FloriFlora

Gaze at a warm, semi-tropical environment and you'll observe an impressive diversity of life. Scan Floridata's plant-based encyclopedic web site to find the same collection of organisms, albeit in electronic form. Focused on providing a photographic encyclopedia of landscape plants from the most populous southern state, Floridata's searchable database affords users quick and easy access to pictures and information about a mind-boggling collection of species. Full access requires registration (free), but a quick peek will probably convince anyone interested in Florida's flora to take the plunge.

[www.floridata.com]

Modern Moth

Almost but not quite a butterfly, moths are, like their biological cousins, striking in appearance—but accompanied by a bit of ‘luggage’ not associated with the former: many are agricultural pests (think corn borers and bollworms). The caterpillars of the gypsy moth wreak havoc in northeastern U.S. forests. Still others have larvae that feed on wool, leather, cotton, and various clothing materials—including synthetic fibers. Yikes! Covering these surprisingly diverse set of bio-flying terrorists is Bill Oehlke's Sphingidae of the United States page, which is noteworthy for its ‘take no prisoners’ approach to the subject. The site's images are of the highest quality and the cross-links and phylogenetic information provided are staggering in scope.

[www.silkmoths.bizland.com/usatable.htm]

Small Order

Forget genomics. Proteomics isn't where it's at either. The interesting molecules of biology are not macromolecular, according to the creators of the ChEBI (Chemical Entities of Biological Interest) site, but much smaller. “Small” in the eyes of the site's molders is tinier than anything encoded by the genome—a diverse set of items that includes ions, atoms, radicals, metabolites and other cellular detritus. Recently, the web site featured capecitabine, a chemo-therapy drug that made national news due to its tendency to cause users to lose their fingerprints. At ChEBI you can learn more about it, as well as access an impressive collection of information on over 18,000 “molecular entities.”

[www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/index.jsp]

Lore of the Ring

Like the fictional Green Lantern who derived strength from a magical ring that gave him superpowers, green fluorescent protein (GFP) has afforded researchers surprising powers to study proteins in their natural cellular environments through a ring-like barrel structure that glows an eerie green when exposed to UV light. The insights to cellular structure/function that this jellyfish-derived protein has produced are disproportional to its tiny size (238 amino acids). Now available, thanks to genetic modification, in a spectrum-spanning set of colors, GFP has been employed to study gene-specific expression in neurons, creating what some have dubbed ‘brainbows,’ that will almost take your breath away when viewed. From A to Z, Marc Zimmer's expansive GFP site keeps everyone on top of the latest research uses of this modern day Swiss Army knife of cell biology.

[www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww]

Time Capsules

What people do with their leisure time is, to put it in polite terms, interesting if you're impressed with what they do and odd if you're not. Some collect stamps. Some exercise. Others read and many surf the Web. What Yale Gordman does with his spare time is, it's safe to say, unique. Best described by the title of his unusual “Dead Bug in Amber Club” web site, Gordman runs around the world scouting and digging up insects, which were captured and petrified in amber millions of years ago. Before you put this work into the odd category, consider that Yale is revealing evolutionary history with every bug specimen (some actually in the act of mating) he collects. At his site, visitors will discover impressive images of ancient insects to be found anywhere, and that's nothing to sneer at.

[http://snakefly.tripod.com/index-2.html]

Super Courses

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. For human health, however, prevention is just as often in the form of information as it is medicine. Filling a gap in the online world for preventative care is Supercourse, a self-described “repository of lectures on global health and prevention, designed to improve the teaching of prevention.” Produced by the World Health Organization Collaborating Center at the University of Pittsburgh, Supercourse employs a group of over 65,000 scientists in 174 countries, providing an impressive set of 3700+ slide-based lecture materials in 31 languages. The collection of experts includes nine Nobel laureates, the U.S. Surgeon General, and a slew of other dignitaries. Famous names aside, the diversity of subjects covered and the timeliness of this information when natural disasters strike (within days) make Supercourse an important piece of the global health puzzle.

[www.pitt.edu/~super1]