Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

The Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (Wiley) contains more than 4,300 articles. At the time of writing this, over 50 articles were freely available as sample content.

A few examples of freebies:

• Antibiotic resistance plasmids in bacteria
• Bacterial transcription regulation
• Bioinformatics
• Dideoxy sequencing of DNA
• DNA chips and microarrays
• DNA cloning
• Electrophoresis and blotting of DNA
• Escherichia coli lactose operon
• Experimental organisms used in genetics
• Microorganisms: applications in molecular biology
• Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

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Petri Dish Circus

The following video (by MicrobeWorld, grabbed from SciVee) portrays an interview to Mary Resing, artistic director for Active Cultures, a theater company from Maryland, US. She talks about Petri Dish Circus, a play inspired by the extraordinary, classic book Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif. The video includes some excerpts from the actual performance.

(If video functioning is not smooth:
click on "pause", wait for a few minutes as the video gets fully loaded [indicated as a blue bar growing from left to right], then click on "play")

Links:

• Petri Dish Circus (MWV12), the video, as available at SciVee. Submitted by MicrobeWorld.
• 'Petri Dish Circus': It's Got a Few Bugs. The play is reviewed at washingtonpost.com.
• Active Cultures, "the vernacular theatre of Maryland."
• Microbe Hunters at Everything2.com.
  
• The Microbe Hunters: The Death Fighter. Read here a Microbe Hunters chapter dedicated to Koch, at Literature Excerpts.
• Microbe Hunters revisited, by William C. Summers. Internatl Microbiol (1998) 1, 65-68.
• Paul de Kruif at Wikipedia.
• The Life and Legacy of Paul de Kruif, by Robin Marantz Henig.

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Germ Stories, by Arthur Kornberg

This book might be a good present... and not necessarily for a child!

From University Science Books:

Over the years, Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg regaled his children and grandchildren with rhyming tales of the tiny beasties in the germ parade. Arthur's poems and stories are now available for all in this beautifully rendered children's picture book. Germ Stories will bring the microscopic world to life for the very youngest readers and grown ups alike with its richly imaginative narrations and its vividly rendered art and color photos.

(A Spanish translation might be soon available)

Links:
Germ Stories, by Arthur Kornberg
University Science Books

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Microbial Life, Second Edition

A new microbiology textbook is available that I find interesting: Microbial Life, Second Edition, by James T. Staley, Robert P. Gunsalus, Stephen Lory and Jerome J. Perry. It is written for sophomore to senior undergraduates who have a general understanding of chemical concepts and biochemistry. Some free samples are available from the book, including two complete chapters in pdf format (Structure and Function of Bacteria and Archaea, and Taxonomy of Bacteria and Archaea), some figures and a powerpoint lecture. A companion website additionally provides interesting learning resources. After checking the free samples, it seems to me that the book has been edited with great care to content, illustrations and general aspect.

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