Article View: sci.bio
Article #4638A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources (FAQ)
From: Una Smith
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1993 22:17
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1993 22:17
1628 lines
83205 bytes
83205 bytes
Archive-name: biology/guide
Last-modified: 17 April 1993
Version: 1.2
A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources
Version 1.2, 17 April 1993
Recent important changes are noted with "*" and those new to this version
are noted with "+" in the margin of the table of contents. As ever, comments
and suggestions for additional material are more than welcome.
Archive keepers: I could really use help fleshing out section 3.2 !!
Una Smith Department of Biology smith-una@yale.edu
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut 06511
-*- 0. Contents
1. Conditions of Use
+ 2. Networking
1. Some Mind-Boggling Statistics
+ 2. Netiquette
+ 3. Usenet
*+ 1. Newsgroups of Special Interest
2. The Bionet and Bit.listserv Domains
* 3. Other Biology Domains
*+ 4. Sources of Information
4. Listserver Mailing Lists
1. Commands
2. Archives
3. Gateways into Usenet
*+ 5. Other Mailing Lists
*+ 6. Newsletters
* 7. Directories
3. Information Archives
* 1. Bibliographies
*+ 2. List of Archives
1. Online Help
* 2. Search Engines
+ 3. Software Archives
4. Access Tools
1. Telnet
2. Anonymous Ftp
3. Gopher
4. Archie
5. Veronica
6. WAIS
7. The Web
4. Commercial Services
*+ 5. Useful and Important FAQs
+ 1. What's a FAQ and where can I get one?
+ 2. Does anyone have an e-mail address for X?
3. How do I find a good graduate program?
4. Where can I get old newsgroup/mailing list articles?
5. Where can I find biology-related job announcements?
+ A. Assorted Listserver Mailing Lists
+ B. Bibliography
+ C. Contributors
-*- 1. Conditions of Use
This FAQ may be freely distributed, provided that it is not edited in
any way, beyond removal of the headers. It may be freely adapted,
provided that the adapted document is neither represented as being this
FAQ, nor as being written by me. Please cite this FAQ as the original
document. This FAQ may not be sold for profit, nor included in any
document that is sold for profit, in either the original or an adapted
form, without permission from the author. However, its use is explicitly
permitted in paper-based journals or newsletters that are provided to
subscribers at or below the cost of printing and mailing.
If you make significant use of any document, data or software provided
via the Internet, the authors would be grateful if you would cite them
or otherwise acknowledge their efforts. Virtually every service or
resource mentioned in this FAQ (and this FAQ itself) is the un-paid,
personal effort of scientists and graduate students.
This FAQ may be cited as:
Smith, Una R. (1993) "A Biologist's Guide to the Internet."
Usenet news.answers. Available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu
in pub/usenet/news.answers/biology/guide. ~20 pages.
The most current version of this FAQ is posted monthly in the Usenet
newsgroups sci.bio, bionet.general and news.answers, and archived as
"pub/usenet/news.answers/biology/guide" in the anonymous ftp archive
on rtfm.mit.edu.
-*- 2. Networking
The Internet has become an excellent place in which to look for academic
and professional position announcements, conference announcements and
calls for papers, and important notices about recent events in many
fields of biology, especially molecular biology. Generally, notices of
all forms appear on the Internet well in advance of traditional journals
and newsletters. Increasingly, scientific interest groups, both formal
and informal ones, maintain electronic discussion groups, directories,
digests and newsletters. These resources are distributed in three
principal ways: via Usenet newsgroups, (automated) listserver mailing
lists, and mailing lists administered by real people. Increasingly, the
two forms of mailing list have "gateways" into Usenet newsgroups.
-*- 2.1. Some Mind-Boggling Statistics
Recently, approximately 300 thousand articles per week were distributed
worldwide through Usenet (Anonymous 1993). This traffic constituted
roughly 40 megabytes per day of announcements, questions and answers,
advice and bits of program code, references, heated debates, and data in
various formats. There are now nearly a million registered computers
on the Internet, and thus tens of millions of people; an estimated
7 million people have accounts on 65 thousand computers carrying Usenet,
and nearly 2 million people read Usenet news at least occasionally
(Reid 1993b). There are several thousand world-wide Usenet newsgroups,
several thousand listserver mailing lists, and several thousand other,
generally small, mailing lists.
It appears that there are on the order of 10 thousand people who read
biology-related Usenet newsgroups (Reid 1993a), and there may be that
many using mailing lists for topics in biology. All together, there are
a hundred or so newsgroups and mailing lists (via listservers or others)
that may be of particular interest to biologists. Most are named below.
-*- 2.2. Netiquette
The professionally-oriented newsgroups and mailing lists follow certain
conventions of etiquette. These are none other than those used by most
people at public events such as academic conferences. In fact, most of
the science-related newsgroups (and mailing lists) are very much like
mid-sized meetings of any professional society, except that they never
end. The participants come and go as they please, but the discussions
and exchange of ideas and information continue as though they had a life
of their own.
Submitted articles tend to be of the following types:
* Discussions on topics of general interest. Discussions on specific
topics, techniques, or organisms are also frequent.
* Announcements of upcoming conferences or other events, or grant
deadlines. In Usenet, announcments can be set to expire (and thus
disappear from the list of current articles), and may be limited in
their distribution so that they are seen only by readers in the
appropriate organization or geographical area.
* Academic and professional job announcements, including many graduate
fellowships. These are generally posted in newsgroups/mailing lists
reserved for such notices, often in advance of publication elsewhere.
* Reports or comments on new books, papers, methods or software. Full
citation of sources is always appropriate and appreciated. Requests
for references or comments are also welcome and, when posed as specific
questions of general interest, often lead to interesting discussions.
Unacceptable articles include:
* commercial advertisements, political lobbying messages, and anything
not pertaining directly to the topic or purview of the newsgroup or
mailing list. Discussions about some commercial products, especially
books and software, are generally allowed as long as they do not
constitute advertisements.
* Requests by students for explicit answers to homework and exam or essay
questions are generally not welcome. Requests for help understanding
problems in biology are welcome, but the requester should demonstrate
at least a basic understanding of the question.
Some helpful suggestions:
* Always include your full name and e-mail address
Put these at the end of your message, with your usual signature. You
might want to use a .signature file (standard on most Unix systems, also
implemented for Usenet and e-mail readers under VM/CMS) to make this
automatic. This is necessary because strange things often happen to
headers in e-mail or Usenet articles sent from one network to another.
* Send private replies whenever appropriate
Answers to very esoteric questions are often best sent directly to the
person who asked for help, rather than to the newsgroup; the choice of
whether to post a (public) reply or send (private) e-mail is a personal
decision. If you send a reply by e-mail, and would prefer that it be
kept private, you should say so in your note, because otherwise the other
person may share your comments with others. If the original poster
promises to post a summary at the outset, then all replies should be
sent by e-mail, unless they constitute an important re-direction of the
original question.
* Summarize the replies to your article
Whenever a question or request for information results in many replies,
it is expected that the person who posted the original article will
compile and post a summary of the responses.
* Use care when writing summaries
- The "best" answers should come first.
- All answers should be separated clearly, and nicely formatted.
- Redundant, irrelevant or verbose comments, and errors of fact or
spelling should be edited out. It is appropriate to use square
brackets and dots to indicate editing [...].
- Exercise discretion and tact, to ensure a fair and accurate summary.
- The contributors of each answer (individually or as a group) should
be named, unless they asked that their names be withheld.
* Avoid starting "flame wars", a.k.a. nasty arguments
If something you read angers you, save it for a few hours while you do
something else (don't reply on an empty stomach). Go back to it when
you are calm and relaxed (and you've have thought of a good rebuttal).
* Be generous when interpreting the arguments of others.
* Avoid jargon, write as though addressing an educated lay audience.
* Remember, the exercise will be good for you.
If you simply must say something highly critical, consider sending
it via personal e-mail, rather than posting or mailing to the group.
-*- 2.3. Usenet
Definition: Usenet is a convention, in every sense of the word.
Usenet is a system of organized newsgroups sharing many features with
traditional newsletters, mailing lists and focused scientific societies.
Usenet is Internet-based (although before the Internet existed it was
distributed via UUCP), and strongly developed so that end users need
know only how to interact with the particular Usenet "reader" program
on their computers. Features of Usenet that make it far superior to the
two types of mailing lists include the threading of all articles on a
related topic, the ability to control the distribution of posted articles
to hierarchical levels (e.g., the author's university, state, country,
or continent), the ability to cancel an article even after it has been
distributed, and automatic expiration of dated articles.
Usenet is "free", but not cheap; because it requires a lot of computer
disk space, and a certain amount of installation and regular maintenance
work by a system administrator, not all computer systems carry Usenet.
If Usenet is carried locally, it may still be necessary to prod the local
Usenet administrator to add the bionet and bit.listserv newsgroups to the
local "feed". See Spafford (1993) for the definitive history of Usenet
and a list of software for virtually every type of computer.
-*- 2.3.1. Newsgroups of Special Interest
An F after the newsgroup name indicates a FAQ is available. An M
indicates that the newsgroup is moderated. A G indicates that the
newsgroup has a gateway to a parallel mailing list. See notes below
for details.
alt.bbs.internet F Announcements of new Internet services
alt.cyb-sys Cybernetics and Systems
alt.info-theory Information theory a la Shannon
alt.internet.access.wanted F Help getting full Internet access
alt.internet.services F Announcements of new Internet resources
alt.lang.sas SAS discussion
alt.native Indigenous peoples
alt.sci.* [6 groups]
alt.sustainable.agriculture
bionet.agroforestry G Agroforestry research
bionet.announce FGM Announcements
bionet.biology.computational GM Comp. and math. applications in biology
bionet.biology.n2-fixation G Biological nitrogen fixation
bionet.biology.tropical G Tropical biology and ecology
bionet.general FG General discussion
bionet.genome.chrom22 G Chromosome 22 of humans
bionet.genome.arabidopsis G Arabidopsis thaliana genome project
bionet.immunology G Research in immunology
bionet.info-theory FG Information theory applied to biology
bionet.jobs G Job opportunities in biology
bionet.journals.contents GM Biological journal TOCs
bionet.journals.note G Publication issues in biology
bionet.molbio.ageing G Cellular and organismal ageing
bionet.molbio.bio-matrix G Computer searches of biological databases
bionet.molbio.embldatabank G Info about the EMBL Nucleic acid database
bionet.molbio.evolution G Evolution, especially molecular
bionet.molbio.gdb G The GDB database
bionet.molbio.genbank G The GenBank nucleic acid database
bionet.molbio.genbank.updates GM Sequence data for local updates
bionet.molbio.gene-linkage G Genetic linkage analysis.
bionet.molbio.genome-program G Human Genome Program issues
bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts G Tips on lab techniques and materials
bionet.molbio.hiv G The molecular biology of HIV
bionet.molbio.proteins G Proteins and protein database searches
bionet.molbio.rapd G Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA
bionet.neuroscience G Research issues in the neurosciences
bionet.plants G Plant biology, inc. genetics and ecology
bionet.population-bio G Population biology, especially theory
bionet.sci-resources GM Information about funding agencies, etc.
bionet.software G Software for biology, esp. free/shareware
bionet.software.sources GM Software source codes
bionet.users.addresses G Help locating biologists who use e-mail
bionet.virology G Research in virology
bionet.women-in-bio G Discussion by and about women in biology
bionet.xtallography G Protein crystallography
bit.listserv.biosph-l G Biosphere, ecology, Discussion List
bit.listserv.devel-l G Tech. Transfer in Internat. Development
bit.listserv.ecolog-l G Ecological Society of America
bit.listserv.ethology G Ethology List
bit.listserv.info-gcg G GCG Genetics Software Discussion
bit.listserv.sas-l G SAS Discussion
bit.listserv.scifraud G Discussion of Fraud in Science
bit.listserv.stat-l G Statistical consulting
bit.listserv.uigis-l G User Interface for GIS
bit.listserv.vpiej-l G Electronic Publishing Discussion List
comp.infosystems.gis G Geograpical Information Systems
comp.infosystems.gopher F The Internet gopher access tool
comp.infosystems.wais F The Internet WAIS access tool
comp.text.tex F TeX, LaTeX and related text format systems
comp.theory.cell-automata G Cellular automata research
comp.theory.dynamic-sys G Ergodic theory and dynamic systems
comp.theory.self-org-sys G Topics related to self-organization
info.grass.programmer GM GRASS GIS programmer issues
info.grass.user GM GRASS GIS user issues
news.announce.important FM
news.announce.newusers F
news.answers FM All FAQ documents
news.lists FM
sci.answers FM FAQ documents pertaining to science
sci.anthropology
sci.archaeology
sci.bio F
sci.bio.technology G Any topic relating to biotechnology
sci.environment
sci.geo.* [3 groups]
sci.* [approx. 60 other newsgroups]
Note 1: The bionet.* groups are also mailing lists. To subscribe,
send e-mail to biosci@daresbury.ac.uk if you live in Europe, or to
biosci@net.bio.net otherwise. Charters (brief descriptions) of some
of these groups are given in the BIOSCI FAQ (posted in bionet.announce
and available via anonymous ftp from net.bio.net in the directory
pub/BIOSCI/ or by e-mail on request from biosci@net.bio.net).
Note 2: The bit.listserv.* groups are also Bitnet "listserver" mailing
lists. Appendix A includes 100 or so listserver mailing lists, and
charters for each of these groups can be obtained from the listserver
(see section 2.4) that administers them.
Note 3: The comp.theory.* groups are also Internet "inet" mailing lists.
Send e-mail to Erik Fair <fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu>, or see the list
of Internet mailing lists posted regularly in news.answers for details.
Note 4: The info.* groups are mailing lists with gateways into Usenet
at the University of Illinois. See section 2.5 for e-mail subscription
information, or ask your local Usenet administrator to get these groups.
Note 5: Sci.bio.technology is also a listserv mailing list.
-*- 2.3.2. The Bionet and Bit.listserv Domains
Unlike most Usenet newsgroups, the newsgroups in these two domains all
have gateways into mailing lists. The cross-posting of articles to
more than one newsgroup is discouraged, since at this time the e-mail
subscribers will get multiple copies of any cross-posted articles.
As their names imply, the bit.listserv newsgroups started out as (and
remain) listserver mailing lists. A few "main-stream" Usenet newsgroups,
comp.infosystems.gis for instance, are also listserver mailing lists.
Neither the bionet nor the bit.listserv domains are main-stream Usenet
domains, meaning that they do not conform to all Usenet conventions, and
consequently are carried by no more than 30-50% of Usenet sites. This
is not necessarily a bad thing, since virtually no readers at most sites
are biologists, and e-mail subscriptions are available. If your site
carries Usenet, but not either of these domains, a simple request to your
Usenet administrator might be all that's needed to get them too.
The mailing lists associated with the bionet newsgroups are administered
by David Kristofferson's BIOSCI service, which is funded by the US
National Science Foundation for the express purpose of supporting computer
networking among biologists. By providing personal e-mail subscriptions
to the bionet newsgroups, BIOSCI has effectively formed a bridge between
biologists with e-mail and those with Usenet (once familiar with Usenet,
few people have the patience for e-mail subscriptions). David
Kristofferson is responsible for proposing the creation of the bionet
domain of Usenet and starting many of the bionet newsgroups. Requests
for e-mail subscriptions to bionet newsgroups are handled by
biosci@net.bio.net (for requests from the Americas) and
biosci@daresbury.ac.uk (for all others).
A FAQ describing administrative details of the bionet newsgroups is
available from biosci@net.bio.net or biosci@daresbury.ac.uk, and appears
regularly in the bionet.announce newsgroup. Note: rules for forming
new bionet newsgroups differ somewhat from those used elsewhere in Usenet.
Various other FAQs dealing with the interests of specific newsgroups are
posted in those newsgroups. Tom Schneider's FAQ for bionet.info-theory
is available by anonymous ftp from ncifcrf.gov: look for the file
bionet.info-theory.faq in the pub/delila/ directory.
-*- 2.3.3. Other Biology Domains
The European Molecular Biology Network (EMBnet) runs a group of Usenet-
style newsgroups (domain name embnet.*) that are available in Europe.
E-mail subscriptions are also available, and these newsgroups can be
read and searched via gopher and WAIS on bioftp.unibas.ch.
The Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERnet) has a similar setup
(domain name lter.*). Ask helper@lternet.edu about e-mail subscriptions,
or check the gopher on lternet.edu.
-*- 2.3.4. Sources of Information
Usenet FAQs, including this one, are archived on a number of publicly
accessible archives, and can be retrieved via anonymous ftp or e-mail.
The main FAQ archive is on rtfm.mit.edu. To retrieve the latest
version of this FAQ from rtfm.mit.edu, connect there using ftp,
give the username "anonymous" and your e-mail address as the password.
Change to the pub/usenet/news.answers/biology directory and use the "get"
command to copy the file named "guide" to your own computer.
If you have only e-mail access to the Internet, you can send an e-mail
message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu, containing the message
help
index
to receive instructions on how to search the archive and receive files
from it by e-mail.
You are strongly encouraged to read the following introductory and
etiquette FAQs before posting any messages to any newsgroup. They are
what might be considered the "mandatory course" for new users. Also
listed are other FAQs of general use or interest to biologists. The
files below are stored in pub/usenet/news.answers/ in the anonymous
ftp archive on rtfm.mit.edu, and are posted frequently to the Usenet
newsgroups news.answers, comp.answers and sci.answers, as appropriate.
Title Archive filename
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Introductory information
What is Usenet? what-is-usenet/part1
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions usenet-faq/part1
about Usenet
Introduction to news.announce news-announce-intro/part1
Etiquette issues
A Primer on How to Work With the usenet-primer/part1
Usenet Community
Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions emily-postnews/part1
on Netiquette
Hints on writing style for Usenet usenet-writing-style/part1
Rules for posting to Usenet posting-rules/part1
Technical issues
How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup creating-newsgroups/part1
USENET Software: History and Sources usenet-software/part1
How to become a USENET site site-setup
NetNews/Listserv Gateway Policy bit/policy
UNIX BBS Software FAQ with Answers unix-faq/bbs-software
Introduction to the news.answers news-answers/introduction
newsgroup
Instructions for posting to news.answers news-answers/guidelines
Anonymous FTP List - FAQ ftp-list/faq
Mail Archive Server (MAS) software list mas-software
General resources
Gopher [FAQ] gopher-faq
FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses finding-addresses
FAQ: College Email Addresses college-email/part[1-3]
Top-level international country top-level-domains
domain names
How to Get Information about Networks network-info/part1
Public Dialup Internet Access List pdial
Updated Internet Services List internet-services
Mailing Lists Available in Usenet bit/gatelist
How to find sources finding-sources
Anonymous FTP List - Sites ftp-list/sites[1-3]
Scientific resources
A Biologist's Guide to the Internet biology/guide
Biological Information Theory biology/info-theory
and Chowder Society
Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ weather-data
Computer Graphics Resource Listing graphics/resources-list/
part[1-3]
Space FAQ space/* [15 parts]
Amos Bairoch has assembled a very useful list of Molecular Biology
Archives and Mailservers which is available on many ftp sites.
Paul Hengen has written a FAQ for the bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
newsgroup. It is available via anonymous ftp on ncifcrf.gov in
pub/methods/FAQlist and on net.bio.net.
-*- 2.4. Listserver Mailing Lists
Appendix A at the end of this FAQ includes most listserver mailing lists
of particular interest or use to biologists. Internet addresses are
given whenever possible, and all addresses are in standard Internet
format, with the exception that portions of the Internet node names that
reflect original Bitnet node names are given in uppercase.
Listservers were developed many years ago on Bitnet, when certain computer
programs named "listserv" were created and allowed to act like regular
computer users: receiving and sending out e-mail, and keeping files.
These listservers were given the task of maintaining electronic mailing
lists, handling all membership requests (subscriptions and cancellation
of subscriptions, and so on). Many list owners collect monthly logs of
all messages sent to the list, and some also provide files of other
information. The listserver will send "back issue" logs and other files
on request.
-*- 2.4.1. Commands
Being computer programs, with nothing else to do, listservers just sit
and wait for e-mail to arrive, read it, and perform the appropriate task
immediately. They respond only to a small set of commands. A summary
(Thomas 1992) of these commands can be retrieved by sending the message
"send listserv refcard" to any listserver. The main listserver is
listserv@BITNIC.educom.edu, but there are many listservers around the
world. Specificially, there is one on each computer for which a mailing
list is mentioned in appendix A. Most listservers maintain more than
one mailing list.
To subscribe to any of these mailing lists, people send e-mail to the
listserver at the same address. For example, subscriptions to the
Smithsonian Institution's biological conservation list, CONSLINK, may
be obtained by sending the message
subscribe conslink <Your Name>
to listserv@SIVM.si.edu.
Send subscription and other administrative requests to the listserver,
not the list; e-mail messages sent directly to the mailing list will
(generally) be sent to all the list subscribers. Only the listserver
can process subscription requests, and the listserver only knows about
requests that it receives directly.
-*- 2.4.2. Archives
In addition to handling the membership requests for particular mailing
lists, most listservers also archive all messages sent to each list in
monthly log files. These files, along with other items contributed by
list subscribers, are archived by the listserver and can be retrieved
by e-mail. The listserver at SIVM.si.edu keeps an especially good
archive of various directories of conservation organizations and field
stations, several newsletters, and a large collection of bibliographic
references relating to biological conservation. The listserver at
UMDD.umd.edu keeps an archive of job and conference announcements
submitted to the Ecological Society of America.
Commands for retrieving files from listserver archives are described
in the listserver command reference guide (Thomas 1992), and include:
review <listname>
index <listname>
send <listname> filelist
send listserv refcard
help
-*- 2.4.3. Gateways into Usenet
Some of the listserver mailing lists in appendix A below are also
Usenet newsgroups:
biosph-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is bit.listserv.biosph-l
biotech@UMDD.umd.edu is sci.bio.technology
ecolog-l@UMDD.umd.edu is bit.listserv.ecolog-l
devel-l@AUVM.american.edu is bit.listserv.devel-l
ethology@FINHUTC.hut.fi is bit.listserv.ethology
gis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is comp.infosystems.gis
info-gcg@UTORONTO.bitnet is bit.listserv.info-gcg
info-tex@ is comp.text.tex (gate is list-->group only)
sas-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu is bit.listserv.sas-l
stat-l@vm1.mcgill.ca is bit.listserv.stat-l
uigis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is bit.listserv.uigis-l
vpiej-l@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu is bit.listserv.vpiej-l
American University has established itself as the clearing house and
semi-official keeper of automated gateways between listserver mailing
lists and Usenet newsgroups. Questions about the procedure for
establishing a gateway for any listserver mailing list may be posted to
the Usenet newsgroup bit.admin or sent to news-admin@AUVM.american.edu.
A FAQ on this topic appears regularly in the bit.admin newsgroup.
-*- 2.5. Other Mailing Lists
Besides Usenet and the listserver mailing lists, there are several
thousand special-interest mailing lists available over the Internet,
including:
List name Subscriptions address, topic, etc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
aatdb-info@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu curator@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu
Arabidopsis thaliana
alife@cognet.ucla.edu alife-request@cognet.ucla.edu
Artificial life digest
avifauna@rcp.pe phillips@cipa.ec (Roberto Phillips)
Neotropical birds
b-e-group@forager.unl.edu b-e-requests@forager.unl.edu
Behavioral ecology digest
biogopher@comp.bioz.unibas.ch doelz@urz.unibas.ch (Reinhard Doelz)
Biology information systems
biologia@athena.mit.edu biologia-request@athena.mit.edu
Tropical biology, in Spanish
bryonet@uni-duisburg.de hh216fr@uni-duisburg.de (Jan-Peter Frahm)
Bulletin for bryologists
ecologia@athena.mit.edu ecologia-request@athena.mit.edu
Tropical ecology, in Spanish
ent-list@um.cc.umich.edu hcfb@um.cc.umich.edu (Mark O'Brien)
Entomology
env-link@andrew.cmu.edu env-link+forms@andrew.cmu.edu (Josh Knaur)
Environmentalists digest
forest@lists.funet.fi forest-request@lists.funet.fi
Forestry
orchids@SCUacc.scu.edu mailserv@SCUacc.scu.edu
"subscribe orchids <Your Name>"
plant-taxonomy@mailbase.ac.uk mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
"join plant-taxonomy <Your Name>"
primate-talk@primate.wisc.edu primate-talk-request@primate.wisc.edu
"subscribe <Your Name>"
wildnet@access.usask.ca wildnet-request@access.usask.ca
Conservation issues digest
[unknown] kelley@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu (Steve K.)
Cytometry
[unknown] info@s27w007.pswfs.gov
Dendrome forest genetics digest
There is a 4-part FAQ in news.answers (da Silva 1993) that includes
brief descriptions of the charter of each mailing list. This FAQ is
stored in FAQ archives in the directory /mailing-lists/.
Some Usenet newsgroups have non-listserver gated mailing lists. These
include the following.
Usenet newsgroup Mailing list Subscriptions address
------------------------------------------------------------------------
sci.space space@isu.isunet.edu space-request@isu.isunet.edu
Subscription requests should be of the form "subscribe Your Name".
-*- 2.6. Newsletters
Many of the mailing lists mentioned in above section are actually
digests, where readers' queries and comments are condensed into a
single large document that is distributed periodically. Yet another
variation on this theme is electronic newsletters. Those not listed
elsewhere in this guide include:
* Boissiera. Editor ? <burdet@cjb.unige.ch>
* Candollea. Editor ? <burdet@cjb.unige.ch>
* Flora Online: Journal of Collections-Oriented Botanical Research,
published by the Buffalo Museum of Science, USA.
Editor ? visbms@UBVMS.bitnet. Available via gopher and anonymous
ftp from huh.harvard.edu.
* Bean Bag: Leguminosae Research Newsletter, edited by Charles R. Gunn
and Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr. <jkirkbride@asrr.arsusda.gov>. Available
via gopher and anonymous ftp from huh.harvard.edu.
* Botanical Electronic News (BEN), edited by Adolf Ceska, Canada.
Available via gopher and anonymous ftp from huh.harvard.edu, and
the wildnet mailing list.
* Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN) Newsletter, Australia
Available via gopher and anonymous ftp from huh.harvard.edu.
* LTER Data Management Bulletin (DATABITS). Available via gopher on
lternet.edu.
* Climate/Ecosystem Dynamics (CED). E-mail subscriptions are available
from Daniel Pommert <daniel@lternet.washington.edu>, gopher access
available via lternet.edu.
* The Chlamydomonas Newsletter. E-mail subscriptions are available from
Mike Adams <adams@ecsuc.ctstateu.edu>, gopher access available via
chlamy.botany.duke.edu.
The paper journal The Scientist is available in an online version
via anonymous ftp on nnsc.nsf.net, courtesy of the Institute for
Scientific Information and the NSF Network Service Center.
-*- 2.7. Directories
A database of 86,000 records covering scientists and research projects
currently funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is
available via gopher on merlot.welch.jhu.edu. Searches on researcher
name, location, and field of interest are supported.
A directory of researchers using Artificial Intelligence in Molecular
Biology (AIMB) is maintained at the National Library of Medicine. To
be included, send e-mail to Larry Hunter <hunter@work.nlm.nih.gov>.
-*- 3. Information Archives
A number of people have begun to organize the many free biological
information archives, databases and services on the Internet into
well-organized menus using gopher servers. These include Don Gilbert's
IUBIO service on ftp.bio.indiana.edu in the United States, Rob Harper's
"Bionaut software and data paradise" on gopher.csc.fi in Finland, and
Reinhard Doelz's "Information servers in biology (Gopher based)" on
gopher.embnet.unibas.ch in Switzerland. All of these services are
accessible via gopher "clients".
Yanoff (1993) is an excellent list of unusual and useful Internet
services, a few of which are mentioned in this guide.
Anyone who does a lot of field work will appreciate the Geographic Name
Server, which can provide the latitude and longitude, and the elevation
of most places in the United States: all cities and counties are covered,
as well as some national parks and some geographical features (mountains,
rivers, lakes, etc.). Telnet to martini.eecs.umich.edu, port 3000 (no
username needed) and type "help" for instructions. Other services
include: an on-line dictionary, weather maps, a general weather report
service, an archive of statistical programs and data sets, and various
computers allowing public telnet sessions so that people who have Internet
access but not Usenet can read and post Usenet articles.
Stern (1993) offers an extensive list of anonymous ftp archives offering
meteorological data.
-*- 3.1. Bibliographies
Every week now there are more archives coming online as WAIS servers.
Many contain bibliographic databases, complete with abstracts. An
example is the US Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Data database, and
the NASA Global Change Data Directory, archived on ridgisd.er.usgs.gov.
The results of online WAIS searches can be saved as files or sent to you
as e-mail. The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has put a
bibliographic database and catalog of data set descriptions on a gopher
server at lternet.edu. The actual data is not available online.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Extension Service offers the
Research Results Database (RRDB), containing brief summaries of recent
research from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and
Economic Research Service (ERS), by e-mail. For information, send the
e-mail message "send guide" to almanac@esusda.gov. To receive notices
of new RRDB titles, send the message "subscribe usda.rrdb".
Bibliographies on specialized topics are available on many servers:
Check the gopher server on gopher.genethon.fr for bibliographies of
sequence analysis and human genome research papers.
Various Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists provide the tables of contents
(TOCs) for current issues of a few journals of interest to biologists.
Tom Schneider distributes Unix AWK scripts for converting many of these
TOCs into BibTeX-style bibliography records: these scripts are posted in
the Usenet newsgroup bionet.journals.note. The journal TOCs available in
bionet.journals.contents include:
Applied and Environmental Microbiology
CABIOS
EMBO Journal
Journal of Bacteriology
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of Virology
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Molecular Microbiology
Nucleic Acids Research
The American Physiological Society offers TOCs for the following
journals via gopher on gopher.uth.tmc.edu (port 3300):
Advances in Physiology Education
American Journal of Physiology (6 consolidated journals)
Journal of Applied Physiology
Journal of Neurophysiology
News in Physiological Sciences
Physiological Reviews
The Physiologist
The PHOTOSYN listserver mailing list distributes TOCs for Photosynthesis
Research, but these are not archived on the listserver.
-*- 3.2. List of Archives
Computer sites supporting some sort of public access, and of some
interest to biologists:
Internet node name Topic/Title Access method
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
sunsite.unc.edu (NC USA) Many subjects E f G t [4]
pinus.slu.se Agriculture G
locus.nalusda.go (USA) Nat. Agri. Library G
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (MD USA) NCBI f
ftp.embl-heidelberg.de (Germany) EMBL Data Library E f g
coli.polytechnique.fr (France) EMBLnet G
fly.bio.indiana.edu (IN USA) Genbank G
ftp.bchs.uh.edu (TX USA) Genbank, PIR f G
helix.nih.gov (MD USA) Genbank, PDB, PIR etc. G
ncifcrf.gov (MD USA) Biol. Information Theory f
finsun.csc.fi (Finland) Prosite, Rebase-Enzyme G
pdb.pdb.bnl.gov (NY USA) Protein Data Bank G
ftp.tigr.org Inst. for Genomic Rsch. f
golgi.harvard.edu (MA USA) f
s27w007.pswfs.gov (USA) Forest Genetics G
biomed.uio.no (Norway) Genome T
biox.embnet.unibas.ch (Switzerland) Genome G
merlot.welch.jhu.edu (MD USA) Genome G
weeds.mgh.harvard.edu (MA USA) Arabidopsis, C. elegans G [5]
mendel.agron.iastate.edu (IA USA) Soy genome G
greengenes.cit.cornell.edu (NY USA) Triticeae genome G
teosinte.agron.missouri.edu (USA) Maize genome G
chlamy.botany.duke.edu (NC USA) Chlamydomonas stocks G [2]
picea.cfnr.colostate.edu (CO USA) f
life.anu.edu.au (Australia) Bioinformatics f G
igc.org (CA USA) EcoNet f
gopher.yale.edu (CT USA) LTERnet, EDEX, JARS g
lternet.edu (WA USA) LTERnet G
spider.ento.csiro.au (Australia) Entomology f
gopher.uth.tmc.edu (port 3300) Physiology G
envirolink.hss.cmu.edu (DE USA) Environment G T
ecosys.drdr.virginia.edu (VA USA) Ecosystems G T
ngdc1.ngdc.noaa.gov (USA) Paleoclimatology f [1]
huh.harvard.edu (MA USA) Harvard Univ. Herbaria f G
simsc.si.edu (DC USA) Smithsonian Inst. f [3]
ucmp1.berkeley.edu (CA USA) Vertebrate museum G
bdt.ftpt.br (Brazil) Biodiversity f G
dogwood.botany.uga.edu (GA USA) Botany G
zookeeper.zoo.uga.edu (GA USA) Zoology G
sparc.ecology.uga.edu (GA USA) Ecology G
wigeo.wu-wien.ac.at (Austria) Geography G
geogopher.ucdavis.edu (CA USA) Geology G
isdres.er.usgs.gov (VA USA) US Geological Survey f
pippin.memst.edu CERI Earthquake Center G
cdiac.esd.ornl.gov CDIAC f
granta.uchicago.edu (IL USA) Physics Resources G
xyz.lanl.gov (NM USA) LANL Nonlinear Science G
mentor.lanl.gov (NM USA) LANL Physics G
stis.nsf.gov (DC USA) Nat. Science Foundation f
rtfm.mit.edu (MA USA) FAQ repository e f []
e - e-mail file requests (see notes this section).
E - e-mail search requests (see notes this section).
f - anonymous ftp (see section 3.4.2 if you have e-mail but not ftp)
g - gopher server
G - gopher server plus WAIS index searches
t - public telnet access
T - public telnet access plus e-mail returns of search results
W - WAIS server plus WAIS index searches
These database access methods fall into two categories, depending on
whether or not keyword or other searches are supported (uppercase codes).
This list is very incomplete, and I offer it on a trial basis to see
if it is worth expanding (and keeping up to date :-).
Notes:
1: info@mail.ngdc.noaa.gov; 2: chlamy@acpub.duke.edu;
3: david@simsc.si.edu;
4: info@sunsite.unc.edu, telnet username "swais" for WAIS seaches,
telnet username "gopher" for plain gopher access;
5: Richard Durbin <rd@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk>, Jean Thierry-Mieg
<mieg@kaa.cnrs-mop.fr>
-*- 3.2.1. Online Help
Various genome projects are now well established on the Internet, with
large, highly organized databases that support increasingly powerful and
complex interactive or batch search queries. Most of them now support
WAIS and gopher search access. The biologists who use and contribute to
these databases in their research receive a lot of their technical
support through discussions and announcements in the bionet.* domain of
Usenet:
Genomic or other database Relevant Usenet newsgroup
------------------------- -------------------------
AAtDB and ACEDB bionet.genome.arabidopsis
PIR (and SWISS-PROT) bionet.molbio.proteins
The Brookhaven Protein Data Bank bionet.xtallography
GenBank (NCBI and Los Alamos) bionet.molbio.genbank
The EMBL Databank bionet.molbio.embldatabank
Human Genome Database (GDB) bionet.molbio.gdb
Museums and Herbaria on Internet bionet.plants
Posting about these databases to the corresponding newsgroups will
usually get the attention of someone on the appropriate database
staff immediately, with responses following within hours. Questions,
as well as data submissions and corrections, can generally be sent
directly to the relevant administrators (after Garavelli 1992):
Database Address of administrator
-------- ------------------------
AAtDB (Arabidopsis thaliana) curator@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu
ACeDB (Caenorhabditis elegans)
Brookhaven pdb@chm.chm.bnl.gov
DDBJ ddbjsubs@flat.nig.ac.jp
EDEX and JARS (Forest Ecology) goforest@gopher.yale.edu
EMBL problems, feedback nethelp@embl-heidelberg.de
software submissions, queries software@embl-heidelberg.de
Data Library enquiries datalib@embl-heidelberg.de
Data Library submissions datasubs@embl-heidelberg.de
FlyBase (Drosophila) flybase@nucleus.harvard.edu
Inst. of Forest Genetics DB (IFGDB) ifgdb@s27w007.pswfs.gov
GDB help@welch.jhu.edu
GenBank gb-sub@life.lanl.gov
Harvard University Herbaria beach@huh.harvard.edu
LTER helper@lternet.edu
NCBI repository@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
PIR fileserv@nbrf.georgetown.edu
SWISS-PROT bairoch@cmu.unige.ch
LiMB, the Listing of Molecular Biology databases (Keen et al. 1992)
describes most of these databases, and many more, including the names,
regular mail addresses and telephone numbers of their keepers. To get
the current version of LiMB by e-mail, send the text "limb-data" to
bioserve@life.lanl.gov. For information only, send "limb-info". LiMB
is available in hardcopy or on floppy disk: contact limb@life.lanl.gov.
-*- 3.2.2. Search Engines
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) supports various
types of searches via e-mail:
EMBL File Server NetServ@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE
FASTA FASTA@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE
Quicksearch Quick@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE
The Swiss-Prot database can be searched via e-mail using the MPsrch
program on the Blitz server. MPsrch is a program for carrying out
similarity searches of protein sequence databases using the best local
similarity algorithm of Smith and Waterman. For more information, send
the text "help" in e-mail to blitz@embl-heidelberg.de
The Sequence Retrival System (SRS) program for VAX VMS computer systems
is available via anonymous ftp on the Norwegian EMBnet node biomed.uio.no
or genetics.upenn.edu (USA).
-*- 3.3. Software Archives
Several anonymous ftp archives specializing in software for biologists
are accessible via gopher. One that is currently available only via
anonymous ftp is the Brazilian Medical Informatics archive on
ccsun.unicamp.br. The IUBio archive on ftp.bio.indiana.edu probably
has the best collection in the US. The archive on huh.harvard.edu has
software of interest to botanists. Other biology archives include
ftp.bchs.uh.edu, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov in the United States and in Europe
ftp.embl-heidelberg.de (Germany), gopher.embnet.unibas.ch (Switzerland),
nic.funet.fi and gopher.csc.fi (Finland). The gopher server on
merlot.welch.jhu.edu has a nice view of gopher land, including a strong
collection of other gophers offering biomedical, biological and earth
sciences images and image analysis tools.
Also, wuarchive.wustl.edu has an excellent collection of educational
software, especially for teaching mathematics at the college and
university levels. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications
has developed a collection of outstanding software tools for electronic
communications and image analysis, and makes it publicly available on
zaphod.ncsa.uiuc.edu. Many of the latest add-on tools for the popular
LaTeX text formatting system are archived on sun.soe.clarkson.edu,
while sumex-aim.stanford.edu has a huge archive of Macintosh software,
and nic.ddn.mil keeps the important Internet RFC (Request for Comments)
documents.
Jan-Peter Frahm has made available via e-mail "A Guide to Botanical
Software for MS-DOS Computers". The software is shareware or in the
public domain. For a copy, write him at hh216fr@duc220.uni-duisburg.de.
Bionet.software is a good place to look for information about specific
software programs with applications to biology. There are many Usenet
groups devoted to discussion of software, particularly freeware and
shareware. The well-known, huge anonymous ftp repositories of software
are all mentioned in various published guides to the Internet (Kehoe 1992,
Krol 1992, Lane and Summerhill 1992, LaQuey and Ryer 1992, Malamud 1992,
Tennant et al. 1993), and are part of the common knowledge of many Usenet
newsgroups.
-*- 3.4. Access Tools
Most of the recently published books about the Internet describe these
tools in detail. Kehoe (1992), the first book to appear, was offered
first in a free electronic version over the Internet. The first edition,
January 1992, is still available online from many anonymous ftp archives
around the world, in a directory named something like pub/zen/; read
files stored there for help producing a printed document. Krol (1992)
has received excellent reviews. See appendix B for others.
All the tools mentioned in this section share the quirk that they are
actually two things: a "server" or "daemon" program that runs all the
time on a host computer and accepts requests to connect over the
Internet, and a "client" program that people use to connect to or access
these servers. A few host computers in this FAQ allow the public to
telnet to the host, and then use the host computer to access servers via
either gopher or WAIS. These arrangements are offered as a courtesy to
those people who do not have the necessary client software on their own
computers, and want to try these tools before going to the trouble of
installing the client software themselves.
-*- 3.4.1. Telnet
Telnet is a protocol whereby someone who is logged onto an account on a
computer with full Internet access can access another computer over the
Internet and login there, assuming he or she has login privileges on
that computer as well. Anonymous telnet sessions are generally not
permitted, but occasionally usernames are created with restricted
privileges, for use by the Internet public.
-*- 3.4.2. Anonymous Ftp
Ftp is a protocol for file transfers between computers with full Internet
access. Ftp allows people to transfer files to and from a remote computer
on the Internet, assuming they have privileges on both the local and
remote computers. "Anonymous ftp" indicates that people may login to the
remote system with the userid "anonymous" and an arbitrary password. By
convention, anonymous ftp users provide their e-mail addresses when asked
for a password. This is useful to those archive managers who must justify
to their bosses the time spent providing this free (but not cheap) service.
Some computers set restrictions on when transfers may be made from their
archives, and most prefer that large transfers be made only during off-
hours.
Bitnet does not support telnet or ftp sessions, but many Bitnet nodes are
also Internet nodes, and so do support telnet and ftp. For those people
who only have access to computers on Bitnet, Princeton University offers
a file transfer service by e-mail. Bitftp@PUCC.bitnet will send a help
file in response to the message "help". Those people who have no access
to a computer on either the Internet or Bitnet can retrieve files from
anonymous ftp archives by e-mail courtesy of ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com,
which will send instructions in response to the words "help" and "quit"
on separate lines of an e-mail message.
Here is an example of how to send for a document on the archive at
rtfm.mit.edu. This example will return a list of all the FAQs
stored in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers/. Send the message
send usenet/news.answers/index
by e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu.
-*- 3.4.3. Gopher
Gopher is a user-interface program that makes ftp and other types of
connections for computer users when they select an item in a menu. It
is an easy way to get stuff off the Internet without having to know
where the stuff lives. Gopher is free, and there are nice versions
for most types of computers, especially Unix workstations and Macs.
It was invented at the University of Minnesota; current versions can
be retrieved via anonymous ftp from boombox.micro.umn.edu. The name
is a clever pun on the "go-for" person who runs errands for people,
and on the burrowing rodent, which pops down a "hole" in the Internet
and comes back up who-knows-where. Bionet.general, bionet.software,
and bionet.users.addresses are good places to learn more about biology-
related gopher services. Comp.infosystems.gopher is the newsgroup
for gopher-related issues in general. The FAQ for this group is stored
on rtfm.mit.edu in the file pub/usenet/news.answers/gopher-faq.
There is an entire chapter on gopher in Krol (1992).
-*- 3.4.4. Archie
Archie is a program that helps people locate software in any of the
thousands of anonymous ftp archives around the world. A copy of the
software can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from any archie server,
including ftp.cs.widener.edu, in the /archie/clients/ directory. There
are versions of archie for all sorts of Unix systems, as well as VMS
and PCs running a variety of network software. Good places to look for
help installing archie on any computer are from archie-admin@ans.net or
bionet.users.addresses. Documentation is available via anonymous ftp
on ftp.ans.net in the /pub/archie/doc/ directory, or by e-mail from
archie-admin@ans.net.
Archie can be used via e-mail, by sending e-mail with a list of commands
to archie@ans.net. For details, send the command "help". Due to the
high demand for this service, the archie administrators on ans.net prefer
that requests be made via e-mail.
-*- 3.4.5. Veronica
Veronica is the Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized
Archives. The reason Veronica's name is so long is so that it can play
on the concepts of both gopher and archie. (Remember the comic book
couple Archie and Veronica? Veronica does for gopher what archie does
for anonymous ftp.) Veronica searches through hundreds of gopher holes
looking for anything that matches a keyword supplied by the user, and
assembles a list of gopher servers that contain items of interest.
Note: Veronica checks *titles* of gopher items only, not their contents.
Veronica was only invented in late 1992, but already seems very promising.
-*- 3.4.6. WAIS
WAIS stands for Wide Area Information Servers. The idea is to make
anonymous ftp archives more accessible by indexing their contents and
making those indexes searchable with software distributed to anyone on
the Internet. The user interface is simple so far, but the concept is
so powerful that every person with an anonymous ftp archive has spent
part of this past year building WAIS indices of all available material
(software, data, documents and other information). In the course of all
this effort a great deal of information has suddenly become publicly
available all in the past year, only a few of which are mentioned in the
section of this FAQ on Internet archives.
Good WAIS client programs for the Mac (WAIStation) and PC (PCWAIS) are
available on the anonymous ftp archive at think.com. If your computer
has full Internet access, you can try out WAIS on a Unix system, courtesy
of Thinking Machines Corp., by telnetting to quake.think.com. Use the
username "wais" and give your e-mail address as the password. See the
newsgroup comp.infosystems.wais for more details. The FAQ for this group
is stored on rtfm.mit.edu in the file
pub/usenet/news.answers/wais-faq/getting-started.
-*- 3.4.7. The World-Wide Web (WWW)
The World-Wide Web is yet another tool for gathering useful information
from the Internet. It was invented at the European Particle Physics
Laboratory (CERN), Switzerland. The Web looks like a document that
users can open and read, but clicking on certain words causes other
documents to be retrieved and opened for inspection. The most powerful
aspect of the Web at present is the ease with which seamless, attractive
online documentation can be created, that is easy to find and browse,
no matter where on the Internet the actual documents are. You can try
the Web, courtesy of CERN: telnet to info.cern.ch (no username needed).
-*- 4. Commercial Services
The three most common types of commercial services are (1) restricted-use
computer accounts allowing Internet access (e-mail or full access) via
modem from personal computers, (2) on-line bibliographic databases that
can be searched via modem or over the Internet, and (3) access via modem
or the Internet to private Usenet-style special-interest networks, but
only e-mail access to the rest of the Internet.
The best sources of information about these services are the books on the
Internet listed in appendix B, the advertizing sections of scientific
journals, and reference books such as the "Directory of Online Databases"
published quarterly by Cuadra/Elsevier, which runs to about 1000 pages,
and the companion guide "Online Database Selection: A User's Guide to
the Directory of Online Databases" from Elsevier.
For the benefit of people without full Internet access (telnet and ftp
in addition to e-mail), Peter Kaminski maintains a list of commercial
access providers (Kaminski 1993). E-mail requests for this list can be
sent to info-deli-server@netcom.com: use "send PDIAL" as the subject.
-*- 5. Useful and Important FAQs
Title Archive Filename
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Updated Internet Services List internet-services
How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING) finding-sources
You will learn a great deal about the Internet and what it has to offer
if you track down some of the items mentioned in this FAQ. If you still
want to know more, browse around in Usenet. Also, a number of commercial
books have been published recently which give a very thorough guide to
the Internet; see appendix B and check your local academic bookstore or
university library.
-*- 5.1. What's a FAQ and where can I get one?
There are now hundreds of Internet documents, including this one, written
expressly to answer frequently asked questions. They are often refered
to in the Usenet community as "FAQs" (sounds like "fax"). You will find
them in the Usenet newsgroup news.answers (and subsets in sci.answers and
news.answers.newusers). There is an anonymous ftp archive for FAQs, on
rtfm.mit.edu (RTFM stands for Read The F------ Manual), in the directory
pub/usenet/news.answers/. See section 3.4.2 for help retrieving FAQs from
this archive.
-*- 5.2. Does anyone have an e-mail address for X?
Please, don't ask this in a newsgroup or mailing list. It's rude!
The quickest, most efficient way to answer this is to call or write to X
directly. If anyone can help you with this, it's X. To date, most
biologists don't have e-mail addresses, or if they do, they don't read
their e-mail very often, so you really are better off contacting them
directly. If you must try to find this information via the computer
networks, please start by reading Kamens (1993a) or Lamb (1993) or the
relevant section of one of the books listed in appendix B. Also, you can
check for the latest strategy in the newsgroup bionet.users.addresses
(which is graciously watched-over by Robert Harper). But wait, there's
more: many gopher servers listed in this FAQ have searchable directories
of biologists, and phonebooks of various sorts from around the world.
-*- 5.3. How to find a good graduate program?
Go talk to the undergraduate or graduate advisor in your department,
if you're a college student. Start browsing through the scientific
journals, and the new book stack in the library. Ask your favorite
professors for advice. Sadly, the Internet can not be all things to all
people, and questions about how to pick graduate programs generally
do not get satisfactory replies.
-*- 5.4. Where can I get old newsgroup/mailing list articles?
All the biology-related Usenet newsgroups (since 1991) are archived for
searching via gopher, WAIS, and anonymous ftp on ftp.bio.indiana.edu, in
the directory /usenet/bionet/. The bionet newsgroups (some dating back
to 1987) are archived for WAIS and anonymous ftp on net.bio.net. Browse
through gopher land for additional Usenet newsgroup archives.
Most listserver mailing lists are archived on the computer where they
are administered. To subscribe and get an index of log files on the
istserver archive for the ECOLOG-L mailing list, for example, send
e-mail to listserv@UMDD.umd.edu with the text:
subscribe ECOLOG-L Your Name
index ECOLOG-L
-*- 5.5. Where can I find biology-related job announcements?
The bionet.jobs newsgroup is a good place to start, but you might also
want to check the ECOLOG-L listserver mailing list, which is run by
the Ecological Society of America and carries many job announcements.
Most other newsgroups and mailing lists carry occasional job notices.
The American Physiological Society offers announcements appearing in
The Physiologist via gopher on gopher.uth.tmc.edu (port 3300). Usenet
has several newsgroups devoted to jobs, including misc.jobs.offered.
-*- A. Assorted Listserver Mailing Lists
Note, an "M" before the descriptive title indicates a moderated list.
All submissions should be sent to the moderator, not the list. The
listserver for such groups can provide the name and e-mail address of
the moderator. A "G" indicates a gateway into a Usenet newsgroup, an
"A" indicates that the listserver maintains some files for this group.
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
ag-econ@ERS.bitnet Agricultural Economics and ERS Test List
ag-exp-l@vm1.nodak.edu Agricultural Expert Systems
ageng-l@ibm.gwdg.de Agricultural Engineering and Intel. Control
agric-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu Agriculture Discussion
aqua-l@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Aquaculture Discussion List
camel-l@SAKFU00.bitnet Discussion Forum on Camel Research
dairy-l@UMDD.umd.edu Dairy Discussion List
hort-l@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu Va Tech Horticulture Dept. Announcements
hortpgm@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu Va Tech Horticulture Dept. Program
mgarden@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu Master Gardeners
newcrops@vm.cc.purdue.edu Discussion list for New Crops
spud@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu Potato Research
vetmed-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu Veterinary Medicine
Anthropology and Archaeology
anct-ne@vm.byu.edu Ancient Near Eastern Studies
anthro-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu General Anthropology Bulletin Board
arch-l@TAMVM1.tamu.edu Archaeology List
humevo@GWUVM.gwu.edu M Human Evolutionary Research Discussion
native-l@TAMVM1.tamu.edu Issues Pertaining to Aboriginal Peoples
pacarc-l@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu Pacific Rim Archaeology Interest List
Biology
bee-l@albany.edu Discussion of Bee Biology
bio-dost@ege.edu.tr Biologists in Turkey
biomch-l@nic.surfnet.nl Biomechanics and Movement Science
bnfnet-l@FINHUTC.hut.fi Biological Nitrogen Fixation Forum
entomo-l@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Entomology Discussion List
ethology@FINHUTC.hut.fi Ethology
herm@ege.edu.tr Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Discussion
iapwild@vm1.nodak.edu International Arctic Project Wildlife
l-etho@UQAM.bitnet Ethologistes/Ethologists
micronet@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Fungus and Root Interaction Discussion
photosyn@TAUNIVM.tau.ac.il Photosynthesis Researchers' List
thphysio@FRMOP11.cnusc.fr Thermal Physiology
Biostatistics
biomet-l@ALBNYDH2.bitnet Bureau of Biometrics at Albany
bmdp-l@vm1.mcgill.ca BMDP Software Users
morphmet@CUNYVM.cuny.edu Biological Morphometrics Mailing List
pstat-l@IRLEARN.ucd.ie Discussion of Stats and Programming
sas-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu SAS Discussion (Peered)
stat-l@vm1.mcgill.ca Statistical Consulting
Computational biology
complex@life.anu.edu.au M Complex systems
cybsys-l@BINGVMB.cc.binghamton.edu Cybernetics and Systems
ecosys-l@vm.gmd.de List for ecosystem theory and modeling
glosas-l@acadvm1.UOTTAWA.ca GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation List
inns-l@UMDD.umd.edu International Neural Network Society
ndrg-l@WVNVM.wvnet.edu Nonlinear Dynamics Research Group
neural-n@ANDESCOL.uniandes.edu.co Artificial Neural Networks Discussion
Conservation and Environmental Studies
apaspan@GWUVM.gwu.edu APA Scientific Grassroots Network
aquifer@IBACSATA.bitnet Pollution and grondwater recharge
aseh-l@TTUVM1.bitnet American Soc. of Environmental Historians
comdev@vm.ecs.rpi.edu Communication & international development
consbio@UWAVM.u.washington.edu Conservation Biology List
conslink@SIVM.si.edu Discussion on Biological Conservation
devel-l@AUVM.american.edu Technology Transfer in Int. Development
econet@MIAMIU.bitnet Ecological and Environmental Discussion
envst-l@BROWNVM.brown.edu Environmental Studies Discussion List
itrdbfor@asuvm.inre.asu.edu Dendrochronology Forum
laspau-l@HARVARDA.harvard.edu Latin America Scholarship Program
meh2o-l@TAUNIVM.tau.ac.il Middle East water
natura-l@UCHCECVM.bitnet Ecology and Envir. Protection in Chile
odp-l@TAMVM1.tamu.edu Ocean Drilling Program Open Discussion
Ecology
biosph-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Biosphere, ecology, Discussion List
biodiv-l@bdt.ftpt.ansp.br Biodiversity networks
bird_rba@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline Cooperative
birdband@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu Bird Bander's Forum
birdchat@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (Chat Line)
birdcntr@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (Central)
birdeast@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (East)
birdwest@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (West)
birdtrip@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu Special BIRDCHAT LOGO Project
ecolog-l@UMDD.umd.edu Ecological Society of America
ots-l@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu Organization for Tropical Studies
Geology and Geography (including GIS)
acdgis-l@AWIIMC12.imc.univie.ac.at Geographic Information Systems
climlist@OHSTVMA.acs.ohio-state.edu Climatology Distribution List
coastgis@IRLEARN.ucd.ie Coastal GIS Distribution List
cpgis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Chinese Professionals GIS Use List
geograph@FINHUTC.hut.fi Geography
geology@PTEARN.fc.ul.pt Geology Discussion List
geonet-l@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu Geoscience Librarians & Information
gis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Geographic Information Systems
idrisi-l@toe.towson.edu Idrisi Discussion List
maps-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum
quake-l@vm.nodak.edu QUAKE-L Discussion List
seism-l@BINGVMB.cc.binghamton.edu Seismological Data Distribution
seismd-l@BINGVMB.cc.binghamton.edu Seismological Discussion
stat-geo@UFRJ.bitnet Forum of Quantitative Methods in Geosciences
tgis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Temporal Topics on GIS List
ucgis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Univ Consort for Geo Info & Analysis List
uigis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu User Interfaces for Geographic Info. Sys.
vigis-l@UWAVM.u.washington.edu Virtual Reality and GIS
Marine biology
brine-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu Brine Shrimp Discussion List
diatom-l@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu Research on the diatom algae
hypbar-l@TECHNION.technion.ac.il HyperBaric & Diving Medicine List
marine-l@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Marine Studies/Shipboard Education
Molecular biology
biotech@UMDD.umd.edu Biotechnology Discussion List
confocal@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Confocal Microscopy List
cyan-tox@GREARN.csi.forth.gr The Cyanobacterial Toxins Discussion List
dis-l@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu Drosophila workers to receive DIS Newsletter
ebcbbul@HDETUD1.tudelft.nl Computers in Biotechnology, Rsch. and Edu.
ebcbcat@HDETUD1.tudelft.nl Catalogue of 'Biotechnological' software
embinfo@IBACSATA.bitnet EMBNet (European Molecular Biology Network)
emflds-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Electromagnetics in Med., Sci. & Com.
forumbio@scf.fundp.ac.be Forum on molecular biology
genetics@INDYCMS.iupui.edu Clinical human genetics
info-gcg@UTORONTO.bitnet GCG Genetics Software Discussion
lpn-l@BROWNVM.brown.edu Laboratory Primate Newsletter List
nibnews@ccsun.unicamp.br NIBNews (Biology and Medical Informatics)
rbmi@FRORS13.bitnet Molecular Biology Research Group
Neurobiology
cogsci-l@vm1.yorku.ca Cognitive Science Discussion Group
dasp-l@earn.cvut.cs Digital Acoustic Signal Processing
neuchile@CUNYVM.cuny.edu Chilean Neurosciences Discussion List
neuro1-l@UICVM.uic.edu Neuroscience Information Forum
neus582@UICVM.uic.edu Methods in Modern Neuroscience
sbnc-l@BRUSPVM.bitnet Brazilian Society of Neurosciences & Comp.
Taxonomy and Systematics
class-l@ccvm.sunysb.edu Classification and phylogeny estimation
muse-l@HARVARDA.harvard.edu Muse Software Discussion List
museum-l@UNMVMA.unm.edu Museum discussion list
rapd-l@vm.byu.edu RAPD sequencing discussion list
roots-l@vm1.nodak.edu Genealogy list
taxacom@HARVARDA.harvard.edu Taxonomic and systematic collections list
Teaching and Research
biocis-l@SIVM.si.edu Biology Curriculum Innovation Study
conslt-l@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu Research and practice in mentoring
grants-l@JHUVM.hcf.jhu.edu NSF Grants & Contracts
hpsst-l@QUCDN.queensu.ca History and Philosophy of Science
iopi@life.anu.edu.au M Int. Organization for Plant Information
iubs@life.anu.edu.au M Int. Union of Biological Societies
job-list@FRORS12.bitnet Job offers from EARN Institute members
methods@vm.ecs.rpi.edu Research methodology
navigate@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Navigating The Internet Workshop List
newedu-l@vm.usc.edu New Paradigms in Education List
nihggc-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu NIH Grants and Contracts Distribution List
scifraud@uacsc2.albany.edu Discussion of Fraud in Science
vpiej-l@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu Electronic journal discussions
wisenet@UICVM.uic.edu Women In Science and Engineering NETwork
-*- B. Bibliography
Anonymous (1993) "Total traffic through uunet for the last 2 weeks".
Usenet news.lists, 8 February. Posted by newsstats@uunet.uu.net.
Barr, D. and M. Horton (1993) "Rules for posting to Usenet". Usenet
news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename posting-rules/part1.
Brader, M. and J. Schwarz (1993) "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
about Usenet". Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
usenet-faq/part1.
Crepin-Leblond, O.M.J. (1993) " Top-level international country domain
names". Usenet comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive: top-level-domains.
Granrose, J., M. Jones and T. Czarnik (1993a) "Anonymous FTP List - FAQ".
Usenet comp.misc. FAQ archive: ftp-list/faq.
Granrose, J., M. Jones and T. Czarnik (1993b) "Anonymous FTP List - Sites".
Usenet comp.misc. FAQ archive: ftp-list/sites[1-3].
Fotis, N.C. (1993) "Computer Graphics Resource Listing". Usenet
comp.graphics. FAQ archive filename graphics/resources-list/part[1-3].
Garavelli, J. (1992) "Announcements of the Protein Information
Repository". Usenet bionet.molbio.proteins, December.
Goldmann, N. (1992) "Online Information Hunting". Windcrest, Blue Ridge
Summit, PA.
Kahin, B. (1992) "Building Information Infrastructure: Issues in
the Development of the National Research and Education Network".
McGraw Hill, New York. 432 pages.
Kamens, J.I. (1993a) "FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses". Usenet
comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive filename finding-addresses.
Kamens, J.I. (1993b) "How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)".
Usenet comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive filename finding-sources.
Kamens, J.I. (1993c) "How to become a USENET site". Usenet
news.admin.misc. FAQ archive filename site-setup.
Kamens, J.I. (1993d) "Introduction to the news.answers newsgroup".
Usenet news.answers. FAQ archive filename news-answers/introduction.
Kamens, J.I. (1993e) "Mail Archive Server (MAS) software list".
Usenet comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive filename mas-software.
Kaminski, P. (1993) "Public Dialup Internet Access List (PDIAL)". Usenet
alt.internet.access.wanted FAQ archive filename pdial.
Keen, G., G. Redgrave, J. Lawton, M. Cinkosky, S. Mishra, J. Fickett,
and C. Burks (1992) "Access to molecular biology databases".
Mathematical Comput. Modelling 16:93-101.
Kehoe, B.P. (1992) "Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's
Guide to the Internet", 2nd Edition (July). Prentice Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 112 pages. The 1st Edition, (February)
is available in Postscript format via anonymous ftp from
ftp.cs.widener.edu and many other Internet archives.
Krol, E. (1992) "The Whole Internet: Catalog & User's Guide".
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA. 376 pages.
Lamb, D. (1993) "FAQ: College Email Addresses". Usenet soc.college.
FAQ archive filename college-email/part[1-3].
Lane, E.S. and C.A. Summerhill (1992) "An Internet Primer for
Information Professionals: A Basic Guide to Networking Technology".
Meckler Corporation, Westport, CT. ~200 pages. In press.
LaQuey, T. and J.C. Ryer (1992) "The Internet Companion: A Beginner's
Guide to Global Networking". Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.,
Reading, MA. 208 pages.
Lawrence, D.C., G. Woods and G. Spafford (1993) "How to Create a New
Usenet Newsgroup". Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive:
creating-newsgroups/part1.
Leech, J. (1993) "Space FAQ". Usenet sci.astro. FAQ archive space/*.
Malamud, C. (1992) "Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue".
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 376 pages.
Marine, A. (1992) "Inter: Getting Started". SRI International,
Menlo Park, CA. 380 pages.
McIntosh, J. (1993a) "NetNews/Listserv Gateway Policy." Usenet bit.admin.
FAQ archive: bit/policy.
McIntosh, J. (1993b) "Mailing Lists Available in Usenet." Usenet
bit.admin. FAQ archive: bit/gatelist.
Quarterman, J.S. and S. Wilhelm (1992) "UNIX, POSIX, and Open Systems:
The Open Standards Puzzle". Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.,
Reading, MA. 448 pages.
Reid, B. (1993a) "Usenet Readership Report for January 1993". Usenet
news.lists.
Reid, B. (1993b) "Usenet Readership Summary Report for January 1993".
Usenet news.lists.
Schneider, T. (1993) "Biological Information Theory and Chowder Society".
Usenet bionet.info-theory. FAQ archive: biology/info-theory.
da Silva, S. and C. Von Rospach and G. Spafford (1993) "Publicly
Accessible Mailing Lists". Usenet news.lists. FAQ archive:
news.lists[1-4].
Smith, Una R. (1993) "A Biologist's Guide to the Internet."
Usenet sci.bio. FAQ archive: biology/guide.
Spafford, G. (1993) "USENET Software: History and Sources". Usenet
news.admin.misc. FAQ archive filename usenet-software/part1.
Spafford, G. and R. Atkinson (1992) "How to Get Information about
Networks". Usenet news.admin.misc. FAQ archive: network-info/part1.
Spafford, G. and M. Horton (1992) "Introduction to news.announce".
Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
news-announce-intro/part1.
Spafford, G. and A.J. Offutt VI (1992) "Hints on writing style for
Usenet". Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
usenet-writing-style/part1.
Spafford, G. and C. Salzenberg (1992) "What is Usenet?". Usenet
news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename what-is-usenet/part1.
Spafford, G. and C. Von Rospach (1992) "A Primer on How to Work With the
Usenet Community". Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive
filename usenet-primer/part1.
SRI (1992) "Internet: Mailing Lists". SRI International, Menlo Park, CA.
Stern, I. (1993) "Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ". Usenet
sci.geo.meteorology. FAQ archive filename weather-data.
Templeton, B. (1991) "Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on
Netiquette". Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
emily-postnews/part1.
Tennant, R., J. Ober and A.G. Lipow (1993) "Crossing the Internet
Threshold: an Instructional Handbook", 1st Edition. Library
Solution Press, San Carlos, CA. 134 pages.
Thomas, E. (1992) "Revised LISTSERV System Reference Library".
Listserv@BITNIC.educom.edu, release 1.7c. Retrievable from any
listserver using the mail message "send listserv refcard".
UofMN Gopher Team (1993) "Gopher Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)".
Usenet comp.infosystems.gopher. FAQ archive: gopher-faq.
Wohler, B. (1993) "NN Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with Answers".
Usenet news.software.nn. FAQ archive: nn-faq.
Woodbury, G.W. (1993) "UNIX BBS Software FAQ with Answers". Usenet
comp.bbs.misc. FAQ archive: unix-faq/bbs-software.
Yanoff, S. (1993) "Updated Internet Services List". Usenet
alt.internet.services. Available from rtfm.mit.edu FAQ
archive as filename internet-services.
-*- C. Contributors
Many, many thanks to
James Beach, Harvey Chinn, Dan Davison, Reinhard Doelz,
John Garavelli, Don Gilbert, Rob Harper, Dan Jacobson,
David Kristofferson, Francis Ouellette, Renato Sabatini,
and Tom Schneider,
who have provided substantial ideas and material for this FAQ and/or
advice on related issues. Harvey Chinn has served as my editor, and
many improvements of organization were suggested by him.
Additional material and suggestions were contributed by:
David Bridge, Steve Clark, Josh Hayes, Tom Jacobs, Andy Johnston,
Jonathan Kamens, Jim McIntosh, Ross Smith, Roy Smith, and
Christophe Wolfhugel.
There exists a (mostly anonymous) cast of thousands who have made
significant, even enormous individual contributions to the resources
mentioned in this FAQ, and who are largely responsible for the thing
we call the Internet in its broadest sense. They must all be very
proud of what they have helped to create.
--
Una Smith Biology Department smith-una@yale.edu
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06511
Technical Details
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Complete Article Headers
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 107c0a,6294a3217fe21042,start X-Google-Attributes: gid107c0a,public X-Google-Thread: 1068df,6294a3217fe21042,start X-Google-Attributes: gid1068df,public X-Google-Thread: f7ded,6294a3217fe21042,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf7ded,public X-Google-Thread: 1119a6,6294a3217fe21042,start X-Google-Attributes: gid1119a6,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-04-17 15:21:08 PST Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!gmd.de!ira.uka.de!math.fu-berlin.de!nigel.msen.com!yale.edu!not-for-mail From: Una Smith <smith-una@yale.edu> Newsgroups: sci.bio,bionet.general,sci.answers,news.answers Subject: A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources (FAQ) Followup-To: poster Date: 17 Apr 1993 18:17:34 -0400 Organization: Department of Biology, Yale University Lines: 1628 Sender: una@yale.edu Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Message-ID: <1qpvluINN9di@MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU> Reply-To: Una Smith <smith-una@yale.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: minerva.cis.yale.edu Summary: Networking, free data and software sources, and much, much more. Supercedes: <1p5899INNinh@MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU>