Websites of note

This is a browsing bonanza for the scientifically curious. When visited the journal site offered such choices as “The chemical adventures of Sherlock Holmes: the case of three, A letter matrix puzzle on the symbols of elements and Chemistry game shows.” On another level it shows the professionalism that can be achieved by scientific educators within a specific discipline, with implications for biochemistry and molecular biology. All materials are peer-reviewed by volunteers in the chemistry education community. The Journal of Chemical Education is a monthly, subscription-only journal published in print with some supplemental materials for articles published online. There are annual CD compilations of the full text, abstracts, and supplemental materials of articles published. JCE Software is operated as a separate entity to provide computer software and video published on CD-ROM, laser videodisc, or videotape. JCE Online is a division with offerings including discussion forums and data resources. The site is a showcase of available materials, with some examples, rather than a primary resource. Perhaps you have just browsed this journal and have an interest in keeping up with the content. The BAMBED web site provides access to information about the journal, such as Instructions to Authors, the Editorial Board, and subscription information. BAMBED includes articles on teaching techniques and practices, methods of assessment of the effectiveness of new educational approaches, research in biochemistry and molecular biology education, short reviews on key areas of biochemical knowledge, and details of simple, tried and tested laboratory experiments. At the time of writing this paper a free trial subscription to BAMBED Online was available, but this offer may lapse after June, 2002. BAMBED Online contains the full content of each issue of the journal, including all figures and tables. Online text is searchable by keyword, and the cited references include hyperlinks to Medline and to the full text of many other online journals. Online full-text content begins with the January/February 2002 issue and will expand with each month's new issue. Online access, as well as hard copy text, will be available either by institutional site license or by personal subscription. BAMBED is a publication aimed at promoting quality biochemistry and molecular biology education. The IUBMB provides financial support for international symposia on biochemical and molecular biological research and education. In line with this mission the IUBMB is one of the sponsors of this journal (BAMBED). IUBMB organizes or sponsors workshops, symposia, and training sessions and funds short term fellowships for younger biochemists and molecular biologists to travel to other institutions. There are also travel fellowships for young scientists to attend major congresses and the associated young fellows satellite meetings. A major IUBMB congress is held every three years and regularly features papers and presentations on educational matters. The next congress is in Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 20–24, 2003. There is an Educational Activities Committee of the IUBMB to coordinate ongoing international activities such as the forthcoming Education Workshop, August 29–30, 2002 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dr. Cecilia Hidalgo (University of Chile) chairs the IUBMB Committee on Education and will consider all applications for sponsorship of educational activities. The IUBMB site is not a primary source of educational material, but numerous links can be followed that may prove useful. The site is for structure specialists, rather than casual browsers, and may be suited to showing students that considerable hard work lies behind deriving the many molecular models they encounter in textbooks. The Biomolecular Structure and Modeling Group brings together people who use crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance and manage databases of structural information. The modelers also try to derive principles of protein folding. The researchers offer a suite of software tools such as the HBPLUS program for calculating hydrogen bonds, non-bonded interactions, and checking Asn, Gln, and His conformations. The various contributors exude a rare friendliness and exuberance to share their subject material. BRENDA claims to be the main collection of enzyme functional data available to the scientific community. It is available free to academic users, and all data is extracted directly from the primary literature. The principal tool available to users is a search engine based on the enzyme commission (EC) number of a target enzyme, optionally with common name and organism specified. Development was started in Germany in 1987 and is now located at the Institute of Biochemistry, University of Cologne. In contrast to genome databases there is only limited access to functional data for proteins and enzymes. Enzyme data are inherently difficult to collect and standardize as they are highly distributed among journals from different fields. Nevertheless BRENDA is a systematic collection with some 3500 different enzymes covered. Frequently enzymes with very different properties are included under the same EC number. The literature references are carefully selected, because there are up to 40,000 references for each enzyme. The data collection is being developed into a metabolic network information system with links to enzyme expression and regulation information. To get a feeling for the results I typed in EC number 1.1.1.1, which is alcohol dehydrogenase. The data was overwhelming but manageable. By refining my interest I located a primary reference to Alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase polymorphisms and alcoholism (H. R. Thomasson, D. W. Crabb, H. J. Edenberg, T. K. Li (1993) Behav. Genet. 23, 131–136). A PubMed link took me to the text for this reference, which read, in part, “The alcohol-flush reaction occurs in Asians who inherit the mutant ALDH2*2 allele that produces an inactive aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme. In these individuals, high blood acetaldehyde levels are believed to be the cause of the unpleasant symptoms that follow drinking.” A week could easily be lost with BRENDA, following interesting enzymes. The site is included here so that teachers in other institutions can appreciate the aspirational level set by UCLA. This department has hosted three Nobel prize winners and has achieved numerous other accolades. Snippets of this history can be gained from various biographies at the site. There is a palpable lack of modesty (perhaps more positively phrased as justifiable pride) in appealing to students to study at UCLA. An extract from the site informs us that, “The Department's vision is to continue playing a leading role in ground-breaking research and innovative education in the twenty-first century. Creation of important new knowledge that is conveyed to our students and the world is the essence of our mission. Our researchers are utilizing the latest tools in chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology to examine fundamental and applied problems. The exciting current research projects range from the chemistry of aging, biosensors, and targeted pharmaceutical agents to nanoparticle electronics, functional polymers, and new optical materials. The education of our undergraduate and graduate students encompasses not only transfer of knowledge, but also training to be tomorrow's leaders in academe, government, and industry.” Pamela Gannon, a graduate of M.I.T. and Tufts University Medical School, founded CMBO in 1995. The site has a number of awards and currently receives about 2000 hits a day. The web site is organized into specific topic areas that make navigation delightfully simple. The excellence in presentation is due in part to Dr. Gannon's experience in developing the Web Resources section of BioMedNet's HMS Beagle (this long time favorite of the reviewer is to be discontinued in 2002). The original idea was to create a web site that contains links to useful and relevant information for graduate students and post-docs. “As I began surfing the Web I found that it was very time-consuming to find much useful information. I decided that there was a tremendous need for a place to find organized biology information on the Web. When I installed a Guest Book for visitors, I discovered that the readership was wider than I had anticipated and included high school students, graduate students, post-docs, professors, and industry researchers. My intention is to link to web sites that contain only useful and well organized information. My goal is not to keep people at CMBO but to send them off to the appropriate resource for relevant information.” This vision has been ably realized. The education section is divided into general resources, courses and texts, images and videos, and cool bio stuff. The links include many sites that are known to the reviewer as excellent primary sources. The site has a simplicity and functionality rarely achieved on the web. Some final words from Dr. Gannon were, “More and more biology information is coming online, so I think that it is important for people to have somewhere to go where they are not overwhelmed.” Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory needs little introduction as an eminent research and educational institution. The Laboratory has research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics. There is an additional broad educational mission, expanded by the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences (James D. Watson is a past director with ongoing affiliation). Well worth reading is the succinct section titled, “Historical highlights and recent achievements.” An obligatory action is to take, or at least sample, the online lecture, “Discovering the Double Helix,” by James D. Watson, either as streamed video or as a text transcript. The video sequences are segmented thoughtfully into a captioned series including “Part 14: I thought Pauling either a very, very great chemist or … something is crazy.”

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