Web sites about microbes seem to have proliferated almost as fast as bacteria in unrefrigerated potato salad. This collection of annotated links, tended by postdoc Al Chan of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, organizes the sprawl into 16 handy categories.
Undergrads will find a wealth of sites on microbial ecology, specific groups and diseases, and practical uses of bugs such as bioremediation, in which gunk-eating bacteria slurp up oil spills and other chemical discharges. Also useful for students are links to more than 300 nontechnical articles on everything from a brain parasite that makes rats less afraid of cats to the use of genetically altered bacteria to thwart tooth decay. Geared for academics are offerings such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's guidelines for protecting buildings from biological and chemical attack (no mention of duct tape) and the University of Idaho's taxonomy of plant viruses. The site also features links to more than 180 microbiology journals and a host of jobs sites and professional societies.
www.microbes.info
