Internet Newsgroups When I first started learning about some of the many things computers can be used for in research, the idea that my computer would be my most valued tool for laboratory bench work was far from my mind. After joining a few of the many newsgroups on the Internet, however, I found computers to be an indispensable source of information about hands-on technical lab know-how. For me, the 'net' became my best resource for international exchange of ideas, and I have received top-quality advice for my designed experiments without ever having to leave the comfort of my own lab. Needless to say, I'm now addicted to the net, and I'm fully convinced that being involved in newsgroups is far from the waste of time I once thought it was. I find it difficult to believe that I ever tried to do laboratory bench work or begin a new project without first consulting the 'netters' (people who communicate through the Internet). As much as I would like to keep the best place in the world all to myself, I also think it only fair to let you in on it. In this article, I will try to convince you to join me, tell you how you can begin to do it and show you the best place I have found for molecular 'armchair quarterbacking'. Best of all, getting into the game is a snap, and once you're online it's absolutely free! What is a newsgroup? ******************** Newsgroups are forums for communication that work like electronic bulletin boards. Computer users join in the group by posting or replying to the equivalent of an electronic personal ad that is transmitted over the Internet from their computer to all the other users who subscribe to the group. This can be done by sending e-mail to a mailing list generated on another computer, by using front-end software called newsreaders that are designed specifically for reading and posting in newsgroups, or by linking up to another computer that stores the messages posted via a Web browser. There are now thousands of newsgroups that focus on topics ranging from the arts and sciences to just about everything under the sun that people feel the urge to discuss, including how to brew beer or dance the jitterbug. There are also some more bizarre newsgroups like alt.internet.talk.bizarre (of course). Bionet newsgroups ***************** Many of the newsgroups are very 'chatty'- that is, there is not much else that goes on besides the usual chatter, or mundane and senseless bickering known as 'flaming'. However, there are some very useful discussions of interest to serious cell biologists that happen mainly in the Bionet newsgroups bionet.cellbio, bionet.cellbio.cytonet, bionet.profsociety.ascb and bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts. If you are in need of a new job, bionet.jobs.wanted and bionet.jobs.offered are where you want to be. If you aren't connected to the net yet, you're definitely missing out! The Bionet newsgroups are a subset of the USENET newsgroup network and are dedicated to the biological sciences. Originally set up ten years ago through research grant money as a series of electronic bulletin boards on the BIONET National Computer Resource for Molecular Biology, Bionet has now been incorporated into a more easily accessible form and distributed through the Internet in parallel with e-mail subscriptions. Bionet is currently supported mainly through private donations and commercial sponsors. The US BIOSCI site is supported by commercial advertising through their own World Wide Web (WWW) site http://www.bio.net and the UK BIOSCI node is supported by the Daresbury Laboratory (see Box 1). Scientists, researchers and graduate students of biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, as well as many other disciplines, gather on Bionet from all parts of the world to discuss topics ranging from general biology to specific details related to molecular and cellular biology. The best part about the Bionet is that it is open to the public 24 hours a day and it doesn't cost anything to join or maintain an account. What's so great about it? ************************* My favourite hangout is the newsgroup concerned with discussions of laboratory methods and reagents called bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts. The methods group has grown into the most popular group on the Bionet and has had over 10 000 postings in 1996 as of the end of August. That amounts to ~40 postings per day. Even so, this group enjoys a high signal-to-noise ratio, with very few outside annoyances that can drive serious researchers away. Sometimes, people ask questions about where to find specific vectors, DNA sequences, cheaper reagents, or about cleaning, repairing or buying new and used laboratory equipment. More frequently, netters on the methods group are trying to troubleshoot some particular technique, and inevitably someone will complain about having difficulties when working with a prepackaged kit. What I find most interesting is how people who have had some strange experience with a reagent or equipment will trade information concerning various molecular techniques with those few others who have had the exact same problem. I particularly like these threads of discussion because it is unlikely that the pitfalls of a particular product or kit will be brought out into the open by the company selling it. I'm also intrigued by tips and tricks about laboratory practices that cannot be found in any textbook and are only learned through experience. Because many of the techniques are hands-on and are performed differently by people in diverse labs, the methods group is a vast resource of experienced researchers who have gained expertise through working out hundreds of lab-related problems. The net is perfect for sharing the kind of information one can only get through a process similar to an apprenticeship. It is for this reason that many netters in the methods group are molecular biology graduate students. Reading about the lessons learned by people having similar problems with reagents on opposite ends of the earth became very valuable to me and I wanted to pass on these little snippets of inside knowledge. In 1993, I began writing an experimental monthly column that reviews some of the interesting threads within the methods group. This 'Methods and reagents' column, published in Trends in Biochemical Sciences, was a unique undertaking in that it highlighted current discussions in a computer newsgroup and was, therefore, the first of its kind to combine electronic and hardcopy publishing in this way (see Box 2). Some of the most notable discussions that have arisen from it resulted in improvements in the quality of particular commercial products. On one occasion, a story about the disposal of ethidium bromide sparked the development of a cheap and easy filter unit now on the market'. Another story, about phage contamination in commercially available recombinant lambda libraries, resulted in a major clean-up and library reconstructions by the company involved [2]. Contributions to improving methods also occurred as a result of two other discussion topics, one about the best solution for recovering DNA bound to silica particles [3,4], and another concerning the elimination of a contaminating 'ghost' band from plasmid DNA preps that plagued netters [5,6]. How to contribute ***************** If I have convinced you to join me in the methods group (or any of the Bionet groups), here is what you need to do. Getting started is easy, but be warned - you might have trouble keeping yourself from spending many, many hours on the net. First and foremost, you should try to get access to a newsreader via the computer facility in your own university or institute. If you cannot, you can read the messages posted by other people and reply to them through e-mail by subscribing to a mailing list, but this is a little less convenient. To find out how to subscribe by e-mail, see the introductory article for the 'Methods and reagents' monthly column [7]. The information you need to subscribe to any of the Bionet newsgroups by e-mail can also be found on the BIOSCI/Bionet Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. This list provides details on how to participate in these forums and is available by anonymous file transfer protocol (FTP) from net.bio.net in pub/BIOSCI/doc/biosci.FAQ. Point your Web browser to ftp://net.bio.net/pub/BIOSCI/doc/biosci.FAQ It may also be requested by sending e-mail to biosci-help@net.bio.net The BIOSCI/Bionet FAQ list is posted on the first of each month to the newsgroup BIONEWS/bionet.announce immediately following the posting of the BIOSCI information sheet. Another way to read the Bionet newsgroups is by linking up to the Bionet hypermail archiving system through a World Wide Web (WWW) browser such as Mosaic or Netscape. To do this, simply point your WWW browser to the uniform resource locator (URL) http://www.bio.net and then click on the 'Access the BIOSCI/bionet Newsgroups' hyperlink. A hypermail archiving system gives you the advantages of USENET without requiring any additional local newsreader software. When you see the group header you want, click in this to see a listing of recent postings, which are also hyperlinked. You can respond to someone else's message or post a new article directly through this site. In addition, the BIOSCI/Bionet FAQ list is available through the Bionet WWW server. BIOSCI/Bionet is designed for communication between professionals in the biological sciences, but the public is permitted to 'listen in' (or 'lurk') in the discussions. However, a certain amount of (n)etiquette is expected if you decide to join. Before posting any articles, it is generally a good idea to watch the discussion for a while to get a feeling for how people interact by computer. Keep in mind that, if you post, your typed message will be read by thousands of people around the world. For example, posting a message that says nothing else besides 'test' is a tremendous waste of time for readers and can be extremely annoying. There are better and more polite ways to test your ability to post like posting to misc.test Frequently asked questions ************************** Some questions have been asked and answered many times before. To avoid many redundant questions, I started keeping track of common questions asked in the methods group five years ago and formulated the FAQ list for that group. Before posting, it is considered good (n)etiquette for the poster to check the FAQ list for an answer to his/her question first so as not to bore those who participate in the discussions regularly. That list is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncifcrf.gov as the file pub/methods/FAQlist. If you don't know how to use FTP to obtain the methods FAQ list, you can access it through my Home page at http://www-lmmb.ncifcrf.gov/~pnh/ or point your browser to ftp://ftp.ncifcrf.gov/pub/methods/FAQlist The FAQ list for bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts is also accessible directly through the WWW hypermail system. When you get to the BIOSCI/Bionet Home page, make your way down to and click on the 'METHDS-REAGNTS' hyperlink. You will then see the link to the methods FAQ list. If all else fails, you may request a copy from me by e-mail to pnh@ncifcrf.gov Good luck with getting connected! If you have any questions or encounter any problems with the server, or you need further help, please e-mail to biosci-help@net.bio.net References ********** 1 HENGEN, P. N. (1994) Trends Biochem. Sci. 19, 257-258 2 HENGEN, P. N. (1993) Trends Biochem. Sci. 18, 484-485 3 HENGEN, P. N. (1994) Trends Biochem. Sci. 19, 182-183 4 KAUR, R., KUMAR, R. and BACHHAWAT, A. K. (1995) Nucleic Acids Res. 23, 4932-4933 5 HENGEN, P. N. (1994) Trends Biochem. Sci. 19, 139-140 6 SAYERS, J. R., EVANS, D. and THOMSON, J. B. (1996) Anal. Biochem. 241, 186-189 7 HENGEN, P. N. (1993) Trends Biochem. Sci. 18, 446-448 =============================================================================== BOX 1 - SPONSORSHIP OF THE US BIOSCI NODE The US BIOSCI node is looking for additional sponsors to help continue its work. Sponsors will be able to have their advertisement displayed in any of numerous locations on the Bionet Web pages, have a hyperlink to their Home page, and gain other advertising exposure through the BIOSCI documentation and BIOSCI presentations at scientific meetings. Please contact biosci-help@net.bio.net for details on how your organization can help BIOSCI continue its service to the biology community. =============================================================================== =============================================================================== BOX 2 - METHODS AND REAGENTS ON-LINE An electronic archive of 'Methods and reagents' articles is available on the Internet Past articles published in Trends in Biochemical Sciences (TiBS) can be obtained by anonymous file transfer protocol (FTP) from ftp.ncifcrf.gov in the directory pub/methods/TIBS. Point your browser to ftp://ftp.ncifcrf.gov/pub/methods/TIBS They are also on the World Wide Web (WWW), linked from the author's Home page at http://www-lmmb.ncifcrf.gov/~pnh/readme.html The archive is maintained solely through contributions from the author and made possible with permission from Elsevier Science Ltd. =============================================================================== Acknowledgements **************** Thanks go to the people who help maintain the Bionet newsgroups, including Dave Kristofferson, Alan Bleasby, Steve Marshall, Helen Jones, Dave Mack and Julie Lawrence, and to Jo McEntyre, Catherine Brooksbank and Mark Swallow for editing at Elsevier Trends journals. Special thanks also go to Tom Schneider for helping me work on this project. ******************************************************************************* Copyright: This manuscript is not copyrighted by Elsevier Publishing Company. However, you may not reproduce any portion for resale or edit the text for redistribution, sale, or otherwise without written permission from the author. You found this at the World Wide Web (WWW) Uniform Resource Locator (URL) ftp://ftp.ncifcrf.gov/pub/methods/TIBS/tcb97.txt Any reference to this column must be cited as the following published article: Hengen, P. N. 1997. Internet Newsgroups. Trends in Cell Biology 7(1):34-35. ******************************************************************************* * Paul N. Hengen, Ph.D. /--------------------------/* * National Cancer Institute |Internet: pnh@ncifcrf.gov |* * Laboratory of Mathematical Biology | Phone: (301) 846-5581 |* * Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center| FAX: (301) 846-5598 |* * Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201 USA /--------------------------/* *******************************************************************************