Frontline: Dangerous Prescription
In the recent PBS broadcast Dangerous Prescriptions, Frontline "investigates the integrity of America's drug safety system." The documentary (viewable in its entirety online) explores "the FDA's handling of several drugs that were approved but later were pulled from the market after causing injuries and even deaths." The companion website offers a look at how the FDA works and details of its recent record, based on interviews with current and former FDA officials. Also, readers may share their t
Amphibian Embryology Tutorial
Amphibian Embryology Tutorial, originally created to supplement Jeff Hardin's Introduction to Animal Development course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is "part of an ongoing project designed to implement multimedia and computer-based learning materials in the university undergraduate classroom." The tutorial is organized by major stages of development: Oogenesis and fertilization, cleavage, gastrulation, and neurulation. The Web site also includes an explanation of why we use amphibians
UVic Grid Testbed
A Canadian grid computing project is the focus of this website from the University of Victoria (UVic). The group of research physicists working on the project has "constructed a small Grid-enabled cluster as part of an effort to create a Canadian Grid testbed." Although the work is being conducted on a small scale, it is intended to serve as a model for future grid computing endeavors. The project's homepage provides an insightful overview of grid computing and its applications in high energy ph
Forest History Society
Affiliated with Duke University, the Forest History Society (FHS) "links the past to the future by identifying, collecting, preserving, interpreting, and disseminating information on the history of interactions between people, forests, and their related resources..." Founded in 1946, FHS offers extensive resources for anyone interested in the history of forests. This website contains links to FHS archives, research and publications, U.S. Forest Service history, searchable databases, and more. Th
National Environmental Data Index
The National Environmental Data Index is maintained by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration Environmental Information Service. The service provides a full text search of information from twelve governmental agencies including the US Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA. Users can choose to search from all or individual agencies, by type of information, and by several specific subjects. Results display th
MECO - The Muon to Electron Conversion Experiment
A part of the Rare Symmetry Violating Processes initiative in the National Science Foundation Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction program, the Muon to Electron Conversion Experiment (MECO) "is an experiment to test conservation of muon and electron number by searching for muons converting to electrons in the field of a nucleus." This website, created by the University of California at Irvine, furnishes a technical library, the management documents, project proposal, magnetic inf
Solid-State Lighting
Solid-state lighting is a revolutionary technology that uses semiconducting materials to create light while generating almost no heat. This is extremely energy efficient, but until recently has been impractical due to the small amount of light emitted. New developments in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have reversed this trend, and strong interest has been shown by the US government and many research bodies.A good introduction to the technology can be found at the Lighting Research Center (1). It
Biological Biochemical Image Database
The National Institute on Aging -- one of the National Institutes of Health -- provides the Biological Biochemical Image Database, "a searchable database of images of putative biological pathways, macromolecular structures, gene families, and cellular relationships." The database is intended for researchers "working with large sets of genes or proteins using cDNA arrays, functional genomics, or proteomics." The database may be searched by gene name, pathway, cell or tissue type, disease name, bi
The Allergy Authority
The Allergy Authority, created in collaboration with Healthology.com and funded by an educational grant from Schering-Plough (the makers of Claritin), offers "information necessary to make informed decisions about the control of allergy symptoms." The Web site describes the different types of allergies, how allergies develop, the difference between chronic and seasonal allergies, the side effects of allergy medications, and more. The site's main sections -- The Basics of Allergies, Seasonal or C
New Data Set Titles for October
NASA�s Global Change Master Directory Dataset Web site (last mentioned in the May 2, 1997 Scout Report) offers a free monthly list of earth science data sets. The October list contains hundreds of links with titles such as Borehole Geophysical Logs in Surficial Sediments of Canada; Air Temperature Conditions and Climatic-Geomorphological Characteristics of James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula; Upper Air Standard Levels; and Monthly Average Polar Sea-ice Concentration. The site provides a
The Why Files: Virtual Science Comes Alive
At this Why Files website, students can learn about meteorology and physics through four interactive games. Students can adjust the funnel width and the pressure difference to observe how these factors affect the destruction caused by a tornado. At the Play with Lightning link, users can examine how distance affects the dangers of lightening and the loudness of the thunder. The Hit a Homerun game allows visitors view the path of a baseball at different altitudes, speeds, and angles. The website
4 Girls Health
The Office on Women's Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services offers this Web site, which focuses on "many health topics that respond to adolescent girls' health concerns and motivates girls to choose healthy behaviors using positive, supportive and non-threatening messages." Topics covered include everything from puberty to stress relief to body image. Far from the outdated reel-to-reel films some of us had to endure in 5th grade health class, this Web site is a well-designed c
Dream Anatomy Learning Station
This Web site contains the educational materials for Dream Anatomy, a new exhibit at the National Library of Medicine. Viewable online, the exhibit offers a somewhat macabre but undeniably fascinating survey of changes in anatomical representation over the last five centuries. Recently added to the main Dream Anatomy Web site, Learning Station provides lesson plans and activities intended for 6-12 graders. The material can be used exhibit or its online version. The lesson plans titled Beginnings
Science in Your Watershed
Provided by the US Geological Survey, this Web site is intended to help users "find scientific information organized on a watershed basis" for use in "characterizing, assessing, analyzing, and maintaining the status and health of a watershed." More specifically, Science in Your Watershed "provides rudiments of a decision-support process by making accessible recent case studies of projects that have occurred, publications produced, databases and information assembled, and providing access to free
net.TUTOR
This site from Ohio State University offers fifteen interactive tutorials that teach effective Internet practices and research methodologies. The tutorials can require up to 30 minutes each, since they provide many good examples and activities. The first few cover basic Internet tools, like Web browsers and email. Essential searching skills are introduced in the next section. A particularly valuable tutorial describes ways to evaluate a site's credentials and determine if the material is accurat
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is a collection of about 2000 World Wide Web pages containing information about the diversity of life. These pages are authored by biologists from around the world... Each page contains information about one group of organisms. The pages are linked one to another in the form of the evolutionary tree of organisms, with the pages branching off from a group's page being about subgroups. This vast site contains a large collection of biological images, most of which can be reproduced
The Accidental Scientist: Cooking
Another great Web site from the Exploratorium in San Francisco (last mentioned in the August 16, 2002 NSDL MET Report), The Accidental Scientist: Cooking is the first in a series of "Web-based projects focusing on the science behind everyday life." Offering a mind-boggling array of food-related information and activities, foodies and science-lovers alike should find this Web site extremely engaging. Life science-related material includes an exploration of taste and smell; the biological properti
Highlight of Biochemistry: Molecular Structures Made Visible
This Web site from the University of Hamburg Faculty of Biology offers useful three-dimensional images of molecular structures, many of them animated. The dozens of images included in this site should help visual learners understand molecular structure and function in a number of contexts, including virology, immunology, neurology, photosynthesis, genetics, and more. Detailed descriptions and related information accompany each image. This Web site also provides links to three tutorials covering
Network Montana Project Instructional Materials
Montana State University maintains the Network Montana Project Instructional Materials Web site. The four subject areas covered include the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and mountain environments. Each of these contain "Information Rich Problem Solving Activities" categorized by expertise level ranging from novice to expert. In the geosphere novice level, for example, the Exploding Mountain exercise lets students compare before and after volcano images, learn about lava, and explore locati
Catalogue of New World Grasses
This website was developed by agrostologists from several institutions to present the Catalogue of New World Grasses (CNWG). CNWG is "an on-going project to database ...and link all nomenclature, types, synonymy, current taxonomy, and distribution for grasses occurring from Alaska and Greenland to Tierra del Fuego." CNWG uses TROPICOS and provides a search mechanism whereby one can enter scientific names and receive current information on his or her entries. CNWG also offers three indices-Accept
