Scientists worldwide have begun making extensive use of the World Wide Web for the placement and retrieval of information of value to the international scientific community. Current Opinion in Biotechnology felt that these information sources were now of sufficient quality and interest to be made available to its readership.
Beginning with this issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology, a list of World Wide Web sites complementing the reviews in each issue will be presented. The list will be collated by several bioinformatics experts at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (Bethesda, USA), and each World Wide Web site will be appended with a brief description of its contents.
We realize that some biologists are still not entirely comfortable with the Internet and may not have had much exposure to it (beyond sending and receiving electronic mail [e-mail]). In the following section, therefore, a brief introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web is provided, along with some practical information as to how to access the World Wide Web and to find information of interest on it.
We would welcome feedback from our readers on this feature and would also be interested in hearing suggestions for improving our ability to provide this new information resource. Send your suggestions to