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• Videos on a variety of topics
• No supporting material or links
• Rating

• Cave Biota
• www.cavebiota.com

• If there is anything that the “Planet Earth” miniseries taught us, it’s that there are some very interesting habitats on the earth…and some very bizarre creatures that live there. Take caves, for instance. On this website, Cave Biota, you can catch a glimpse of animals who call caves their home. Sure, there are the familiar characters like bats, but have you heard of blind white crayfish or northern cavefish? Sponsored by Hoosier National Forest and the Indiana Karst Conservancy, Cave Biota is an “evolving webumentary” (or, in plain terms, video clips from a nature documentary produced by Ravenswood Media). You can download each clip separately, and each video has its own subject. These range from “Levels of Cave Adaptation” to “Cave Salamander.” The videos offer visitors to the site a vibrant window into an otherwise hidden world.

• Nice page design, great image/line drawing collections
• None
• Rating

• Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants
• aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu

• While aquatic and invasive may seem to be an odd pairing for this plant website, I assure you that the information comes together nicely in the many pages of facts. The Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants at the University of Florida/IFAS has put together a nice educational site where visitors can peruse a plant glossary, learn the scientific/common names of many species, and watch videos that instruct how to identify various plants. My favorite resource on the page, however, is the collection of 175 line drawings of native, non-native, common, and rare plants. These black-and-white drawings are perfect for use as educational coloring worksheets (or for that matter, they’re a great resource for anyone who’s simply looking to add some artwork to his/her home). Especially for teachers looking to use the coloring sheets in their classrooms, there are also sheets depicting flower parts and various leaf shapes.

• Nice page design, organization
• Nothing significant
• Rating

• ExploreDNA
• www.exploredna.co.uk

• Yes, we are all familiar with what DNA is. Some bases and deoxyribose, throw in a phosphate backbone and some hydrogen bonding and bingo—you’ve got yourself the molecule of life. However, do we really ever take a moment to think about how DNA and DNA technology have transformed different fields? Such is the goal of ExploreDNA.co.uk, a website founded by John Rowlinson to give context to DNA in our lives. Articles written by experts in the field (though we are never told who those people are) discuss DNA in relation to agriculture, disease, law, forensics, and computer applications, to name some of the categories on the site. While I might disagree with the website’s assertion that “If you are searching for information on DNA, then this website may be the single best resource available for your quest,” I do think that this website does a nice job providing practical, general information about how the advent of new DNA technology has impacted various facets of society.

• Software is easy to download and use
• Nothing eye-catching about the software homepage
• Rating

• ImageJ
• rsbweb.nih.gov/ij

• The best computer tools are those that just work. (A seemingly unprofound statement, I know, though I’m sure everybody has at least one story of a frustrating, nonintuitive computer program.) ImageJ is just that—a simple, clean-cut, useful tool to annotate and analyze images. It’s not much to look at—a simple toolbar that appears on your screen—but there is much more than meets the eye. This Java program runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, so you never have to worry about compatibility headaches. It’s fast, compatible with many image types, and offers many analysis functions such as distributions, histograms, and measurements. In addition to the freely downloadable software itself, the ImageJ homepage includes a nice collection of links ranging from imaging toolkits, to image-analysis software, to Java programming.

• Large amount of information, accessible to beginning and experienced developmental biologists
• None
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• The Interactive Fly
• www.sdbonline.org/fly/aimain/1aahome.htm

• If your only interactions with flies have entailed a flyswatter or rolled-up newspaper, then perhaps you should expand your horizons and partake in some nonviolent relations with this six-legged creature. The Interactive Fly, accessible through the Society for Developmental Biology, is an amazing resource for developmental biologists as well as people looking for an introduction to the field. There is basic introductory material located under the “If you are new to developmental biology” link, and there is also very complex, detailed gene information within the Gene Index. You’ll be bug-eyed as you explore the vast amount of material contained within the pages of this site, including images of gene-expression patterns, information about tissue and organ development, and study aids. So make friends with Drosophila and spend some quality time together on this website.

• Many analytical tools
• None
• Rating

• UCL Department of Computer Science Bioinformatics Group
• bioinf.cs.ucl.ac.uk

• How is one expected to tackle the many genomic and proteomic puzzles in the life sciences today? Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have computer scientists as friends. (And by friends, I mean “people who graciously make their analysis tools freely available online.”) The website for the bioinformatics group in the department of computer science at the University College London is a virtual gold mine for genomic and proteomic tools. Under the headings of protein-structure prediction, protein sequence analysis, genome analysis, protein-structure classification, transmembrane protein modeling, and biological applications of data-mining and machine-learning technologies, there is a total of 15 analysis tools. So whether you’re in need of a metal binding residue prediction or a search engine to comb through scientific literature for you, head over to this wonderful site.

*The opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and should not be construed as reflecting the viewpoints of the publisher, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., the publishing house, or employees and affiliates thereof.

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