Subject Guides in the Health and Life Sciences

Resources in the Life Sciences: Web Resources

For information on finding additional Internet resources, see Searching for and Evaluating Web Resources.

• American Chemical Society: The society's site offers information for a variety of professionals, students, and affiliates and covers such topics as news, publications, meetings, directories, and career resources.  The organization provides a broad range of opportunities for peer interaction and career development, regardless of professional or scientific interests.

• American Society for Microbiology: The society is the oldest and largest single life sciences membership organization in the world, and its site includes news, services for members, programs, and corporate activities as well as career and information for the public. Microbiological research includes infectious diseases, recombinant DNA technology, alternative methods of energy production and waste recycling, new sources of food, new drug development, and the etiology of sexually transmitted diseases, among other areas. Microbiology is also concerned with environmental problems and industrial processes.

• Biodiversity and Biological Collections Web Server: Devoted to information of interest to systematists and organismic biologists, these pages contain information about specimens in biological collections; taxonomic authority files; directories of biologists; reports by various standards bodies (IOPI, ASC, SA2000, etc.); an archive of the Taxacom, MUSE-L and CICHLID-L listservs; access to online journals; and information about MUSE and Delta. It covers topics ranging from botany to geology as well as links to the Biological Image Archive and other resources.

• biotechterms.org: Glossary of Biotechnology Terms: This online version of the book with the same name provides basic definitions through the glossary and connects users to a knowledge center containing information on the basics of biotechnology, a topic library on five areas of biotechnology, a discussion section, and a newsboard.

• Current Protocols: This user-friendly search and retrieval interface contains laboratory manuals considered to be the benchmark standard for scientific research methods in a number of different disciplines, including cell biology, cytometry, field analytical chemistry, food analytical chemistry, human genetics, immunology, magnetic resonance imaging, methods in materials research, molecular biology, neuroscience, nucleic acid chemistry, pharmacology, protein science, and toxicology.

• Ecology Web Site Lists: Connected to the Internet Directory for Botany, this page provides a detailed A-Z listing of international sites pertaining to various aspects of ecology.  It was originally compiled in 1995 by Anthony R. Brach with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Harvard University Herbaria; Shunguo Liu created the current search engine.

• Environmental Protection Agency: The agency’s mission is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment; its site is divided into sections on topics ranging from natural resources to laws, educational resources, and business information. The EPA employs approximately 18,000 people in Washington, DC; ten regional offices; and more than a dozen labs across the country; more than half of its staff are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists.

• Fungal Genomes Central: This portal contains information and resources about fungi and fungal sequencing projects from the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the fungi research community.

• A Guide to World Resources 2002-04: Decisions for the Earth: Balance, Voice, and Power: Prepared by the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, and World Resources Institute, this publication summarizes the preliminary findings and key messages and was distributed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 26-September 4, 2002.

• Internet Directory for Botany: This index to botanical information available on the Internet is divided into two main sections, by alphabetized topics and a subject listing. Both are searchable and accessible through the selection tab, which leads to alphabetical lists of relevant resources. It was compiled by Anthony R. Brach with the Harvard University Herbarium and Missouri Botanical Garden, Raino Lampinen with the Botanical Museum of the Finnish Museum of Natural History at the University of Helsinki, Shunguo Liu with SHL Systemhouse, and Keith McCree.

• National Biological Information Infrastructure: The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources; its site provides news, resources, and research on five disciplines, geographic areas, information for teachers, and more general resources that can be used to answer a wide range of questions related to the management, use, or conservation of biological resources. The NBII links biological databases, information products, and analytical tools maintained by its partners and contributors in government agencies, academic institutions, non-government organizations, and private industry; partners and collaborators also work on new standards, tools, and technologies that make it easier to find, integrate, and apply biological resources information.

• Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases: Created by Jim Duke, this site provides links to several databases that deal with related topics in phytochemistry and ethnobotany. It is divided into sections including topic-specific searches, available databases, documents, and other links of interest.

• PrimateLit: PrimateLit indexes more than two hundred thousand citations from 1940 to the present in biomedical research, behavior, ecology, conservation, and veterinary care of nonhuman primates. It covers publication categories including articles, books, abstracts, technical reports, dissertations, and book chapters. It can be searched by keywords, article or chapter title, and author and offers limits including publication year and journal title as well as menus with taxonomic and common-name categories and geographic regions. Records also contain a PMID number, which links to the PubMed record if the citation is indexed in PubMed.

• Scirus: This powerful Internet search tool concentrates on scientific content only and searches both Web and membership sources. Users can chart and pinpoint data, locate university sites, and find reports and articles.

• SciSeek: A guide to the best the Internet has to offer in the fields of science and nature, SciSeek is styled like a conventional Internet guide and lists Web sites covering subjects from agriculture and forestry to engineering, chemistry, physics, and the environment. The staff of reviewers visit every site submitted to SciSeek to make sure that it fits within their guidelines.

• Search4science: Created by a Norwegian company, this intelligent database is designed to help researchers from all over the world express themselves correctly. A scientific reference work that grows more comprehensive as it is used, the site also offers services including discussion groups and an email catalogue aimed at researchers.

• The Virtual Library: Biosciences: This collection of links connect to resources, issues, and topics related to bioscience, agriculture, and earth science; the larger categories are subdivided into smaller areas, each with its own section of links. The Virtual Library is the oldest catalog of the Web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HTML and the Web itself. It is run by a loose confederation of volunteers who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert; even though it isn't the largest Web index, its pages are widely recognized as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the Web.

• Virus Databases Online: This collection of databases and virus-related resources features the Universal Virus Database and the Virus Identification Data Exchange Database. It is authorized by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and has been constructed by Cornelia Büchen-Osmond of Columbia University. Its directory an index of viruses, a list of approved virus names linked to virus descriptions coded from information in Virus Taxonomy: The Seventh Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, edited by van Regenmortel et al. (Academic Press, 2000), and includes updates subsequently approved by ICTV. It also incorporates a plant virus database and is illustrated with pictures, diagrams, and images of symptoms contributed by virologists around the world.

• World Resources Environmental Change and Human Health: The World Resources Institute provides information, ideas, and solutions to global environmental problems in order to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment for current and future generations. It authors the book World Resources Environmental Change and Human Health, which is featured electronically on this site. The book's contents focus on the issue of environmental change and human health; trends that are changing the physical environment such as the intensification of agriculture, industrialization, and rising energy use and that have the potential to influence human health; and the current state of the environment as it relates to population and human well-being, consumption and waste, and resources at risk. It also contains the latest core country data from 157 countries and new information on poverty, inequality, and food security.

• World Resources People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life: Prepared by the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, and World Resources Institute, World Resources 2000–01 is a definitive guide to the global environment. This millennial edition presents a comprehensive assessment of five of the world’s major ecosystems: agroecosystems, coastal and marine ecosystems, forest ecosystems, freshwater systems, and grassland ecosystems