One-stop site for science
A new Web site devoted to biological and medical science aims to give users a one-stop shopping experience for all of their research needs.
Named after the famous ship which Charles Darwin used on his expeditons, the HMS Beagle combines some original opinion pieces as well as book and software reviews with links to the online editions of esteemed publications like Nature Medicine, Cell, The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature. The site, which launched today, highlights the latest research from these publications--everything from articles on introns ("junk" DNA) to protease inhibitors--freeing users from the hassle of scouring each site separately.
Like a number of other sites, the HMS Beagle hopes to carve itself a niche in the science publishing market by serving as a filter for research in dozens of other online publications. Sites such as NewsLinx and News Hub do the same thing for information technology news. NEWS.COM also provides links to other news publications.
"The idea is to mainly to save people time," said Barbara Sullivan, a marketing administrator at BioMedNet, the publisher of HMS Beagle. "This is a way for research people and people who aren't necessarily doing research to keep up with the scene, to get a good idea of what's out there, what the hottest topics are in biology and medical science."
According to Sullivan, HMS Beagle will feature daily updates on scientific research in other online publications and print. Visitors to the site will also be able to engage in debates with experts.