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Biology Web Resources

Bioethics
Descriptive/Systematics
Education
Research/General

Bioethics

Bioethics Resources on the Web
The National Institutes of Health have put together a wide-ranging set of links in seven categories: bioethics at NIH, other federal resources, general resources, research ethics, genetics, medicine and health care, organizations.


FirstGov Bioethics
The U.S. government bioethics site includes reports on human cloning, stem cell research, etc.; transcripts on many topics, including research ethics, human genetics, and organ transplantation; and links to bioethics sites of other national governments.

Descriptive/Systematics

BiologyBrowser
This free website from Thomson Scientific offers life-sciences resources such as Nomenclature Glossary for Zoology and the Zoological Record Thesaurus. Also provides links to current science news stories.


National Museum of Natural History / Department of Systematic Biology
Smithsonian Institution scientists describe and classify the world's species and ecosystems. Databases include:


NBII Systematics
From the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII): a collection of links to authoritative websites on taxonomy, nomenclature, and other systematics.

Plants Database
This U.S. Department of Agriculture database provides information on U.S. vascular plants, mosses, lichens, and others: plant symbols, checklists, distribution, images, crop information, tools, weblinks, and references.

 

Education

Biology Animations and Tutorials
Provides dynamic and simple interactive animations and explanations for a broad range of biology and biochemistry subjects: from protein synthesis and mitosis to homeostasis and thermochemistry.

Biophysical Society
Biophysics applies principles of physics and chemistry and methods of mathematical analysis and computer modeling. This site offers three main divisions: 1. biophysical mechanisms, 2. molecular structure and behavior, 3. biophysical techniques. Topics cover membrane behavior, metabolic pathways, microscopy, and many others.

Cells Alive!
Visually appealing, interactive site with award-winning graphics in cell biology, microbiology, immunology, and microscopy. Includes quizzes and puzzles.

National Science Digital Library (NSDL):
National Science Foundation's NSDL provides resources and tools that support innovations in teaching and learning at all levels of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. There is a module specifically for University Faculty.

 

Research/General

BioWizard
Billing itself as "The Biomedical Research Portal," BioWizard offers links to news, conferences, and blogs. Tools include calculators and sequence manipulations for DNA stats, proteins, etc. Its "Wizard" displays PubMed article rankings.

ChemIDplus
This National Library of Medicine database, which leans toward the biochemical, has 380,000+ chemicals, plus synonyms, structures, and links to other databases. Structures display in a variety of choices.

Directory of Open-Access Journals
DOAJ is a fast-growing collection of "free, full-text, quality-controlled scientific and scholarly journals" in a broad range of subjects and languages. DOAJ is robust in the sciences, especially the peer-reviewed Public Library of Science journals.

Entomology Index
This Iowa State University site includes Flybase, the database of the drosophila genome, plus databases on hymenoptera, lepidoptera, and others. Also offers general sites such as AgNIC, a searchable directory of agricultural databases.

EurekAlert!
EurekAlert!, an online news service of AAAS, the science society, provides searchable research and awards news from universities, journals, government agencies, corporations, and other organizations.

INFOMINE: Biological, Agricultural & Medical Sciences
Covers research and educational tools in biology, agriculture, and medicine. Resources in genetics, biochemistry, biology, whole organism research, and ecology.

Internet Atlas of Histology
More than 1,000 labeled histological features from University of Illinois's College of Medicine. Includes accompanying functional description and zoom features, plus an object index and a search engine.

Intute: Health and Life Sciences
A gateway to evaluated, quality Internet resources in the health and life sciences. UK-based. Modules include bioresearch; natural history; agriculture, food, and forestry; bioethics. Browsable/searchable.

National Center for Research Resources
NIH's Access to Scientific Resources provides links to resources for qualified investigators: resources for fish, invertebrates, nonhuman primates, "cell cultures and DNA materials of more than 6,000 species and 1,500 genera," plus advanced technologies and techniques, and more.

NCBI
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a federal web portal, offers 20+ databases including PubMed and allows database cross-searching. Check NCBI's database webpage to see them all. Other databases include:

Nucleic Acid Database
A repository of three-dimensional structural information about nucleic acids. Includes tools, atlas, search, and educational links.

ORNL Computational Biology: Genome Channel
Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Genome Analysis and System Modeling Group provides genome searches for humans, mice, yeast, select bacteria, and other organisms.

PubMed Central
PubMed Central, through the National Library of Medicine, offers a broad repository of searchable full-text life-sciences articles. An open-access NCBI database, it can integrate literature with other NCBI resources such as sequence databases.

 

See also: Chemistry Research Guide for web resources such as:

Updated October 2006

For help with biology information resources, please contact:
Michal Strutin
Science Subject Librarian
mstrutin@scu.edu
408-551-7021

Image Credits, left to right: Molecular Structure Laboratory, Dept. of Chemistry, SUNY Stony Brook; Peggy Greb, USDA Agricultural Research Service; Yves V. Brun, Indiana University; Kyung Lee, National Cancer Institute, NIH