BIOLOGY

[Biology has] become the paramount science, exceeding other disciplines, including physics and chemistry at least, in the creative tumult of its disciplines and disputations. [...] I'll also be so bold at this point to suggest that we are now at the edge of establishing the two fundamental laws of biology: The first law is that all of the phenomena of biology, the entities and the processes, are ultimately obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry. Not immediately reducible to them, but ultimately consistent and in consilience with them, by a cause and effect explanation. The second law is that all biological phenomena, these entities and processes that define life itself, have arisen by evolution through natural selection.

E. O. Wilson, American biologist, entomologist, sociobiologist, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, author of several books including Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, 1998

Sites of General Scientific Interest

• World Lecture Hall... this is a listing of course materials available online on a large variety of topics, including the sciences and biology high school  
   
• ​Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History ... in addition to finding information about the museum's activities and exhibits, you can actually see online editions of some of the exhibits. The "African Voices" exhibit is particularly beautiful and interesting 
• The Game of Life... You control the parameters of life in this interactive game. Students select such factors as loneliness and overcrowding (and even which graphics to use) then play the game to see how the population fares. Continue playing to determine if successive generations will survive   
• Florida Museum of Natural History... Wealth of biology information including photo galleries, virtual exhibits and publications  
• Science and Education... Serendip's Science Education website offers many opportunities to explore the changing views on education in a theoretical and practical sense​
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Playing with Applets

• ​BioInteractive ... a neat website that promotes understanding of biology through interactive learning. Includes a great set of computer lab experiments where you can click around and become a virtual scientist. You can "identify deadly pathogens, probe heart patients, dissect a leech, or assay antibodies". Also check out the "click and learn" section. Provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• ​The Game of Life ... You control the parameters of life in this interactive game. Students select such factors as loneliness and overcrowding (and even which graphics to use) then play the game to see how the population fares. Continue playing to determine if successive generations will survive
• ​Online Onion Root Tips ... over the course of this tutorial, one learns how to classify the stage of a cell into one of the five phases of the cell cycle, then sees how much time the cell spends in each phase high school  
• ​The Virtual Cell ... This ambitious site presents an interactive, animated exploration of the cell, along with a good virtual textbook. 
• ​Mendel's Pea Experiment ... Students learn the basics of Mendelian genetics through an interactive cross between pea plants. Simple but effective in teaching about recessive and dominant traits.  
• ​Interactive Frog Dissection ... this site leads you through the dissection and study of a frog. Perhaps not as effective as the real thing, but certainly a valuable tool  
• ​Karyotyping Activity ... learn about karyotyping of chromosomes by matching the chromosomes of a given patient and diagnosing their genetic disease  
• ​Nutritional Analysis Tool 2.0 ... enter in a number of types of food (ie, last night's meal) and find out the exact nutritional information, including Calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium, vitamin A, vitamin C, saturated fat, and cholesterol
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Cell Biology



• ​Online Onion Root Tips ... over the course of this tutorial, one learns how to classify the stage of a cell into one of the five phases of the cell cycle, then sees how much time the cell spends in each phase high school  
• ​The Virtual Cell ... This ambitious site presents an interactive, animated exploration of the cell, along with a good virtual textbook. general  
• ​Virtual Cell ... An interactive journey through a plant cell. Read the "About Virtual Cell" before you begin to understand the controls. This site doesn't require any special plug-ins or browsers general  
• ​CELLS Alive! ... a great site for learning about cells or even just fun cruising. Tutorials under such topics as Cell structure and function, Microbes, the Immune system, and Microscopy general  
• ​Molecular Expressions... this site offers one of the web's largest collections of color photographs taken through an optical microscope. many fascinating photo galleries including DNA, amino acids, birthstones, and much more. general  
• ​Stalking the Mysterious Microbe ... invites kids to join Sam Sleuth as he unravles the mysteries of microbes, learning all about these "invisible companions". includes sections for news, experiments, and careers
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​Neurobiology

• ​Neuroscience for Kids ... Eric Chudler of the University of Washington presents a clear and easy-to-understand introduction to the field of neuroscience. This searchable site has fun activities, games, ideas for experiments, a question-and-answer page, newsletter subscription, and relevant links. It is an very interesting resource for students and teachers alike.
• ​Brain Connection: Brain and Learning ... This is an excellent site about the brain and learning! You will find articles, brain building activities (for kids and adults), animations of brain processes, a library, a gallery, an anatomy section and more. You will need the free Flash and Shockwave players for the activities and animations
• ​Time to Think? ... This web exhibit of Serendip's own tries to explain and recreate a scientific experiment conducted in the 1860's. By testing various types of reaction rates, the experiment was to determine whether the act of thinking was one that required time. You can conduct your own experiments on this matter from the convenience of your very own computer, as well as compare your results to those of other exhibit visitors
• ​Brain and Behavior ... Serendip's Brain and Behavior page is designed more to raise questions than to answer them. To this end, there are many interesting interactive exhibits designed to help you draw your own conclusions about the functioning of the brain
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Disease/Disease Fighting



• ​Internet Pathology Library ... This heavily illustrated pathology resource contains some unsettling images; it is not for the squeamish. Medical novices should start with the "Mini-tutorials." The terse, matter-of-fact essays and detailed medical images give a grim reality to the consequences of drinking and smoking, as well as other, less avoidable health problems. "General Pathology" provides a guided tour of what a pathologist sees when examining a body. Feeling expert? Take a stab at diagnosing the "Case of the Week."   
• ​Visualizations of Viruses ... The University of Wisconsin's Institute for Molecular Virology has assembled a gallery f computer images created using electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography 
• ​CELLS Alive! ... a great site for learning about cells or even just fun cruising. Tutorials under such topics as Cell structure and function, Microbes, the Immune system, and Microscopy  
• ​National Cancer Institute: Science Behind the News ... several detailed, engaging tutorials on the nature of cancer, angiogenesis, gene testing, and the immune system
• ​Stalking the Mysterious Microbe ... invites kids to join Sam Sleuth as he unravles the mysteries of microbes, learning all about these "invisible companions". includes sections for news, experiments, and careers
• ​Blackout Syndrome ... People are suffering from a mystery disease! What is it? Where did it come from? How can it be stopped? Read the interactive mystery and unravel the clues, then e-mail your answer!
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