Professional Organizations can provide valuable networking and educational activities.

Newspapers for the general public sometimes report on issues related to the biological sciences or recent scientific advancements. Check out the Newspapers guide for information on news sources available through the Whittemore Library.

These news sources provide news for those with knowledge of or interest in the biological sciences

News sources can be helpful in your research to get overviews of the most recent advancements, see how scientific information is being communicated to the general public, and understand public opinion of issues in the biological sciences. News sources can come in two forms, news for biologists and those interested in the biological sciences, or news for the general public.

Google can be a wonderful resource for finding background information on your topic! The search commands listed below will help you find credible information using Google.

site

What it does: Searches within a specific site or domain. Useful for locating information from specific government organizations. Also useful for locating materials more generally from .gov or .edu domains. 

Examples: site:who.int or site:.gov

Notes: Be careful if searching for site:.edu. Not all websites that end in .edu are universities or other educational institutions, the domain can be used by anyone. 

Filetype

What it does: Searches for specific file types. Useful for looking for reports, white papers, working papers, or factsheets. 

Examples: filetype:pdf

Notes: There may be information you are missing if you limit to one filetype! 

Additional Examples

Example search: Lyme disease site:who.int filetype:pdf

What it retrieves: This search retrieves pdf files published to the web on the WHO website. 

Example search: bt corn site:usda.gov

What it retrieves: This search retrieves any information on bt corn on the USDA website.