The Barbara McClintock Papers - Hosted by the National Library of Medicine as part of its Profiles in Science(r) project, the Barbara McClintock Papers site provides public access to a selection of remarkable documents from the noted American geneticist Barbara McClintock. Consisting of everything from laboratory notes and private correspondence to unpublished manuscripts, lecture notes and photos - even down to copies of her CV - the site also provides a detailed biography of this pioneering lady. Recognised as one of the most distinguished scientists of the twentieth century, Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discoveries in genetics, namely the discovery of the phenomenon of 'jumping genes' or transposition - the ability of genes to change position on a chromosome. Aged 81, she was the first women to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in this category. However, scientific recognition as to the importance of her work came relatively late in her career, and during the early years of her research she had to struggle to overcome many obstacles that would have discouraged a less persevering individual. The Barbara McClintock Papers themselves are held by the American Philosophical Society and have been made available online through collaboration with the National Library of Medicine. The site directs new visitors to start with the online Exhibit section, which includes a selection of documents and images organised by subject, in addition to various biographical information. Additional information can be accessed either alphabetically or chronologically, or via the site's search facility. An interesting resource, The Barbara McClintock Papers site provides a fascinating insight into the life and mind of this remarkable woman. Rating: 7 out of 10 (6 February 2003) LH
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/LL/
Pasteur in Australia - Published by the Australian Science Archives Project, this site details the fascinating story of the attempt of Louis Pasteur and the Pasteur Institute to curb the growing rabbit population in Australia during the late 1800s. Rabbits were first introduced to Australia in 1859 and within 20 years their population had risen into the millions, causing untold damage to farmland. All attempts at culling the unwelcome bunnies failed, and in 1887 the Colonial Government of New South Wales resolved upon awarding a prize of £25,000 (equivalent to a sum of almost £3.5 million today) for a viable biological method of destroying the rabbit population that was overrunning the land. Louis Pasteur took up the mantle of this challenge, intending to introduce Pasteurella multocida, the micro-organism responsible for chicken cholera, which he had himself discovered. A delegation of the Pasteur Institute travelled to Australia but in the event the attempt turned to failure. This was largely due to various misunderstandings between the Australian authorities and the Pasteur Mission, and a poor knowledge of the Australian conditions of life on Pasteur's part, which led him to underestimate the importance of contagion. However, the visit of the Pasteur Mission to Australia was not entirely in vain, and led to the successful development of several other vaccines by Adrien Loir, Pasteur's nephew and research assistant, including one for the dreaded disease Anthrax. This culminated in the successful vaccination of 3,000,000 sheep and 50,000 cattle against the disease during the following 8 years. A vaccine for another cattle plague, pleuropneumonia, was also devised. However Australia had to wait more than 60 years after the failure of the Pasteur Mission for the first 'successful' rabbit biological control scheme - the introduction of myxomatosis. Charming in its simplicity, the Pasteur in Australia site contains no fancy downloads or animated graphics but is a simple and uncluttered tribute to the work of the Pasteur Scientists in Australia. Some related links to the Bright Sparcs site are included, including biographical entries for Louis Pasteur and Adrien Loir, and general information on the Pasteur Institutes. Rating: 7 out of 10 (15 January 2003) LH
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/...
Stephen Hawking - Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942. The rest is not only history, but a rather marvellous one. He has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (previously held by figures like Isaac Newton) since 1979, and is perhaps one of the most remarkable cosmologists to emerge from the halls of Cambridge. His website has been up for quite some time, and is maintained by his Graduate Assistant. Although Hawking's books may be a tough read for many of us, the website is well laid out and easy to navigate. The menu system is located at the bottom of the page, and consists of two lines: the main menu is at top and the context menu is below. This is a bit confusing at first, since the main menu is the least visible, but click around and you'll have no problems with it. For easy access to all pages there is an excellent and easily found Site map. If you have a need to keep up-to-date on Hawking's travels and doings, there is a News page with information about which conferences he has been to and what is up next in his calendar. This is well done, with links to the relevant home pages. On the downside is the link section, which ranges from disability links to, er, the Simpsons TV-show (which, sadly, is broken). Considering that Hawking's is best known to the public for his writings, the most useful part of this website is the excellent Lectures section, which is divided into two parts: Public lectures, which is aimed at the regular science reader, and Physics colloquiums, which is squarely aimed at students of cosmology, physics, and mathematics. The website is a brief history of the professor himself, his works, lectures, and writings. It is very well presented and highly recommended. Rating 9 out of 10. (21 November 2002) TG
http://www.hawking.org.uk/home/hindex.html
Christaan Huygens - Christaan Huygens was one of the greatest scientists of the Age of Enlightenment and one of the towering figures of his day. Remembered today principally as the inventor of the pendulum, he was a multifaceted scientist of the utmost brilliance. Huygens came to notice for his work in mathematics, then in astronomy, when with a telescope he made himself he discovered the rings of Saturn and Saturn's moon Titan. In optics, he was among the first to suggest the wave theory of light. It was particularly in the field of mechanics, however, that his influence was most deeply felt. His invention of the pendulum revolutionized timekeeping and turned a crude instrument less accurate than a sundial into the most fundamental tool of scientific discovery. Although Galileo started work on the pendulum clock, he did not advance far before his death. Huygens invention was completely independent and on different principles. Huygens also experimented extensively with balance springs for watches and clocks, which brought him into conflict with Hooke, who quarreled with everyone in that period. Huygens invented several improved techniques of grinding lenses and making optical instruments, and among Huygens' practical inventions which remain in use to this day are the eyepieces for microscopes. Huygens could not be honored better than by these two well thought out and constructed sites. The excellent St.Andrews University site on Hugyens connects to numerous graphics as well as biographies on Huygens great contemporaries, such as Descartes and Newton. The Science Museum site (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/collections/exhiblets/huygens/start.asp) may be best read in conjunction with the St.Andrews site, but it's graphics fully illustrate Huygen's invention of the pendulum.Rating 10 out of 10. (27 July 2002) WTS
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/M...
John Snow - The UCLA School of Public Health has created a repository about the work of Dr. John Snow and his pioneering efforts in public health and epidemiology. A physician in London during the first half of the nineteenth century, Dr. Snow's realization that water was carrying the cholera bacteria was instrumental in stopping the cholera epidemics that ravaged the city and the world at that time. The site chronicles Snow's research and historical medical treatises as well as other scientific reports about the importance of his discoveries, and articles that provide important perspective for a modern understanding of his groundbreaking work on the mechanisms of infectious disease. Some of the multimedia items has hardware and software requirements, explained on the site. The linked resources, as well as the ones developed by UCLA, are high quality and provide valuable information accessible by older students and adults. A better organization scheme and content clustering would make the site more usable, and it could benefit from advanced searching capabilities. Even with these slight shortcomings, this site is a solid resource for anyone curious about infectious diseases, the history of medicine, scientific milestones, or even the history of London. Rating: 8 out of 10 (6 July 2002) CK
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html
Samuel F B Morse Papers - This site by the US Library of Congress is an online presentation of items in the library's collection of papers from the life of a man who not only pioneered the telegraph and eponymous code but, in a much less well-known side of his life, was also a leading portrait painter, an early photographer, and a religious thinker. The papers include personal letters, business correspondence, scrapbooks, drawings, and maps and, although not all the papers could be digitized successfully, there are still over 6,500 items and 50,000 images. Included is the original paper tape with the first telegraph message. The site is a serious research tool and is designed as such, although there is a link from the home page to a special presentation, with only outline details of his life and the papers, for those who do not wish to go too far. For serious students, there are fully categorized listings of the collection, with direct links from the listings to the items. There are powerful search and browse facilities to enable you to find things easily but you obviously have to know what you are looking for in the first place; there is an aid facility to help. In addition to all the detailed information that can be gleaned from the collection itself, there are links to other collections in the Library plus extensive information about US history in general, much of it designed for educational use. The site is very simply and neatly laid out and all the links work well. Rating: 8 out of 10. (20 February 2002) MDH
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sfbmhtml/
Linus Pauling - To honor one of its most illustrious alumni, Oregon State University celebrated the 100th birthday of Linus Pauling with an exhibit in their University Archives Special Collections museum. This website is the online version of the exhibit, and consists of a series of images from the exhibit. Moving through the exhibit, you are shown thumbnail images of books, documents, photographs and objects, along with descriptive text, that you can expand to read and examine. Among the tidbits, you learn how an imposed bed rest lead to the discovery of the alpha-helix model, see the Nobel Prize for Chemistry which he received in 1954, see the ranch he purchased near Big Sur, California with his prize money, and learn about how his friendship with Albert Einstein and his peace efforts caused him to be investigated by the U.S. government. The site has images on a black background and white lettering, which is more difficult to read than a light background, but the clear navigation instructions and the interesting content make up for this small shortcoming. The site also provides a link to the universityıs entire centenary celebration resources, making this an outstanding first stop for older children and adults to learning more about Pauling. Rating: 8 out of 10 (14 February 2002) CK
http://pauling.library.orst.edu/exhibit/index.htm
Robert Hooke - Robert Hooke (1635-1703), one of the most neglected scientific geniuses of all time, and perhaps worthy of the title "The English Leonardo" this site bestows on him, may also be one of the nastiest figures in the history of science. Hooke was a polymath who surveyed London after the Great Fire, invented the iris diaphragm cameras still use today, the universal joint used in cars, the balance spring for watches, coined the word "cell" in biology and made many other fundamental scientific discoveries. One of the great minds of the Age of Enlightenment, he was particularly known for the virulent arguments he started. He quarreled bitterly with Newton, Huygens and almost everyone else who knew him. An interesting study in contradictions who 300 years after his death can still cause controversy, this site attempts to come to grips, as much as anyone can, with this enigmatic and multi faceted personality. Rating: 7 out of 10 (1 February 2002) WTS
http://www.roberthooke.org.uk/index.htm
