Believe it or not, the internet is more than just a gigantic repository of cat videos, debatable Paleo diet recipes, endless listicles and celebrity gossip.

• The most useful (free) websites on the internet
• How to bypass Foxtel to watch Game of Thrones

Delve deep enough and you’ll find an abundance of potentially life-changing sources of information, like free online education, or a stranger-than-fiction slice of life.

Here are The New Daily’s top five websites to visit when you want a little more from the internet.

Do a free university course at MIT

If it’s good enough for Stephen Hawking, it’s good enough for you. An undergraduate degree in Physics, that is.

If you yearn for something more than what our earthly world has to offer and find yourself driven by a need to discover the universe’s mysteries, why not dip your toe in the giant academic ocean of Physics, at no charge, courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The entire course material for MIT’s undergraduate degree in Physics is now yours for the taking. From String Theory to Particle Physics and General Relativity, you can access every subject in the course’s reading material, course notes and assignments. We’re not saying completing the course will have Hollywood knocking on your door to make your biopic, but you never know.

Make like Barack Obama and take a lesson at the prestigious MIT.

Watch a Vegas wedding live

The next best thing to actually being there, this live webcam site streams real weddings from a Las Vegas wedding chapel – bizarre, but surprisingly wonderful.

Watch couples ride in on a motorcycle. Watch couples exchange their vows. Watch the Elvis impersonators rock out with the power of love! Watch it long enough and, strangely, you start getting a sense that life’s too important to be taken seriously (hats off to Mr Wilde).

But don’t blink, because it’s usually all over in a few minutes. There is nothing not to love about this website.

Watch couples get married in real time.

Share your skills for cash

French philosopher Joseph Joubert once said: “To teach is to learn twice.” With the help of teaching website, Skillshare, you can now teach the world your skills, over and over again.

Are you a gun photographer with a smartphone? Can you disassemble a Datsun 120Y engine block in less than two hours? Is riveting small talk your best-kept secret? Then you can teach the world and make money in the process. KA-CHING!

With more than 850,000 students around the world, Skillshare allows both budding and more experienced teachers to develop their own classes and courses based on any area of expertise.

You don’t need a degree or letters after your name to teach: just passion and skills worth sharing. However, you also need a video recording device. Skillshare will provide guidance along the way, helping you craft classes and courses on any skill you’d care to share.

Find – or teach – any class of your choosing.

Record your debut album

Fancy yourself the next Beyoncé or Justin Timberlake? Then you need Soundation Studio.

A free, professional quality online music-making tool, this website has sound bins overflowing with more than 700 free samples, offers live recording and mixing, and can share your audio creations to Deezer, iTunes, Google Play and Spotify.

Every aspect of Soundation Studio is designed to professional standards, so your finished product will impress even the fussiest audiophile.

With loops and samples provided by industry greats, like Jay-Z and Timbaland, that Grammy Award could be closer than you think.

This free music tool is impressive, even by industry standards.

Go inside the International Space Station live

For the past 15 years, 16 nations around the world have maintained an outpost in the coldest, most hostile environment known to humankind. Space.

In orbit around our planet, the International Space Station is home to several astronauts from around the world, who live each day conducting scientific research and recording the details of their lives in space. They also manage to have a little fun while doing it (see: Chris Hadfield).

Thanks to this NASA website you can watch live video of ISS crew as they go about their day, keep track of various scientific studies on the station, monitor live data from instrument displays or simply watch a live video feed of the earth below. Even if you’re not a science fan, it’s fascinating and inspiring.

Track the activities of the crew and the location of the station.