Resources on The Study of Biological Sciences

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What are Biological Sciences?

Over the course of several millennia, the study of Biological Science degree programmes has helped people to understand the vast and intricate nature of life and organisms.  An umbrella term for an array of specialist areas which, at their core, focus on investigating the science of living things on earth, such as ecology, molecular biology, cell biology, forensic biology, natural science, anatomy et al.

The aim of the Biological Sciences is to offer both practical and analytical understandings of living organisms in their wide ranging forms, starting from the fundamental building blocks, then branching out into the many broad arenas of biology.

From genetics to human biology, the Biological Sciences are a diverse and intense area of study. The majority of courses will offer a year to study the basics of biology, afterwards, you will then be able to choose a selection of electives which form a wider biology degree in a specific field.

Why Study the Biological Sciences?

The study of Biological Sciences undergraduate degrees is predominantly interest driven, so once you have completed a year in the primary study of biology, the rest of your course, generally being 2 or 3 more years, will be niches you choose to study, and modules which best suit your strengths.

Involving wide ranging forms of study including field work, research groups, research projects, lectures etc. Often, courses will include a year abroad, this is especially applicable if you are studying Biological Sciences degrees in conjunction with a language degree.

A distinctive feature of Biological Sciences is that this degree scheme offers a great deal of flexibility. As a student you will get a unique opportunity to choose from the large and varied portfolio of teaching offered to develop a unique degree. The study of Biological Sciences will help you acquire a broad range of skill sets, which will enable you to pursue careers in the medical, scientific, journalistic and teaching fields, as well as others.

To study for a Biological Sciences degree at a UK university, you will need an A Level in Biology. Similar distinctions in science subjects are required in other countries too.

Check our useful sources for Biological Sciences subject:

• • Sites of interest for the Biological Sciences
    American Society for Cell Biology Image and Video Library

    http://cellimages.ascb.org/

    NA

    ARKive

    http://www.arkive.org/

    a collection of films, photographs and audio recordings of species and habitats

    Atlas of Human Embryology

    http://www.embryo.chronolab.com/

    online image resource

    BEN Portal

    http://www.biosciednet.org/portal/

    from the AAAS covering 77 biological science topics

    BioethicsWeb

    http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/bioethicsweb/

    A searchable catalogue of Internet sites and resources covering biomedical ethics

    Bioinformatics links

    http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/biolinks/index.php

    from the Technical University of Denmark

    Bioinformatics Resource Portal

    http://ca.expasy.org/

    Bioinformatics Tutorials Series

    https://www.countway.harvard.edu/menuNavigation/libraryServices/classes/videoTutorials.html

    Biological Biochemical Image Database

    http://bbid.grc.nia.nih.gov/

    images of macromolecular structures, biological pathways, gene families and cellular relationships

    Biology Animation Library

    http://www.dnalc.org/ddnalc/resources/animations.html

    animations of the most common molecular processes

    BiologyBrowser

    http://www.biologybrowser.com/

    A starting point for anyone seeking biological information on the Internet (from BIOSIS)

    Biology Project

    http://www.biology.arizona.edu/

    an interactive online resource for biology learning

    BioMagResBank

    http://www.bmrb.wisc.edu/index.html

    Data repository from NMR Spectroscopy of proteins, peptides and nucleic acids

    BioMedCentral

    http://www.biomedcentral.com/

    Open access journals and news

    BioResearch

    http://bioresearch.ac.uk/

    UK gateway to Internet resources in the biological sciences

    Biochemistry

    http://bubl.ac.uk/link/b/biochemistry.htm

    Lists of resources from BUBL – the Bulletin Board for Libraries –

    Molecular Biology

    http://bubl.ac.uk/link/m/molecularbiology.htm

    Lists of resources from BUBL – the Bulletin Board for Libraries –

    Genetics Research

    http://bubl.ac.uk/link/g/geneticsresearch.htm

    Lists of resources from BUBL – the Bulletin Board for Libraries –

    Life Sciences

    http://bubl.ac.uk/link/linkbrowse.cfm?menuid=6410

    Lists of resources from BUBL – the Bulletin Board for Libraries –

    Palaeontology

    http://bubl.ac.uk/link/linkbrowse.cfm?menuid=6409

    Lists of resources from BUBL – the Bulletin Board for Libraries –

    Plants

    http://bubl.ac.uk/link/linkbrowse.cfm?menuid=6411

    Lists of resources from BUBL – the Bulletin Board for Libraries –

    Animals

    http://bubl.ac.uk/link/linkbrowse.cfm?menuid=6412

    Lists of resources from BUBL – the Bulletin Board for Libraries –

    Centre for Bioscience ImageBank

    http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/imagebank/

    free images for use for educational purposes

    Crystallography Online (IUCr)

    http://www.iucr.org/cww-top/crystal.index.html

    Enzyme Structures Database

    http://www.ebi.ac.uk/thornton-srv/databases/enzymes/

    ExPASy Proteomics Server

    http://www.expasy.ch/

    InfoMine

    http://infomine.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/search?bioag

    Biological, Agricultural and Medical Resources

    Internet Detective

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/

    an online tutorial that will help you develop Internet research skills

    Internet Directory for Botany

    http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/JTHome/IDB/IDB/

    Internet for Agriculture

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/agriculture

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for Agriculture

    Internet for Allied Health

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/alliedhealth

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for allied health subjects

    Internet for Biodiversity

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/biodiversity/

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for biodiversity

    Internet for Environment

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/environment/

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for the environment

    Internet for Microbiology

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/microbiology/

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for microbiology

    Internet for Midwifery

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/midwifery/

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for midwifery

    Internet for Medicine

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/medicine

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for medicine

    Internet for Natural History

    http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/tutorial/nature

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for the natural world

    Internet for Plant Sciences

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/plantscience/

    A free teach yourself tutorial on Internet information skills for plant sciences

    Internet for the Molecular Biologist

    http://www.horizonpress.com/gateway/iftmb.html

    An introduction to the Internet and good collections of links in molecular biology, cell biology and genetics

    Intute: Health and Life Sciences

    http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/

    A guide to quality Internet resources in the health and life sciences

    JISCMail

    http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/

    UK academic email discussion groups

    Macaulay Library

    http://macaulaylibrary.org/index.do

    an archive of animal sounds and video

    MicrobeLibrary.org

    http://www.microbelibrary.org/

    Resources for undergraduate microbiology

    Microbes Info

    http://www.microbes.info/

    The Microbiology Information Portal

    MicrobiologyBytes

    http://www.microbiologybytes.com/

    the latest news about microbiology

    Molecular Biology Gateway

    http://www.horizonpress.com/gateway/

    National Biological Information Infrastructure

    http://www.nbii.gov/index.html

    Links to diverse, high-quality biological databases, information products and analytical tools

    National Center for Genome Resources

    http://www.ncgr.org/

    Oregon State University Mycological Collection

    http://oregonstate.edu/dept/botany/herbarium/myco.php

    Paleonet

    http://www.nhm.ac.uk/paleonet/Index.html

    A variety of electronic resources for palaeontologists

    Plant and Soil Sciences eLibrary

    http://plantandsoil.unl.edu/croptechnology2005/

    a collection of learning materials

    Plantwise Knowledge Bank

    http://www.plantwise.org/KnowledgeBank/home.aspx

    Pest and disease factsheets and mapping

    Protein Data Bank

    http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/Welcome.do;jsessionid=JHDbEmdnrI3SZPfdRM0lZA**

    Public Health Image Library

    http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/home.asp

    ResearchGate

    http://www.researchgate.net/

    Facebook for Scientists

    SciCentral

    http://www.scicentral.com/

    Portal to breaking scientific research news

    ScienceResearch.com

    http://www.scienceresearch.com/

    Portal that searches online scientific journals and databases. Results give abstracts and sometimes access to full text

    Scientific WebPlus

    http://scientific.thomsonwebplus.com/BasicSearch.aspx

    Search for web sites by topic, person, organism, gene or drug

    Scirus

    http://www.scirus.com/

    a search engine specially developed to find scientific information
    Scirus journal listings now link through to our e-journal subscriptions – to see these links, click on Search Preferences and choose Birkbeck from the list of Library partners. Then click on the Check Birkbeck Library links from your search results

    WWW Virtual Library Biosciences

    http://vlib.org/Biosciences

    section

    World Biodiversity Database

    http://www.eti.uva.nl/tools/wbd.php

    A continuously growing taxonomic database and information system that aims to document all presently known species (about 1.7 million). It contains taxonomic information (hierarchies), species names, synonyms, descriptions, illustrations and literature references. Links provide genetic information on protein sequence, nucleic sequence and 3D structures for each taxon.

    Yahoo! Biology Section

    http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Biology/

    Crystallography Section

    http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Physics/Crystallography/

    Molecular Biology section

    http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Biology/Molecular_Biology/

    Structural Biology section

    http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Biology/Structural_Biology/