Open Questions: Life Sciences

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Biology
Origins of life, evolutionary theory, evolutionary history, cell biology, molecular biology, developmental biology, protein chemistry.
Health and Medicine
Aging, cancer, the immune system, the cardiovascular system, infectious diseases, degenerative diseases.
Biotechnology
Genomics, stem cells, cloning, vaccines, antibiotics, gene therapy, regnerative medicine, bioinformatics.
Neuroscience, Cognition, and Behavior
Cognitive science, neurobiology, psychology, memory, consciousness, language, thinking and reasoning, evolutionary psychology.

Recommended references: Web sites

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

Recommended references: Books

Recommended references: Web sites

Site indexes

WWW Virtual Library: Biosciences: Categorized and annotated links.
Links to the Genetic World: Large list of links to important life sciences sites, with special emphasis on genomics, biotechnology, medicine, proteomics, and molecular biology. Provided by the U. S. Human Genome Project.
Biology Resources: Relatively short list of key resources, such as biological databases and government agencies. Additional resources are listed in areas such as biotechnology, microbiology, genetics, cell biology, molecular biology, immunology, and protein science.

Sites with general resources

National Center for Biotechnology Information: Extensive portal of resources provided by NCBI, a part of the U. S. National Library of Medicine. Among the many resources are collections of genomic sequences, several literature databases (such as the NCBI Bookshelf, PubMed, and PubMed Central), information on genomic biology, and educational resources.
NCBI Education: Educational resources provided by the NCBI. Some resources included are a turorial on the Entrez data retrieval system, a tutorial on PubMed, a scientific primer, a glossary of genetic terms, and a list of printed reference material.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: The Laboratory is a research and educational institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics. Among supported programs is the Dolan DNA Learningn Center, which focuses on genomics and molecular genetics.
The Scientist: "The News Journal for the Life Scientist". Free access allowed with registration.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute: The Institute is a philanthropic organization which promotes biomedical research and science education. The site has a number of features, including Biointeractive (learning resources), a news service, the HHMI Bulletin (articles about sponsored research), an Ask-A-Scientist service, and a catalog of free educational materials.
Bio Online: Commercial site with emphasis on biotechnology, pharmaceutical research, and health sciences.
BioMed Central: Publisher of a wide range of materials in the life sciences. Many of the publications require paid subscriptions, but there are a large number of journals access to many of which is free. Examples include BMC Biotechnology, BMC Evolutionary Biology, BMC Molecular Biology, BMC Genomics, BMC Neuroscience, BMC Cell Biology, and BMC Cancer
PLoS Biology: Free-access professional scientific journal from the Public Library of Science.

Surveys, overviews, tutorials

Category: Biology: Topic category from Wikipedia.
BBC Learning: Biology Websites: Directory to a number of Web sites developed by the BBC on various topics in the life sciences, such as evolution, genes and genetics, plants, and insects.

Ask an expert

Galaxy: Biology Expert Links: Categorized site directory. Entries usually include descriptive annotations.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Ask a Scientist: Great resource that allows you to ask scientists questions about biology by email. The site has an archive of questions already answered, in area such as developmental biology, immunology, molecular biology, genetics, and neuroscience. Operated by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
ScienceNet: Biology and Medical Science: This is the archive of answered questions in biology from the excellent ScienceNet site. It's organized by subfield and many of the questions/answers are quite sophisticated.
ASU - Ask A Biologist: The "site is designed and maintained by Arizona State University's Life Sciences Visualization Group, as an educational resource for students K-12 and their teachers." Includes some articles on biology topics, but questions from advanced students or the general public are not welcome.

Online books and lecture notes

NCBI Bookshelf: Provides a sizeable collection of online textbooks and references in biology, medicine, and biochemistry, hosted by the U. S. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
MIT OpenCourseWare: Biology: Course materials provided by the MIT OpenCourseWare project. New courses are continually added. Detailed lecture notes and additional materials such as problem sets are provided for some, but not all, courses.

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

Recommended references: Books

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