Native Plant Information Network
http://www.wildflower.org/npin/index.html
The Native Plant Information Network is provided by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. This site includes a national directory of native plant species (last mentioned in the December 14, 2001 Scout Report), yet the network contains many more valuable resources. The site includes databases with information about native plants, datasheets and articles on growing specific species, and expert answers to questions posed to the Wildflower Center, arranged in easily accessed categories. The site features information relevant to plants native to Texas, but also includes several resources relevant to the rest of the US. [AL]
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Toward Rebuilding America's Marine Fisheries: Annual Report to Congress on the Status of US Fisheries -- 2001
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/reg_svcs/statusostocks/Stock_status01.htm
This recently released report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an annual report required by a congressional mandate "emphasizing the need to prevent overfishing and to rebuild depressed fish stocks." Although addressing the human impacts on the nation's fisheries is an enormous task, this report indicates success in recent years. The number of fish stocks that have sustainable harvest rates has increased 45 percent since 1999, and sustainable stocks rose by 1/3. The text of the report itself is only 9 pages long, but it focuses on a number of tables and includes appendices with background information -- all of which can be viewed online. [AL]
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Doctor Fungus
http://www.doctorfungus.org/
Doctor Fungus is the work of a group of physicians and medical doctors, along with contributions from Web users. The site attempts to provide scholarly and peer-reviewed information to "promote an understanding of fungi and the ways that fungal diseases affect people living throughout the world." The information is well organized into a variety of categories, and the introductory information uses non-scientific terms. Other sections useful to a general audience include a glossary, a list of abbreviations, and a large image bank that allows users to search for a specific fungus or disease that it causes. [AL]
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Virtual Foliage
http://www.botany.wisc.edu/virtual.html
This Web site hosts five different image collections from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Botany Department. The largest is the Plant Systematics Teaching Collection, which contains over 4,000 images organized taxonomically. The Vegetation of Wisconsin collection is an interesting collection, although much smaller; its images are arranged into groupings found in various Wisconsin habitats. All five collections are easy to navigate through expanding menus based on scientific name. [AL]
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FAO Forestry: Country Profiles
http://www.fao.org/forestry/fo/country/nav_world.jsp
This Web site from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization provides a vast amount of information on forestry and the state of the world's forests. Users can navigate through a forest cover map to select a country of interest. A report including geographic description, forest cover, ecological zones, and forest fire statistics is provided for each nation, along with forest management and forest product trade information. This site uses frames, which makes it easy to navigate through the large amount of information for each country. [AL]
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Cancer Index
http://www.cancerindex.org/clinks1.htm
Cancer researcher Simon Cotterill has developed this Web site to help users find quality information on specific cancer topics. The site is essentially a directory of links organized into categories based on things like type of cancer, treatment, support groups, and cancer prevention. The countries section also contains lists of online resources in languages other than English. This site is specific to cancer issues affecting adults, but there is also sister Web site, the Children's Cancer Web. [AL]
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Women and Heart Disease: An Atlas of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mortality [.pdf]
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/cvd/womensatlas/index.htm
This report from the Office for Social Environment and Health Research at West Virginia University providing "critical data on geographic, racial, and ethnic inequalities in women's heart disease death rates for the five major racial and ethnic groups" is available from this Centers for Disease Control Web site. The report can either be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, or a hard copy can be ordered online. The Web site also contains a series of state maps with which users can compare death rates between different ethnicities and counties. The site also includes a link to a mirror site, Men and Heart Disease. [AL]
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Microbiological Edutainment: Biotoon [Flash]
http://www.biotoon.com/
This site contains several short animated features based on microbiological topics. Although they are informative, the best part about the animations is their entertainment value. Bacterial characters provide their comments on life, an account of evolution from the bacterial perspective, and an understanding of "who" they are and where they live. These movies are a good combination of information and humor that should be interesting to a wide variety of biologists. [AL]
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