Virus World [.mpg, QuickTime]
http://rhino.bocklabs.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/virusworld/virustable.pl?
Created by the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this Web site offers high quality virus images that may be used for seminar presentations or any other noncommercial use. Users can choose from American Society for Virology conference poster images, enhanced EM pictures, and images of virology-related book and journal covers. Images may be searched by virus name; the results page will provide links to summary information from the Protein Data Bank and to the Scripps Research Institute's Virus Particle Explorer. Movie animations and relevant links are provided for some of the virus images. Users can also access tutorials on virus structure and other topics. [RS]
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BIOME
http://biome.ac.uk/
The Resource Discovery Network, "a collaboration of over sixty educational and research organizations" in the United Kingdom, offers this Web site as a "collection of gateways which provide access to evaluated, quality Internet resources in the health and life sciences." BIOME facilitates Web-based research by offering a searchable catalog of Internet sites organized by field of study. The main categories include health and medicine, veterinary science, biological and biomedical science, agriculture and forestry, and natural history/ environmental science. Users may search for specific topics or browse by subject within each category. Additionally, this site provides Internet information skills tutorials tailored to each discipline. Anyone wishing to conduct Web-based research in the life sciences should find this site helpful. [RS]
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Global Methodology for Mapping Human Impacts on the Environment [.pdf]
http://www.globio.info/
A joint project of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and the United Nation's Environmental Programme, Global Methodology for Mapping Human Impacts on the Environment (GLOBIO) aims to "present a simple visual overview of the cumulative impacts of increasing resource demands on man and the environment." Hundreds of environmental impact studies were synthesized with satellite imagery, infrastructure data, etc. to create this "visual overview" of past, current, and potential future conditions. Researchers in the environmental sciences may find the specifics of this recently developed methodology of interest. Users can now download the entire GLOBIO methodology document, as well as an image-rich report titled GLOBIO - The Arctic 2050 Scenario and Global Application. [RS]
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UniGene
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/UniGene/
Created by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, UniGene is "an experimental system for automatically partitioning GenBank sequences into a non-redundant set of gene-oriented clusters." In addition to gene sequences, this Web site also offers thousands of novel expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences, a useful gene discovery resource. Organisms currently cataloged include human, rat, mouse, cow, zebrafish, clawed frog, fruitfly, mosquito, wheat, rice, barley, maize, and cress. Users may also access the Digital Differential Display to compare gene expression fingerprints for cancer cells and their normal counterparts. Other Web site features include query tips, FAQs, and relevant external links. [RS]
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Researchers' Forum
http://www.researchersforum.gov.uk/
Developed by UK Office of Science and Technology, this Web site provides a free forum for science researchers interested in holding online discussions on a particular research topic. Anyone may read the discussion content, but registration is required before one's own comments may be added. The registration process is straightforward and free. A number of life science discussions are currently underway, and most postings are recent. A quick look through some of the discussions yielded information about new publications, links to new field-specific Web sites, questions and answers about funding, requests for collaboration and partnerships, and more. This service should prove useful to researchers wishing to expand their networking circle. One potential drawback is that most registered forum members are from British universities and institutions, and thus discussion content can have limited relevance for non-UK researchers (e.g., government funding). However, non-UK researchers are encouraged to join. [RS]
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Bio.com [.mp3, .pdf]
http://www.bio.com
Self-described as "the most reliable and up-to-date information resource for those working in the life sciences and associated industries," Bio.com brings together in one Web site daily news, information, and research tools geared mostly toward biotechnology. The Web site provides "live panel discussions and one-on-one interviews with leading scientists representing the diversity of research in biology and biotechnology, topical reviews and articles on cutting-edge topics in the life sciences, the latest news from academic and industrial labs, high quality laboratory protocols, and organized collections of internet links and web-based tools." Users may also get stock quotes, browse job listings, receive a weekly email newsletter, or visit one of the more topic-specific pages. The "time- and resource-pressed professional" in biotechnology should find this site exceedingly useful. [RS]
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probeBase
http://www.microbial-ecology.de/probebase/
The Microbial Ecology Group of Munich's University of Technology has recently launched probeBase, "a comprehensive database containing published rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probe sequences, DNA microarray layouts and associated information." Users may search for sequences by target organism, which "can assist in the development of new rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)," or by probe name for rapidly retrieving published probes targeting desired sequences without prior phylogenetic analysis. Researchers are encouraged to submit new or missing probes in efforts to keep probeBase as up-to-date as possible. A list of RNA-related links is also provided. [RS]
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The Ciliate Resource Archive
http://www.uoguelph.ca/%7Eciliates/
Created by ciliate biologist Denis Lynn at the University of Guelph in Ontario, this Web site serves as "a comprehensive tool for students, educators, and researchers of ciliates (Phylum Ciliophora)." Simply presented and easy to navigate, this site provides information on representative ciliate genera, type species, classification as revised by the Lynn, and more. The Type Species page, which researchers may find the most useful part of this Web site, has a search feature for quickly finding specimens of interest in the list. Although a cautionary message warns users that this search feature functions only with Internet Explorer, it seems to work properly with some versions of Netscape Navigator as well. As of September 20, 2002, none of the Representative Genera links worked except for Stentor, which led to a detailed synopsis of its taxonomy, structure, and function. [RS]
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