• Key
• Strong Points
• Weak Points
• Ratings
• Excellent
• Very Good
• Good

• Nice photo collections, links
• Lacks background educational material
• Rating

• Biospeleology
• www.utexas.edu/tmm/sponsored_sites/biospeleology/index.html

• Remember the thrills of exploring nature as a child? Whether it was building forts in trees, running through the forest, or climbing the cragged rocks at the beach, the terrain always possessed an element of mystery that inspired the imagination. Well, this sense of excitement and exploration is very much a part of the lives of biospeleologists, people who study the biology of caves and their inhabitants. Biospeleology is co-sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin, the Texas Natural Science Center, and the Missouri Department of Conservation, and it provides an insider’s look at the field. There is a wonderful gallery of cave-dwelling animal photos, organized by taxon. (There is also a separate photo collection—cave biologists at work—that really makes one appreciate the effort that goes in to collecting the photos of the cave critters.) The website includes a list of other biospeleology links, so grab your flashlight and start exploring!

• Valuable tools for the analysis of protein structure
• Additional downloads required for some viewing options
• Rating

• Molecules to Go
• http://molbio.info.nih.gov/cgi-bin/pdb

• Hold the pickles, extra onions…Now, even your molecular images can be made-to-order, thanks to this NIH resource. Molecules to Go (a site formerly named Molecules R Us, but changed after a certain toy company had a problem with that) allows users to view Protein Data Bank (PDB) files in the format that they please. This includes, among others, the standard ball-and-stick and space-filling images, a hydrogen-bond map, a text file of torsion information, and a motif map. (Do you want fries with that?) In addition to retrieving information from the PDB, this website utilizes other databases and programs to generate the various types of information. Some of the viewing options require that the user download some of the freely available molecular graphics programs like RasMol. The Instructions page succinctly describes the different structure formats from which the user can select.

• Various tools available, how-to instructions
• Applet may take some time to load
• Rating

• nmrdb.org
• www.nmrdb.org

• The author of this site clearly has methodological allegiances, as he plainly states, “NMR spectroscopy is certainly the analytical methodology that provides the most information about a molecule.” (I know some researchers who would disagree with that assertion.) In any event, no matter whether NMR is the top dog among analytical methods, nmrdb.org deserves mention as a very useful database. Aiming to provide user-friendly, accessible software for spectral analysis and a database that permits complex queries, nmrdb.org utilizes java applets to display and analyze NMR spectra. In addition to the NMR Assigner, which allows one to upload and assign a spectrum online, the NMR Resurrector and Predictor are also available on this site. The Resurrector (which could pass as a great superhero name, if this whole NMR-analysis gig doesn’t work out) recreates a spectrum based on spectral descriptions, whereas the Predictor predicts a spectrum based on the chemical structure of a molecule.

• Organization, coverage of topics
• None
• Rating

• Photobiological Sciences Online
• www.photobiology.info

• Confused about what exactly photobiological sciences entail? Well I expect that you’ll find your visit to this site to be illuminating. Photobiological Sciences Online is an educational website from the American Society for Photobiology, and it addresses questions ranging from “What is photobiology?” to “What are the components of the phototaxis signaling pathways of bacteria?” (Photobiology, by the way, is the study of biological phenomena involving nonionizing radiation. As for phototaxis signaling pathways, well, you should probably go check out the site for yourself.) The information on this site is divided into 15 modules (bioluminescence and photophysics, to name a few), and these, in turn, contain various subtopics. In addition to the modules on this page, there is also a list of suggested reading. With its clear organization and comprehensive coverage of various topics, Photobiological Sciences Online won’t leave you in the dark.

• Organization of information
• Difficult navigation
• Rating

• The Living World of Molluscs
• www.weichtiere.at/english/index.html

• Holy malacological mayhem, Batman!  We’ve got a lot of molluscs on our hands with this website. The site’s author, Robert Nordsieck, has a passion for snails—and it shows! Inspired by his early snail interest (and by the fact that many of his beloved childhood snail books are no longer in print), he created The Living World of Molluscs. Not only does the site provide an introduction to molluscs in general, it also offers information about the various mollusc classes (snails and slugs versus squids, for example). A nice collection of links complements the material on the site, and some print resources are also suggested. (Yes, actual books!) Navigation on the site is a bit difficult, as the main sidebar disappears once you click on a specific mollusc class. The information itself is nicely organized, however, and it appears that the author is continually searching to add to the page.

• Nice introduction to virology
• Bland appearance, lack of links/additional resources
• Rating

• Wong’s Virology
• virology-online.com/index.html

• Don’t be fooled by the stark appearance of this website (and don’t get too distracted by the pulsating orb—virus particle?—that appears at the top of the homepage). Wong’s Virology offers much more than it initially appears, including background information on virology topics like viral replication, viral immunology, and vaccines. The Individual Viruses page is teeming with information about, well, individual viruses (go figure). Containing information about 31 separate viruses/groups of viruses, this page is a great resource if you’re looking to brush up on, say, adenoviruses or hantaviruses. As Dr. Wong, a medical virologist, is “extensively involved” in teaching virology, there are also study tools like complete PowerPoint slide presentations (though without accompanying notes) and practice exam questions and answers. For any student of virology, and anybody wishing to become one, this site presents basic virology information that is both accessible and interesting.

*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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