Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
01
Intergovernmental network · founded 2001
Life sciences
A free, open index of where and when species have been recorded on Earth, pooling museum specimens, field surveys and citizen-science sightings from thousands of institutions.
Why it matters: Billions of occurrence records underpin conservation planning, invasive-species tracking and climate-change research worldwide.
Explore www.gbif.org
GenBank & the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration
02
NCBI (USA), ENA (Europe), DDBJ (Japan) · since the 1980s
Life sciences
Three partner databases that exchange every newly published DNA and RNA sequence daily, giving scientists one shared, public record of the genetic code of life.
Why it matters: Rapid open sharing of virus genomes through these archives helped accelerate vaccine and diagnostic development during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Explore www.insdc.org
NASA Planetary Data System (PDS)
03
NASA · established 1989
Space & astronomy
The long-term archive for data returned by NASA's planetary missions — images, spectra and measurements from Mars rovers, outer-planet probes, comets and asteroids.
Why it matters: Decades-old mission data remains peer-reviewed and usable, so new discoveries are still being made from spacecraft that stopped flying years ago.
Explore pds.nasa.gov
Human Cell Atlas
04
International consortium · launched 2016
Life sciencesHealth & medicine
An open effort to map every cell type in the human body by its location, function and gene activity — a reference "Google Maps" of human biology.
Why it matters: Provides a healthy baseline against which researchers can understand disease, from cancer to developmental disorders.
Explore www.humancellatlas.org
Internet Archive & the Wayback Machine
05
Non-profit library · founded 1996
Knowledge & culture
A digital library of books, films, music, software and hundreds of billions of archived web pages, browsable as they looked on any captured date.
Why it matters: Preserves evidence, journalism and culture that would otherwise vanish when websites change or disappear.
Explore archive.org
WordNet
06
Princeton University · begun 1985
Knowledge & culture
A lexical database grouping English words into sets of synonyms linked by meaning — "a dog is a kind of canine, which is a kind of mammal".
Why it matters: Became a foundation of natural-language processing, and its noun hierarchy organised the ImageNet dataset that sparked modern computer vision.
Explore wordnet.princeton.edu
Worldwide Protein Data Bank (PDB)
07
wwPDB consortium · founded 1971
Life sciences
The single global archive of experimentally determined 3D structures of proteins, DNA and other biological molecules.
Why it matters: Its carefully curated structures were the training data behind AlphaFold and support drug design for countless medicines.
Explore www.wwpdb.org
AlphaFold Protein Structure Database
08
Google DeepMind & EMBL-EBI · launched 2021
Life sciencesHealth & medicine
Freely available AI-predicted 3D structures for more than 200 million proteins — nearly every catalogued protein known to science.
Why it matters: Saves researchers years of laboratory work and is used in studies from antibiotic resistance to plastic-eating enzymes.
Explore alphafold.ebi.ac.uk
UniProt
09
EMBL-EBI, SIB & PIR · since 2002
Life sciences
The comprehensive, expertly annotated resource of protein sequences and what each protein does.
Why it matters: A daily reference for biologists interpreting experiments and linking genes to function and disease.
Explore www.uniprot.org
OpenStreetMap
10
Volunteer community · founded 2004
Earth & environmentKnowledge & culture
A free, editable map of the world built by millions of volunteers, covering roads, buildings, paths and points of interest.
Why it matters: Humanitarian mappers use it to map disaster zones within hours, guiding rescue and relief teams on the ground.
Explore www.openstreetmap.org
Wikidata
11
Wikimedia Foundation · launched 2012
Knowledge & culture
A free, multilingual knowledge graph of facts — people, places, works, concepts — readable by both humans and machines.
Why it matters: Powers information boxes across Wikipedia's languages and is reused by libraries, researchers and countless apps.
Explore www.wikidata.org
arXiv
12
Cornell University · founded 1991
Knowledge & cultureSpace & astronomy
An open repository of research preprints in physics, mathematics, computer science, biology, economics and more.
Why it matters: Made cutting-edge research free and instant to share, transforming how science is communicated.
Explore arxiv.org
PubMed
13
US National Library of Medicine · free since 1996
Health & medicine
A free search engine indexing tens of millions of citations from biomedical and life-science literature.
Why it matters: The first stop for clinicians, students and researchers looking for medical evidence anywhere in the world.
Explore pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
14
International collaboration · since 2000
Space & astronomy
Detailed 3D maps of the universe containing millions of galaxies, stars and quasars, all released publicly.
Why it matters: Its images launched the Galaxy Zoo citizen-science project, letting the public help classify galaxies.
Explore www.sdss.org
ESA Gaia Archive
15
European Space Agency · data releases since 2016
Space & astronomy
Precise positions, distances and motions for nearly two billion stars in the Milky Way, measured by the Gaia spacecraft.
Why it matters: Has reshaped our understanding of our galaxy's structure and history, and refines distances used across astronomy.
Explore gea.esac.esa.int/archive
Landsat Archive
16
USGS & NASA · imagery since 1972
Earth & environmentSpace & astronomy
The longest continuous record of Earth's surface from space, freely available to anyone since 2008.
Why it matters: Used to monitor deforestation, urban growth, glaciers, crops, water and bushfire recovery over half a century.
Explore www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions
ClinicalTrials.gov
17
US National Library of Medicine · launched 2000
Health & medicine
A public registry of clinical studies conducted around the world, including their design and results.
Why it matters: Helps patients find trials, and makes it harder for unfavourable results to be quietly left unpublished.
Explore clinicaltrials.gov
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
18
International Union for Conservation of Nature · since 1964
Earth & environmentLife sciences
The world's most comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of animal, fungus and plant species.
Why it matters: A barometer of life on Earth used by governments and conservation groups to set priorities and policy.
Explore www.iucnredlist.org
Our World in Data
19
University of Oxford & Global Change Data Lab
Health & medicineEarth & environmentKnowledge & culture
Openly licensed charts and datasets on poverty, health, energy, climate, education and other global challenges.
Why it matters: Turns complex research into clear visuals relied upon by journalists, teachers and policymakers.
Explore ourworldindata.org
Atlas of Living Australia
20
CSIRO & national partners · launched 2010
Life sciencesEarth & environment
Australia's national biodiversity database and the Australian node of GBIF, combining records from museums, herbaria, agencies and citizen scientists.
Why it matters: Supports environmental assessments, threatened-species work and bushfire recovery planning across the continent.
Explore www.ala.org.au
No databases match that search.