Parasitic Plant Connection

For information on just about every parasitic plant, including photographs, this is the site for you. It’s easy for me to get lost in such a site as this one.

Native Plant Societies

This group of links sends the visitor to state and regional plant societies, as well as international ones. There is some excellent information on some of the links.

Science Cinémathèque

This site breaks the stereotypes of scientists and mathematicians as megalomaniacs or maladjusted superbrains. It explores complex portrayals of research and researchers in popular culture.

Microbe World

You can get find information about microbes from the American Society for Microbiology. The society has begun podcasting its MicrobeWorld Radio, a 90-second daily program of microbiology news. You can listen to the files on the computer or a digital audio player. Shows explore subjects such as methane on Mars, a possible indicator of life, and antimicrobial foods such as garlic and dried plum extract.

Everglades Digital Library

The (EDL) is a comprehensive portal to high-quality Internet resources relating to the south Florida environment. These resources include online texts, articles, reports, photographs, maps, datasets, educational materials, and historical records, as well as links to organizational web sites and agency home pages. These materials come from libraries, government agencies, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and more.

May 18, 2009

Hypertension Online

This site from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas offers information about atherosclerosis. You can peruse updates on the latest drug trials and screen an animation that illustrates how high blood pressure injures the heart.

May 11, 2009
Office of Dietary Supplements

This site contains a list of the some of the best papers in the field of dietary supplements selected by experts convened by the National Institutes of Health. You can download a PDF with abstracts from the papers and similar reports from previous years.

Jellies Zone

Information about jellyfish and their kin can be found out from this Web site by David Wrobel of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. Readings about groups of gelatinous creatures that live along the U.S. Pacific Coast, a jellies FAQ, and galleries containing spectacular photos are to be found at the site.

Microbiological Garden

Microbes prosper in some pretty unlikely places. This site exhibits some microbes in exotic environments and in habitats closer to home. It features more than 20 photo essays on microbial topics. You can tag along on bug-hunting expeditions, learn how to isolate luminescent bacteria from herring, and observe the microbes that inhabit the scum on the surface of a stagnant pool.

The Cochlea

You can study the cochlea’s architecture and workings at this site from Italian researchers Renato Nobili of the University of Padua and Fabio Mammano of the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine. The anatomy section dissects the coiled structure down to the vibration-detecting inner hair cells. Illustrations and animations can help you grasp the complexities of translating waves in the cochlea’s fluid into nerve signals.

Introduction to Cardiothoracic Imaging

This site from Yale University School of Medicine is aimed at medical students, but the beautifully illustrated tutorial is a good resource for anyone who wants to increase their knowledge of heart and lung anatomy. Other sections use x-rays, echocardiogram footage, and media to show how the structures change as a result of diseases, and information about various imaging techniques.

Biographical Sketches of Some Ecologists, Evolutionists, and Biogeographers

Brief biographies of more than 100 other early ecologists, evolutionists, and biogeographers are contained in this reference from Charles Smith, a science librarian at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, and colleagues. The site spans the 17th century to 1950 and describes each researcher’s significance, provides a chronology, and includes links to any online books or papers.

http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/chronob/homelist.htm

March 30, 2009

Understanding Genetics

This site from the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California contains interactive exhibits on such topics as eye color inheritance and whether the produce in your refrigerator could be genetically modified. The museum's on-call geneticist discusses issues in the news and answers questions from readers.

March 23, 2009

WildFinder

This site from the World Wildlife Fund is a database that allows you to map the distributions of 30,000 species of terrestrial amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. A search returns which of the world's 825 ecoregions the animal inhabits – areas with similar environments and species. The maps draw on information from field guides, online databases, scientific papers, and other sources. You can also scan the database geographically to retrieve a list of the vertebrates that live in a particular city or country. For a global view of species diversity, visit the Map Gallery, whose offerings include a chart of mammal species numbers.

March 16, 2009

Exotic Species of San Francisco Bay
Invasive organisms find the San Francisco Bay area congenial. More than 175 alien species have settled in the bay’s waters, making it one of the world’s hot spots for aquatic invaders. Meet many of these troublemakers at a new guide from the San Francisco Estuary Institute in Oakland.

The guide helps identify and monitor invasive species.

March 9, 2009
Molecular Logic

High school and beginning college students can study and manipulate these interactions among atoms and molecules at this site. A database has interactive activities that run with free software available from the site.

Anatomia

Anatomical illustration also blossomed as artists strove for greater accuracy, added color, and burnished their craft in other ways. This online exhibit from the University of Toronto Libraries in Canada has 4500 medical plates from 95 texts published between 1522 and 1867. Some illustrations are interactive.

The Evidence for Human Evolution

This site offers a clear take on human ancestry and debunks creationist views on the subject.

Miocene Mammal Mapping Project

This site allows a look at patterns in mammal evolution and distribution. It enables users to pinpoint mammal fossil localities from the Miocene and late Oligocene epochs. The database houses information on more than 3400 sites in the western United States gleaned from the literature and unpublished records. Users can map fossil finds by categories that include formation, species, and age. Clicking on a locality brings data such as the site’s time range, environment type, and mammal groups.

Geologic Time: A Changing Earth

This interactive timeline offers a handy reference on the different stages of Earth’s past. The site spotlights the geological and biological events of the different eons, eras, periods, and epochs. Photo albums display representative rocks and fossils from each time. The site also includes backgrounders on concepts such as radioactive dating and plate tectonics.

Children’s Hospital, Boston

Flash animations of the neuron, stem cells, proteomics, and more!

Harvard Outreach Program

Flash animations of regenerative (stem cell) biology, evolution, neurobiology, immunology and cancer that have been created by teachers.