European Initiative for Biotechnology Education - Home to 20 unique and comprehensive lesson units, this site is an excellent resource for students, teachers or the curious. Developed by more than 40 experts from 17 European countries, the lessons were generated to promote understanding and facilitate discussion about biotechnology for secondary school students. The lessons cover just about every imaginable topic pertaining to biotechnology including human genetics, transgenic plants and animals, and fermentation. The format of each varies and can include role-playing games, forensic puzzles, reading, and practical activities. The practical activities range from making paper models of DNA helixes to actually working with DNA in the laboratory. Concepts and suggested activities are often accompanied by helpful illustrations. Realistic, practical ethical questions are posed. Available in PDF format, each lesson is easily downloadable and available in as many as eight languages. For those in or out of the classroom, this site is well worth the visit. (13 June 2001) HME
http://www.eibe.org/
Riceworld - It may be a blob of white starchy substance on your plate, but to half the world's population, it is a staple food. This virtual museum will introduce you to the inhabitants of Madagascar, whose usage of their word for rice as a unit of measurement is but one example of their immersion in a rice culture. Insects normally viewed with hostility by farmers, such as earwigs and fire ants, are lauded here for their role in controlling rice pests. There is a look at biotechnology of the past and present, and how a transgenic rice plant is produced. The plant breeder/geneticist who was instrumental in helping to double the world's supply of rice is prominently featured. The one jarring note would be the unremittingly blinking text of the Grain Fact at the bottom of many pages. (17 May 2001) AD
http://www.riceworld.org/
National Consumer Coalition's Food Groups - This site is an extensive collection of articles relating to all issues concerning food and the consumer. The National Consumer Coalition believes in informing consumers so that they can make educated choices in the marketplace, and their site aims to improve public policy decisions in the U.S. by making economic and scientific information widely available. For all the political agenda, however, Foodstuff is packed with diverse articles from the hopeful report that chocolate protects the heart, to fishing rights, GM foods and how the supposedly vegan iceman had a penchant for wild goat. If there is anything you wanted to know about biotechnology, agriculture, food safety or food labelling it will probably be found here. (23 January 2001) JSG
http://www.foodstuff.org/
LabVelocity - If you're looking for the likes of PCR, plasmid purification, multi-well assay plates, bacterial expression vectors and all the news, views, literature tools and protocol information there is on the web, to go with them, then this is the place for you. This is a free portal resource for biotechnology and life scientists. Although the company behind the site isn't in the selling game itself, they do accept ads and offer links to manufacturers' websites, so, if you don't just want to know about PCR, plasmid purification and the rest you may be able to find a source for your required products through the site, too. (3 December 2000) DB
http://www.labvelocity.com/
