Everything you Need to Know About Sewerage
The state-owned Company South East Water, which provides water and sewerage services to customers in the southeast of Melbourne, presents the Everything you Need to Know About Sewerage Web site. Visitors will learn about the composition of sewage and how it is treated, the history of sewage treatment, where and how materials should disposed of, and more.
Robber Flies (Asilidae)
This Web site focuses on "one of the largest and most abundant families of present day insects" -- the Robber Flies. Maintained by Fritz Geller-Grimm of the Museum Wiesbaden in Germany and Cornell University graduate student Torsten Dikow, the site includes a variety of information on many aspects of these insects. The Asilidae section contains many resources that are most appropriate for an advanced or research audience, including identification keys, species and distribution databases, and lit
Salamander Feeding Movies
This Web site is compiled by salamander biologist Stephan Deban, who offers a look at a number of different feeding strategies used by salamanders. High-speed video clips of twelve different salamander species are available for viewing, accompanied by brief descriptions of each species and their particular feeding behavior. This Web site is easy to navigate and interesting to visit, even for those unfamiliar with the field of salamander biology.
Sfold: Software for Statistical Folding and Rational Design of Nucleic Acids
Available free of charge to any researcher for non-commercial applications, Sfold "predicts probable RNA secondary structures, assesses target accessibility, and provides tools for the rational design of RNA-targeting nucleic acids." Sfold is offered through the Wadsworth center of the New York State Department of Health. Sfold application modules allow users to target accessibility prediction and rational design of siRNA, antisense oligonucelotides and nucleic acid probes, _trans_-cleaving ribo
Advantage Warfighter: ERDC Research Gives US Forces the Edge
This report from the US Army Research and Development Center describes new technologies that "assist soldiers as they maneuver, deploy, sustain, survive, and train." Advanced techniques and equipment are highlighted in each of these five categories. For example, the Joint Rapid Airfield Construction program, as the name implies, is working on a method of quickly setting up a base for aircraft to land, possibly in unfamiliar territory. Another project is a protective structural system that can be
National Marine Mammal Laboratory: Aerial and Land-based Surveys of Stellar Sea Lions
The National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) conducts research on marine mammals for the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with a particular focus on marine mammals in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. This Web site contains a report on Stellar sea lion survey research -- part of NMML's Alaska Ecosystem Program. The report may be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF file. The site also includes links to other NMML Web pages for more inform
The Common Cold
When winter rolls around and we begin to spend more time indoors, the common cold becomes an unfortunate reality for many of us. But for something as common as the cold, misconceptions about it are remarkably common as well. The following collection of Web sites provides an in-depth look at the cold and the cold virus.The first site (1) comes from the Common Cold Care Center of Cardiff University in Wales, and offers a thorough and highly readable introduction to the common cold, including secti
Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias
The San Diego Natural History Museum's Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias (BRCC) works to "understand and interpret--through research and collecting--the uniqueness of the biodiversity of Southern California and the peninsula of Baja California while maintaining a global scientific perspective." The BRCC links to information about its various departments including Botany, Birds and Mammals, Entomology, Herpetology, Marine Invertebrates, and Paleontology. The BRCC also offers online
Classroom Activities
StarDate.org is the public education and outreach department of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, which offers astronomy resources for teaches on their Classroom Activities site. The various projects are categorized by age and grade level including k-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Each provides a teachers guide, materials needed, a description of the process, any needed links (such as the StarDate Moon Phase Calculator within the Observing the Moon activity), and even printable versions of each l
Urban Habitats
_Urban Habitats_, published by the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology (CURE), is "a peer-reviewed, fully indexed scientific journal written and edited for a wide audience of researchers, restoration ecologists, park and preserve managers, government officials, and naturalists." The premier issue of this e-journal (focused on urban flora worldwide) is available online, and researchers are encouraged to submit articles and multimedia resources for future issues (detailed submission guidelines pr
Seaworld: Water
An educational lesson plan entitled Water is offered by the Seaworld teacher resources Web site. Objectives of the unit include having students identify the three phases of water, discuss the hydrologic cycle, describe the structure of the water molecule and the properties of water, explain ocean currents, and more. The well designed lesson allows students to study various topics by reading provided text and completing the activities described such as measuring salt content in water and estimati
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
Better Bone Implants
This Web site come from Science@NASA, an online source for news and information about NASA-funded research, and describes the work of researchers at the Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space, who are developing artificial bones for long-lasting, pain-free hip and knee replacements. These ceramic bones are touted as "so much like the real thing that they could actually meld with living bone."
NPR: Titanic Baby
This Web site contains an audio file of a story broadcast on National Public Radio earlier this month. The broadcast relates the poignant story of a four-year effort to identify the exhumed body of a 13-month-old child who died in the Titanic disaster. A metal medallion buried with the body serendipitously preserved a bit of the wrist bone, from which forensic scientists could extract mitochondrial DNA and eventually find the child's living relatives.
Wolfram Graphics Gallery
Wolfram Research, creators of Mathematica software (see also NSDL Report for Math, Engineering, and Technology, July 16, 2004), have posted this gallery of images that demonstrate how "Mathematica has opened the door to a new kind of imagery that melds art and science." The colorful images in the gallery, created by Mathematica users around the world, are grouped by type: 2D Graphics, Polyhedra, Surfaces, and Animations. High resolutions images are available upon request, and in some cases there
History and Evolution of Physics
This Topic in Depth explores the history and evolution of the field of physics. The first website, created by the Institute of Physics, offers an interactive timetable of the development of physics from the ancient philosophers during the Bronze Age to the present research in quantum mechanics and relativity (1). The website illustrates the links between scientists and eras. Second, the US Department of Energy provides a synopsis of the work of the nuclear physics research program and the high-e
The Transistor Museum
The Transistor Museum is a fascinating site "dedicated to preserving the history of the greatest invention of the 20th century." The museum's front page mentions some remarkable facts and quotes that demonstrate the importance of the transistor in modern life. Visitors can read transcripts of lectures, oral histories, and short biographies of notable individuals who played a role in the development of transistor applications. An impressive photo gallery showcases some of the most prominent histo
Cryptology ePrint Archive
The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) maintains this archive of nearly 400 research papers on various topics in cryptology. Contents date back to 1996, and new material is posted most weeks. Papers generally describe original theories about a certain topic, analyses of cryptologic methods, or proofs of specific equations. Anyone can submit their research for possible inclusion in the archive. There is not an extensive refereeing process, which allows authors to more quick
Computer Science Student Resource Site by William Stallings
This diverse collection of refreshers, how-tos, and research guides, while geared for computer science (CS) students, also has a few resources that are useful for anyone. A quick review of mathematical concepts and advice on how to write papers and abstracts fit in the later category. Students starting out in CS may find the explanation of binary and hexadecimal systems valuable, or perhaps the detailed guide to queuing analysis. An especially humorous article titled "What the Professor Really M
University of Aberdeen: Dryland Rivers Research
This University of Aberdeen website "is intended to stimulate research by providing an information focus and provoking networking between those working on dryland rivers and the sediments they leave behind." Following an introduction to the subjects covered at the site and the latest news, users can discover what drylands are and why they occur. Researchers can explore the work of numerous researchers related to geomorphology, sedimentology, processes, techniques, and environment and engineering
