Scott's Botanical Links--October 2005

October 14, 2005 - Josef Hlasek's Photography Website

Josef Hlasek's website offers thousands of digital images of various life forms -- plants, fungi and animals -- along with short descriptions in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Hungarian. The site is browser driven and all listings are by scientific name, but the number and quality of the images provide excellent coverage. Larger images are available by request from the photographer. A fun site to browse with lots of images. (****) -SR

October 13, 2005 - Online Etymology Dictionary

"Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago." The Online Etymology Dictionary can be quite useful in deciphering species names and epithets. This dictionary was compiled by Douglas Harper. (****) -SR

October 12, 2005 - ScienceBlog

"Science Blog was started in August 2002 by Ben Sullivan and is published by a team of science editors, writers and enthusiasts. It includes public news releases from labs and researchers, original stories and interviews, and reader blogs ... read by a few hundred thousand unique visitors each month." Feedback is encouraged. This is a good starting point to find out about breaking science news that may or may not have entered the mainstream media. Stories have a header and a lead paragraph, attribution and sometimes links to even more. You won't miss many science news stories if you follow this! (****) -SR

October 11, 2005 - TNC: Global Invasive Species Initiative

The Global Invasive Species Initiative is a website devoted to awareness and abatement of the effects of human-facilitated introduction of harmful species. This site is devoted to providing ready resources on the biology of invasive species, their effects on natives, stategies for dealing effectively with invasive species, as well as many images, much information, a few success stories, listservs, contacts and red alerts. This is a site rich in content and useful information, as well as dramatic evidence of how the environment can be altered for the worse by exotic species. Site by The Nature Conservancy. (****) -SR

October 10, 2005 - Kimball's Biology Pages

These web pages are created and maintained by John W. Kimball, author of text book, "Biology". This site is arranged much like an index, alphabetically by topics. Topics then lead to further hyperlinks, providing a style of learning that the text does not provide. The write-ups are detailed, well illustrated, and are under continuing revision since the topic is a dynamic one. This is an excellent compliment to a written text and should prove useful as a reference site for many topics of plant (and general) biology. (****) -SR

October 7, 2005 - IgNobel Web Page

Yes, it is that time of year when Nobel Prizes are awarded ... also time for IgNobel Prizes, at this site. Although there were no plant awards this year, the IgNobel prize for biology was awarded to "an international team of scientists and perfumiers for smelling and cataloguing the peculiar odours produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed". The IgNobel prize for literature was to the innumerable Nigerian emailers who promise shared riches ... who has not read their work? The awards were last night, but the videos are still posted. () -SR

October 6, 2005 - Biology Labs

Currently providing 30 biology experiments, this site is designed for young people (grades 7-12) to be conducted at home. Plant biology experiments include: Effect of a Hormone on Plant Root Growth, Energy Transfer in Photosynthesis, Chromatography, Light Intensity and Photosynthesis, Observing Water Transport in a Celery Stalk, Measuring Plant Transpiration, Carbon Dioxide Production by Germinating Seeds, Energy Release And Cellular Metabolism, Observing Growth Rate in a Culture of Duckweed, and Observing The Effect of pH on the Growth of Duckweed. Under other headings, there are some other plant experiments: Enzyme Action in Germinating Seeds, Extracting DNA (from an onion), Modeling the Surface Area to Volume Ratio of a Cell, Comparing Plant and Animal Cells, and Observing Mitosis. With a few chemicals and some glassware, there is some simple but real science to be experienced here. Experiments and site by Stephen Fuller, an instructor of science in the Kansas City, Missouri School District. (****) -SR

October 5, 2005 - UBC: Botany Photo of the Day

"In science, beauty. In beauty, science. Daily." This is the six month anniverary of the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden's site, which provides a new image of botanical interest daily. The high quality of the image is matched by interesting scientific discussion, with web links. A forum also accompanies the discussion, available for posts via registration. The POTD site is also available remotely by listserv and RSS feed. Daniel Mosquin is the curator, writer and photographer for many of the images and this is truly a daily site. (****) -SR

October 4, 2005 - Diagnosis of Mineral Deficiencies in Plants by Visual Symptoms

Numerous mineral elements are required for the growth of plants. This site, based on a book on nutrient deficiencies and their visual symptoms published in 1943, features some 35 crop plants with color images. Symptoms are given in some detail, but the mechanisms of action could only be speculated at that time; little of the underlying biochemisty of plant nutrition was appreciated at that time. Quite a classic by Thomas Wallace, M.C., D.Sc., A.I.C. (Electrical forces mentioned by the site editor, however, have never become popular among scientists and probably should be ignored.) (***1/2) -SR

October 3, 2005 - AP Biology: Plant Biology

The AP biology pages of D. J. Daniels, a retired teacher at Glendale High School, provide an excellent overview of plant biology that also would be useful for a beginning undergraduate course. Topics of web lecture notes include: Land Plants, Evolution and Diversity, Flowering Plant Reproduction, Plant Growth and Structure, Plant Transport Mechanisms, and Plant Regulation and Response (Behavior). The pages are succinct, insightful and well illustrated -- well worth a bookmark -- and presented at satisfying depth to meet scientific critique. (****) -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/oct05.shtml