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With sections of its web site devoted to seed identification, analysis, testing, dormancy, and opportunities in the seed industry, it's clear that SeedImages.com is more than just a place to gawk at plant seed pictures. But, you can do that too, and if you do, your jaw will drop at the diversity of images and the information paired with them. (Note that access to the database requires registration.) Hosted at Colorado State University, SeedImages bills itself as “Your Go To Resource for Seed Information,” and it lives up to its claims. The list of species covered in the database is staggering, and the site itself has to be explored to be fully appreciated.
Interface Space
No, there hasn't been another intracellular organelle discovered, although ‘plasbid’ might get a few votes for the name of the next new one. Instead, PLASBID is an acronym for the Plant Associated Bacterial Identification Database, hosted by the Bioinformatics Centre at the Kerala Agricultural University in India. Plant-bacterium interfaces are important biologically and have been significant for research both in the lab and in the field. Agrobacteria, for example, are important in disease and have also provided molecular botanists with a simple way to introduce DNA into plants. At PLASBID, users can feed DNA sequences into a search engine to identify plant bacteria and also easily retrieve sequences of relevant plant bacteria from a species list. Visitors can also obtain primer sequences for amplifying DNA from specific species and perform a host of other basic molecular sequence analyses.
[http://220.227.138.213/plasbid]
AMSER AnswersIn almost any economic downturn, enrollment in institutions of higher education increases. Probably nowhere is this phenomenon more prominent than at community colleges, which specialize in retraining members of the workforce who have lost their jobs and seek new opportunities. Serving the needs of these important centers of learning is the Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSER), a project funded by the National Science Foundation that provides free and easy access to educational materials in twelve disciplines spanning the arts and sciences. The latter category alone has over 22,000 entries in 29 subsections. Though access is free and open to all, logging in provides additional services, including access to bulletins and ways to organize resources.
Three New RsIt's not that we don't need reading, writing, and arithmetic in the modern world (we need them more than ever!) but a new trio of Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle—has become a mantra in the new millennium. Support for the Rs is on display at the WebEcoist site, which aims to be “sensational, educational, and inspirational” in its coverage of sustainability. It does a great job of accomplishing its goals, as a quick perusal of the site will demonstrate. From hand-built ecological bottle houses to 20 bad green ideas and failed eco-innovations, the articles will hook you and—before you know it—will have taught you a great deal.
Docs for Pre-docsFrom the heavy science curriculum to the fear-inducing make-or-break MCAT—the qualifying exam required for admission to all U.S. allopathic and osteopathic medical schools—the path to becoming a physician is not an easy one. Setting its sights on reducing obstacles for pre-med students (and saving them a few bucks in the process) is the surprisingly sophisticated, open-access WikiPremed MCAT Course site. Providing hundreds of items for free that prep courses such as Kaplan charge thousands of dollars for, WikiPremed is bound to be every pre-med student's friend, and not just because of its price. The content is broad (20 different course modules spanning mechanics/waves to human physiology), multifaceted (over 100 hours of video, 4000 terminology flashcards, and over 6000 figures), and evaluative (comprehensive tests). This is one of the best medical freebies found on the Web.
There's a Journal for ThatIt is said that some of the most important discoveries in science arose from a curious observation in an experiment where something else was being researched. Indeed, to paraphrase Isaac Asimov, “that's funny” is a lot more exciting to hear in scientific research than “Eureka.” Supporting all of those “That's funny” moments in the computational and life sciences is the aptly named and peer-reviewed Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results (JSUR), which is preparing its inaugural issue. With an open-access format and an interest in reporting untapped knowledge in a fairly broad set of disciplines, JSUR will most likely be a popular stop for scientists. And who knows, maybe the next big thing will trace its origins to the pages of JSUR.
