July 2008--Around the Web

This month Kevin has reviewed an eclectic bunch of websites. Continuing with his “down under” theme from last month, Kevin offers the Australian National Herbarium and the Darwin Correspondience Project websites (okay so Darwin was English but he did visit Australia!). The Darwin site complements an interesting site called the Origin of Life Prize (check it out).  

Another Australian website called the Sea Snake Homepage covers everything you ever wanted to know about sea snakes (and then some) but as Kevin put it may not be for everyone. There is a technical site called Microscope-Microscope.org which has some terse but valuable information on well—microscopes.

My personal favorite is the Biomedia Associates Educational Biology site. Although it is a commercial site, it is an education website and offers some valuable resources for biology teachers and students.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Surfing!!!!!!!!

Home Brewing DNA

Have you ever felt like mixing up a few batches of DNA in your  spare time? Well, for those of you who sometimes get the urge I found an easy-to-use recipe to make your own custom designed DNA sequences. Of course I was joking about doing it at home but if you happen to be at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Biotechnology Center you can give it a whirl.

Of course, the ability to build DNA sequences nucleotide-by-nucleotide has been available for over a decade or more.  That said, the relatively simple system devised by scientists at the UW Biotechnology Center allows even the neophyte molecular biologist to do it successfully.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Genetic Engineering!!!!!!