Great Science Sites on the Web: Web Resources

The NAL Catalog (AGRICOLA) provides citations to agricultural literature.

"GRAS" is an acronym for the phrase Generally Recognized As Safe. The current GRAS list appears as Parts 182, 184, and 186 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

This page lists notices of recalls and alerts from both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The NAL Digital Collections offers one avenue by which customers can use collection materials available in digital format, whether those materials originated in that format or were converted to it later. The NAL Digital Collections offers rich searching, browsing and retrieval of digital materials and collections and provides reliable, long-term online access to selected publications.

The amended FD&C Act (United States, 1998a) defined a food-contact substance as "any substance intended for use as a component of materials used in manufacturing, packing, packaging, transporting, or holding food if such use is not intended to have a technical effect in such food."

Qualified scientists served as consultants to review and evaluate the available information on each of the GRAS substances. These scientists, designated as the Select Committee on GRAS Substances (SCOGS), were chosen for their experience and judgment. The Select Committee's evaluations were made independently of FDA or any other group, governmental or nongovernmental. FDA requested LSRO to perform full safety reviews of the more than 235 substances, including some substances listed in the CFR, as well as some substances not listed in the CFR. By 1982, after 10 years of work, SCOGS had produced 151 detailed reports covering over 400 substances.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy.

Agricultural research bulletins are published by the US Department of Agriculture as a means of disseminating research results to the public. The Yearbooks of Agriculture have been published on a variety of topics and represent a useful introduction to a variety of agriculturally related subjects.

The USDA conducts food inspection overseas for products which are intended for import into the United States. This page discusses these efforts.

The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (SR) is the major source of food composition data in the United States. This database provides the foundation for most food composition databases in the public and private sectors. As information is unpdated, new versions of the database are released.

The Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD) is a joint project of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and National Library of Medicine (NLM).

The CAPjournal is a free peer-reviewed journal for astronomy communicators, online and in print.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA was established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation.

Extremely useful aggregator for proteomics, genomics, phylogeny, systems biology, population genetics, transcriptomics. etc.

EBI Search is a scalable, text search engine that provides easy and uniform access to the biological data resources hosted at the EMBL-EBI. It can be accessed via the web or programmatically using RESTful Web Services

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is a division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and contains the largest biomedical research facility in the world.

Vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts and lichens of the United States together with distributions within the US and territories

Plant distributions in the United States.

Overview of plant and distribution maps. Links to various sites.

Sigma-Aldrich is a major vendor of chemicals to industry and the research community. Because of this, its web site is one of the first sites which should be used when searching for research chemicals.

The NIST Chemistry WebBook provides users with easy access to chemical and physical property data for chemical species through the internet. The data provided in the site are from collections maintained by the NIST Standard Reference Data Program and outside contributors

Spectrum searching (NMR, UV etc) for chemical identification

Each CAS Registry Number (often referred to as a CAS Number) is assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service) is a unique numeric identifier that designates only one substance, has no chemical significance and is a link to a wealth of information about a specific chemical substance Find CAS Registry Numbers in SciFinder®, STN® databases, CAS publications, Other publications, Governmental regulatory agency commercial chemical inventories, Selected Elsevier databases, Handbooks, guides and technical reports, Other printed reference works, Chemical catalogs, etc.

Links for Chemists is an index of chemistry resources on the web. This site is the copyright of The University of Liverpool, Department of Chemistry.

Manufacturers and suppliers have a legal duty to provide and maintain MSDS information for the chemicals that they sell.

NIST produces the Nation’s Standard Reference Data (SRD). These data are assessed by experts and are trustworthy such that people can use the data with confidence and base significant decisions on the data. NIST provides 49 free SRD databases and 41 fee-based SRD databases. SRD must be compliant with rigorous critical evaluation criteria. Send questions to data@nist.gov

This is a source for freeware chemical sketch software which is used as a front-end for a variety of chemical databases published by this vendor.

MarvinSketch is an advanced chemical editor for drawing chemical structures, queries and reactions

The Organic Chemistry Portal offers an overview of recent topics, interesting reactions, and information on important chemicals for organic chemists.

A good source for links to learning Organic Chemistry.

Virtual textbook for learning Organic Chemistry.

The Physical Properties Sources Index (PPSI) is a tool for finding resources for physico-chemical and other material properties.
It is a starting point for queries such as
•Where does one find a listing of rate constants?
•Where does precise information on chemical structure (bond lengths, bond angles, torsion angles) of molecules in the gas phase exist?
•Where do I find the definition of the quadrupole moment?
•Where are techniques for measurement of viscosity described?

These articles are on a pay-per-view basis. It is often easier to consult the printed source first.

Cinema uses many cinematic conventions which are contrary to scientific fact. Here are some examples.

Cinema makes many cinematic conventions which are false. This site discusses them with respect to physics.

IATE multilingual term database. English language searches.

Good engineering reference aggregation site.

IEEE Professional Society.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Mechanism animations (java)

Health and Safety Information on Household Products.

The US Geological Service publishes maps in various formats.

Journal Impact Factors are often used to rate peer-reviewed scientific, technical, medical and engineering journals which are incorporated in the Institute for Scientific Information's Science Citation Index (published by Thomson Scientific)

Wolfram claims that this is the World's most extensive resource on mathematics.

This page links to many resources on statistics.

Statsoft produces Statistical Analysis Software in competition with SAS, BMDP and SPSS. These products are used in statistical analysis and datamining. This is an online statistics text which can be used by students.

FDA takes great efforts, within its legal authority, to address and prevent drug shortages, which can occur for many reasons, including manufacturing and quality problems, delays, and discontinuations. This site describes Animal Drug Shortages.

the CIRRIE Database of International Research contains citations, abstracts, and in many cases, links to the full text of articles that report rehabilitation related research

Drug shortages can adversely affect drug therapy, compromise or delay medical procedures, and result in medication errors. American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) and its partners work to keep the public informed of the most current drug shortages.

Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of primary research in human health care and health policy, and are internationally recognised as the highest standard in evidence-based health care

Criteria for FDA recalls.

FDA publishes listings of Drug Approvals in the FDA Orange Book.

A synthetic site for FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts.

FDA has responsibility for enforcing a broad range of statutory and regulatory requirements which include Recalls and Enforcement Actions.

hen it is consistent with the public protection responsibilities of the agency and depending on the nature of the violation, it is the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) practice to give individuals and firms an opportunity to take voluntary and prompt corrective action before it initiates an enforcement action. Warning Letters are issued to achieve voluntary compliance and to establish prior notice before the FDA takes an Enforcement Action

Recall criteria are given in the FDA Guidance for Industry.

Guidelines for clinical practice published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Each year, the FDA receives several hundred thousand medical device reports (MDRs) of suspected device-associated deaths, serious injuries and malfunctions. The FDA uses MDRs to monitor device performance, detect potential device-related safety issues, and contribute to benefit-risk assessments of these products. The MAUDE database houses MDRs submitted to the FDA by mandatory reporters (manufacturers, importers and device user facilities) and voluntary reporters such as health care professionals, patients and consumers.

Premarket approval (PMA) is the FDA process of scientific and regulatory review to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Class III medical devices. Class III devices are those that support or sustain human life, are of substantial importance in preventing impairment of human health, or which present a potential, unreasonable risk of illness or injury.

PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. PEDro is a free database of over 25,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. For each trial, review or guideline, PEDro provides the citation details, the abstract and a link to the full text, where possible.

PubMed comprises more than 22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

Quackwatch is an international network of people who are concerned about health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. Its primary focus is on quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere.

PLOS ONE: an inclusive, peer-reviewed, open-access resource from the PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE. This journal is regarded as a major competitor to commercial peer-reviewed scientific journals.

The US CPSC is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of the thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard.

FAMU's policies related to laboratory safery.

An industry related site dealing with laboratory safety training.

Snopes.com is regarded as the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.

The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) scientific and educational organization whose mission is to engage leading experts in investigating the paranormal, fringe science, pseudoscience, and extraordinary claims of all kinds,

Top 10 sites to debunk Internet hoaxes from Tech Republic (IT issues).

Pseudoscience is any belief system or methodology which tries to gain legitimacy by wearing the trappings of science, but fails to abide by the rigorous methodology and standards of evidence that demarcate true science. Although pseudoscience is designed to have the appearance of being scientific, it lacks any of the substance of science.

Focuses on physics

An interactive guide for laboratory and medical instrumentation.

Discusses software validation methods.

Today's Research News:

Research news in the Biosciences, Health Sciences, Physics/Chemistry, Earth/Space and Engineering.

Collects science articles from sources around the world, so you can find the latest science news and discussion on any topic.

World Weather Forecasts for Africa.

World Weather Forecasts for Asia.

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

World Weather Forecast for Europe

This global web site presents OFFICIAL weather observations, weather forecasts and climatological information for selected cities supplied by National Meteorological & Hydrological Services (NMHSs) worldwide.

World Weather Forecasts for South America.

NOAA's web pages devoted to aviation weather.

The National Weather Service is a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is an Operating Unit of the U.S. Department of Commerce whose mission is to pProvide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy.

NOAA's pages devoted to marine weather.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones.

Since FAMU has subscribed to a wide variety of scholarly journal aggregators, it would be wise to consult the FAMU databases before using these sources: