History
- Key
- Strong Points
- Weak Points
- Ratings
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Vastness of collection
- Nerdy
- Rating
- Anatomia Collection-University of Toronto Libraries
- link.library.utoronto.ca/anatomia/application/index.cfm
- Speaking of images, here's a collection of 4,500 plates of anatomical illustrations from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library that spans the years from 1522 to 1867. These are almost works of art, in many cases. Visitors can search the extensive database using key words, and restrict selections by gender, view, technique, and color. Retrieved records contain images in multiple sizes with hyperlinked information to other records, all of which are nicely organized. Curiosity seekers, like myself, can also just browse through the material, book by book (95 in total). If you do, I suspect you'll find an amazing collection that will surely be useful to anyone interested in human anatomy.
- Great idea
- Too much still under construction
- Rating
- Animalbase
- http://www.animalbase.org
- This ambitious and interesting site begins with an apology – “This page is under construction and we apologize for things not yet working perfectly.” While there is still a considerable amount of the site still under construction, there is also a lot currently available. Hosted at the University of Göttingen, Germany, Animalbase is a site that will be embraced by anyone interested in the history of biology. What it provides (or will provide) is free access to digitized images of classic zoological literature dating from the beginning of publishing to 1800 (in the current effort). During the first round, all major works up to 1770 were scanned and provided online. Access to the images is available through either a search engine or by clicking on alphabetical listings of species names. I was disappointed at not being able to find digitizations for the dozen or so publications I searched for, but I did find much peripheral information associated with each book. This one is going to grow over time and it will be interesting to watch it develop.
- Very interesting reading
- Mainly for historians
- Rating
- Darwin Correspondence Project
- www.darwinproject.ac.uk
- One of the positives, if there is one, of the uproar among the general public about evolution is that there is a tremendous amount of interest in Charles Darwin. Witness the Darwin Correspondence Project, which focuses on the great naturalist’s correspondence with others. In his lifetime, Charles Darwin exchanged letters with over 2,000 people; a compilation is nicely put together at the site. Information from over 14,000 letters is managed, and reading through them is a kick. Material is both categorized and available through a search engine. Primary categories include Religion and Science, and each is significantly subdivided. After going through the material, one gets a much better perspective of the man as a scientist and as a person. Materials include interviews with others about Darwin and a tremendous amount of miscellany. An informative historical site that will be of interest to many.
- Brilliant idea done well
- None
- Rating
- Devonian Times
- www.devoniantimes.org
- An informative site with a very clever opening page, “Devonian Times” reports on “All the news that is in the record.” They’re referring, of course, to the fossil record. The Devonian Period ran from 417–354 million years ago (MYA), and the creator of the site, Dennis Murphy, wins my high praise for putting this into a newspaper format. The top of the opening page identifies the paper’s home as Fram Formation, Euramerica with a date of Sunday, 382 MYA. Headline stories include a “Fishapod from the North” with a subheading of “Gaps in the Fossil Record are Diminishing.” Clicking on any of the story links leads visitors to informative stories on the fossil record. I can’t think of a better way to get people reading stories about evolutionary history. One of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time.
- Excellent educational materials
- None
- Rating
- DNA From the Beginning
- www.dnaftb.org/dnaftb/
- I reviewed this one a few years ago when it was housed under the Cold Spring Harbor website, but now it is on its own and it is time for an update. Focused strongly on education and history, DNA From the Beginning divides content on the opening page into three areas—Classical Genetics, Molecules of Genetics, and Genetic Organization/Control. Each section is superbly organized, with photo galleries, audio/video, problems, links, and more. Altogether, the site contains 41 modules under the headings above and each one is informative, well described, and easy to understand. This may be the best basic information about DNA and the molecules of life to be found anywhere on the Internet. A must link for anyone interested in teaching molecular biology, DNA From the Beginning is a no-brainer to recommend here.
- Nice hierarchical design
- None
- Rating
- Genentech BioOncology Cancer Therapy Research
- www.biooncology.com/bioonc/index.m
- Everyone has heard of Genentech, but many researchers may not be aware of the company’s BioOncology site. With a focus on highlighting the company’s products targeting angiogenesis, apoptosis, signaling, development, and immunology, the BioOncology site has a lot of ground to cover. Navigation of the attractively designed site is fun in places (check out the History of Innovation timeline), informative in others (see Clinical Trials), and commercial elsewhere (click on Products). For a commercial site, BioOncology is surprisingly free of ads and doesn’t get in your face as you navigate. Other features of the site include a segment devoted to careers with the company, a lot of attractive graphics paired with intelligently written technical descriptions, and an animation or two thrown in (though these were not particularly informative). Overall, BioOncology is a solid effort from a solid company, and you don’t have to fret about overly commercial content.
- Great collection
- Target audience unclear
- Rating
- George's Pictures of Vintage Microscopes
- www.arco-iris.com/George/microscopy.htm
- This site is for a very targeted audience—geeks who also have a view of history. On the opening page, you’ll see what I mean. Brimming with pictures of vintage microscopes dating to the 19th century, George’s Pictures of Vintage Microscopes reminds us that fine workmanship is timeless. Some of the microscopes look like they could have been made recently. Indeed, the classic lines of many of them give them a superior appearance to a lot of today’s offerings. Besides the microscope images, there are small sections devoted to photomicrographs, accessories, and drawings.
- Breadth of coverage
- Nothing significant
- Rating
- History of Medicine
- www.mic.ki.se/History.html
- From the Karolinska Institute comes the History of Medicine site. If you think back to the first history class you ever took in high school, you probably didn’t like it because it gave you a list of dates to memorize and didn’t really capture what history was all about. That thought came to my mind as I perused the History of Medicine site, which presented a similar sort of list of options after I clicked on each of the hyperlinks on the site’s opening page. Fortunately, clicking on them brings up more readable and interesting content. I don’t mean to belittle this site, because a well-organized historical site is going to have a front end of links (as this one does) and secondary information that is more readable. The question here is whether the secondary info is actually interesting, and for that I shout a resounding yes. The coverage here is absolutely outstanding, and there is more interesting material here than you will read in several long sittings. Though I’d like to see other organizational options such as a timeline, History of Medicine delivers on its subject.
- Excellent articles
- Geeky
- Rating
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs
- www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=MEMOIRS_A
- Here’s a group I’d both like to be a member of and at the same time, I’d pass on joining if the opportunity were given to me. I’m schizophrenic that way. Perhaps it would be safe to say I wouldn’t welcome admittance anytime soon, but I’d still like to be “qualified” for it. I’m speaking, of course, about the Biographical Memoirs of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences. OK, yeah, this is something for the geekiest of the geeks—science nerds who appreciate history or vice versa. Either way, this is a Win-Win Website for anyone with fondness for these subjects. I learned a lot looking through the site. For example, when I couldn’t find Carl Sagan’s obituary, I did a bit of research and discovered he had been turned down (!) for membership in this prestigious organization. There are other gems to be found, as well as a great collection of some of the most fascinating biographies of scientists you’ll find anywhere.
- Links
- Broken links
- Rating
- Origins of Life Links
- www.resa.net/nasa/links_origins_life.htm
- What is the earliest evidence for life on Earth? If you click on the links at this site, you’ll discover it is a “page not found.” If you move on to read about life beginning on Earth 3.85 billion years ago, you’ll find the same information. Basically, the earliest information about life on Earth is not found. Could that be a perverse joke? The site’s evolutionary timeline is not so consistent with an actual running tally of major events in the history of life on this planet. Apart from the early oversights of the page, Origins of Life has an abundance of info relating to early life on Earth. The famous Stanley Miller experiment is another “page not found,” but other important information in links can be found through Access Excellence. Sadly, the “page not found” is the most common page on the site, so be prepared to be frustrated as you navigate through the impressive sounding links of the site. Though the annoyances are large, the Origins of Life Links page does have several interesting pages of content.
- Fascinating speakers
- None
- Rating
- Peoples Archive
- www.peoplesarchive.com
- I haven’t covered a history-related page here in some time, so it is with great pleasure that I present the Peoples Archive (the site is missing an apostrophe, so I’ve kept their convention). What the Peoples Archive contains is an amazing number (in the thousands) of stories presented in online videos of 35 famous newsmakers (mostly scientists). The list is impressive, ranging from Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner to Benoit Mandelbrot and Francois Jacob. One can listen to Francis Crick talk about the book that influenced him and Sydney Brenner discussing why he wanted to be a scientist. Most discussions are based in personal history and include discussions of the subjects/topics/discoveries for which each person is best known. Additionally, you can download transcripts of each story, and users can also define the quality of the video download corresponding to their bandwidth. Peoples Archive is a great activity for one of those days where you have some time to kill and you don’t want your brain to rot from viewing other web offerings.
- Excellent articles
- Could use more profiles
- Rating
- Profiles in Science
- profiles.nlm.nih.gov/TL
- I am of the opinion that we, as scientists, are not very good at getting out the word about our profession. The public has a great curiosity about science and a lot of respect for scientists, but for some reason, we seem to be unable to make the public aware of more than a handful of outstanding researchers. It is for this reason that I welcome sites like the National Library of Medicine’s “Profiles in Science” site, which highlights the accomplishments of 20th century leaders in biomedical research and public health. At the main page, visitors will find informative profiles of over 25 scientists in Biomedical Research, Health/Medicine, and Fostering Science/Health. Excellently written articles highlight the work of Salvador Luria, Arthur Kornberg, Linus Pauling, and Rosalind Franklin, to name a few. This is the place to go for anyone interested in the 20th century history of the biological sciences.
- Interesting
- Not very molecular
- Rating
- Rhynie Chert Learning Resource
- www.abdn.ac.uk/rhynie/intro.htm
- What, you may be asking, is the Rhynie Chert? As explained by this informative University of Aberdeen site, Rhynie is a sedimentary rock formed from the accumulation of silicaceous animal remains. These include radiolaria, diatoms, and sponges. The Rhynie Chert gives a geological perspective of a time about 400 million years ago. Its importance to scientists is that it is the best preserved collection of plants from this time period and it contains “the most diverse associated fossil arthropod fauna of terrestrial and freshwater origin from rocks of comparable age anywhere in the world.” At the site, one will discover summaries of the research going on at the site (Rhyne is a location in Scotland), as well as obtain a perspective of life as it was a long time ago.
- Well researched
- Nothing significant
- Rating
- The Joseph Dalton Hooker Website
- www.jdhooker.org.uk
- History fans take note, because it’s time once again for another science-related historical site to check. This one concerns Joseph Dalton Hooker, one of the most important British botanists of the 1800s and a former director of Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Starting with an image of Hooker on the opening page that looks like you could reach out and touch him, the site grabs the viewer quickly and doesn’t let go. For the uninitiated, Joseph Hooker was one of Charles Darwin’s closest friends and classifier of plants on the Galapagos Islands. The site provides visitors with an excellent profile of his life and career, with the text of a number of his journals, a hyperlinked biographical profile, a list of published sources about Hooker, a great collection of links, and a list of collectors of information on the subject. If science history is your cup of tea, this is a great place to visit.
- Entertaining viewing
- A bit light
- Rating
- The Museum of RetroTechnology
- www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm
- Over the past few years, there has developed a nostalgia for older views of science, as seen through the eyes of the old Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Scientific American magazines. This site sort of encapsulates that feeling. With an amazing collection of photos of some of the most improbable sorts of devices (rocket-powered bicycles, anyone?), this is a feast for the eyes and a reminder of how our view of high-tech has evolved over the years. Much of the site will make you scratch your head in wonder. Consider the personal helicopter (looks like a super-beanie helmet with wings), the propeller driven car (a ‘heliocycle’), steam-powered lawn mowers, the ammonia motor, the dog-powered engine, and a dicycle (like a bicycle, but with wheels side by side). Were these for real? Perhaps the main message this site communicates is that engineering marketing is an evolutionary process—some ideas never quite catch on and probably deserve to die. You still have to admire the inventiveness, though, even if it is strange in some cases.
- Good coverage of Rockefeller news
- Needs more news to cover
- Rating
- Trace Your Ancestry with DNA – DNA Ancestry Project
- http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/
- You may have heard about this one in the news. In any event, you may want to check it out, if only to amaze yourself at how easily aspects of your genome can be analyzed. Subtitled “Genetic Genealogy,” the DNA Ancestry Project is nothing if it is not interesting and ambitious. Tantalizing topics, such as “Trace the Roots of Your Surname” and “You and Marie Antoinette (trace your relationship to this illustrious woman),” tease visitors as they draw them in. As one who has done a bit of non-DNA-based genealogical work, I must say the services look interesting, to say the least. A recent headline about James Watson’s African roots (http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconvenient-truth_296.php) will likely stimulate others to check out just how much one can learn about one’s ancestors from DNA. Standard analyses begin at $119, with advanced analyses available for only $318. What are you waiting for? (Note – I have no financial interest or other connection to the company).
- Interesting Reading
- Mainly for history buffs
- Rating
- Viruses From Structure to Biology
- www.medicine.wustl.edu/~virology
- There is no aspect of biology that has captured the public interest as much as viruses have. From the avian flu to HIV to SARS, viruses are in the news almost every day, so a site dedicated to historical and other perspectives of viruses is timely and relevant. Focused mostly on history, Viruses from Structure to Biology reminds us that scientific progress continues despite war, political upheavals, and other man-dominated events. The timeline on the site, which parallels advances in discovery about viruses with world events, is informative and interesting. The interface is simple—three main sections with hyperlinked/hierarchical organization. An informative site on an important topic.
- Well put together
- None
- Rating
- Welcome to the Homepage of the Robert Boyle Project
- www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle
- If you’re into scientific history, you really need to check out this informative site on Robert Boyle, hosted in Birkbeck College at the University of London. Robert Boyle was one of the most prominent early British scientists and he is credited with significant contributions to developing the modern experimental method. Born in 1627, Boyle made major inroads to developing the modern philosophy of science. Visitors to the site will find papers on Boyle and an electronic version of the work diaries of the man as well. This is an incredible collection of material and a treasure trove for historians. The material is easy to read through and most informative. Two thumbs up.
- High-quality image database
- Limited means of finding content
- Rating
- Wellcome Images
- images.wellcome.ac.uk
- Note the second “L” in the title above. Though the images provided at the site are, indeed, welcome, the host is the Wellcome Library, based in London. The visuals at Wellcome-images are from collections representing “2,000 years of human culture.” As noted online, the pix are available on demand in digital form. Content is divided into contemporary and historical categories. The collection of images is impressive, with over 40,000 high-quality graphics from clinical and biomedical sciences depicting diseases, surgery, general healthcare, genetics, neuroscience, and a wide range
of imaging techniques. A search engine provides the main interface for users, and all images are freely available for personal, academic teaching, or study use. Photographic prints can also be ordered for reasonable prices. While I’d like to see other options for locating desired material besides the ones offered, that’s a small complaint for an otherwise superb collection.
*The opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and should not be construed as reflecting the viewpoints of the publisher, Genetic Engineering News, the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishing house, or employees or affiliates thereof.
Suggestions of websites for review are welcome and should be addressed to .
INTERVIEW:
(BIO) BANKING IN LUXEMBOURG - Interview with Robert Hewitt, Ph.D., CEO, Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg, and European Editor, Biopreservation and Biobanking (published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)
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