MycoRant

While perusing some of the content at Scientific American this morning, I saw an advertisement that enticed my mouse to click it. It was for Scitable by natureEducation. Scitable has the tagline “A Collaborative Learning Space for Science.”

Scitable, the Online Science Library and Personal Learning Tool

According the the site homepage, Scitable is:

A free science library and personal learning tool brought to you by Nature Publishing Group, the world’s leading publisher of science.

Scitable currently concentrates on genetics, the study of evolution, variation, and the rich complexity of living organisms. As you cultivate your understanding of modern genetics on Scitable, you will explore not only what we know about genetics and the ways it impacts our society, but also the data and evidence that supports our knowledge.

In browsing through the offerings in genetics I must say I was impressed. A person really could learn genetics here. The starting place would seem to be the Genetics Topic Room or possibly Essentials of Genetics, and from there, there are a whole slew of expertly written and highly readable papers on each of the major topics one would expect to cover in an undergraduate or even graduate college course in genetics and the molecular biology of information molecules.

Learn about chromosome structure and function at Scitable (Wiki Commons)

The articles include reference sections and in some cases the references link directly to other papers that are available on-line. This is an excellent resource.

Scitable Offers More than Genetics

Not only does Scitable present an outstanding collection of articles is also offers:

• The ability to browse and search articles
• A help and connect section for collaborating with and contacting peers and experts
• Ability to build an on-line classroom
• A way of contributing and sharing content

Although the focus of Scitable is genetics, there is some other material of interest as well, including Spotlights:

Spotlights are focused explorations of key topics in science: current issues in the news, emerging lab techniques, thought leader perspectives, governmental policy, and a range of other subjects. Spotlights provide an entry point into the rich and dynamic world of science.

Find the spotlights as you scroll down the main Topics page. After that are some interesting blogs as well. All around a site that is well worth investigating in some detail.

Tags: education, genetics, learning network, molecular biology, Nature Publishing, on-line resource, Scitable