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks". There are many other definitions, some a bit too narrow and some far too broad. We try to be as inclusive as possible, accepting sites about hobby robotics, industrial robotics, even those about the radio-controlled entertainment vehicles of "Robot Wars". Enjoy our selections. And if you don't agree with some of our choices, rest easy in the knowledge that someone else out there wouldn't agree with yours.

Chemistry is typically defined as the science that studies the composition, structure, and transformation of matter. It has been called "the central science" because of the way it is related with all the other sciences. Chemistry bridges the gap between physics and biology; it is a "helper science" in almost many technical disciplines; and it occupies a prominent position in industry between the extraction of raw materials and the manufacture of finished products. Of course, it is chemists who call it this way; other scientists may have different perspectives. Chemistry is also distinguished from some other sciences because it creates its own object of study: chemists can imagine and create new compounds that have never existed in nature, so they are not constrained to what already exists, but only to what can be done.

Known by other scientists as the "Dismal Science," this field makes a serious effort to study and describe:

The production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of wealth and the various related issues (problems) of labor, finance, taxation, currencies, the political arena as it relates to the above areas of goods and services.

Although interest in economic theories dates to the origins of commerce itself, economics as a modern study independent of moral or political philosophy is attributed to the Scottish writer Adam Smith (1723-1790). The ideas put forth in his seminal work, Wealth of Nations, form the basis of "classical" economic theory and free-market capitalism.

Meteorology is the branch of science which studies weather. It is often an inexact science, especially when forecasting is involved, so that predictions often are stated as a percentage of probability. Listings here should concern the scientific practice of meteorology, information about weather events of historical interest, meteology as a hobby, and some instruments and products which either facilitate scientific meteorology or come from that background. Listings related to finding or reporting weather news should go to News: Weather.

Material science is concerned with understanding the properties of materials and how to create new ones.

Science is constantly reshaping itself through unexpected observations, new ideas, and revisions to old theories. While terms like "anomalies" or "alternative" may seem pejorative from an orthodox perspective, from an historical view these are the topics are the very life-blood of science. We must have heretics and revolutionaries challenging our beliefs, and advancing the state of the believable, otherwise science will stagnate into dogma.

Nanotechnology: a general term covering nanoscale science and engineering. A more narrow definition is miniaturization engineering at the nanometer scale. Nano is a metric prefix meaning 'billionth', in this case, science, technology, and engineering at sizes measured in billionths of a meter, which is 1,000 times smaller than a micrometer. It is proposed to build electronic and mechanical devices which are made of very tiny parts (as are biotic systems), but which may have very large effects (as do biotic systems).

This category is for speculation and research about the future, including competing views by futurists.

History, in brief, is the humanity which explains the human condition based on the chronological record of significant events and their related causes.

Sites about music in Africa.

Classics is the study and appreciation of the culture and wisdom of antiquity, in language, literature, philosophy, history, and related humanities. This category includes links to resources and organizations of classicists, English translations of works in ancient Greek and Latin, and crosslinks to related ODP subjects.

This category lists organizations related to the leather tanning, processing and manufac