If you need information on university-based science research, check out The Science Coalition at http://www.sciencecoalition.org/ on the Web. Here you can find information on new discoveries from university labs, legislative and budget analysis from Washington, statistics and trends in R&D funding and breaking news from universities. The site also includes the interactive Science Café, a live chat room and discussion board for science enthusiasts and researchers.
Recently the Penn State Life Sciences Consortium was featured on the "university of the week" page at the coalition's Web site. The Life Sciences Consortium (LSC) at Penn State represents over 190 scientists in six colleges working together for quality and innovation in research and education in the life sciences. The LSC is one example of interdisciplinary research groups at Penn State. Some current LSC projects are highlighted below.
The Science Coalition is an alliance of 413 organizations, institutions and individuals including Nobel Laureates, businesses, non-profit health organizations, medical groups, health care providers, scientific societies and public and private universities. The coalition's mission is to sustain the federal government's historic commitment to university-based science research. If you would like more information on the coalition's activities or information on how to join, e-mail your request
to publicaffairs@sciencecoalition.org.
Various Internet services are available to faculty through the Web Instructional Services Headquarters (WISH) at http://projects.cac.psu.edu/WISH/ on the Web.
The Comprehensive Academic Advising and Information System (CAAIS) is an interactive, Web-based system that helps students with academic planning and advising needs. CAAIS consists of five components:
Students must have an Access Account to use certain components. To learn more, see http://caais.psu.edu/ on the Web.
At the National Institutes of Health Web site (http://www.nih.gov/) you can find a wealth of health-related resources, such as CancerNet, AIDS information, Clinical Alerts, the Women's Health Initiative and the NIH Information Index (a subject-word guide to diseases and conditions under investigation at NIH). In addition, information on NIH's extramural research and training programs, including NIH's funding opportunities (with application kits), grant policy, and award data that includes access to the CRISP database. Scientific resources include research news and information including special interest groups, on-line library catalogs and journals, research training information, NIH research labs on the Web and computer and network support for NIH scientists. At the site are links to the many individual organizations that collectively make-up the NIH. Some of these sites provide full-text consumer health publications.
Recently the National Library of Medicine announced that its MEDLINE database of more than 8.8 million references to articles published in 3,800 biomedical journals may be accessed free of charge at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/on the World Wide Web. Two Web-based products, Internet Grateful Med and PubMed, provide this access.
Provides free access to MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, HealthSTAR, AIDSDRUGS, AIDSTRIALS, DIRLINE, HISTLINE, HSRPROJ, OLDMEDLINE and SDILINE. A User ID Code is not needed.
Can use Loansome Doc Document Delivery service (for domestic U.S. and Canadian health professional users; local charges may apply). A User ID code is needed for this feature.
Search features:
From the National Library of Medicine Web site.
Background Notes
The U.S. Department of State publishes Background Notes which give current information on countries around the world, profiling individual countries and their most important features. They are generally updated every year and are usually available on the World Wide Web before they are for sale by the Goverment Printing Office (GPO). The information can be found at http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/ on the Web.
When planning that special trip you may wish to consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Home Travel Information at http://www.cdc.gov/travel/travel.html on the Web.
This comprehensive site gives health information for international travel, including vaccine recommendations, geographic health recommendations and information regarding disease outbreaks.
Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. Countries where avoidance of travel is recommended will have Travel Warnings as well as Consular Information Sheets. The information is available at http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html on the Web.
The On the Road Web site offers tips and information to "the computer-equipped international traveler." See http://www.roadnews.com/ on the Web.
Sabbatical travel help
Sabbatical, leave of absence, and temporary relocation travel tips are offered at http://omni.cc.purdue.edu/~alltson/sabbat.html on the Web.
More information
For more information about travel topics, see http://www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Travel/ on the Web.
Planning a trip to Radio City Music Hall? Or have a conference in Paris? Now you can plan your trip from the convenience of your desktop. Several free map services can help.
MapQuest is advertised as the "most highly-rated and popular interactive mapping service on the World Wide Web." At this interactive free site you can customize your request to include over three million locations worldwide. When your map is displayed you can zoom in and out to identify your location. MapQuest also features "ShopQuest," where you can shop for mapping and travel accessories. Newest services include Travelplan USA with rated hotels and restaurants listed.
With this routing system you can personalize your exact travel route. Use this Web site to map your travel route from your starting point to your final destination. Currently this site covers the United States, with Canada coming this fall. You can select options for your driving pleasure including the most direct route, a scenic route or a specific state for the most scenic route.
This customized service is free of charge, and upon registration allows you to create bookmarks of your favorite places including restaurants, musems, stores and much more. Maps On Us also advertises that it provides the first fully integrated yellow pages and weather information with its mapping service.
Try one or all three; it doesn't cost anything and it may save you some time and trouble.
Peggy's Picks, a new feature of the newsletter, reviews Web sites of interest to the Penn State community. Peggy Smith is an editor for User Services in the Center for Academic Computing.
