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The resources below are loosely grouped by category. However, this grouping is inevitably rough. In the online world, it is not even clear what a "book" is. Some resources may be listed in more than one place. Others probably should be. Look around! | |
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Biochemistry This is part of another page, for chemistry.
Biology: books and glossaries (Spanish) Biology: plants Biology: other (Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Spanish) + New 7/2/08 Medicine: color vision and color blindness Medicine: history Medicine: reference materials Medicine: other (French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish) |
Microbiology: books (Albanian, Portuguese, Spanish) + New 10/26/08
Microbiology: fungi Microbiology: reference materials Microbiology: other (Japanese) + New 11/19/08 Microscopy New section, 7/3/08 + New 7/2/08 Nutrition; Food safety |
| Bottom of page; return links, contact information | |
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Kimball's Biology Pages. An excellent biology glossary, plus lots of information. From Dr John Kimball, the biology textbook author retired from Harvard. In fact, the site is almost an online textbook in biology. http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/. (This site is also listed for the Molecular Biology course, Ch 1 and for Intro Organic/Biochem as a general source of background biology information.)
Another excellent On-Line Biology Book, from M J Farabee, Estrella Mountain Community College, Avondale, Arizona. http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookTOC.html. A Glossary is listed near the end.
W P Armstrong's Biology 101, from Palomar College, San Marcos CA. http://waynesword.palomar.edu/bio100.htm. A fine basic biology book, intended for use with an online course; well written and well organized.
Plant Physiology Online. A companion to the textbook: Plant Physiology, Fourth Edition, by Lincoln Taiz and Eduardo Zeiger. http://4e.plantphys.net/. Also listed in the section Biology: plants.
Radcliffe's IPM World Textbook, A textbook on integrated pest management, edited by E B Radcliffe & W D Hutchison, Univ of Minnesota. http://ipmworld.umn.edu. Also available in Spanish.
Other biology-related textbooks can be found in the section Microbiology: books, and on another page for biochemistry: Textbooks online. The Molecular Biology syllabus page lists both a Textbook and others listed as Supplementary books
A general listing of free online textbooks, and similar resources, arranged by subject: Textbook Revolution. http://textbookrevolution.org/.
On-line Medical Dictionary. Simple: Just enter a term, and see what happens. Or you can browse subject categories. http://www.mondofacto.com/facts/dictionary. Based on a resource originally provided by Dr Graham Dark, Univ Newcastle. Also listed in the section Medicine: reference materials.
Plants. http://plants.usda.gov/. Major encyclopedia of plants found in the US, from USDA. Pictures, too. "The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories."
Botany history. An archive of classic writings in botany, dating back to 1480. http://www.botanicus.org. The site is from the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
International Plant Names Index (IPNI), a reference source for names of plants. http://www.ipni.org/index.html.
Plant Physiology Online. A companion to the textbook: Plant Physiology, Fourth Edition, by Lincoln Taiz and Eduardo Zeiger. http://4e.plantphys.net/. Also listed in the section Biology: books and glossaries.
A major professional society for biologists is AIBS, the American Institute of Biological Sciences. They are clearly oriented towards organismal biology, but actually cover the entire spectrum of biology. An interesting feature is that they have a special membership rate for high school and college students, $20/year. This includes their very nice monthly journal, BioScience. http://www.aibs.org. I list the AIBS educational site ActionBioscience as a general web site resource for BITN (Biotechnology in the News).
New July 2, 2008. Biology videos. A collection of videos, based on user contributions. It is something of a "YouTube" for biologists. Not well organized or labeled, but contains some good stuff. The scope is described as "human genetics, science experiments, science projects, biotechnology, current biology news and much more" -- in short, whatever people post. Look around, just as you would with YouTube. http://www.labaction.com.
Encyclopedia of Life. "Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world." The goal is to include information about each of the 1.8 million known species of life; this first release (February 2008) has about 30,000 of them. http://www.eol.org/.
Tree of Life. An interactive graphic showing how the major life forms are related. Click an item for more information. http://stri.discoverlife.org/mp/20m?tree=Life&res=640&flags=all:. The site is from David Hillis, University of Texas. Thanks to Borislav Dopudja for suggesting this site.
Speaking of Borislav Dopudja (previous item)... He is a biology student at the University of Zagreb. His web site contains a range of writings -- articles, guides, stories, poems -- on biology, nature, computers, and more. http://www.pluff-sky.net/. Browse, especially the "Writings". Part of the site is also available in Croatian. I have also listed Borislav's page on my page Unusual microbes, which he helped me start.
AnimalBase. "Our objective is to provide free access for all scientists to the old zoological literature, particularly to those important publications where name-bearing zoological taxa were originally described." The site contains several hundred books and papers, with an emphasis on original reports of animal species, from the 16th - 18th centuries, with more to come. http://www.animalbase.org/. From the University of Göttingen.
BioInteractive, an educational resource from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/
Virtual Classroom Biology, an educational resource, with a major collection of images and movies. http://www.vcbio.science.ru.nl/eng/. Also in Dutch, German.
BioEd Online, from Baylor College of Medicine. http://www.bioedonline.org/. Good introductory articles, slide shows, some short videos -- generally aimed at the high school level. Current "Hot topics in biology" include: Adult Neurogenesis, Embryonic Stem Cells, Bird Flu, Tsunami, Homo floresiensis, Flu Basics, Mad Cow Disease.
"The Image & Video Library of The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a collection of peer-reviewed cell images, videos, and digitized texts that illustrate the structure, function and biology of the cell, the fundamental unit of life." http://cellimages.ascb.org/.
BioNetbook. http://www1.pasteur.fr/recherche/BNB/bnb-en.html. "The BioNetbook is a directory of Web pages for Biology." Bare bones interface, but useful links. From the Pasteur Institute. Also in French.
Bioresearch. A major biology gateway from the Wellcome Library and Intute (a consortium of UK universities). Among the many sections over a range of biology are: molecular biology/biotechnology, biochemistry, genetics, and many more. http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/biologicalsciences/. [Also listed under Molecular Biology Internet Resources: Molecular biology gateway sites.]
The BioCareer Center, with "Career Resources" and job listings: http://www.biocareer.com
Biology Browser. A biology portal, from BIOSIS: http://www.biologybrowser.org. Thousands of biology web sites are accessible through this portal
The National Image Gallery, from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://images.fws.gov. Lots of wildlife photos.
Image gallery from the Learning and Teaching Support Network, Univ Leeds: http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/imagebank/. Lots from botany, ecology, histology.
The Animated Cell, by John Kyrk: http://www.johnkyrk.com. Animations of cells and a range of cellular processes, from general structure to molecular. Sometimes the site seems complex, but give it a try; content quality is good. Also in French, German, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Spanish.
Understanding evolution, a major resource from UC Berkeley. http://evolution.berkeley.edu. It is aimed at K-12 teachers.
Science, Evolution, and Creationism. A report for the general public, from the National Academy of Sciences, January, 2008. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11876. There is a link to a short "summary brochure"; the entire report can be read free online. A news story about the release of this report, Evolution Book Sees No Science-Religion Gap: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/us/04evolve.html.
3-D Insects, from Alexei Sharov, Virginia Tech. http://home.comcast.net/~sharov/3d/3dinsect.html.
I have links to biology resources in various places around my site. Some are in other sections of this page. Some are on the pages of resources for Molecular Biology or BITN = Biotechnology in the News. For example, my page of Molecular Biology Internet Resources includes a section listing some sites that focus on specific types of organisms. Some of these deal mostly with molecular data, but some are more general.
A good overview of the nature of light -- especially visible light -- and of color vision. http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color1.html. From Bruce MacEvoy.
Each of the following sites offers the standard tests for color blindness. Each has various additional information, thus perhaps making all worth visiting. Note that the tests cannot be considered medically rigorous, since they depend on the color presentations of your monitor. I have found that the tests are poor on my laptop computer, but fairly good on my desktop computer.
http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html
http://geocities.datacellar.net/Heartland/8833/coloreye.html
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/teares/gktvc/vc/lt/colourblindness/cblind.htm. From David Byrne, King's College London. Has a more extensive set of tests.
M Okabe & K Ito have proposed that color figures be "enhanced" to make them more readable by colorblind people. For example, many molecular and cell biology results are shown in red and green -- a color combination that a few percent of males cannot distinguish. The proposal is to use magenta instead of red; the magenta contains enough blue to allow the color to be distinguished from the green by many colorblind people. For more on this "accessibility" issue, see http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/html/color_blind/.
Also see Chemistry: History and Science: History.
Medicine in the Americas 1610-1914: A Digital Library, from NIH. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/americas/americashome.html.
History of Biomedicine, from the Karolinska Institute. http://www.mic.stacken.kth.se/History.html. Extensive historical resources -- across many centuries and many cultures.
MedHist, the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. "MedHist is a free catalogue of evaluated, high quality Internet resources and websites relating to the history of medicine and allied sciences, covering all aspects of the history of health and development of medical knowledge. ... In addition, MedHist provides a searchable calendar of events." One of several biology gateway sites from the Wellcome Library and Intute (a consortium of UK universities). http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/medhist/.
The story of cholera. More than that, this site is the story of how a disease outbreak is studied. It recounts how John Snow tracked a cholera outbreak in London in the mid 19th century to polluted water. http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html. From Ralph Frerichs at the UCLA epidemiology department. From the left hand menu bar, you can access other epidemiology stories, on bioterrorism and HIV.
Lab Tests Online: http://www.labtestsonline.org. Maintained by clinical lab professionals for the consumer public, this site offers information about medical tests.
Clinical Laboratory Reference: http://www.clinlabnavigator.com/. "The primary purpose of this web site is to provide a comprehensive, yet practical, resource for all clinical laboratorians. The major didactic features include detailed explanations of: over 500 laboratory tests, 40 transfusion guidelines, method evaluation protocols, test utilization guidelines and algorithms." From Dr F V Plapp, Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, MO.
Merck Manual Online Medical Library: http://www.merck.com/mmhe/index.html. A great resource for medical information; searchable.
On-line Medical Dictionary. Simple: Just enter a term, and see what happens. Or you can browse subject categories. http://www.mondofacto.com/facts/dictionary. Based on a resource originally provided by Dr Graham Dark, Univ Newcastle. Also listed in the section Biology: books and glossaries.
Who named it? Information about the people whose names are associated with diseases -- over 4500 of them. http://www.whonamedit.com.
"The Literature, Arts & Medicine Database is an annotated multimedia listing of prose, poetry, film, video and art that was developed to be a dynamic, accessible, comprehensive resource for teaching and research in Medical Humanities, and for use in health/pre-health, graduate and undergraduate liberal arts and social science settings". http://litmed.med.nyu.edu. From New York University School of Medicine. I have also listed this item under Art & Music.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, popularly known as "the CDC". http://www.cdc.gov.
Immunology for Medical Students. "The site was designed as a reference for medical students in first year and for quick review during clinical clerkship. Also included in this site are some clinical notes and a practice exam. There is a full index of the site Members of the general public may also find this site useful." http://pim.medicine.dal.ca/home.htm. From Tim Lee & Angela McGibbon, Dalhousie Univ.
Microbial Triggers Of Chronic Human Illness. http://www.asm.org/Academy/index.asp?bid=34434. A report on microbes that play a role in chronic diseases, such as peptic ulcers and some cancers. This report discusses some examples that are well characterized, and some where there is only a hint at this point. It discusses the difficulties of determining a role for microbes in slow and complex diseases. From the American Academy of Microbiology, April 2005.
The Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia (SED) and Spondylometaphyseal Dysplasia (SMD) Page. Everything you ever wanted to know about these genetically determined forms of human dwarfism. http://www.ksginfo.org. A very nice page, which should be a model of how to develop a web site focused on a specific medical condition. The page is from a former student, who provided the following description:
A web page about a specific genetic condition created by and for people with the condition. I also have a significant introductory section on doing your own internet research, as well as questions and answers for families of newly diagnosed children. This could be relevant for those interested in the human side of genetic diseases and conditions. The hardest part about the web page was organizing the VOLUMES of material and not overwhelming folks.
"ORPHANET is a database dedicated to information on rare diseases and orphan drugs. Access to this database is free of charge." http://www.orpha.net/. Choose the page for the language you want: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish.
A general listing of free online textbooks, and similar resources, arranged by subject: Textbook Revolution. http://textbookrevolution.org/.
Online textbooks of general microbiology:
* Fundamentals of Microbiology 101, from Ronald Hurlbert, Washington State University. http://www.slic2.wsu.edu:82/hurlbert/micro101/pages/101hmpg.html.
* Through the microscope: A look at all things small, from Timothy Paustian and Gary Roberts, University of Wisconsin-Madison. http://www.microbiologytext.com/index.php?module=Book&func=toc&book_id=4.
* Todar's Online Textbook of Bacteriology, from Kenneth Todar, University of Wisconsin-Madison. http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net.
* Grapes of Staph, from G Kaiser, Community College of Baltimore County (MD). http://student.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/goshp.html. Choose Lecture Guide or Laboratory Manual.
New October 26, 2008. An online Study Guide for the popular textbook Brock Biology of Microorganisms, by Madigan, Martinko and Parker: http://cwx.prenhall.com/brock/. The Study Guide is for the 8th edition, 1999.
Online textbooks of medical microbiology:
* Medical Microbiology; edited by Dr Samuel Baron, Univ Texas Galveston. Over 100 chapters, on a wide range of pathogenic microbes. http://gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/. Click on "Table of Contents" to get to the online version.
* Microbiology and Immunology Online; from Univ South Carolina School of Medicine. http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/book/welcome.htm. Also in Albanian, Portuguese, Spanish (in part; translations are in progress).
Tom Volk's Fungi. People like pictures of fungi! Here is one popular site with lots of pictures and information. It includes a Fungus of the Month feature. http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/. (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.)
Doctor Fungus, a site maintained by doctors and scientists. Much of it is for use by doctors, but much is also at a level accessible to the general public. Full of info (and pictures), including many environmental issues as well as medical. http://www.doctorfungus.org
Moulds [molds]: isolation, cultivation, identification . "An introductory guide to the study of moulds (fungi) by David Malloch, University of Toronto. Includes discussions of mould classification, methods of study, importance to humans, and identification. Picture and text keys are provided for many of the most common fungi found in soil, indoor environments, outdoor air, food, etc. Individual genera of moulds are described and illustrated." http://www.botany.utoronto.ca/ResearchLabs/MallochLab/Malloch/Moulds/Moulds.html
Mycology Online, an educational site with medical emphasis, from David Ellis, Univ Adelaide. Many pictures. http://www.mycology.adelaide.edu.au/
California Fungi -- including mushrooms. MykoWeb, from Michael Wood & Fred Stevens. http://www.mykoweb.com/
Bacterial names. The "List of Prokaryotic Names with Standing in Nomenclature" is a great resource for sorting out proper modern names for bacteria. http://www.bacterio.cict.fr/index.html
Culture collections. A database of culture collections, for microbes, viruses, and even cell lines, from the World Data Centre for Microorganisms (Japan). http://wdcm.nig.ac.jp. It also links to sites for many genome projects.
Media. The Oxoid Manual, of microbiological media, is online at http://www.oxoid.com. You can search by the name of the medium or by various characteristics or uses.
The major professional society for microbiologists in the US is ASM, the American Society for Microbiology: http://www.asm.org
The ASM site (above) includes a microbiology timeline, describing milestones in the story of microbiology from 1870 to 1995: http://www.asm.org/MemberShip/index.asp?bid=16731
ASM maintains a site of general microbiology information, aimed broadly at students and teachers, with some for the general public. Offerings include daily radio and biweekly video podcasts. http://www.microbeworld.org.
New November 19, 2008. Microbial Biotechnology -- a nice list of "Useful Internet Resources". Sections include: Chemical Compounds, Enzymes and their Genes, Metabolic Pathways, Microorganisms, Scientific Literature and Related Information, Biodegradation and Biotechnology in General. http://umbbd.msi.umn.edu/resources.html. This page is part of the Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database site at the University of Minnesota, which is listed on my page Science on the Internet: an introduction. Another page from the site, the Biochemical Periodic Table, is listed on my page Introductory Chemistry -- Internet resources, under Periodic tables.
Microbes.info -- microbiology links. At various levels, including for the general public. Also links to microbiology journals. From Al Chan. http://www.microbes.info.
The Microbial World - Microorganisms and microbial activities, a broad site for microbiology students, with considerable emphasis on the natural roles of microbes. From J Deacon, Univ Edinburgh. http://www.biology.ed.ac.uk/research/groups/jdeacon/microbes/index.htm
The Virtual Museum of Bacteria. A wide range of microbiology information and links, arranged by level (for students and professionals). From M Blaser, Foundation for Bacteriology. http://www.bacteriamuseum.org
Microbial Life - Educational Resources (MLER). "Teaching and learning about the diversity, ecology and evolution of the microbial world; discover the connections between microbial life, the history of the earth and our dependence on micro-organisms. Phase I of MLER is focused on Microbial Life in Extreme Environments. Phase II of this project will explore Microbial Life in Marine Environments." Includes sections of resources for K-12 teachers and students, and for undergraduate students and faculty. From the Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College. http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/index.html
Beijerinck Museum: Archives of the Delft School of Microbiology. Delft. Beijerinck. Kluyver. van Leeuwenhoek. A site full of history! http://www.beijerinck.bt.tudelft.nl. From Lesley Robertson at the Delft University of Technology.
Protists. http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp. The Protist Information Server. Thousands of pictures, including movie clips, covering over 3100 species of these single-celled eukaryotes. Plus more. Also in Japanese.
Viruses. Lots of viruses. Technical information and pictures. This is the Universal Virus Database, maintained at the Australian National University, Canberra, by Cornelia Buchen-Osmond for the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). (This is a US mirror site.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/welcome.htm
Phage therapy. The idea of using bacteriophages as therapeutic agents occurred to phage pioneers, and was popularized in the Sinclair Lewis novel Arrowsmith. For various reasons, the idea did not gain wide acceptance, but it is undergoing a resurgence. Betty Kutter, a phage researcher at Evergreen State College, has posted a fine analysis of phage therapy, with discussion of the history and current status. http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/phage/phagetherapy/phagetherapy.htm. Among other things, note the "Addendum 2000" listed at the left. Arrowsmith is now listed on my page of Books: Suggestions for general reading -- Arrowsmith.
The Bad Bug Book. Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook; site is from the FDA. http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/intro.html. (Also listed under Nutrition; Food safety.)
My page on Unusual microbes. A brief discussion of some of the oddities of the microbial world, organisms that capture our imagination by being different.
New section, July 3, 2008. The items listed here were previously included under Microbiology: other, above.
The following sites have extensive educational and historical resources, including many good pictures.
Molecular Expressions - Exploring the worlds of optics and microscopy. http://www.microscopy.fsu.edu/. From Michael W Davidson, Florida State University.
Microscopy & Imaging Resources on the WWW. http://swehsc.pharmacy.arizona.edu/exppath/micro/index.php. From Douglas W Cromey, Univ Arizona.
New July 2, 2008. Olympus Microscopy Resource Center. http://olympusmicro.com/. A commercial site, with many useful educational resources, and image galleries.
Dietary Supplements Database, from the NIH. Lots of information of safety and effectiveness. http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/Health_Information/Health_Information.aspx
National Food Safety Database, with sections for consumers, educators and industry. http://foodsafety.ifas.ufl.edu/. From the University of Florida's Food Safety and Quality Program.
The Bad Bug Book. Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook; site is from the FDA. http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/intro.html. (Also listed under Microbiology.)
An analysis of a typical American holiday dinner -- emphasizing the toxic and carcinogenic ingredients commonly found in our foods (present naturally, or introduced by ordinary cooking). From the American Council on Science and Health. http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.103/pub_detail.asp
For more about nutrition see:
* Internet resources - Organic and Biochemistry, especially sections for Lipids and Metabolism.
* Further reading: Medical topics
* Nutrigenomics, discussed in the BITN section Examples of how genome information is useful
Home page for Intro Chem (X11) Organic/Biochem (X402) Biotechnology in the News (BITN) Molecular Biology
List of pages of Internet resources
Contact information Site home page
Last update: April 18, 2009