A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources (1 of 6)
Una Smith
Last-modified: 10 November 1993
A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources
Version 1.7, 10 November 1993
Copyright 1993 by Una R. Smith
ISSN: 1071-9857
Una Smith smit...@yale.edu
Yale University, Department of Biology, Osborn Memorial Laboratories,
PO Box 6666, New Haven, Connecticut 06511-8155 USA
-*- Contents
| 1. Introduction
|| 1 What's New
|| 2. Conditions of Use
|| 3. How to Get the Latest Version
| 4. Some Mind-Boggling Statistics
2. Networking (part 2 of 6)
1. Netiquette
2. Usenet
| 1. Newsgroups of Special Interest
| 2. Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists
|| 3. Usenet FAQs about Usenet
|| 4. Usenet by E-mail
3. Mailing Lists Using LISTSERV
1. Commands
2. Archives
| 3. Gateways to Usenet
| 4. Other Mailing Lists
5. Newsletters
3. Biological Research Archives (part 3 of 6)
| 1. Bibliographies
2. Directories
3. Software
4. Data
1. Systematic Databases
| 2. Search Engines
| 5. List of Archives
6. Access Tools
1. Telnet
2. Anonymous FTP
3. Anonymous FTP by E-mail
4. Gopher
5. Archie
6. Veronica
7. Wide-Area Information Servers (WAIS)
8. World-Wide Web (WWW)
4. Useful and Important FAQs (part 4 of 6 begins)
1. What's an FAQ and where can I get one?
2. Does anyone have an e-mail address for X?
3. How do I find a good graduate program?
4. Where can I get old newsgroup/mailing list articles?
|| 5. Where can I find biology-related job announcements?
5. Commercial Services
| Acknowledgements
| Bibliography (part 5 of 6)
|| Appendix. Assorted Mailing Lists Using LISTSERV (part 6 of 6)
| Note: | indicates changes or new items, || indicates important changes.
-*- 1. Introduction
| Due to its large and steadily increasing size, this guide has been split
| into 6 parts for distribution via the Internet. Each part is fairly
| independent of the others, and can be obtained separately, if desired.
| However, this guide was written as a single document, and is most useful
| when complete.
If you find this guide difficult to understand, you might want to read
one of the published Internet guidebooks listed in the bibliography and
mentioned several times in this guide. In the interest of brevity, no
information that is easily obtained elsewhere is duplicated here in any
detail, thus, for a full understanding of the resources and tools listed
here, it is helpful to read the cited material as well. To get started,
check the table of contents for interesting parts, and skim through the
whole document to get an idea of the scope and layout of what it covers.
-*- 1.1. What's New
|| This guide has been assigned an ISSN by the United States Library of
| Congress. Note to Usenet FAQ maintainers: it is classified as a serial
| because it is distributed periodically to e-mail subscribers and Usenet
| readers. Due to evident confusion among some US readers over the lack
| of a copyright notice, I have given in and added one. A notice has not
| been required by US law since the US signed the Berne Convention several
| years ago, but some readers incorrectly assume that because the guide had
I no explicit copyright statement, it is in the public domain. This is
| not and never has been the case. Rest assured, all previous versions of
|| the guide were (and still are) copyrighted. The conditions-of-use
|| statement continues to change as readers to think of new ways to use the
| guide that I did not anticipate. Please bear with me.
|| The procedure for e-mail subscriptions to the bionet.* newsgroups (via
|| BIOSCI) has changed significantly for some people. See section 2.2.2.
| The appendix lists many new electronic mailing lists. Environmental
| policy and technology transfer lists have been separated out from
| conservation biology and environmental studies.
| Just a reminder: Internet computer names in the United Kingdom (JANET)
| are written in the reverse of the order used everywhere else. All e-mail
| addresses listed in this guide that are at JANET sites are written in the
| usual Internet style, with the top-level domain name last. Thus to the
| Internet world, MAILBASE-style mailing lists are hosted on mailbase.ac.uk,
| but to JANET users the address is ...@uk.ac.mailbase. Got that?
| A nifty way to find out what else is new in this version is to check
| the acknowledgement section, where my many helpful correspondents are
| thanked for their input. I could not keep up with all the new Internet
| resources without them! To facilitate identifying new items in the
| text, I will try to remember to add vertical bars in the left margin.
| (like this!)
-*- 1.2. Conditions of Use
|| This guide is intended for use as a handout for training in seminars,
|| workshops, and user services supporting use of the Internet by biologists,
|| and for personal use. This guide may be freely distributed in parts or
|| concatenated, with the e-mail and/or Usenet headers and ending signature
|| removed. The file format may be changed in any way that is convenient for
|| presentation. Internet archive keepers: please use a gopher link to the
|| official copy on sunsite.unc.edu (see the following section) or, if you
|| wish to maintain your own copy, use the correct title and make an effort
|| to keep your copy up to date.
|| This guide may be adapted, within the limits of fair use, provided that
|| a citation is given. Single copies of any document citing this guide
|| would be much appreciated! The suggested citation is:
|| Smith, Una R. (1993) A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources.
|| Usenet sci.answers. Available via gopher, anonymous FTP and e-mail
|| from various archives. For a free copy via e-mail, send the text
|| "send pub/usenet/sci.answers/biology/guide/*" to the e-mail address
|| mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu. ~45 pages.
|| Any questionable use should be discussed in advance with the author.
|| This guide may not be sold for profit, in either the original or an
|| adapted form, without permission from the author.
Virtually every service or resource mentioned in this guide (and this
guide itself) is the un-paid, voluntary contribution of scientists and
students, both graduate and undergraduate. Please give credit where due.
If you make significant use of any document, data or software provided
via the Internet, the authors would be grateful if you would cite them
or otherwise acknowledge their efforts. You may want to acknowledge the
administrators of archives from which you obtain data, software, or other
material; contact the administrator to ask about the prefered citation.
Every attempt is made to keep the information in this guide up-to-date
and correct. Your assistance is greatly appreciated! Before reporting
an error or omission, please be sure that you have the latest version.
Thank you!
-*- 1.3. How to Get the Latest Version
This guide is updated more-or-less monthly. The most current version
is available via Usenet, gopher, anonymous FTP and e-mail. Please do
not ask the author to send you a copy, nor refer others to the author.
- In Usenet, look in sci.bio or sci.answers.
- Gopher to sunsite.unc.edu, and choose this sequence of menu items:
Sunsite Archives
Ecology and Evolution
Or, from any gopher offering other biology gophers by topic, look for
the menu item "Ecology and Evolution [at UNC and Yale]". The guide is
stored there in two ways: as a file for easy retrieval and as a menu
for browsing.
- FTP to rtfm.mit.edu. Give the username "anonymous" and your e-mail
address as the password. Use the "cd" command to go to the directory
| pub/usenet/news.answers/biology/guide/
| and use "prompt" and "mget *" to copy all 6 parts of the guide to your
computer. For information about how to get many other useful documents
from this archive, send the message "help".
You can also use anonymous FTP to sunsite.unc.edu, where this guide is
stored as
pub/academic/biology/ecology+evolution/FAQ
- Send e-mail to mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu with the text
| send usenet/news.answers/biology/guide/*
| You will receive 6 files in response, one for each part: save each part
separately, delete the e-mail headers and footers, and merge them.
See section 3.6, Access Tools, for more information about retrieving
information from the Internet.
-*- 1.4. Some Mind-Boggling Statistics
| Recently, approximately 37,000 articles per day were copied worldwide
| through Usenet (Reid 1993b). This traffic constituted 77 megabytes (or
| 30,000 printed pages) per day of announcements, questions and answers,
| advice and bits of program code, references, heated debates, and raw data.
| This is only a small fraction of the information added to the Internet in
| that same time. There are now over two million registered computers on
| the Internet, according to the October 1993 Internet Domain Survey, and
| thus tens of millions of people. An estimated 13.8 million people have
| accounts on 120,000 computers carrying Usenet, and 4.1 million people read
| Usenet news at least occasionally (Reid 1993b). The fraction of people
| with access to Usenet news who actually read it is increasing rapidly,
| from 26% in July to 30% in October 1993. There are several thousand world-
| wide Usenet newsgroups and many thousands more electronic mailing lists.
It appears that there are on the order of 10,000 people who read Usenet
newsgroups relating to biology (Reid 1993a), and there may be that many
using mailing lists for topics in biology. All together, there are
| one hundred newsgroups and 250 mailing lists that may be of particular
interest to biologists. They are listed in section 2, Networking, and
the appendix, Assorted Mailing Lists Using LISTSERV.
--
Una Smith
Yale University, Department of Biology, Osborn Memorial Laboratories,
PO Box 6666, New Haven, Connecticut 06511-8155 smit...@yale.edu
Una Smith
Last-modified: 10 November 1993
-*- 2. Networking
The Internet has become an excellent place in which to look for academic
and professional job announcements, conference announcements and calls
for papers, and important notices about recent events in many fields of
biology. Generally, notices of all forms appear on the Internet well in
advance of traditional journals and newsletters. Scientific interest
groups, both formal and informal ones, maintain electronic discussion
groups, directories, digests and newsletters. These resources are
distributed in three principal ways: via Usenet newsgroups, (automated)
listserver mailing lists, and mailing lists administered by real people.
Increasingly, the two forms of mailing list have "gateways" connecting
them with Usenet newsgroups.
-*- 2.1. Netiquette
The professionally-oriented newsgroups and mailing lists follow certain
conventions of etiquette. These are none other than those used by most
people at public events such as academic conferences. In fact, most of
the science-related newsgroups (and mailing lists) are very much like
mid-sized meetings of any professional society, except that they never
end. The participants come and go as they please, but the discussion
and exchange of ideas and information continues.
Submitted articles tend to be of the following types:
- Discussions on topics of general interest. Discussions on specific
topics, techniques, or organisms are also frequent.
- Announcements of upcoming conferences or other events, calls for papers
or grant proposal deadlines. In Usenet, announcements can be set to
expire (and thus disappear from the list of current articles), and may
be limited in their distribution so that they are seen only by readers
in the appropriate organization or geographical area (Beware, this
feature is often leaky; see section 2.2, Usenet).
- Academic and professional job announcements, including many graduate
fellowships. These are generally posted in newsgroups/mailing lists
reserved for such notices, often in advance of publication elsewhere.
- Reports or comments on new books, papers, methods or software. Full
citation of sources is always appropriate and appreciated. Requests
for references or comments are also welcome and, when posed as specific
questions of general interest, often lead to interesting discussions.
Unacceptable articles include:
- Commercial advertizements, political lobbying messages, and anything
not pertaining directly to the topic or purview of the newsgroup or
mailing list. Discussions about some commercial products, especially
books and software, are generally allowed as long as they do not
constitute advertisements.
- Requests by students for explicit answers to homework and exam or essay
questions are generally not welcome. Requests for help understanding
problems in biology are welcome, but the requester should demonstrate
at least a basic understanding of the question.
Some helpful suggestions:
- Read before you post (look before you leap)
Before posting an article for the first time, read the discussions for
a week or so. Look for an "FAQ" document that covers frequently asked
questions (thus the name) before you make the mistake of asking one
yourself. FAQs are an excellent way to learn a great deal about the
culture and resources of the Internet, plus a great deal more. FAQs
about resources are updated often (usually monthly), to stay current.
(They are far more current than traditionally published books listing
Internet resources!) Each newsgroup or mailing list has its own unique
character, that is built from the shared experience of loyal and active
participants exchanging ideas and information over the course of years.
- Always include your full name and e-mail address
Put these at the end of your message, with your usual signature. You
might want to use a .signature file (standard on most Unix systems, also
implemented for Usenet and e-mail readers under VM/CMS) to make this
automatic. This is necessary because strange things often happen to
headers in e-mail or Usenet articles sent from one network to another.
You may want to include your affiliation and/or mailing address, so that
others can send you re-prints, and to help in networking outside of the
Internet. Traditionally, people do not indicate their status; whether
student or professor, Ph.D. or not, etc. It is generally believed that
the text-only nature of communication via the Internet allows people to
form opinions of one another that are based more on intellectual merit
than on other, perhaps more superficial qualities. Either way, you have
an unusual degree of control over what others can know about you, and it
is to your advantage to use a .signature file that reflects you well.
- Send private replies whenever appropriate
Answers to very esoteric questions are often best sent directly to the
person who asked for help, rather than to the newsgroup; the choice of
whether to post a (public) reply or send (private) e-mail is a personal
decision. If you send a reply by e-mail, and would prefer that it be
kept private, you should say so in your note, because otherwise the other
person may share your comments with others. If the original poster
promises to post a summary at the outset, then all replies should be
sent by e-mail, unless they constitute an important re-direction of the
original question.
- Summarize the replies to your article
Whenever a question or request for information results in many replies,
it is expected that the person who posted the original article will
compile and post a summary of the responses.
- Use care when writing summaries
- The "best" answers should come first.
- All answers should be separated clearly, and nicely formatted.
- Redundant, irrelevant or verbose comments, and errors of fact or
spelling should be edited out. It is appropriate to use square
brackets and dots to indicate editing [...].
- Exercise discretion and tact, to ensure a fair and accurate summary.
- Unless they asked that their names be withheld, the contributors of
each answer should be named and thanked, individually or as a group.
- Avoid starting nasty arguments or "flame wars"
- Be generous when interpreting the arguments of others.
- Avoid jargon; write as though addressing an educated lay audience.
- Avoid personal attacks on the honor or character of others.
- Remember, the exercise will be good for you.
If something you read angers you, save it for a few hours while you do
something else (don't reply on an empty stomach). Go back to it when
you are calm and relaxed (and you have thought of a good rebuttal!).
If you simply must say something highly critical that is not confined
to the subject under discussion (i.e., strays from intellectual argument
into the realm of personal insult), consider sending it privately via
e-mail, rather than posting or mailing to the group. And if you read
something insulting to you, do not respond immediately; give yourself
time to cool off and think of a tactful (but also devastating) response.
E-mail can be a powerful tool, but only if you use it well.
- Be careful about quotations, citations and copyrights
The Internet has grown to the point where it has become reasonable to
cite documents that exist officially only in an electronic version on
the Internet. And the issue of authenticity and version control has
become extremely important. Thus, it has become appropriate to express
copyrights, and to specify within documents how they may or may not be
used, both within the Internet and in print. Please respect these
restrictions, which are often very generous, and send the author e-mail
if you have any doubts about the intended use of any Internet document.
As a rule of thumb, you may freely cite or quote anything posted to a
newsgroup or mailing list in that forum *only*. For citations or quotes
elsewhere, it is hoped, even expected, that you will first request express
permission from the author, which is easy, given the author's e-mail
address. Although there has been a trend to cite specific articles posted
in Usenet, it is generally satisfactory to use the "personal communication"
formula, but for this reason you should request a specific, personal
statement from the author that is directly relevant to and given in the
context of the issue that you wish to address.
-*- 2.2. Usenet
Usenet is a convention, in every sense of the word.
Usenet is a system of organized "newsgroups" sharing many features with
traditional newsletters, mailing lists and focused scientific societies.
Usenet is Internet-based (although before the Internet existed it was
distributed via UUCP), and strongly developed so that end users need
know only how to interact with the particular Usenet "reader" program
on their computers. Features of Usenet that make it far superior to the
two types of mailing lists generally include the sorting or "threading"
of all articles on a related topic, control of the distribution of
posted articles to hierarchical levels (e.g., the author's university,
state, country, or continent--but this feature may "leak"), the ability
to cancel an article even after it has been distributed, and automatic
expiration of dated articles. To test any of these features, especially
the distribution control, try posting an article to misc.test; your
article will receive "echoes" from other sites that receive it.
Usenet is "free", but not cheap; because it requires a lot of computer
disk space, and a certain amount of installation and regular maintenance
work by a system administrator, not all computer systems carry Usenet.
If Usenet is carried locally, it may still be necessary to prod the local
Usenet administrator to add the bionet and bit.listserv newsgroups to the
local "feed". Usenet was created by two Duke University graduate students
in 1979: see Spafford (1993) for the definitive history of Usenet and a
list of Usenet software for virtually every type of computer.
To paraphrase Spafford and Salzenberg (1992): Usenet is *not* a network.
Usenet is an anarchy, with no laws and no one in charge. No one has any
real control outside of their own site. Computer system administrators
who distribute Usenet "feeds" to other sites gain some authority by virtue
of being "upstream"; that is, they have some say over what newsgroups
their "downstream" neighbors can receive. Usenet feeds are stored at each
site in "spools"; it is common for universities to have Usenet spools on
one or two computers, and to allow everyone at the university to read
Usenet news via "client" programs that connect to the remote "news server".
The particular configuration of the Usenet feed to your university or
organization determines whether the distribution control feature of most
Usenet posting programs will work properly for you. For example, the
mailing lists for the bionet.* newsgroups are gated on the west coast of
North America, and you might think that it is safe to post local items
in a bionet.* newsgroup if you live elsewhere. But many sites get their
feed of bionet.* groups directly from the machine that runs the mailing
lists, which is definitely outside your geographic area. So your article
will be distributed at your site, but will not be propagated from your
site to any other site in your area if it must pass out of your region
and then return through a separate feed to a university in the next city.
Furthermore, it is a more efficient use of network resources to get as
much Usenet traffic as possible from the nearest site available. It is
important, therefore, to do a little research on Usenet feeds in your area
before asking your Usenet administrator to add one of the newsgroup
hierarchies listed in section 2.2.2, Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated
Mailing Lists.
Usenet etiquette:
- New users should read the Usenet FAQs posted in news.announce.newusers.
- Use the misc.test newsgroup for posting test articles. Be sure to
test the distribution feature here. Do not post test articles to
other newsgroups.
- Use the expiration feature for job and conference announcments.
- When posting to more than one newsgroup, use the cross-posting feature
so only one copy of your article goes out, but is seen by many people.
- Post (and cross-post) sparingly to groups that have associated mailing
lists, to give a break to people who must read the groups via e-mail.
The cross-posting of articles to more than one gated newsgroup is strongly
discouraged, since the e-mail subscribers will get multiple copies of any
cross-posted articles. Usenet readers should be aware of proper etiquette
for mailing lists when posting to gated newsgroups.
-*- 2.2.1. Newsgroups of Special Interest
An "F" after the newsgroup name indicates an FAQ is available. "M" means
that the newsgroup is moderated. "G" means that the newsgroup has a
gateway to a parallel mailing list: see section 2.2.2, Special Usenet
Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists, for details.
alt.agriculture.* [2 groups]
alt.bbs.internet F Announcements of new Internet services
alt.cyb-sys Cybernetics and Systems
alt.internet.access.wanted F Help getting full Internet access
alt.internet.services F Announcements of new Internet resources
alt.native Indigenous peoples
alt.sci.* [6 groups]
| alt.earth_summit Discussion of the recent Earth Summit
alt.sustainable.agriculture G Sustainable agriculture
bionet.agroforestry G Agroforestry research
bionet.announce FGM Announcements
bionet.biology.computational GM Comp. and math. applications in biology
bionet.biology.n2-fixation G Biological nitrogen fixation
bionet.biology.tropical G Tropical biology and ecology
bionet.chlamydomonas G Chlamydomonas discussion
bionet.cellbio G Cell biology discussion
bionet.drosophila G Drosophila discussion
bionet.general FG General discussion
bionet.genome.* G [3 groups: Arabidopsis and chromosomes]
bionet.immunology G Research in immunology
bionet.info-theory FG Information theory applied to biology
bionet.jobs G Job opportunities in biology
bionet.journals.contents GM Biological journal TOCs
bionet.journals.note G Publication issues in biology
bionet.metabolic-reg G Metabolic regulation and thermodynamics
bionet.molbio.ageing G Cellular and organismal ageing
bionet.molbio.bio-matrix G Computer searches of biological databases
bionet.molbio.embldatabank G Info about the EMBL Nucleic acid database
bionet.molbio.evolution G Evolution, especially molecular
bionet.molbio.gdb G The GDB database
bionet.molbio.genbank G The GenBank nucleic acid database
bionet.molbio.gene-linkage G Genetic linkage analysis.
bionet.molbio.genome-program G Human Genome Program issues
bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts G Tips on lab techniques and materials
bionet.molbio.hiv G The molecular biology of HIV
bionet.molbio.proteins G Proteins and protein database searches
bionet.molbio.rapd G Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA
bionet.molbio.yeast G Yeast researchers' discussion
bionet.mycology G Mycological research discussion
bionet.neuroscience G Research issues in the neurosciences
bionet.photosynthesis G Photosynthesis research
bionet.plants G Plant biology, inc. genetics and ecology
bionet.population-bio G Population biology, especially theory
bionet.sci-resources GM Information about funding agencies, etc.
bionet.software G Software for biology, esp. free/shareware
bionet.software.* G [3 groups: acedb, gcg, and sources]
bionet.users.addresses G Help locating biologists who use e-mail
bionet.virology G Research in virology
bionet.women-in-bio G Discussion by and about women in biology
bionet.xtallography G Protein crystallography
bit.listserv.biosph-l G Biosphere, ecology, Discussion List
bit.listserv.devel-l G Tech. Transfer in Internat. Development
bit.listserv.ethology G Ethology List
| bit.listserv.geograph G Geography List
bit.listserv.medforum MG Medical Students Discussion
bit.listserv.uigis-l G User Interface for GIS
bit.listserv.vpiej-l G Electronic Publishing Discussion List
bit.org.peace-corps G International Volunteers Discussion Group
comp.infosystems.gis FG Geograpical Information Systems
comp.infosystems.gopher F The Internet gopher access tool
comp.infosystems.wais F The Internet WAIS access tool
comp.infosystems.www The Internet WWW access tool
comp.soft-sys.sas G SAS Discussion
comp.soft-sys.spss G SPSS Statistical Discussion
comp.text.tex F TeX, LaTeX and related text format systems
comp.theory.cell-automata G Cellular automata research
comp.theory.dynamic-sys G Ergodic theory and dynamic systems
comp.theory.self-org-sys G Topics related to self-organization
embnet.news.admin G EMBnet news helpline for administrators
embnet.general G General discussion
embnet.net-dev Network development discussion
embnet.rpc Technical discussion of data transfers
info.grass.programmer GM GRASS GIS programmer issues
info.grass.user GM GRASS GIS user issues
info.ietf GM Internet Engineering Task Force
info.nsf.grants GM NSF grants announcements
info.wisenet G Women in Science and Engineering Network
news.announce.newusers FM FAQs for new users of Usenet
news.answers FM All FAQ documents
news.lists FM Statistics and data about Usenet
sci.answers GFM FAQs pertaining to science
sci.anthropology Anthropology discussion
sci.archaeology Archaeology discussion
sci.bio F General biology discussion
sci.bio.ecology G Ecological research (sponsored by ESA)
sci.bio.technology G Any topic relating to biotechnology
sci.environment Discussion of environmental issues
sci.geo.* [3 newsgroups]
sci.image.processing F Scientific image processing
sci.nonlinear Nonlinear dynamical systems
sci.research.careers Discussion of research careers in science
sci.stat.consult G Statistical consulting
sci.stat.edu G Journal of Statistics Education List
sci.stat.math Mathematical statistics
| sci.techniques.xtallography Crystallography techniques
sci.* [60 other newsgroups]
-*- 2.2.2. Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists
There has been a growing trend in the past few years to set up transparent
"gateways" between mailing lists and newsgroups, and to create Usenet
newsgroup hierarchies that are outside the "main stream". Both being new,
these two trends often go together.
None of the Usenet newsgroup hierarchies mentioned below are main-stream
ones; that is, they do not conform to all Usenet conventions, and
consequently are carried by no more than 30-50% of Usenet sites. This is
not necessarily a bad thing, since few or no readers at most sites are
biologists, and e-mail subscriptions are available for many groups. If
your site carries Usenet, but not these hierarcies, a simple request to
your Usenet administrator might be all that's needed to get them too.
But see the first part of section 2.2, Usenet, for details about what to
ask for.
bionet.*
Each of these newsgroups has two gateways to mailing lists, to save on
trans-Atlantic transmission costs. For an e-mail subscription to any
|| bionet.* newsgroup, if you live in the Americas or the Pacific Rim,
|| send e-mail to biosci...@net.bio.net with the text `help' (leave the
|| Subject line blank; this is an automated server). If you live elsewhere,
|| send e-mail to bio...@daresbury.ac.uk (a person will respond). Brief
descriptions of some of these groups are given in the BIOSCI FAQ, posted
in bionet.announce and available on net.bio.net in the directory
/pub/BIOSCI/ or by e-mail from the BIOSCI staff at bio...@net.bio.net.
bit.listserv.*
As their names imply, the bit.listserv newsgroups started out as (and
remain) automated mailing lists. Most of these mailing lists became
so successful that gateways to Usenet were added by popular demand.
The Appendix includes 100 or so other mailing lists, most run via the
LISTSERV program, of interest to biologists; those mailing lists with
Usenet gateways are listed in section 2.3.3, Gateways to Usenet.
Charters for each of these groups can be obtained from the listserver
that administers each one. See sections 2.3, Mailing Lists Using
LISTSERV, and 2.3.1, Commands, for details about e-mail subscriptions and
commands for interacting with listserver programs.
comp.theory.*
Send e-mail to Erik Fair, fa...@apple.com, or see the list of mailing
lists posted in news.answers for details about e-mail subscriptions.
embnet.*
The European Molecular Biology Network (EMBnet) runs a group of Usenet
newsgroups that are distributed in Europe. E-mail subscriptions are
available from net...@embl-heidelberg.de, and these newsgroups can be
| read and searched via gopher and WAIS on nic.switch.ch. Send general
e-mail queries to emb...@comp.bioz.unibas.ch.
info.*
These groups are mailing lists with gateways to Usenet at the University
of Illinois. See section 2.4, Other Mailing Lists, for e-mail subscription
information, or ask your local Usenet administrator to get these groups.
-*- 2.2.3. Usenet FAQs about Usenet
You are strongly encouraged to read the following introductory and
etiquette FAQs before posting any messages to any newsgroup. They are
what might be considered the "mandatory course" for new users, and
are posted frequently in the Usenet newsgroup news.newusers.announce.
See section 4, Useful and Important FAQs, for a list of additional FAQs
of general use or interest to biologists, section 4.1, What's an FAQ and
where can I get one?, and sections 3.6.2 and 3.6.3 for instructions on
how to get copies by anonymous FTP or e-mail if you don't have access
to a Usenet reader.
Title Archive filename
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Introductory information (recommended reading)
What is Usenet? what-is-usenet/part1
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions usenet-faq/part1
about Usenet
Introduction to news.announce news-announce-intro/part1
Etiquette (strongly recommended reading)
A Primer on How to Work With the usenet-primer/part1
Usenet Community
Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions emily-postnews/part1
on Netiquette
Hints on writing style for Usenet usenet-writing-style/part1
Rules for posting to Usenet posting-rules/part1
Technical issues
How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup creating-newsgroups/part1
USENET Software: History and Sources usenet-software/part1
How to become a USENET site site-setup
NetNews/Listserv Gateway Policy bit/policy
UNIX BBS Software FAQ with Answers unix-faq/bbs-software
Introduction to the news.answers news-answers/introduction
newsgroup
Instructions for posting to news.answers news-answers/guidelines
Resource listings
Mailing Lists Available in Usenet mail/news-gateways/part1
Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists mail/mailing-lists/part[1-6]
List of Periodic Information Postings periodic-postings/part[1-6]
List of Active Newsgroups active-newsgroups/part[1-2]
Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies alt-hierarchies/part[1-2]
-*- 2.2.4. Usenet by E-mail
| Many people who do not have direct access to Usenet do have Internet
| access, and can read Usenet newsgroups via gopher (see section 3.6.4
| below for an explanation of gopher). Gopher is fine for reading Usenet
| news, but doesn't allow posting to them. Fortunately, various sites on
| the Internet will accept e-mail addressed to specific newsgroups, and
| will post it automatically. Rob Harper <har...@convex.csc.fi> in Finland
| offers such a service: to post to bionet.general, for example, send
| your article via e-mail to bionet....@nic.funet.fi. Naturally, using
| a good e-mail program you can insert the usual article headers (Reply-To,
| Expires, References, etc.), but you can also insert bad headers and make
| a mess of your post, so be cautious: look carefully at the headers of
| other articles, and experiment by posting to misc.test.
-*- 2.3. Mailing Lists Using LISTSERV
It is very important that you keep a list of all mailing lists to which
you are subscribed, along with the address of the list administrator
and the address you used when you subscribed, if you have more than one.
This is because you will need to unsubscribe yourself if you go away on
vacation or your address changes. Otherwise any mail sent to you from
the list may bounce or cause other, sometimes severe problems. And it's
easier to check the address etc. when you want to tell friends how they
can subscribe too.
The Appendix at the end of this guide includes most listserver mailing
lists of particular interest or use to biologists. Internet addresses
are given whenever possible, and all addresses are in standard Internet
format, with the exception that portions of the Internet node names that
reflect original Bitnet node names are given in uppercase, for the
convenience of readers on Bitnet nodes.
Listservers were developed first many years ago on Bitnet, when Eric
Thomas wrote a computer program named "LISTSERV" that could act like
a regular computer user: receiving and sending out e-mail, and keeping
files. LISTSERV is now used on hundreds (170 at last count) of computers
around the world, and a number of copy-cat programs with some similar
features are used at many other sites. Whichever program is used, these
listservers are given the task of maintaining multiple electronic mailing
lists, handling all membership requests (subscriptions and cancellation
of subscriptions, and so on). Many list owners collect monthly logs of
all messages sent to the list, and some also provide files of other
information. Eric Thomas's LISTSERV program does this automatically, and
listservers running this program can send "back issue" logs and other
files on request.
The author of one of the other listserver programs has unfortunately
chosen to enhance his own reputation by using the same name as Eric
Thomas's program. This causes great confusion, as the other program
does not perform nearly as many functions as LISTSERV does. Whenever
| known, those mailing lists *not* using Eric Thomas's LISTSERV code are
| listed in the Appendix, Assorted Mailing Lists Using LISTSERV, with a
| "K". E-mail subscription requests for these lists must have blank
| Subject lines and no appended signature text.
Mailing lists run by non-LISTSERV listservers are listed in section 2.4,
Other Mailing Lists, together with mailing lists run by hand. Other
listservers include "mailbase" and "MAILSERV", both written for Bitnet
nodes in Europe. For documents about using mailbase, send e-mail to
mail...@mailbase.ac.uk with the text
send mailbase user-guide for the lengthly User's Guide
send mailbase user-card for a short version of the Guide
You can get an extensive topical directory of academic mailing lists,
compiled by Diane Kovacs, dko...@KENTVM.kent.edu: send e-mail to
list...@KENTVM.kent.edu with the text
get acadlist readme
Charles Bailey posts a directory, Library-Oriented Lists and Electronic
Serials, to the newsgroup bit.listserv.pacs-l on a regular basis.
Mailing list etiquette:
- Whenever possible, Bitnet users should use the Bitnet address of a list
and its listserver; Internet users should use the Internet address.
- Keep a record of your subscriptions, and a copy of any instructions
that you receive with your subscription.
- Remember to unsubscribe or otherwise turn off your subscriptions
before your e-mail address changes or you go away on vacation.
- Avoid sending articles to more than one mailing list.
- Be concise or, if your article is more than a few hundred lines long,
warn your readers in the Subject line.
A note for users on JANET nodes (in the United Kingdom): you may be
able to get subscriptions to Bitnet listserver mailing lists via
list...@earn-relay.ac.uk. Send e-mail to that address with the text
info ?
for more information. This saves electronic transmission costs by having
a single subscription propagated across the Atlantic Ocean, and then
re-distributing it to multiple subscribers in the U.K. and elsewhere in
Europe.
-*- 2.3.1. Commands
Being computer programs, with nothing else to do, listservers just sit
and wait for e-mail to arrive, read it, and perform the appropriate task,
usually immediately. They respond only to a small set of commands. A
summary (Thomas 1993) of these commands can be retrieved by sending the
message "send listserv refcard" to any listserver. The main listserver
is list...@BITNIC.educom.edu, but there are many listservers around the
world. Specificially, there is one on each computer for which a mailing
list is mentioned in the Appendix. Most listservers maintain more than
one mailing list.
To subscribe to any of these mailing lists, send e-mail to the listserver
at the same address. For example, subscriptions to the Smithsonian
Institution's biological conservation list, CONSLINK, may be obtained by
sending the message
subscribe conslink <Your Name>
to list...@SIVM.si.edu. To turn off mail from a list temporarily (e.g.,
while you are away on vacation), send the message
set <listname> nomail
and to unsubscribe permanently (e.g., because your e-mail address is about
to change), send the message
unsubscribe <listname>
Send subscription and other administrative requests to the listserver,
not the list; e-mail messages sent directly to the mailing list will
(generally) be sent to all the list subscribers. Only the listserver
can process subscription requests, and the listserver only knows about
requests that it receives directly.
LISTSERV programs of version 1.7f and higher have a very useful feature
that lets you receive a daily digest (actually a concatenation, with a
table of contents) instead of many individual articles. Send e-mail to
the apropriate listserver with the message:
set <listname> digest
-*- 2.3.2. Archives
In addition to handling the membership requests for particular mailing
lists, most listservers also archive all messages sent to each list in
monthly log files. These files, along with other items contributed by
list subscribers, are archived by the listserver and can be retrieved
by e-mail. List...@SIVM.si.edu keeps an archive of various lists of
conservation organizations and field stations, several newsletters, and
a large collection of bibliographic references relating to biological
conservation. List...@UMDD.umd.edu keeps an archive of job openings and
conference announcements submitted to the Ecological Society of America.
Commands for retrieving files from listserver archives are described
in the listserver command reference guide (Thomas 1993), and include:
help to get generally useful information
review <listname> to get the list of subscribers
index <listname> to get the list of archived files
get listserv refcard to get a short summary of commands
get listfaq memo to get an FAQ about listservers
Sending the message "info" to a listserver will result in a list of
information guides including:
REFcard (LISTSERV REFCARD) Command reference card
FAQ (LISTFAQ MEMO ) Frequently Asked Questions
PResent (LISTPRES MEMO ) Presentation of LISTSERV for new users
GENintro (LISTSERV MEMO ) General information about Revised LISTSERV
KEYwords (LISTKEYW MEMO ) Description of list header keywords
AFD (LISTAFD MEMO ) Description of Automatic File Distribution
FILEs (LISTFILE MEMO ) Description of the file-server functions
LPunch (LISTLPUN MEMO ) Description of the LISTSERV-Punch file fmt.
JOB (LISTJOB MEMO ) Description of the Command Jobs feature
DISTribute (LISTDIST MEMO ) Description of Relayed File Distribution
COORDinat (LISTCOOR MEMO ) Information about Listserv Coordination
FILEOwner (LISTFOWN MEMO ) Information guide for file owners
DATABASE (LISTDB MEMO ) Description of the database functions
UDD (LISTUDD MEMO ) User Directory Database User's Guide
UDDADMIN (LISTUDDA MEMO ) UDD Administrator's Guide
To get any one of these, send the message "info <keyword>" where <keyword>
is, for instance, "REFcard" or "FAQ". Only the portion in capitals is
required.
-*- 2.3.3. Gateways to Usenet
Some of the listserver mailing lists in the Appendix below are also
Usenet newsgroups:
bios...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is bit.listserv.biosph-l
dev...@AUVM.american.edu is bit.listserv.devel-l
etho...@FINHUTC.hut.fi is bit.listserv.ethology
| geog...@SEARN.sunet.su is bit.listserv.geograph
medf...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu is bit.listserv.medforum (custom gate)
uig...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is bit.listserv.uigis-l
vpi...@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu is bit.listserv.vpiej-l
gi...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is comp.infosystems.gis
sa...@UGA.cc.uga.edu is comp.soft-sys.sas
sps...@UGA.cc.uga.edu is comp.soft-sys.spss
| dyn...@gibbs.oit.unc.edu is comp.theory.dynamic-sys
wis...@UICVM.uic.edu is info.wisenet
scif...@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu is sci.answers (gate is group-->list only)
ecol...@UMDD.umd.edu is sci.bio.ecology
bio...@UMDD.umd.edu is sci.bio.technology
sta...@vm1.mcgill.ca is sci.stat.consult
edst...@jse.stat.ncsu.edu is sci.stat.edu
American University has established itself as the clearing house and
semi-official keeper of automated gateways between listserver mailing
lists and Usenet newsgroups. Questions about the procedure for
establishing a gateway for any mailing list or newsgroup may be posted to
the Usenet newsgroup bit.admin or sent to news-...@AUVM.american.edu.
A FAQ on this topic appears regularly in the bit.admin newsgroup.
-*- 2.4. Other Mailing Lists
Remember to save any instructions you receive about unsubscribing from
a mailing list. Mailing lists that do not use listserv-style commands
for subscribing and unsubscribing include:
Topic or name Mailing list address
Subscription instructions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabidopsis thal. database announcements aatdb...@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu
Contact Mike Cherry, cur...@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu.
Artificial life digest al...@cognet.ucla.edu
Send all subscription requests to alife-...@cognet.ucla.edu.
Biological Anthropology, Primatology hum...@acc.fau.edu
Send "subscribe humbio <Your Name>" to mail...@acc.fau.edu.
Biological timing and circadian rhythms
cbt-g...@virginia.edu cbt-general-request@@virginia.edu
Biologia y Evolucion (in Spanish) biol...@athena.mit.edu
biologia...@athena.mit.edu
| Biology information systems biog...@bch.umontreal.ca
| Contact Tim Littlejohn, t...@bch.umontreal.ca
Bulletin for bryologists bry...@uni-duisburg.de
Send e-mail to the owner, Jan-Peter Frahm, hh2...@uni-duisburg.de.
Cytometry discussion
cyto...@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu cyto-r...@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu
Dendrome forest tree genome mapping digest
Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor,
dend...@s27w007.pswfs.gov.
Dinosaurs and other archosaurs dino...@donald.wichitaks.ncr.com
Send e-mail to dinosaur...@donald.wichitaks.ncr.com.
Discover Insight Biosym Users' Group di...@comp.bioz.unibas.ch
Send e-mail to dibug-...@comp.bioz.unibas.ch.
Ecologia (in Spanish) ecol...@athena.mit.edu
Send e-mail to ecologia...@athena.mit.edu
Entomology discussion ent-...@um.cc.umich.edu
Send e-mail to the owner, Mark O'Brien, hc...@um.cc.umich.edu.
Environmentalists digest env-...@andrew.cmu.edu
Send e-mail to the owner, Josh Knaur, env-lin...@andrew.cmu.edu.
| Experimental Petrology exp...@s100.es.llnl.gov
| Send e-mail with the text "subscribe exp-pet" on the first line
| of the body (not the Subject line) to majo...@s100.es.llnl.gov.
| For more information, contact Henry Shaw <sh...@llnl.gov> or
| James Brenan <james_...@esciqm.es.llnl.gov>.
Fish and Wildlife Biology wil...@access.usask.ca
Send e-mail to wildnet...@access.usask.ca for subscription
requests, etc. Wildnet is also distributed via Usenet in the
sci.bio.ecology newsgroup (a.k.a. the ECOLOG-L mailing list).
Forestry discussion for...@lists.funet.fi
Send e-mail to forest-...@lists.funet.fi
Genstat statistics package discussion gen...@ib.rl.ac.uk
Send "subscribe genstat <Your Name>" to lis...@ib.rl.ac.uk.
GIS digest
Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor,
r...@leicester.ac.uk.
GIS Users in the United Kingdom geo...@leicester.ac.uk
Send "subscribe geocal <Your Name>" to vms...@leicester.ac.uk.
| "Green" travel and tourism discussion [unknown]
| Send e-mail to Marcus Endicott <mend...@igc.apc.org>, asking for
| a subscription to the green.travel mailing list.
Killifish, Cyprinodontidae kil...@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Send e-mail to killie-...@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Neotropical birds discussion avif...@rcp.pe
Contact phil...@cipa.ec (Roberto Phillips)
Neural networks digest neuron-...@cattel.psych.upenn.edu
Send requests and all submissions to the above address. Back issues of
the digest are available via anonymous FTP on cattell.psych.upenn.edu.
Orchids orc...@scuacc.SCU.edu
Send "subscribe orchids <Your Name>" to mail...@scuacc.SCU.edu.
| Peptide Libraries pep-...@net.bio.net
| Send "help" to biosci...@net.bio.net for subscription information.
| Plant hormones discussion list plant-h...@mailbase.ac.uk
| Send "join plant-hormones <Your Name>" to mail...@mailbase.ac.uk.
Plant Taxonomy plant-t...@mailbase.ac.uk
Send "join plant-taxonomy <Your Name>" to mail...@mailbase.ac.uk.
Primate discussion primat...@primate.wisc.edu
Send e-mail to the owner, primate-ta...@primate.wisc.edu.
Prion Research Digest [unknown]
Send e-mail to prion-...@stolaf.edu.
| RNA r...@net.bio.net
| Send "help" to biosci...@net.bio.net for subscription information.
The S statistics package s-n...@utstat.toronto.edu
Send e-mail to s-news-...@utstat.toronto.edu.
SANET-MG Sustainable Agriculture Network sane...@twosocks.ces.ncsu.edu
Send e-mail with the text "subscribe sanet-mg" or "send guide" or
"send catalog" to alm...@twosocks.ces.ncsu.edu.
Simulated Annealing Mailing List (ANNEAL) [unknown]
Send e-mail with the text "subscribe anneal" to majo...@sti.com.
Society for Mathematical Biology Digest smb...@fconvx.ncifcrf.gov
Send e-mail with the text "subscribe smbnet <Your Name>" and/or
"help" to list...@fconvx.ncifcrf.gov. Back issues of the digest
are available via anonymous FTP on fconvx.ncifcrf.gov in smb/digest/.
The editor is apparently Ray Mejia.
| Yeast Artificial Chromosomes y...@net.bio.net
| Send "help" to biosci...@net.bio.net for subscription information.
Young Scientists' Network y...@zoyd.ee.washington.edu
Send e-mail to ysn-r...@zoyd.ee.washington.edu with the Subject
(not text) "subscribe" or "send info".
Volcano list
Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor,
Jon Fink, aijhf@ASUACAD (via Bitnet) or ai...@asuvm.inre.asu.edu.
Note, any mailing lists you may discover at net.bio.net or daresbury.ac.uk
that are not explicitly mentioned in this FAQ are not mentioned *because*
they are actually gated lists for the bionet.* newsgroups. See section
2.2.2, Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists, for instructions
about subscribing to any bionet.* newsgroup via e-mail.
| There is a 6-part FAQ in news.answers (da Silva 1993) that includes
brief descriptions of the charter of each mailing list. This FAQ is
stored in FAQ archives in the directory /mailing-lists/.
A very long (1.2 megabytes) list of lists is available via anonymous FTP
from ftp.nisc.sri.com in netinfo/interest-groups or (in compressed form)
netinfo/interest-groups.Z. It can also be obtained via e-mail by sending
the message "send netinfo/interest-groups" to mail-...@nisc.sri.com.
There is a printed, indexed version, titled "Internet: Mailing Lists",
that can be purchased from Prentice Hall. However, this list is up-dated
through submissions, and thus is incomplete and not very correct.
-*- 2.5. Newsletters
Many of the mailing lists mentioned in the above section are actually
digests, where readers' queries and comments are condensed into a
single large document that is distributed periodically. Yet another
variation on this theme is electronic newsletters. Those not listed
elsewhere in this guide include:
* Animal Behavior Society Newsletter. Editor James C. Ha,
jc...@u.washington.edu.
* Bean Bag: Leguminosae Research Newsletter, edited by Charles R. Gunn
and Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr., jkirk...@asrr.arsusda.gov. Available
via gopher and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu.
* Botanical Electronic News (BEN), edited by Adolf Ceska, Canada.
Available via gopher and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu, and
the wildnet mailing list.
* The Chlamydomonas Newsletter. E-mail subscriptions are available from
Mike Adams, ad...@ecsuc.ctstateu.edu. You can also get this newsletter
via gopher from gopher.duke.edu and via anonymous FTP from
acpub.duke.edu in pub/chlamy/.
* Climate/Ecosystem Dynamics (CED). E-mail subscriptions are available
from Daniel Pommert, dan...@lternet.washington.edu, gopher access
available via lternet.edu.
* Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN) Newsletter, Australia
Available via gopher and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu, and via
the ERIN gopher on kaos.erin.gov.au.
* Flora Online. A journal for collections-oriented botanists published
by the Clinton Herbarium, Buffalo Museum of Science, New York USA.
Editor Richard H. Zander, vis...@UBVMS.bitnet. Available via gopher
and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu.
* LTER Data Management Bulletin (DATABITS). Available via gopher on
lternet.edu.
* STARNET Echinoderm Newsletter. Send e-mail to the editor, Win Hide,
wh...@matrix.bchs.uh.edu.
| * Titnet. Notices of interest to researchers of Paridae and other hole-
| nesting birds. Send e-mail to J. Hailman, jhai...@macc.wisc.edu
| WISCMACC on Bitnet), with your name and address (postal and e-mail),
| what species you study and what types of studies you do.
The paper journal The Scientist is available via anonymous FTP on
| ds.internic.net, in pub/the-scientist, and gopher on gopher.gdb.org.
Michael Strangelove, 441...@acadvm1.UOTTAWA.ca has compiled a directory
of electronic serials. To retrieve it, send e-mail with the text
get ejournl1 directry
get ejournl2 directry
to list...@acadvm1.UOTTAWA.ca.
Una Smith
Last-modified: 10 November 1993
-*- 4. Useful and Important FAQs
You will learn a great deal about the Internet and what it has to offer
if you read some of these FAQs. If you still want to know more, browse
around in Usenet. Also, a number of books have been published recently
that give a very thorough guide to the Internet; see the bibliography
and check your local academic bookstore or university library.
The files below are stored in pub/usenet/news.answers/ in the anonymous
FTP archive on rtfm.mit.edu, and are posted frequently to the Usenet
newsgroups news.answers, comp.answers and sci.answers, as appropriate.
See sections 3.6.2 and 3.6.3 for help retrieving these FAQs via FTP or
e-mail. See section 2.3.3, Usenet FAQs about Usenet, for other titles.
|| Most if not all of these FAQs are available via gopher on gopher.gdb.org.
Title Archive filename
--------------------------------------------------------------------
General resources
Gopher [FAQ] gopher-faq
comp.infosystems.wais FAQ wais-faq/getting-started
WAIS FAQ wais-faq/sources
FAQ: College Email Addresses college-email/part[1-3]
FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses finding-addresses
FAQ: International E-mail accessibility mail/country-codes
How to Get Information about Networks network-info/part1
Public Dialup Internet Access List pdial
Updated Internet Services List internet-services
Mailing Lists Available in Usenet bit/gatelist
How to find sources finding-sources
Anonymous FTP List - FAQ ftp-list/faq
Anonymous FTP List - Sites ftp-list/sites[1-3]
Mail Archive Server (MAS) software list mas-software
Scientific resources
A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources biology/guide
Biological Information Theory biology/info-theory
and Chowder Society
Computer Science Technical Report techreport-sites/list
Archive Sites
Computer Graphics Resource Listing graphics/resources-list/
part[1-3]
FAQ in comp.ai.neural-nets neural-net-faq
Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ weather-data
Space FAQ space/* [15 parts]
Amos Bairoch has assembled a very useful list of Molecular Biology
Archives and Mailservers which is available on many FTP sites, and
in the Usenet newsgroup bionet.announce.
| Paul Hengen keeps the "FAQ list", a file of useful molecular biology tips
| and tricks, for bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts. The FAQ list is available
| via anonymous FTP from ncifcrf.gov as the file pub/methods/FAQlist.
Virgil Sealy and Lisa Nyman have written an FAQ for comp.infosystems.gis
(and the gated GIS-L mailing list). You can also get this FAQ by sending
e-mail to gis-faq...@abraxas.adelphi.edu (no message necessary), or
you can get it via anonymous FTP from dg-rtp.dg.com in the file /gis/faq.
Bill Thoen has written "Internet Resources for GIS/CARTO/Earth Science",
which is available via anonymous FTP from csn.org in the COGS/ directory.
Ken Boschert keeps The Electronic Zoo, a list of mailing lists, archives,
and dial-up BBS systems that have something to do with animals (including
humans). The most recent version can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/techreports/wustl.edu/compmed/elec_zoo.txt.
The list has many items not mentioned in this guide.
Lee Hancock keeps Internet/Bitnet Health Sciences Resources, a document
that can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from ftp.sura.net, in the pub/nic/
directory, file name medical.resources.<version>. In the same directory
is Wilfred Drew's Not Just Cows, a guide to Internet resources in
agriculture and related sciences; get the file named agricultural.list.
-*- 4.1. What's an FAQ and where can I get one?
There are now hundreds of Internet documents, including this one, written
expressly to answer frequently asked questions. They are often refered
to in the Usenet community as FAQs. You will find them in the Usenet
newsgroup news.answers (and subsets in sci.answers, comp.answers, and
news.answers.newusers). The Usenet FAQ repository is an anonymous FTP
archive on rtfm.mit.edu (RTFM stands for Read The <bleep> Manual), in
the directory pub/usenet/news.answers/. See sections 3.6.2 and 3.6.3
for details on anonymous FTP, including instructions for retrieving any
Usenet FAQ via e-mail.
-*- 4.2. Does anyone have an e-mail address for X?
Please, don't ask this in a newsgroup or mailing list. It's rude!
The quickest, most efficient way to answer this is to call or write to X
directly. If anyone can help you with this, it's X. To date, most
biologists don't have e-mail addresses, or if they do, they don't read
their e-mail very often, so you really are better off contacting them
directly. If you must try to find this information via the computer
networks, please start by reading Kamens (1993a) or Lamb (1993) or the
relevant section of one of the books listed in the bibliography. Also,
you can check for the latest strategy in bionet.users.addresses. But
wait, there's more: many gopher servers listed in this guide have
searchable directories of biologists (see section 3.2, Directories).
-*- 4.3. How to find a good graduate program?
Go talk to the undergraduate or graduate advisor in your department,
if you're a college student. Start browsing through the scientific
journals, and the new book stack in the library. Ask your favorite
professors for advice. Sadly, the Internet can not be all things to all
people, and questions about how to pick graduate programs generally
do not get satisfactory replies.
One way you can use the Internet to explore graduate programs is by
browsing through campus information directories via gopher.
-*- 4.4. Where can I get old newsgroup/mailing list articles?
All the biology-related Usenet newsgroups (since 1991) are archived for
searching via gopher, WAIS, and anonymous FTP on ftp.bio.indiana.edu, in
the directory /usenet/bionet/. The bionet newsgroups (some dating back
to 1987) are archived for WAIS and anonymous FTP on net.bio.net. Browse
through gopher land for additional Usenet newsgroup archives.
Most listserver mailing lists are archived on the computer where they
are administered. To subscribe and get an index of log files on the
listserver archive for the ECOLOG-L mailing list, for example, send
e-mail to list...@UMDD.umd.edu with the text:
subscribe ECOLOG-L Your Name
index ECOLOG-L
-*- 4.5. Where can I find biology-related job announcements?
|| The bionet.jobs newsgroup is a good place to start, but headhunters
|| beware: read the frequently posted guidelines first.
|| You might also want to check sci.bio.ecology (a.k.a. the ECOLOG-L
|| mailing list), which is sponsored by the Ecological Society of America
|| and carries many job announcements. The ECOLOG-L list has a special
|| file that you can order by e-mail from list...@UMDD.umd.edu: send the
|| text "get jobs job_lst".
Most other newsgroups and mailing lists carry occasional job notices.
The American Physiological Society offers job announcements appearing
in their journals via gopher on gopher.uth.tmc.edu (port 3300).
-*- 5. Commercial Services
The three most common types of commercial services are (1) restricted-use
computer accounts allowing Internet access (e-mail or full access) via
modem from personal computers, (2) on-line bibliographic databases that
can be searched via modem or over the Internet, and (3) access via modem
or the Internet to private Usenet-style special-interest networks, but
only e-mail access to the rest of the Internet. This third type of
service is rapidly disappearing as vendors add full Internet access to
keep their subscribers from going to another service vendor.
For the benefit of people without full Internet access (telnet and FTP
in addition to e-mail), Peter Kaminski maintains a list of commercial
access providers (Kaminski 1993). E-mail requests for this list can be
sent to info-del...@netcom.com: use "send PDIAL" as the subject.
The best sources of information about Internet resources, for readers
who do not have access to the Internet, are the books on the Internet
listed in the bibliography, and many other published literature with the
words "Internet", "on-line" or "database" in the title. There are many
such books available now, as publishers everywhere realize that money
can be made on the new Electronic Frontier.
However, much of the information in these compendium books is out of date
even before the book appears in print. Also, it is generally compiled by
people who are not well acquainted with the materials, and thus poorly
organized. Much of the information was gathered by soliciting data from
administrators or suppliers of databases. This data, in current form,
is best gathered directly from the source, via the Internet. The best
strategy is to learn to cruise the Internet yourself, with the help of a
a "tool" book such as Kehoe (1992) or Krol (1992; or if you can't find
those at your local bookstore, some alternatives are Goldman 1992, Lane
and Summerhill 1992, LaQuey and Ryer 1992, or Tennant et al. 1993) and
learn where in the Internet to look periodically for notices about
resources of interest to you.
-*- Acknowledgements
This guide is Santa Fe Institute Working Paper # 93-06-038.
This guide would not have been written without the financial support and
intellectual tolerance of Duke and Yale Universities; it was organized
(or organized itself) during the 1992 Complex Systems Summer School of
the Santa Fe Institute.
| Contributors of additions and corrections to this version of the guide
| include:
| Harvey Chinn, for dotting i's and crossing t's, and pointers to new stuff,
| Rob Harper, on how to post Usenet articles via e-mail,
| Larry Mason, for information on the dynamical systems mailing list,
| Eugene Miya, for the e-mail address of the comp.theory.* list admin.,
| Mario Nenno, for the Henikoff (1993) citation,
| Francis Ouellette, on address changes for various e-mail servers.
Many, many thanks to
James Beach, Harvey Chinn, Dan Davison, Reinhard Doelz,
John Garavelli, Don Gilbert, Rob Harper, Dan Jacobson,
Jonathan Kamens, David Kristofferson, Steve Modena,
Francis Ouellette, Renato Sabatini, and Tom Schneider,
who have provided ideas and material for this guide and/or advice on
related issues. Harvey Chinn has served as my editor, and many
improvements of organization were suggested by him. Additional material
and suggestions were contributed by:
David Bridge, Steve Clark, Jemery Day, Josh Hayes, Tom Jacobs,
Andy Johnston, Jim McIntosh, Dean Pentcheff, Jon Radel, Ross Smith,
Roy Smith, and Christophe Wolfhugel,
and many, many readers of earlier versions of this guide. Thank you!
There exists a (mostly anonymous) cast of thousands who have made very
large, even enormous voluntary contributions to the resources mentioned
in this guide, and who are largely responsible for the thing we call the
Internet in its broadest sense. They must all be very proud of what
they have helped to create.
Una Smith
Last-modified: 10 November 1993
-*- 3. Biological Information Archives
Many archives are mentioned throughout this section and elsewhere in this
document. The access methods available for each archive are presented in
section 3.5, List of Archives.
A number of people have begun to organize the many free biological
information archives, databases and services on the Internet into
well-organized menus using gopher servers. These include Don Gilbert's
IUBio service on ftp.bio.indiana.edu and Mike Cherry's collection on
weeds.mgh.harvard.edu in the United States, Rob Harper's "Finnish EMBnet
BioBox" on gopher.csc.fi in Finland, and Reinhard Doelz's "Information
servers in biology (gopher based)" on gopher.embnet.unibas.ch in
Switzerland.
Yanoff (1993) is an excellent list of unusual and useful Internet
services, a few of which are mentioned in this guide. Services listed
include: an on-line dictionary, weather maps, a general weather report
service, an archive of statistical programs and data sets, and various
computers allowing public telnet sessions so that people who have Internet
access but not Usenet can read and post Usenet articles.
Stern (1993) offers an extensive list of anonymous FTP archives offering
meteorological data.
|| Reinhard Doelz's Biocomputing Survival Guide (Doelz 1993) covers basic
|| Unix and VMS commands and the GCG software.
-*- 3.1. Bibliographies
Many Internet archives have searchable bibliographic databases, complete
with abstracts. Only a few are mentioned here.
A bibliography of 52,000 Drosophila research publications, dating from
1684 through this year, is offered on ftp.bio.indiana.edu.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Data bibliography and the NASA
Global Change Data Directory are archived on ridgisd.er.usgs.gov. The
North American Benthological Society (NABS) offers a bibliography of
recent literature in benthic biology on gopher.nd.edu. The Long-Term
Ecological Research (LTER) program has put a bibliographic database and
catalog of data sets on lternet.edu. (The actual data is not available
on-line.) Check gopher.genethon.fr for bibliographies of sequence
analysis and human genome research papers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Extension Service offers the
Research Results Database (RRDB), containing brief summaries of recent
research from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and
Economic Research Service (ERS), by e-mail. For details, send the
e-mail message "send guide" to alm...@esusda.gov. To receive notices
of new RRDB titles, send the message "subscribe usda.rrdb".
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Library on-line
database can be accessed for bibliographic searches via anonymous telnet
to epaibm.rtpnc.epa.gov. A collection of GIS-related bibliographies is
available on bastet.sbs.ohio-state.edu.
Various Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists provide the tables of contents
(TOCs) for current issues of a few journals of interest to biologists.
Tom Schneider distributes Unix AWK scripts for converting many of these
TOCs into BibTeX-style bibliography records: these scripts are posted in
the Usenet newsgroup bionet.journals.note.
The journal TOCs available in bionet.journals.contents include:
Anatomy and Embryology
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Binary
Biotechniques
CABIOS
Cell and Tissue Research
Chromosoma
Current Genetics
EMBO Journal
Environmental Physiology
European Journal of Biochemistry
European Journal of Physiology
Experimental Brain Research
Histochemistry
Human Genetics
IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Immunogenetics
Journal of Bacteriology
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and
The Journal of Membrane Biology
Journal of Molecular Evolution
Journal of Virology
MGG - Molecular and General Genetics
Mammalian Genome
Microbial Releases
Molecular Microbiology
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Nucleic Acids Research
Photosynthetica
Plant Cell Reports
Planta
Protein Science
Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology
Theoretical and Applied Genetics
The CONSLINK listserver mailing list keeps a large bibliography of
conservation biology research papers on its archive (see section 2.4.2,
Archives, for instructions on accessing listserver archives).
The American Physiological Society offers TOCs for the following
journals via gopher on gopher.uth.tmc.edu (port 3300):
Advances in Physiology Education
American Journal of Physiology (6 consolidated journals)
Journal of Applied Physiology
Journal of Neurophysiology
News in Physiological Sciences
Physiological Reviews
The Physiologist
Other publishers supporting Internet access to information about their
publications include
Publisher Address Access
--------------------------------------------------------------
Addison-Wesley world.std.com ftp
O'Reilly & Associates gopher.ora.com gopher
Kluwer Academic Publishers world.std.com ftp
-*- 3.2. Directories
Searchable directories of scientists and research projects currently
funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science
Foundation (NSF), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and genome researchers
funded by several other departments, together with several topical
|| directories, are available via gopher on gopher.gdb.org. Searches on
researcher name, location, and field of interest are supported.
A directory of 2000+ people who read the bionet.* newsgroups is available
via gopher and anonymous FTP from net.bio.net; you can add yourself to
the directory via gopher or e-mail (see instructions on the archive).
A directory of researchers using Artificial Intelligence in Molecular
Biology (AIMB) is maintained at the National Library of Medicine. To
be included, send e-mail to Larry Hunter, hun...@work.nlm.nih.gov.
Several directories of ecologists and plant biologists are kept on
huh.harvard.edu, which is accessible via gopher and anonymous FTP.
A directory of tropical biologists is kept in the Ecology and Evolution
section of the gopher/anonymous FTP archive on sunsite.unc.edu.
Richard Thorington keeps a list of mammalogists who use e-mail. To get
yourself on the list (required to receive copies of it), send e-mail to
mnhvz049@SIVM (via Bitnet) or mnhv...@SIVM.si.edu.
-*- 3.3. Software
Several archives specializing in software for biologists are accessible
via gopher and anonymous FTP. Some of these are listed in section 3.5,
List of Archives. The first such archive in South America is the
Brazilian Medical Informatics archive, ccsun.unicamp.br. The IUBio
archive on ftp.bio.indiana.edu probably has the best collection in the
United States. Botanists will appreciate the TAXACOM archive on
huh.harvard.edu.
Also, wuarchive.wustl.edu has an excellent collection of educational
software, especially for teaching mathematics at the college and
university levels. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications
has developed a collection of outstanding software tools for electronic
communications and image analysis, and makes it publicly available on
zaphod.ncsa.uiuc.edu. Many of the latest add-on tools for the popular
LaTeX text formatting system are archived on sun.soe.clarkson.edu,
while sumex-aim.stanford.edu has a huge archive of Macintosh software,
and nic.ddn.mil keeps the important Internet RFC (Request for Comments)
documents.
Jan-Peter Frahm has made available via e-mail "A Guide to Botanical
Software for MS-DOS Computers". The software is shareware or in the
public domain. For a copy, write him at hh2...@duc220.uni-duisburg.de.
Bionet.software is a good place to look for information about specific
software programs with applications to biology. There are many Usenet
groups devoted to discussion of software, particularly freeware and
shareware. The well-known, huge anonymous FTP repositories of software
are all mentioned in various published guides to the Internet (Kehoe 1992,
Krol 1992, Lane and Summerhill 1992, LaQuey and Ryer 1992, Tennant et al.
1993), and are part of the common knowledge of many Usenet newsgroups.
-*- 3.4. Data
The wealth of data available on the Internet is staggering, but it is also
widely dispersed and often difficult to track down. Rather than compile a
list of data sets and pointers to their locations, this guide gives a list
of locations with only a name or phrase to suggest what data may be found
there (see section 3.5, List of Archives). Many Usenet FAQs (see section
4, Useful and Important FAQs) and other Internet documents mentioned in
this guide attempt to list available databases, but many more are known
only by word-of-mouth. The Usenet newsgroup sci.answers (also a mailing
list; see section 2.4.3, Gateways to Usenet) carries many lists that are
updated frequently.
-*- 3.4.1. Repositories
Various genome and other cooperative projects are now well established on
the Internet, with large, highly organized databases that support ever more
powerful and complex interactive or batch search queries. Most now support
WAIS and gopher search access, and are listed in section 3.5, List of
Archives. The future utility of these repositories depends on the donation
of data by individual researchers. Questions, as well as data submissions
and corrections, can be sent to the relevant administrators via e-mail
(after Garavelli 1992):
Database Address of administrator
-------- ------------------------
AAtDB (Arabidopsis thaliana) cur...@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu
ACEDB (Caenorhabditis elegans) r...@mrc-lmba.cam.ac.uk and
mi...@kaa.cnrs-mop.fr
Brookhaven p...@chm.chm.bnl.gov
DDBJ enquiries dd...@ddbj.nig.ac.jp
data submissions ddb...@ddbj.nig.ac.jp
updates, publication notices ddbj...@ddbj.nig.ac.jp
EDEX and JARS (Forest Ecology) gofo...@gopher.yale.edu
EMBL problems, feedback net...@embl-heidelberg.de
software submissions, queries soft...@embl-heidelberg.de
Data Library enquiries dat...@embl-heidelberg.de
Data Library submissions data...@embl-heidelberg.de
FlyBase (Drosophila) fly...@morgan.harvard.edu
Inst. of Forest Genetics DB (IFGDB) if...@s27w007.pswfs.gov
|| GDB he...@gdb.org
GenBank enquiries in...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
|| data submissions gb-...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
updates, publication notices upd...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
|| Entrez questions ent...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
|| BLAST Email server bl...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
|| RETRIEVE Email server retr...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
|| EST reports Email server est_r...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Microbial Strains Data Net. (MSDN) ms...@bdt.ftpt.br and ms...@phx.cam.ac.uk
NCBI repos...@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
PIR file...@nbrf.georgetown.edu
SWISS-PROT bai...@cmu.unige.ch
LiMB, the Listing of Molecular Biology databases (Keen et al. 1992)
describes most of these databases, and many more, including the names,
regular mail addresses and telephone numbers of their keepers. To get
the current version of LiMB by e-mail, send the text "limb-data" to
bios...@life.lanl.gov. For information only, send "limb-info". LiMB
is available in hardcopy or on floppy disk: contact li...@life.lanl.gov.
-*- 3.4.2. Search Engines
| Help files can be obtained from any of the GenBank e-mail servers listed
| in the previous section by sending the word "help" in the Subject line
| or body of an e-mail message to the server in question.
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) supports various types
of searches via e-mail. For more information, send the text "help" in
e-mail to any one of these servers:
EMBL File Server Net...@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE
FASTA FA...@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE
Quicksearch Qu...@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE
Swiss-Prot MPsrch Bl...@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE
The BLOCKS database can be searched via e-mail. For a help file, send
a blank e-mail message to blo...@howard.fhcrc.org, with the word "help"
in the Subject line.
| The GenMark e-mail sequence search engine was updated in the summer of
| 1993. For instructions and new feature descriptions, send e-mail to
| gen...@ford.gatech.edu with the word "instructions" in the Subject line
| or body of the letter. Or contact M. Borodovsky <mb...@prism.gatech.edu>
| or J. McIninch <gt1...@prism.gatech.edu>.
| See also Henikoff (1993).
The Sequence Retrival System (SRS) program for VAX VMS computer systems
is available via anonymous FTP on the EMBnet node biomed.uio.no (Norway)
or genetics.upenn.edu (USA).
Three U.S. herbaria now provide e-mail search support of:
Type specimens of the mint family from the Harvard Herbaria,
comprising 1100 records.
The complete herbarium catalog of Michigan State University,
Kellog Biological Station Herbarium, an NSF LTER site, consisting
of 6000 specimen records.
The Flora of Mt. Kinabalu; 16,300 specimen records of all vascular
plant collections from the mountain.
E-mail addresses for sending queries are:
Harvard Mint Types: herb...@huh.harvard.edu
Kellogg Herbarium: herbdata%kbs.d...@clvax1.cl.msu.edu
Flora of Mt. Kinabalu: herb...@herbarium.bpp.msu.edu
Send the message "help" to receive a usage guide, and if you think
there might be difficulties with your return address, send that as
well by adding a line with the text "replyaddress=" followed by your
prefered e-mail address.
Anyone who does a lot of field work will appreciate the Geographic Name
Server, which can provide the latitude and longitude, and the elevation
of most places in the United States: all cities and counties are covered,
as well as some national parks and some geographical features (mountains,
rivers, lakes, etc.). Telnet to martini.eecs.umich.edu, port 3000 (no
username needed) and type "help" for instructions.
-*- 3.5. List of Archives
Computer sites supporting some sort of public access, and of some
interest to biologists are listed here, together with means of access.
e - e-mail file requests (see notes this section for e-mail addresses).
E - e-mail search requests (see notes this section).
f - anonymous FTP (see section 3.6.3, Anonymous FTP by E-mail, if you
cannot use FTP).
g - gopher server
G - gopher server plus WAIS index searches
t - public telnet access
T - public telnet access plus e-mail returns of search results
W - WAIS server plus WAIS index searches
Internet node name Topic/Agency Access method
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ftp.bio.indiana.edu (IN USA) IUBIO Genbank, FlyBase fG
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (MD USA) NCBI f
ftp.embl-heidelberg.de (Germany) EMBL Data Library Efg
coli.polytechnique.fr (France) EMBLnet G
ftp.bchs.uh.edu (TX USA) Genbank, PIR fG
helix.nih.gov (MD USA) Genbank, PDB, PIR etc. G
ncifcrf.gov (MD USA) Biol. Information Theory f
finsun.csc.fi (Finland) Prosite, Rebase-Enzyme G
pdb.pdb.bnl.gov (NY USA) Protein Data Bank G
ftp.tigr.org Inst. for Genomic Rsch. f
golgi.harvard.edu (MA USA) f
megasun.bch.umontreal.ca Molecular evolution G
nic.funet.fi (Finland)
gopher.csc.fi (Finland)
nic.switch.ch (Switzerland) EMBnet fG W [10]
rdp.life.uiuc.edu Ribosomal DB Project f
world.std.com A major entry-point fG
sunsite.unc.edu (NC USA) Many subjects EfGt [4]
gopher.ciesin.org Earth Sciences G
locus.nalusda.go (USA) Nat. Agri. Library G
s27w007.pswfs.gov (USA) Forest Genetics G
biomed.uio.no (Norway) Genome data T
gopher.embnet.unibas.ch (Switzer.)
biox.embnet.unibas.ch (Switzerland) Genome data G
|| gopher.gdb.org (MD USA) GDB Genome Data Bank G
weeds.mgh.harvard.edu (MA USA) Arabidopsis, C. elegans G
mendel.agron.iastate.edu (IA USA) Soy genome G
greengenes.cit.cornell.edu (NY USA) Triticeae genome G
teosinte.agron.missouri.edu (USA) Maize genome G
gopher.duke.edu (NC USA) Chlamydomonas G [2]
picea.cfnr.colostate.edu (CO USA) f
poplar1.cfr.washington.edu (WA USA) Populus genetics f
esusda.gov (USA) USDA Extension Service G
infoserver.ciesin.org CIESIN Global Change G
mobot.org (MO USA) Missouri Bot. Garden f
life.anu.edu.au (Australia) Bioinformatics fG
igc.org (CA USA) EcoNet f
gopher.yale.edu (CT USA) Ecol. Data EXchange g
lternet.edu (WA USA) LTERnet G
spider.ento.csiro.au (Australia) Entomology f
gopher.uth.tmc.edu (port 3300) Physiology G
envirolink.hss.cmu.edu (DE USA) Environment GT [6]
ecosys.drdr.virginia.edu (VA USA) Ecosystems GT
sparc.ecology.uga.edu (GA USA) Ecology, Coweeta LTER G
ngdc1.ngdc.noaa.gov (USA) Paleoclimatology f [1]
huh.harvard.edu (MA USA) Harvard Univ. Herbaria fG
simsc.si.edu (DC USA) Smithsonian Inst. f [3]
ucmp1.berkeley.edu (CA USA) Vertebrate museum G
bdt.ftpt.br (Brazil) Biodiversity fG
coli.polytechnique.fr (France) Molecular evolution G
fconvx.ncifcrf.gov (MD USA) Mathematical Biology f
cheops.anu.edu.au Radiocarbon Abstracts fG W
bluehen.ags.udel.edu (DE USA) Entomology G
minerva.forestry.umn.edu (MN USA) Forestry G
ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (CA USA) Biology G
evolution.genetics.washington.edu Evolution f
evolution.bchs.uh.edu (TX USA) Evolution f
martini.eecs.umich.edu (MI USA) Geographic Name Server t [7]
wigeo.wu-wien.ac.at (Austria) Geography G
geogopher.ucdavis.edu (CA USA) Geology G
isdres.er.usgs.gov (VA USA) US Geological Survey f
pippin.memst.edu CERI Earthquake Center G
cdiac.esd.ornl.gov CDIAC f
saturn.soils.umn.edu (MN USA) Geology G
kiawe.soest.hawaii.edu (HA USA) Generic Mapping Tools f
tycho.usno.navy.mil U.S. Naval Observatory t [8]
nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov NSSDC On-Line Service t [9]
granta.uchicago.edu (IL USA) Physics Resources G
xyz.lanl.gov (NM USA) LANL Nonlinear Science G
mentor.lanl.gov (NM USA) LANL Physics G
info.mcs.anl.gov (IL USA) Argonne National Lab. f
stis.nsf.gov (DC USA) Nat. Science Foundation fG
rtfm.mit.edu (MA USA) Usenet FAQ repository ef [5]
jse.stat.ncsu.edu (NC USA) Journal of Stat. Educ. fG
ftp.sas.com (NC USA) SAS-related information f
zaphod.ncsa.uiuc.edu (IN USA) Supercomputing f
lupulus.ssc.gov Young Scientists Net. f
ksuvxa.kent.edu Directory of lists f
sun.soe.clarkson.edu LaTeX tools f
Notes:
1: in...@mail.ngdc.noaa.gov;
2: chl...@acpub.duke.edu;
3: da...@simsc.si.edu;
4: in...@sunsite.unc.edu, telnet username "swais" for WAIS seaches,
telnet username "gopher" for plain gopher access;
5: see section 3.6.2, Anonymous FTP, and section 3.6.3, Anonymous FTP
by E-mail;
6: Telnet username "gopher", password "envirolink";
7: Use port 3000, no username, "help" gets instructions;
8: Telnet username "ads".
9: Telnet username "nodis".
10: Anonymous FTP from within Switzerland only.
-*- 3.6. Access Tools
All Internet tools share the quirk that they are actually three things:
a "server" or "daemon" program that runs all the time on a host computer
and accepts requests to connect over the Internet, a "client" program that
people use to connect to or access these servers, and a standard protocol
that allows many different versions of clients and servers to talk to one
another without difficulty.
Most of the recently published books about the Internet describe these
tools in detail. Kehoe (1992), the first to appear, was offered first
in a free electronic version over the Internet; it is still available
from many anonymous FTP archives around the world, in a directory named
something like pub/zen/. Krol (1992) has received excellent reviews.
See the bibliography for other books.
A new item: the EARN Association has published a Guide to Network
Resource Tools (May 3, 1993), which is available via e-mail from
list...@EARNCC.bitnet, by sending the message "get nettools ps" for
a PostScript version or "get nettools memo" for a plain text version.
The guide covers almost every tool mentioned here, including example.
A few host computers mentioned in this guide allow the public to telnet
to the host, and then use the host computer to access servers via gopher,
WAIS or the Web. These arrangements are offered as a courtesy to those
people who do not have the necessary client software on their own
computers, and want to try these tools before going to the trouble of
installing the client software themselves. Although licensing has been
discussed for some of these tools (namely, certain versions of gopher),
at present they are all free, and several are explicitly in the public
domain or carry free GNU licenses.
-*- 3.6.1. Telnet
Telnet allows someone using a computer with full Internet access to access
another computer over the Internet and login there, assuming he or she has
login privileges on that computer as well. Anonymous telnet sessions are
generally not permitted, but occasionally usernames are created with
restricted privileges, for use by the Internet public. Several of these
are listed in section 3.5, List of Archives, and in Yanoff (1993).
-*- 3.6.2. Anonymous FTP
FTP stands for file transfer protocol, and is the name of a program used
for file transfers between computers with full Internet access, assuming
you have privileges on both the local and remote computers. Anonymous FTP
is a common practice whereby anyone on the Internet may transfer files from
(and sometimes to) a remote system with the userid "anonymous" and an
arbitrary password. By convention, anonymous FTP users provide their
e-mail addresses when asked for a password. This is useful to those
archive managers who must justify to their bosses the time spent providing
this free (but not cheap) service. Some sites restrict when transfers may
be made from their archives, and most prefer that large transfers be made
only during off-hours (relative to that site).
To receive a short guide to using anonymous FTP, send e-mail with the
text "help" to in...@sunsite.unc.edu.
-*- 3.6.3. Anonymous FTP by E-mail
Bitnet does not support telnet or FTP sessions, but many Bitnet nodes are
also full Internet sites, and so do support telnet and FTP. For those
who only have access to computers on Bitnet, Princeton University offers
a file transfer service by e-mail. Bit...@PUCC.bitnet will send a help
file in response to the message "help". There is an identical server in
Germany: Bitftp@DEARN from within Bitnet/EARN or bit...@vm.gmd.de from
the Internet. This server should be used only for FTP requests involving
transfers within Europe. If you have neither full Internet access nor an
account on a Bitnet node, you can still get files from anonymous FTP
archives by e-mail courtesy of ftp...@decwrl.dec.com, which will send
instructions in response to the word "help" followed by "quit" on separate
lines of an e-mail message.
Also, you can retrieve formal Usenet FAQs via e-mail from the Usenet FAQ
repository, rtfm.mit.edu: to get a help file, a list of all the FAQs
stored there, and the latest version of this guide, send e-mail to
mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu with the text
help
index
send usenet/news.answers/biology/guide
-*- 3.6.4. Gopher
Gopher is a user-interface program that makes FTP and other types of
connections for computer users when they select an item in a menu. It
is an easy way to get stuff off the Internet without having to know
where the stuff lives. Gopher is free, and there are nice versions
for most types of computers, especially Unix workstations and Macs.
It was invented at the University of Minnesota; current versions can
be retrieved via anonymous FTP from boombox.micro.umn.edu. The name
is a clever pun on the "go-for" person who runs errands for people,
and on the burrowing rodent, which pops down a "hole" in the Internet
and comes back up who-knows-where. Bionet.general, bionet.software,
and bionet.users.addresses are good places to learn more about biology-
related gopher services. Comp.infosystems.gopher is the newsgroup
for gopher-related issues in general. The FAQ for this group is stored
on rtfm.mit.edu in the file pub/usenet/news.answers/gopher-faq.
There is an entire chapter on gopher in Krol (1992).
-*- 3.6.5. Archie
Archie helps people locate items (documents, software, etc.) in thousands
of anonymous FTP archives around the world. Archie clients for many types
of computer, and documentation, can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from
any archie server (see below) in the /pub/archie/doc/ directory, or by
e-mail from archie...@ans.net.
Archie can be used via e-mail, by sending e-mail with a list of commands
to arc...@ans.net. For details, send the command "help". Due to the very
high demand for this service, requests should be made via e-mail or clients
rather than telnet-ing to an archie server. Please try to use archie only
outside of working hours, make your query as specific as possible, and use
the archie server nearest you: archie.au in Australia; archie.funet.fi in
Finland; archie.th-darmstadt.de in Germany; archie.doc.ic.ac.uk in Great
Britain; archie.cs.huji.ac.il in Israel; archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp and
archie.wide.ad.jp in Japan; archie.sogang.ac.kr in Korea; archie.nz in
New Zealand; archie.luth.se in Sweden; archie.ncu.edu.tw in Taiwan;
archie.ans.net, archie.rutgers.edu, archie.sura.net and archie.unl.net
in the United States.
-*- 3.6.6. Veronica
Veronica is a very easy rodent-oriented net-wide index to computerized
archives. Veronica's name is a play on the concepts of both gopher and
archie. (Remember the comic book couple Archie and Veronica? Veronica
does for gopher what archie does for anonymous FTP.) Veronica searches
through hundreds of gopher holes looking for anything that matches a
keyword supplied by the user, and assembles a list of gopher servers that
contain items of interest. Note: veronica checks *titles* of gopher
items only, not their contents.
There is a veronica database specifically for biology resources in the
|| gopher server on gopher.gdb.org, under menu item "Search Databases
at Hopkins...". Its name is BOING, or Bio Oriented INternet Gophers.
At present, there are no veronica clients; veronica is a gopher tool.
An informal veronica FAQ is posted regularly in comp.infosystems.gopher
and archived on veronica.scs.unr.edu as veronica/veronica-faq.
-*- 3.6.7. Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS)
The idea behind WAIS is to make anonymous FTP archives more accessible
by indexing their contents for easy searching and browsing. The client's
user interface is simple, but the concept is so powerful that nearly
everyone with an anonymous FTP archive has spent part of 1992 and 1993
building WAIS indices of all available material (software, data, documents
and other information). In the course of all this effort an enormous
amount of information that has been available for years or even decades
has suddenly become publicly available for the first time all in the past
year. WAIS servers are often used as back-end engines for gopher servers.
Gopher archives are built by hand, but WAIS bundles and organizes related
items automatically, and thus greatly extends the functionality of gopher.
Good WAIS client programs for the Mac (WAIStation) and PC (PCWAIS) are
available on the anonymous FTP archive at think.com. If your computer
has full Internet access, you can try out WAIS on a Unix system, courtesy
of Thinking Machines Corp., by telnetting to quake.think.com. Use the
username "wais" and give your e-mail address as the password. See the
newsgroup comp.infosystems.wais for more details, or see the WAIS FAQ
(section 4, Useful and Important FAQs).
-*- 3.6.8. World-Wide Web (WWW)
WWW is yet another tool for gathering useful information from the Internet.
It was invented at the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN),
Switzerland. WWW looks like a document that users can open and read, but
selecting certain words via mouse or keyboard causes other documents to be
retrieved and opened for inspection. The most powerful aspect of WWW at
present is the ease with which seamless, attractive on-line documentation
can be created, that is easy to find and browse, no matter where on the
Internet the actual documents are. You can try WWW, courtesy of CERN:
telnet to info.cern.ch (no username needed).
Una Smith
Last-modified: 10 November 1993
-*- Bibliography
Barr, D. and M. Horton (1993) Rules for posting to Usenet. Usenet
news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename posting-rules/part1.
Brader, M. and J. Schwarz (1993) Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
about Usenet. Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
usenet-faq/part1.
| Doelz, R. (1993) Biocomputing Survival Guide. Available via anonymous
| FTP from nic.switch.ch as a self-extracting (binary) file in
| MS Word format. Printed copies available from Paula Maki-Valkkila,
| CSC, Tietotie 6, P.O. Box 405, 02101 Espoo, Finland. 60 pages.
Crepin-Leblond, O.M.J. (1993) FAQ: International E-mail accessibility.
Usenet comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive: mail/country-codes.
Granrose, J., M. Jones and T. Czarnik (1993a) Anonymous FTP List - FAQ.
Usenet comp.misc. FAQ archive: ftp-list/faq.
Granrose, J., M. Jones and T. Czarnik (1993b) Anonymous FTP List - Sites.
Usenet comp.misc. FAQ archive: ftp-list/sites[1-3].
Fotis, N.C. (1993) Computer Graphics Resource Listing. Usenet
comp.graphics. FAQ archive filename graphics/resources-list/part[1-3].
Garavelli, J. (1992) Announcements of the Protein Information
Repository. Usenet bionet.molbio.proteins, December.
Goldmann, N. (1992) Online Information Hunting. Windcrest, Blue Ridge
Summit, PA.
Harris, R. (1993) Computer Science Technical Report Archive Sites.
Usenet comp.doc.techreports. FAQ archive: techreport-sites/list.
Henikoff, S. (1993) Sequence analysis by electronic mail server.
Trends in Biochemical Sciences. 18(7):267-268.
Kahin, B. (1992) Building Information Infrastructure: Issues in
the Development of the National Research and Education Network.
McGraw Hill, New York. 432 pages.
Kamens, J.I. (1993a) FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses. Usenet
comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive filename finding-addresses.
Kamens, J.I. (1993b) How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING).
Usenet comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive filename finding-sources.
Kamens, J.I. (1993c) How to become a USENET site. Usenet
news.admin.misc. FAQ archive filename site-setup.
Kamens, J.I. (1993d) Introduction to the news.answers newsgroup.
Usenet news.answers. FAQ archive filename news-answers/introduction.
Kamens, J.I. (1993e) Mail Archive Server (MAS) software list.
Usenet comp.mail.misc. FAQ archive filename mas-software.
Kaminski, P. (1993) Public Dialup Internet Access List (PDIAL). Usenet
alt.internet.access.wanted FAQ archive filename pdial.
Keen, G., G. Redgrave, J. Lawton, M. Cinkosky, S. Mishra, J. Fickett,
and C. Burks (1992) Access to molecular biology databases.
Mathematical Comput. Modelling 16:93-101.
Kehoe, B.P. (1992) Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's
Guide to the Internet, 2nd Edition (July). Prentice Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 112 pages. The 1st Edition, (February)
is available in Postscript format via anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.widener.edu and many other Internet archives.
Krol, E. (1992) The Whole Internet: Catalog & User's Guide.
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA. 376 pages.
Lamb, D. (1993) FAQ: College Email Addresses. Usenet soc.college.
FAQ archive filename college-email/part[1-3].
Lane, E.S. and C.A. Summerhill (1992) An Internet Primer for
Information Professionals: A Basic Guide to Networking Technology.
Meckler Corporation, Westport, CT. ~200 pages. In press.
LaQuey, T.L. (1992?) editor, The User's Directory of Computer Networks.
Digital Press. ~1000 pages.
LaQuey, T.L. and J.C. Ryer (1992) The Internet Companion: A Beginner's
Guide to Global Networking. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.,
Reading, MA. 208 pages.
Lawrence, D.C. (1993a) Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies. Usenet
news.answers. FAQ archive: alt-hierarchies/part[1-2].
Lawrence, D.C. (1993b) List of Active Newsgroups. Usenet news.answers.
FAQ archive: active-newsgroups/part[1-2].
|| Lawrence, D.C., J. McIntosh, and G. Spafford (1993) Mailing Lists
|| Available in Usenet. Usenet news.answers. FAQ archive:
|| mail/news-gateways/part1.
Lawrence, D.C., G. Woods and G. Spafford (1993) How to Create a New
Usenet Newsgroup. Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive:
creating-newsgroups/part1.
Leech, J. (1993) Space FAQ. Usenet sci.astro. FAQ archive space/*.
McIntosh, J. (1993a) NetNews/Listserv Gateway Policy. Usenet bit.admin.
FAQ archive: bit/policy.
Prechelt, L. (1993) FAQ in comp.ai.neural-nets. Usenet
comp.ai.neural-nets. FAQ archive: neural-net-faq.
Reid, B. (1993a) Usenet Readership Report for July 1993. Usenet
news.lists.
Reid, B. (1993b) Usenet Readership Summary Report for October 1993.
Usenet news.lists.
Schneider, T. (1993) Biological Information Theory and Chowder Society.
Usenet bionet.info-theory. FAQ archive: biology/info-theory.
da Silva, S. and C. Von Rospach and G. Spafford (1993) Publicly
Accessible Mailing Lists. Usenet news.lists. FAQ archive:
news.lists[1-6].
Spafford, G. (1993) USENET Software: History and Sources. Usenet
news.admin.misc. FAQ archive filename usenet-software/part1.
Spafford, G. and R. Atkinson (1992) How to Get Information about
Networks. Usenet news.admin.misc. FAQ archive: network-info/part1.
Spafford, G. and M. Horton (1992) Introduction to news.announce.
Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
news-announce-intro/part1.
Spafford, G. and A.J. Offutt VI (1992) Hints on writing style for
Usenet. Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
usenet-writing-style/part1.
Spafford, G. and C. Salzenberg (1992) What is Usenet?. Usenet
news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename what-is-usenet/part1.
Spafford, G. and C. Von Rospach (1992) A Primer on How to Work With the
Usenet Community. Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive
filename usenet-primer/part1.
Stern, I. (1993) Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ. Usenet
sci.geo.meteorology. FAQ archive filename weather-data.
Templeton, B. (1991) Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on
Netiquette. Usenet news.announce.newusers. FAQ archive filename
emily-postnews/part1.
Tennant, R., J. Ober and A.G. Lipow (1993) Crossing the Internet
Threshold: an Instructional Handbook, 1st Edition. Library
Solution Press, San Carlos, CA. 134 pages.
Thomas, E. (1993) Revised LISTSERV System Reference Library.
List...@BITNIC.educom.edu, release 1.7c. Retrievable from any
listserver using the mail message "send listserv refcard".
UofMN Gopher Team (1993) Gopher Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
Usenet comp.infosystems.gopher. FAQ archive: gopher-faq.
Wohler, B. (1993) NN Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with Answers.
Usenet news.software.nn. FAQ archive: nn-faq.
Woodbury, G.W. (1993) UNIX BBS Software FAQ with Answers. Usenet
comp.bbs.misc. FAQ archive: unix-faq/bbs-software.
Yanoff, S. (1993) Updated Internet Services List. Usenet
alt.internet.services. Available from rtfm.mit.edu FAQ
archive as filename internet-services.
Una Smith
Last-modified: 10 November 1993
-*- Appendix. Assorted LISTSERV Mailing Lists
Remember, do not send your subscription request to the list itself.
See section 2.4, Listserver Mailing Lists, for subscription instructions.
| A The listserver maintains some files for this mailing list.
| G The mailing list has a gateway to a Usenet newsgroup.
| K The listserver is Anastasios Kotsikonas' program, which differs from
| the standard listserver of Eric Thomas.
| M A moderator decides whether submitted articles will be released to
| the mailing list.
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
ag-...@ERS.bitnet Agricultural Economics and ERS Test List
ag-e...@vm1.nodak.edu Agricultural Expert Systems
age...@ibm.gwdg.de Agricultural Engineering and Intel. Control
agr...@UGA.cc.uga.edu Agriculture Discussion
aqu...@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Aquaculture Discussion List
cam...@SAKFU00.bitnet Discussion Forum on Camel Research
dai...@UMDD.umd.edu Dairy Discussion List
gar...@UKCC.uky.edu Gardens List
hor...@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu Va Tech Horticulture Dept. Announcements
hor...@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu Va Tech Horticulture Dept. Program
mga...@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu Master Gardeners
newc...@vm.cc.purdue.edu Discussion list for New Crops
sp...@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu Potato Research
rus...@UMDD.umd.edu Russian Agriculture
vetc...@KSUVM.ksu.edu Vet. Medicine Computer Assisted Instruction
vetl...@VTVM2.bitnet Veterinary Medicine Library issues and info.
vetm...@UGA.cc.uga.edu Veterinary Medicine (Peered)
Anthropology and Archaeology
anc...@vm.byu.edu Ancient Near Eastern Studies
anth...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu General Anthropology Bulletin Board
arc...@TAMVM1.tamu.edu Archaeology List
hum...@GWUVM.gwu.edu M Human Evolutionary Research Discussion
ind...@UWAVM.u.washington.edu Indigenous Knowledge List
nati...@TAMVM1.tamu.edu Issues Pertaining to Aboriginal Peoples
paca...@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu Pacific Rim Archaeology Interest List
p...@GWUVM.gwu.edu Physical Anthropology News List
Biology
be...@albany.edu Discussion of Bee Biology
bio-...@ege.edu.tr Biologists in Turkey
bioe...@UMCVMB.bitnet Biological applications of Electron Spin Res.
biom...@nic.surfnet.nl Biomechanics and Movement Science
bnfn...@FINHUTC.hut.fi Biological Nitrogen Fixation Forum
c...@opus.hpl.hp.com Carnivorous Plants
ento...@BRUFMG.bitnet Entomology in Brazil (in Portuguese)
ento...@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Entomology Discussion List
etho...@FINHUTC.hut.fi G Ethology
he...@ege.edu.tr Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Discussion
iap...@vm1.nodak.edu International Arctic Project Wildlife
l-e...@UQAM.bitnet Ethologistes/Ethologists
io...@life.anu.edu.au M Int. Organization for Plant Information
iu...@life.anu.edu.au M Int. Union of Biological Societies
lact...@SEARN.sunet.se Lactic Acid Bacteria Forum
micr...@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Fungus and Root Interaction Discussion
rmb...@umdd.umd.edu Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
soci...@albany.edu Social Insect Biology Research List
thph...@FRMOP11.cnusc.fr Thermal Physiology
Biostatistics
biom...@ALBNYDH2.bitnet Bureau of Biometrics at Albany
bmd...@vm1.mcgill.ca BMDP Software Users
edst...@jse.stat.ncsu.edu KG Journal of Statistics Education List
morp...@CUNYVM.cuny.edu Biological Morphometrics Mailing List
pst...@IRLEARN.ucd.ie Discussion of Stats and Programming
qml...@tbone.biol.scarolina.edu K Quantitative Morphology List
sa...@UGA.cc.uga.edu G SAS Discussion (Peered)
sasp...@UMSLVMA.umsl.edu SAS Public Access Consortium
sps...@UGA.cc.uga.edu G SPSSX Discussion (Peered)
sta...@vm1.mcgill.ca G Statistical Consulting
Computational biology
com...@life.anu.edu.au M Complex systems
cybs...@BINGVMB.cc.binghamton.edu Cybernetics and Systems
dyn...@gibbs.oit.unc.edu GK Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems
ecos...@vm.gmd.de List for ecosystem theory and modeling
glos...@acadvm1.UOTTAWA.ca GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation List
inn...@UMDD.umd.edu International Neural Network Society
ndr...@WVNVM.wvnet.edu Nonlinear Dynamics Research Group
neur...@ANDESCOL.uniandes.edu.co Artificial Neural Networks Discussion
Conservation and Environmental Studies
apa...@GWUVM.gwu.edu APA Scientific Grassroots Network
aqu...@IBACSATA.bitnet Pollution and grondwater recharge
ase...@TTUVM1.bitnet American Soc. of Environmental Historians
| cmt...@cornell.edu Chemical Management and Tracking Systems
con...@UWAVM.u.washington.edu Conservation Biology List
cons...@SIVM.si.edu Discussion on Biological Conservation
ctu...@NERVM.nerdc.ufl.edu Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation List
env...@BROWNVM.brown.edu Environmental Studies Discussion List
ica...@IRMFAO01.bitnet Integrated Coastal Area Management
itrd...@asuvm.inre.asu.edu Dendrochronology Forum
lasp...@HARVARDA.harvard.edu Latin America Scholarship Program
natu...@UCHCECVM.bitnet Ecology and Envir. Protection in Chile
nci...@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu Nutrient Cycling Issues - Worldwide
sopr...@secom.ufpa.br SOPREN discussion re Amazonia (Portuguese)
Ecology
bios...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu G Biosphere, ecology, Discussion List
biod...@bdt.ftpt.ansp.br Biodiversity networks
bird...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline Cooperative
bird...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu Bird Bander's Forum
bird...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (Chat Line)
bird...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (Central)
bird...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (East)
bird...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu National Birding Hotline (West)
bird...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu Special BIRDCHAT LOGO Project
ecol...@UMDD.umd.edu G Ecological Society of America
fir...@life.anu.edu.au Discussion of fire in landscape ecology
ot...@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu Organization for Tropical Studies
polp...@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Pollination and palynology list
sino...@MIAMIU.bitnet Sino-Ecologists Club Overseas Forum
twsg...@vm1.nodak.edu The Wildlife Society: GIS and Remote Sensing
|| Environmentalism and Technology Transfer
| a...@JSUVM1.bitnet Alternative Energy Discussion List
| bpw...@ALBNYDH2.bitnet Bureau of Public Water Supply Protection
com...@vm.ecs.rpi.edu Communication & international development
dev...@AUVM.american.edu G Technology Transfer in Int. Development
| ener...@TAUNIVM.tau.ac.il Energy List
envb...@POLYVM.bitnet Forum on Environment and Human Behavior
| hydr...@URIACC.uri.edu Hydrogen as an alternative fuel
| intd...@URIACC.uri.edu International development
meh...@TAUNIVM.tau.ac.il Middle East water
od...@TAMVM1.tamu.edu Ocean Drilling Program Open Discussion
| pac...@BRUFPB.bitnet Forum on Pacific Ocean and Islands
| rec...@UMAB.bitnet Recycling in Practice
sfe...@UCF1VM.cc.ucf.edu South Florida Environmental Reader
tec...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu Technology Transfer
| water-l@@WSUVM1.csc.wsu.edu Water Quality Discussion List
Geology and Geography (including GIS)
acdg...@AWIIMC12.imc.univie.ac.at Geographic Information Systems
astr...@icnucevm.bitnet ASTRA joint database project users group
cans...@UNBVM1.bitnet Canadian Space Geodesy Forum
clim...@OHSTVMA.acs.ohio-state.edu Climatology Distribution List
coas...@IRLEARN.ucd.ie Coastal GIS Distribution List
cpg...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Chinese Professionals GIS Use List
geo...@UKCC.bitnet Geography Education List
geo...@UKCC.bitnet Discussion list for Feminism in Geography
geog...@SEARN.sunet.se G Geography
geo...@PTEARN.fc.ul.pt Geology Discussion List
geon...@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu M Geoscience Librarians & Information...
geo...@UNALCOL.bitnet Sistemas de Info. Geo-Ref. (GIS in Spanish)
gi...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu G Geographic Information Systems
idri...@toe.towson.edu Idrisi Discussion List
imag...@earn.cvut.cz Image Processing of Remotely Sensed data
kyug...@UKCC.bitnet Kentucky Universities Geographic Info...
map...@UGA.cc.uga.edu Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum
qua...@vm.nodak.edu QUAKE-L Discussion List
sei...@BINGVMB.cc.binghamton.edu Seismological Data Distribution
seis...@BINGVMB.cc.binghamton.edu Seismological Discussion
stat...@UFRJ.bitnet Forum of Quantitative Methods in Geosciences
tgi...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Temporal Topics on GIS List
ucg...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Univ Consort for Geo Info & Analysis List
uig...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu G User Interfaces for Geographic Info. Sys.
uk...@UKCC.bitnet Kentucky Universities Geography Discussion
vig...@UWAVM.u.washington.edu Virtual Reality and GIS
Marine biology
bri...@UGA.cc.uga.edu Brine Shrimp Discussion List
cru...@SIVM.si.edu Crustacean Biology
dee...@uvvm.UVIC.ca Deep Sea and Vent News
diat...@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu Research on the diatom algae
hypb...@TECHNION.technion.ac.il HyperBaric & Diving Medicine List
mari...@vm.UOGUELPH.ca Marine Studies/Shipboard Education
mar...@uvvm.UVIC.ca Marine Mammal E-Mail Discussion List
meds...@AEARN.bitnet Marine Biology of the Adriatic Sea List
Medicine and medical research
adm...@ALBNYDH2.bitnet Adirondack Medical Records Association List
ami...@UMAB.bitnet American Medical Informatics Association
ami...@vm1.mcgill.ca American Medical Informatics Association Edu.
bab...@HARVARDA.harvard.edu Discussions on Organizational Design of Acad.
biom...@vm1.mcgill.ca Assoc. of Biomedical Communications Directors
biom...@NDSUVM1.bitnet Biomedical Ethics
canc...@WVNVM.wvnet.edu CANCER discussion list
cl...@FRMOP11.cnusc.fr Cancer Liaison and Action Network
cfs...@NIHLIST.bitnet Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/CFIDS medical list
coc...@UTORONTO.bitnet Computers in Canadian Medical Education
com...@WUVMD.bitnet M Comparative Medicine List
conf...@UCSFVM.bitnet School of Medicine Conference List
crom...@AEARN.bitnet CROatian MEDical List
fami...@MIZZOU1.bitnet Academic Family Medicine Discussion
heal...@RPITSVM.bitnet Communication in health/medical context
hype...@UMAB.bitnet Biomedical Hypermedia Instructional Design
imi...@UMAB.bitnet Int. Medical Informatics Assn. Board
isc...@GREARN.csi.forth.gr Computer Assist. Management & Manip. Info.
jmed...@BROWNVM.brown.edu Medical Journal Discussion Club
lasm...@TAUNIVM.tau.ac.il Laser Medicine
med...@FINHUTC.hut.fi Medical consulting and case descriptions
medf...@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu M Medical Students Discussion
medi...@POLYVM.bitnet Medical Imaging Discussion List
medl...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Medical Libraries Discussion List
med...@NDSUVM1.bitnet Medical Telecommunications Networks
med...@ASUACAD.bitnet M Health Info-Com Network (HICN) Newsletter
medp...@AWIIMC12.bitnet EFOMP Medical Physics Information Services
meds...@UNMVMA.bitnet M Medical student discussion list
meds...@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu Medical Support List
nnlm...@UMAB.bitnet National Network Library of Medicine SEA
nut...@DB0TUIM.bitnet Nutritional Epidemiology Discussion List
oxyg...@MIZZOU1.bitnet Oxygen Free Radical Biology and Medicine
pan...@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu Medical Education and Health Information
smc...@WAYNEST1.bitnet Continuing Medical Education Discussion List
smd...@DARTCMS1.bitnet Medical Decision Making List
Molecular biology
bio...@UMDD.umd.edu G Biotechnology Discussion List
conf...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Confocal Microscopy List
cyan...@GREARN.csi.forth.gr The Cyanobacterial Toxins Discussion List
di...@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu Drosophila workers to receive DIS Newsletter
ebc...@HDETUD1.tudelft.nl Computers in Biotechnology, Rsch. and Edu.
ebc...@HDETUD1.tudelft.nl Catalogue of 'Biotechnological' software
emb...@IBACSATA.bitnet EMBNet (European Molecular Biology Network)
emfl...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Electromagnetics in Med., Sci. & Com.
foru...@scf.fundp.ac.be Forum on molecular biology
gene...@INDYCMS.iupui.edu Clinical human genetics
lp...@BROWNVM.brown.edu Laboratory Primate Newsletter List
nib...@ccsun.unicamp.br NIBNews (Biology and Medical Informatics)
rb...@FRORS13.bitnet Molecular Biology Research Group
Neurobiology
cogs...@vm1.yorku.ca Cognitive Science Discussion Group
das...@earn.cvut.cs Digital Acoustic Signal Processing
ecov...@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu Trends in the Ecology of Vision
neuc...@CUNYVM.cuny.edu Chilean Neurosciences Discussion List
neu...@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu Yale Neuroscience Program
neur...@UICVM.uic.edu Neuroscience Information Forum
neu...@UICVM.uic.edu Methods in Modern Neuroscience
psyc...@NKI.bitnet M Interdisciplinary Research on Consciousness
sbn...@BRUSPVM.bitnet Brazilian Society of Neurosciences & Comp.
Taxonomy and Systematics
cla...@ccvm.sunysb.edu Classification and phylogeny estimation
moll...@ucmp1.berkeley.edu Mollusc evolution, taxonomy, natural history
mus...@HARVARDA.harvard.edu Muse Software Discussion List
muse...@UNMVMA.unm.edu Museum discussion list
roo...@vm1.nodak.edu Genealogy list
tax...@HARVARDA.harvard.edu Taxonomic and systematic collections list
Teaching and Research
bib...@INDYCMS.iupui.edu Discusssion of citation and bibliography
bioc...@SIVM.si.edu Biology Curriculum Innovation Study
bio...@KSUVM.ksu.edu Secondary Biology Teacher List
cons...@IUBVM.ucs.indiana.edu Research and Practice in Mentoring
darw...@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu History and Theory of the Historical Sciences
gran...@JHUVM.hcf.jhu.edu NSF Grants & Contracts
hps...@QUCDN.queensu.ca History and Philosophy of Science
job-...@FRORS12.bitnet Job offers from EARN Institute members
met...@vm.ecs.rpi.edu Research methodology
navi...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu M Navigating The Internet Workshop List
newe...@vm.usc.edu New Paradigms in Education List
nihg...@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu M NIH Grants and Contracts Distribution List
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