Scott's Botanical Links--December 2005

Past links:

December 20, 2005 - Judge rules against "intelligent design"

Federal Judge John E. Jones III ruled that "intelligent design" represented a religious belief. According to the judge, the Dover School Board "singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource and instructs students to forgo scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere." This represents a major victory for science -- which relies on evidence from the material world to support the development of paradigms and can be used to predict future consequences based on material evidence.

December 19, 2005 - Funghi in Italia (in Italian)

Funghi in Italia is an Italian site run by the Associazione Micologica Italiano Naturalistico Telematica (AMINT). The site uses telematics - a fusion of sorts between telecommunications and informatics. The web site has pages on fungi, woody plants, flowers, notices and a forum, which is a critical focus of the site and one where large images are posted with extensive comments. The scientific Italian bears some similarity to Latin to allow it to be read in many languages. The high quality illustrations are enough reason to enjoy the site. (***1/2) -SR

December 16, 2005 - Bad Science from Guardian Unlimited

Each week, columnist Ben Goldacre choses a item from the media or under public attention and separates hype from science. Health claims are common fonts of pseudoscience and within the last several weeks biomagnetism, bioresonance and homeopathy are featured, with special attention given to those who try to profit from pseudoscience. Coverage of the MIT student investigation of aluminum hats to shield radio waves is a classic parody that was featured last month. Bad Science is a feature of the Guardian, a United Kingdom newspaper. (***1/2) -SR

December 15, 2005 - Plant Stamps of the World

On this site, images of postage stamps issued by numerous countries are listed both by country name and by plant family. Although plant stamps are not often issued by an individual country, the composite collection over the last three or so decades is really quite impressive. This site is principally in Japanese, but there is enough in the Western alphabet to allow identities to be made. By S. Miyazaki, this is a very nice, single topic site, interesting for stamp collectors and botanists alike. (****) -SR

December 14, 2005 - Trees of Stanford

The Trees of Stanford web site features over 350 species representing 150 genera and sixty families (over 27,000 individual trees growing on central campus of Stanford!). The heart of the site is the Encyclopedia of Stanford Trees, Shrubs & Vines, which is based on Ron Bracewell's 2005 book Trees of Stanford and Environs. Hundreds of species are linked, with information and culture guides on growing the plants listed. The campus plantings are highly diverse through decades of excellent gardening on the campus. (***1/2) -SR

December 13, 2005 - Julian H. Miller Mycological Herbarium

The Julian H. Miller Mycological Herbarium of the University of Georgia includes many resources on fungi. Pages include information about the herbarium, frequently asked questions on fungi, a glossary, mushrooms and art, mushroom stamps, as well as Georgia fungi, checklists and Fungi of the Tropics. This is also the home of the myxomycete photo gallery. The glossary is particularly nice at presenting succinct definitiions and the mushroom art includes some nice scientific art. (***) -SR

December 12, 2005 - Photo Gallery of Myxomycetes

Myxomycetes are slime molds: unusual creatures with plasmodial vegetative bodies capable of reassembling after passage through filter paper. The plasmodia move like animals but produce stationary sporing bodies seeming more like plants. This is a very well rounded collection of about 175 mxyomycete images of identified specimens--well worth bookmarking for biodiversity. These images were made (and copyright is held) by professional photographer Ray Simons, who in his professional life was a photographer at the Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta and later served as a Scientific-Technical Photographer for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. (***1/2) -SR

December 9, 2005 - Bamboo Home Page

Masatoshi Watanabe has organized an image-rich web site on bamboo, with a wide diversity of genera and species represented -- 30 Japanese bamboo species and 17 species found elsewhere. Each species page has a nice description and an image of medium size. Although he is a bamboo industry consultant (located in Japan) the images and information here are free for educational purposes. (***1/2) -SR

December 8, 2005 - Protist Information Server

The Protist Information Server contains a massive number of images of unicellular and colonial eukaryotes as research and education resources. These currently number 58368 images, with over 575 genera and 2492 species. The protists on the site include members of the various algae, dinoflagellates, and euglenoids, among many others. Phagocytosis, cell division, sexual reproduction, organelle endosymbiosis, cysts, and morphogenesis are also shown. Images may be used for non-profit educational purposes (except Internet display) if attributed correctly. This database is supported by the "Soken-Taxa" project "Construction of Biological Image Databases" at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, and by the "Bio-Resource" project "Fundamental research and development for databasing and networking culture collection information" at JST (Japan Science and Technology Corporation). (****) -SR

December 7, 2005 - Protist Movie Database

The Protist Movie Database includes 92 genera, 184 species and 264 samples that photographed in movie format. Images cover the full diversity of the protists (single celled to colonial eukaryotic organisms) that I have seen. Previews are animated GIFs viewable with any browser, from which a Quicktime movies of about 5 different dimensions can be run on compatible browsers with the Quicktime viewer installed (free from Apple). This is an amazing site with many movies that can presumably be used for educational purposes. Materials are copyright 1995-2005 by the Protist Information Server located in Japan. (****) -SR

December 6, 2005 - CIAT: Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical

CIAT is an international organization that supports the development and dissemination of improved food and forage crops as well as many other aspects of agriculture with special emphasis on Asia and Africa. This site includes a depth of information as well as help sheets, databases and links to a world of information. This is an information rich site with participants around the world in many different capacities. Online publications are available, as well as other print materials. (***1/2) -SR

December 5, 2005 - ASNAPP - Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products

ASNAPP is dedicated to developing successful natural product agribusiness to reduce poverty in rural communities, promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing with research and academic institutions, government, private enterprises, non-profit organizations, the donor community and civil society. Contacts for ASNAPP are located in Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia as well as the US. Initiatives include a food industry program for initiating and developing multinational cooperation, as well as creating sustainable germplasm development for non-traditional crops. (***) -SR

December 2, 2005 - ArabidopsisGFP: Arabidopsis Gene Family Profiler

This is a molecular biology research site that shows, in a graphic manner, where various genes of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana are located using intuitive colored cartoon illustrations of life cycle stages. Based on massive data from microarray chip analysis, data can be viewed gene by gene using names, AGI or BAC gene locus, or by families or super-families of genes. Once plant images are displayed, colorized spot images are also available for abstract viewing of gene expression illustrating the data generated by genomic microarray analysis. (****) -SR

December 1, 2005 - Guide to Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

This site has a lot of linked references to herbs with medicinal and aromatic compounds, hyperlinked references and images of many of the hundreds of plants covered at the site. Also available are herb variety links and a database to public and commercial sources of these plants (funded in part by ASNAPP - Agrobusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products). The Guide to Medicinal and Aromatic Plants is sponsored by the Center for New Crops and Plant Products, Purdue University. (***1/2) -SR

Past, past links (by date):

2006: January

2005: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2003: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2002: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2001: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2000: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

1999: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

1998: January*, February*, March*, April*, May*, June*, July, August, September, October, November, December (*Leigh's links)

1997: January, February, March, April, May, June, September*, October*, November*, December* (*Leigh's links)

1996: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Or search by: Subject Index

http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/bot-linx/dec05.shtml