Science
Books
Sites
News & Research
Magazines
Scientists
Health
Sites
Cancer Resources
Hospice & Palliative Care
Web Sites
Molecular Expressions Gallery contains microscopic pictures of everyday things, from beer to vegetables--the image to the left is a micrograph of an onion. They have also converted some of their images to wallpaper.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory "is designed to study the internal structure of the Sun, its extensive outer atmosphere and the origin of the solar wind, the stream of highly ionized gas that blows continuously outward through the Solar System." These are some absolutely gorgeous pictures, most of which are freely available to use as long as you link back to SOHO.
The Hubble Heritage Project is a project from by astronomers and astrophysicists to garner interest for the Hubble telescope and astronomy. It has beautiful images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of galaxies, nebulas, planets and more. It also gives information on the Hubble Telescope and Hubble projects.
The Left Handed DNA Hall of Fame showcases left-handed DNA. Normally, DNA is "right handed" in the way that a screw is right handed, but if the image is inverted, as happens with sloppy editing, you get left handed DNA. (This is different from Z-DNA, which is biological left-handed DNA.) You would be surprised how much left-handed DNA is out there. The most frequent offenders are biotechnology ads. This is a collection of left handed DNA photos that started off as a trickle in 1964 but has reached flood proportions in recent years.
The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices A repository for the instruments of quacks throughout history. The museum is an actually place, but you can check out some of the devices, such as the Prostate Warmer, the Foot Operated Breast Enlarger Pump, and the Shoe-Fitting X-ray Device.
Mad Scientist Network Want to know the answer to your nagging science questions? A group of mad (insane, not angry) scientists has been assembled to answer your questions. Answers are tailored to the age of the questioners--which range from elementary school to graduate school.
Bad Astronomy Page Tells you all about the bad astronomy found in TV, the news and the movies. Armagedon was bad in more ways than one.
Books and Authors
Stephen Jay Gould
Anthropologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote monthly essays for Natural History magazine until December 2000. Most of these essays are in collections, such as his Dinosaur in a Haystack. He used humor, flair and baseball to make what is traditionally a dry subject, entertaining. I would recommend his essays to anyone with a scientific mind, or who just likes dinosaurs.
Gina Kolata
Science and medicine writer for the New York Times, her book Flu : The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 & the Search for the Virus That Caused It (1999) is absolutely fascinating and well-written. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 lasted over a year, and not only killed more people than WWI, but strangely enough, killed not infants and the elderly, but healthy adults, the population segment that rarely dies from such. In recent years they were able to extract virus from old tissue samples from that time, and although it has been nearly a century since the Influenza decimated the world, knowledge gained from studying that pandemic will hopefully stop the spread of another pandemic in the future.
Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad (Current Events)
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War (2001) book takes a look at the state of germ warfare in the world, and contains interviews with not only scientists who were involved with the American germ warfare program in the 50s, but also with those who researched or were involved in the germ warfare programs in places like the former Soviet Union and Iraq. The book is well written, and readable for the non-scientist.
Laurie Garrett
The Coming Plague (1994) takes a look at illness coming into the 21st century. She looks not only at probable causes, but also at what allowed such diseases to spread. I found the chapters on the hemmoragic fevers especially interesting. Her chapters on AIDS go into a lot of detail, both of the disease, but also of the political climate that allowed HIV to spread to rapidly.
Dava Sobel
Galileo's Daughter (1999) is the story of the eldest daughter of Galileo Galelei, a nun who remained close to her father through letters her entire life, despite his persecution by the church because of his heretical beliefs about the solar system. Although Galileo's letters to her were destroyed after her death (by the convent it is assumed); her letters to him, for the most part, remain and are the basis for this book.
Andrew Weil
Once I got past the fact he doesn't look like a doctor, I decided that like what he does. Eating Well for Optimum Health (2000) is an extremely well written book and scientifically sound. This is not a diet book, or a fad, but an entire book on the principles of eating well. He cites a number of articles that I have read on cancer, health and nutrition, so I actually trust most of what he says. The book is easy to read but not simplistic, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wonders if they are eating well.
Richard Hanley
Okay, okay, yes, The Metaphysics of Star Trek (1997) IS a Star trek book, but it was interesting anyway. It looks at the issues around a transporter (are you the same person as when you went in?), androids (are they machines or humans?) and several other issues covered in the Star Trek series.
Krauss Lawrence
The Physics of Star Trek (1995) is another Star Trek book I know, but what's a girl to do when surrounded by Trekkies? This book discusses the physics and reality of the Physics used in the Star Trek show. Some things are plausible, others seem to be completely unreasonable, so not only do you get a pleasant dose of physics, but you also get to learn whether things are reasonable or not (i.e. ammunition, for us non-Trekkies).
News and Research
EurekAlert This is where I find most of my really interesting science information. Synopses of articles from Nature to NASA. This is the best way I've found to keep up on what's happening with science and medicine.
The Human Genome Project The Official government site.
The Institue for Genomic Research Independent site for Genome Project Research
Your Genes, Your Choices describes the Human Genome Project, the science behind it, and the ethical, legal, and social issues that are raised by the project.
deCODE Genetics Webpage for the Icelandic company that is using the entire population of Iceland in its genome project.
Magazines
New Scientist The website for the weekly British science magazine. I finally decided to spend the money for a regular subscription, and am going to allow my subscriptions to Discover and Scientific American to lapse. Make sure to check out "The Last Word" and "Feedback".
Discover Magazine The site contains articles, a gallery of scientific images, a search engine for the site (and past articles) and a selection of web picks.
Scientific American The web site of the magazine Scientific American. The search engine is very helpful, since although I have lots of back issues of Sci Am, I can't always remember what issue the article I want was in.
AIR The Annals of Improbable Research. Sponsors of the IgNobel Prizes. They report on research that "cannot or should not be reproduced." It includes research on topics such as why Mona Lisa smiled like that (someone had beaten her up and knocked out her teeth).
Web Pages of Scientists
Stephen Hawking This is his official web page.
Stephen Jay Gould Essayist for Natural History, and author of books such as Dinosaur in a Haystack which are collections essays.
Health Sites
Your Health Daily Articles on a variety of health topics. There are categories for various health issues/concerns and links to discussion groups.
The CDC Influenza Homepage I never realized how dangerous the flu was, until I started looking into the Avian Flu everyone was so hyped up about in 1997. Yetch. Did you know the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed more people than WWI?
Ask Dr. Weil Website for Andrew Weil, a doctor who emphasizes whole body medicine and integration of eastern and western medical thought.
The Mayo Clinic Website for the Mayo Clinic. A good place to search for information on specific diseases and conditions.
Cancer Resources
Cancer Net - From the National Cancer Institute. Contains a variety of resources for Patients, Professionals and Researchers.
Oncolink The University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. Very easy to use site that has separate menus for different types of cancer.
Cancer Glossary This is the glossary from the American Cancer Society site. It has definitions for many medical and technical terms.
American institute for Cancer Research Includes articles on nutrition and diet.
Ruttenberg Cancer Center Mount Siani's cancer site. Includes of glossary of medical terms.
Hospice & Palliative Care
Partnership for Caringis a national, nonprofit organization devoted to raising consumer expectations and increasing the demand for excellent care at the end of life. Contains Downloads for Living Wills, Medical Powers of Attorney (Advance Directives)
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Has a search function to allow you to find hospice programs in your area.
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Web Page the only organization in the United States for physicians dedicated to the advancement of hospice/palliative medicine, its practice, research and education.
Hospice Association of America Offers information for consumers as well as other hospice links.
Hospice Foundation of America Along with other resources, contains an excellent definition of hospice.
"It took the computing power of three C-64s to fly to the Moon.
It takes a 486 to run Windows 95. Something is wrong here."
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