Life Sciences

Historical Center for the Health Sciences

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/chm/

Author:

University of Michigan

Excerpt:

The Center for the History of Medicine was founded in 1990 and is a unit of the University of Michigan Medical School. The Center’s mission is to conduct original research on the history of medicine; promote dialogue on issues related to health and society in university, medical, and lay communities; and to preserve and make accessible materials related to the history of medicine, biomedical research, public health, nursing, and medical and hospital administration.

Annotation:

The website for the University of Michigan's Center for the History of Medicine contains several areas of potential interest to researchers. An exhibit on polio contains a narrative about the disease and Dr. Thomas Francis' work against it, as well as many photographs and a bibliography. A listing of the university's historical medical films is available. There is also an interactive timeline regarding the history of the UM Medical School, and several links to related sites.

Adolf Basser Library

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.science.org.au/academy/basser/mslist.htm

Author:

Australian Academy of Science

Excerpt:

The manuscript collection contains 208 sets of papers, ranging in quantity from a few sheets of correspondence to many hundreds of items. Individual scientists represented in the collection include significant figures in CSIRO such as Sir David Rivett, Sir Ian Wark and Dr Lloyd Rees, academics such as Professor Frank Fenner and Sir Ernest Titterton and more than 60 other Fellows of the Academy. The collection is not limited to Fellows, however; the papers of Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley, for example, are heavily used by people interested in malarial research. A number of scientific societies have also chosen the Basser Library as the repository for their archives with the Australian Institute of Physics and the Geological Society of Australia providing the largest collections.

Annotation:

This site gives some brief information about the Australian Academy of Science and provides a description of manuscripts housed in the Academy's Basser Library. The site also contains an alphabetical index of the materials in the manuscript collection, which could be an important planning tool for researchers interested in taking a trip to the Library to do research with the papers first-hand. However, the actual manuscripts have not been made available online, so there is no historical information beyond the descriptions and index.

College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.collphyphil.org/

Author:

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Excerpt:

The College is a not-for-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to examining the medical sciences and their place in society in order to enhance the understanding of medicine and the roles of physicians in history and in contemporary life.

Annotation:

Website maintained by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, an organization began in 1787 to provide education about and improve public health. Contains general information about the College Gallery and the Mutter Museum. Several former exhibits are reproduced online, such as "Emerging Infectious Diseases: Ancient Scourge and Modern Menace" and "When the Patient is the President." A database cataloging their historical OB-GYN instrument collection makes available images and descriptions of over 1,200 tools. The College's library catalog is also online. A link to Philadelphia-related health information is provided as well.

Bioscience and Biotechnology: Resources for Historical Research

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/BANC/Biotech/index.html

Author:

Bancroft Library and Berkely Multimedia Resource Center - UC Berkely

Excerpt:

The Web site was constructed by staff in The Bancroft Library and the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Its core resources draw on the Library's extensive collections of archives and oral histories, as well as resources created by and for the landmark symposium "Biotechnology at 25: Perspectives on History, Science, and Society" held on campus 12-13 March 1999 to celebrate the discovery of gene-cloning technology (recombinant DNA).

Our first phase of development was completed in October 1999; it was a prototype including a sample of available resources and a fully indexed streaming video of one of the Symposium participants, Stanley N. Cohen. We are seeking funding to enrich the prototype with high quality indexed video and audio files representing a broad selection of scientists and others who participated in the Symposium or are represented in the archival and oral history collections of the Library.

We will continue to build the Web site as we acquire and process materials, with a goal of providing a unique collection of primary materials for scholars in secondary and higher education and for the general public.

Annotation:

In addition to basic materials such as a glossary, a links page and an introduction to the project, this site includes an online exhibit that focuses on significant bioscientists, video from the symposium, and digitized oral histories. The site also includes an internal search engine which should help users to move quickly through the information.

History of Microbiology Archival Projects

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://HISTMICRO.YALE.EDU/

Author:

William C. Summers-American Society of Microbiology

Excerpt:

This "experimental history project" so to speak, is part of a program supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to explore the possibilities of using the internet to increase the collection of archival material in the history of recent science to supplement and complement expensive and time consuming oral history interviews and preparation of autobiographical memoirs. This site includes three projects devoted to topics in microbiology being developed and maintained through a grant to the American Society for Microbiology. Parallel projects are being developed by the Society for Neuroscience and the American Society for Virology.

Annotation:

This site provides essays, timelines, and personal recollections of the history of research on plasmids, extremophiles and second generation antibiotics. Currently, only the plasmid portion of the site is fully developed. A timeline of plasmid research outlines major breakthroughs from 1903-1969, a glossary covers most of the important terms related to the field, and an extensive bibliography covers published papers on plasmids from the 1940s and 50s. Microbiologists and others involved with plasmid research can add their comments and recollections to the site's archive. In addition, the site contains links to other sites and professional associations interested in the history of microbiology.

Edgar Fahs Smith Collection of Images of Scientists, Laboratories, and Scientific Apparatus

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.library.upenn.edu/etext/collections/smith/index.html

Author:

Lynne Farrington

Excerpt:

This collection contains over 3,000 images of scientists, laboratories, and scientific apparatus. A selection of these prints, engravings, and photographs is reproduced on this site. Photographs of any of these images may be ordered from an on-line order form.

Rachel Carson Homestead

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.rachelcarson.org/

Author:

Linda Lear

Excerpt:

Rachel Carson, writer, scientist, and ecologist, grew up simply in the rural river town of Springdale, Pennsylvania. Her mother bequeathed to her a life-long love of nature and the living world that Rachel expressed first as a writer and later as a student of marine biology. Carson graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.

Annotation:

This site features a short biography of Rachel Carson in addition to bibliographic collections of books by and about Carson. Of interest to researchers would be the collection of links of online Carson resources. A more general listing of links is also made available.

Leo Szilard Online

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.dannen.com/szilard.html

Excerpt:

Szilard's ideas included the linear accelerator, cyclotron, electron microscope, and nuclear chain reaction. Equally important was his insistence that scientists accept moral responsibility for the consequences of their work.

Annotation:

Site contains several biographies of the physicist and biophysicist Leo Szilard. Interviews and other primary sources are made available, as well as links to other sites for potential research. A number of images are present as is an extensive bibliography.

Caltech Archives Photonet

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://archives.caltech.edu//photoNet.html

Author:

California Institute of Technology Archives

Excerpt:

PhotoNet is an online database containing thousands of images from the Archives' collection of visual material.

Annotation:

This online database of over 3,000 images from the California Institute of Technology's archive of visual materials illustrates the history of science from the Scientific Revolution to the present. Photographs, fine prints, book illustrations, paintings, and architectural drawings of various scientists and their projects, including Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, George Ellery Hale, and Linus Pauling are found in the database. Images are accompanied by a brief (roughly 150-word) biography and, in many cases, a photograph or other image of the scientist(s) involved in the project. The site can be browsed through two sub-categories, "Science and Technological artifacts" and "Rare Books," as well as a keyword search by scientist name or subject. This site provides an ideal tool for research on the history of science and prominent scientific figures.

Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html

Author:

Mitchell C. Brown, Mathematics and Physics Librarian, Fine Library, Princeton University

Excerpt:

Profiled here are African American men and women who have contributed to the advancement of science and engineering. The accomplishments of the past and present can serve as pathfinders to present and future engineers and scientists. African American chemists, biologists, inventors, engineers, and mathematicians have contributed in both large and small ways that can be overlooked when chronicling the history of science. By describing the scientific history of selected African American men and women we can see how the efforts of individuals have advanced human understanding in the world around us.

Annotation:

This site contains biographical profiles of over 200 African-American men and women who have contributed to the advancement of science and engineering. The site provides brief (roughly 250 word) biographies of scholars from fields such as biology, chemistry, physics, zoology, and veterinary medicine, as well as inventors. Among the scientists included in the site are prominent figures like George Washington Carver, scientist and inventor of numerous industrial applications for agricultural products, and astronomer and mathematician Benjamin Banneker. Each entry also includes a bibliography of sources for further biographical information. The site is indexed by scientist name and profession, and there are special sections for the biographies of 20 women scientists and 14 of the first African Americans to receive Ph.D.'s in science. Though there are no primary documents on this site, it is a good place to find general information on prominent African-American scientists throughout American history.