1. evolvingthoughts
  2. Bugs online

Bugs online

By evolvingthoughts on August 9, 2008.

This is cool. I always like to find historical documents online; even better when they're free. The Society for General Microbiology has scanned its journal International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) back to the first edition in 1951 and made the archival articles free to all. Since the discovery of organisms is a once-off affair, subsequent researchers need access to the item that announced it in peer-reviewed print to be able to be sure they are working on the right species. So more than most sciences, taxonomy is a historical science, and since bugs (the technical term for bacteria, algae, and other microbes) have only really been deeply and widely studied in the past 60 years or so, this counts as "historical material". Congrats to the SGM, and now for the other professional publishers...

Tags
Biodiversity
History
Species and systematics

More like this

Swedish Historical Bibliography Mysteriously Threatened

Here's a case of odd priorities. The Royal Library in Stockholm keeps a copy of everything that is printed in Sweden (and Swedish), and also has a lot of people tending LIBRIS, the national bibliographic database.

It's South Africa's turn for a little poll-crashing

It's a poll about whether the Bible is an accurate historical document…and the people who think it is have a slight edge right now. Now, as I post this, that is. I have a suspicion that that will change very quickly.

Chinese Archaeology Loses Proto-Historical Innocence

What order should you watch Star Wars in?

With the imminent release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you might want to refresh your memory by watching the earlier Star Wars films, or even the films and other related productions.

Now THAT is just plain beautiful. This is one journal that lack of free access to has been irritating me, so I'm excruciatingly happy to see them opening up...