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BioTechniquesVol. 43, No. 4 WebWatchOpen AccessWebWatchKevin AhernKevin AhernSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:16 May 2018https://doi.org/10.2144/000112572AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SNP Lust in SeattleThe lowest level of biological information, the single base pair, turns out to have a vastly elevated importance when it is mutated and then viewed in the context of sequences surrounding it. That these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have enormous biological importance is no secret. They are, of course, the roots of genetic diversity and give rise to readily identifiable distinguishing features of DNAs, such as restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). Tracking these tiny mutations and their impacts on human inflammatory responses is SeattleSNPs, a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Program for Genomic Applications hosted at the University of Washington. Here, visitors can access sequenced genes, obtain educational material, extract genomic variation information from a dedicated server, and even download SNP variation data chromosome by chromosome.@ pga.gs.washington.edu“E” is for More Than EffortTaking the “Think Globally, Act Locally” mantra of the environmental movement strictly to heart, LEEF (London Environmental Education Forum) aims to improve its home base of London by embracing the three e's: education, events, and environmentalism. Open to anyone interested in promoting environmental education in the city, LEEF excels with clearly written articles on human behavior impacting the environment (and vice-versa). Did you know that a copier left on overnight wastes enough energy to make over 5000 copies? That's just one of many “points of light” to be discovered at the LEEF site.@ www.leef.org.ukWired for BiologyAn aspect of the internet that undoubtedly is an attractant to many is that of being a source of free things. To be sure, the web contains an enormous amount of information available for the looking, and much of that is educational in nature. One notable (and also free) biological resource is Dr. Michael Farabee's Online Biology Book, hosted at the Estrella Mountain Community College in Avondale, AZ. Visited by an astonishing 2,000,000 people in 7 years, the site provides what is essentially an online textbook on the subject of biology. With 59 topics and innumerable hyperlinked subtopics embedded in well-written text, the Online Biology Book satisfies even the most demanding of online bio-bargain hunters.@ www.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobooktoc.htmlGood as GoldHumanitarian efforts come and go, but one notable gift that is poised to “keep on giving” is golden rice. Created in the labs of Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer, the food was genetically engineered to produce β-carotene, and for this trait it has been described as the genetically modified organism equivalent of fluoridated water and iodized salt. For the 124 million people worldwide whose diets are deficient in vitamin A, golden rice will likely become an important source of this micronutrient, which has been implicated in 1–2 million deaths and about half as many cases of blindness per year. Integration of golden rice into the seed stocks of farmers in developing countries is ongoing today as a result of genetic crossing and (importantly) free licensing made possible by the magnanimous efforts of these idealistic inventors, noted prominently at the site.@ www.goldenrice.orgValuable Junk BondsIn a world of DNA commodities, introns are probably as close to being biological junk bonds as any other components of eukaryotic chromosomes. As pointed out at the Ares Lab Yeast Intron Database (ALYID), though, these intervening DNA segments are not worthless, because learning the how and why of them is essential to understanding the phenomenon of spliceosomal splicing. With info extracted from the Saccharomyces Genome Database, ALYID organizes intron-related data in an alphabetized table and then adds value with “stuff you won't find anywhere else,” a collection that includes a tool to flag S. cerevisiae-like introns in user-provided sequences and summaries of yeast introns in the 5′ UTRs of mRNAs and snoRNA genes.@ www.soe.ucsc.edu/research/compbio/yeast_introns.htmlFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 43, No. 4 Follow us on social media for the latest updates Metrics Downloaded 150 times History Published online 16 May 2018 Published in print October 2007 Information© 2007 Author(s)PDF download