What People Are Saying about HMS Beagle

[America Online] [science.komm] [National Public Radio] [@NY] [The Exploratorium] [CyberSkeptic's Guide] [SENN] [The New York Times] [Newsweek International] [Pronews] [The Astrobiology Web] [The Sciences] [The Net] [Yahoo] [Sherrod Research] [The Education Index] [NetVet] [Science] [New Scientist] [USA Today] [InterNIC] [Scientific American] [Our press release]

America Online - September 1999

BioMedNet was selected as AOL's top "Editor's Pick" for biology Web sites.

science.komm - May 1999

HMS Beagle is an autonomous part of BioMedNet. A biweekly Webzine with daily updates, the site is aimed at bioscience and biomedical researchers and is well worth a regular visit. Site design is innovative and the contents excellent. The zine covers daily news in biology, medicine, and biotechnology, a daily Web pick, book and software reviews, laboratory resources, "cutting-edge" debates, and much more. What I most like about HMS Beagle is that it recognizes that scientists are not laboratory-based machines. Although it provides the usual kind of news and resources we've come to expect from science sites, it has the guts to present the atypical side of science, featuring science-orientated poems, essays, offbeat articles, fiction, art and cartoons. You have to admire the name as well (Darwin's ship).

ScienceD Friday, National Public Radio - December 18, 1998

HMS Beagle book editor Dean Haycock appeared live on the National Public Radio program Science Friday, discussing science books to buy for the holiday. The Science Friday Web site includes audio of that day's two-hour show; Haycock appears at the 53-minute mark.

@NY - October 1998

Sailing the HMS Beagle

With features like "Outsourcing Trials for Fun and Profit - Opinion on the booming clinical-trials industry," "Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever," and short articles on the latest research from journals like Nature and the Journal of the American Medical Association, HMS Beagle is positioning itself as a central resource for the hip biomedical researcher. This Webzine, the NY-based arm of the UK's BioMedNet, offers its content for free, but there is a registration process and users must enter a password to access the articles. Once readers get in, they find parts of the site that are somewhat dry and technical, including the short synopses of journal articles. But the feature stories are engaging and well-written, and HMS Beagle doesn't take itself too seriously. The headline "Mano a Mono" links to a brief on mononucleosis, and "Another Reason Not to Tailgate on City Streets" heads up an article on spatial perception.

The Exploratorium - July 1998

This magazine-format site is an excellent upper-level source for news and information about developments in biology, biotechnology, and medicine.

The CyberSkeptic's Guide - July/August 1998

I consider myself a specialist in business and media research, but sometimes I get questions of a more scientific nature. For those like me, as well as for dedicated science researchers, there is no better site than the HMS Beagle, the first biological and medical science magazine developed specifically for the Web. Launched in February of 1997, this biweekly Webzine is a subsite of BioMedNet, the worldwide club for the biological and medical community, which itself was totally redesigned and relaunched this May.

On the Beagle (named after the ship that took Darwin on his explorations of the Galapogos), you'll find breaking news from the major scientific journals, authoritative original columns, moderated debates, conference listings, ample opportunity to intereact, and more - all brilliantly organized, meticulously documented, and written in language understandable to all. And, if you're worried that the site will be dry and dull, you're in for a pleasant surprise. The Beagle has a breezy tone and the easygoing Web sensibility of other compendium sites such as CNN or CNet.

Science & Engineering Network News - July 1998

A new e-zine oriented towards biomedical researchers has recently appeared on the Web. Called HMS Beagle, this new electronic publication reports on the latest developments in the fields of medicine, biology, and biotechnology. The information at the site is updated daily and contains a broad range of articles, debates, reviews, and editorials, as well as annotated pointers to the best biomedical Web resources. The site is produced by BioMedNet and draws on BioMedNet's library of 90+ biomedical journals. Abstracts of journal articles are available on the HMS Beagle site, but the full text of the articles may cost a fee. the organization, graphics, and quality of articles at the site are top-notch. And if you get bored with the science and technology presented, you can read the featured cartoon, visit the art gallery, read a book review, or do a number of other things that are available in this well thought-out electronic magazine.

The New York Times - May 17, 1998

In the beginning, the Internet was for scientists. Then the lay public crowded scientists off the Net. Enter the HMS Beagle, a Web site that was designed to coax scientists back but has managed to charm nonscientists, too.

The HMS Beagle is named not after a dog but the ship Charles Darwin sailed to the Galapagos Islands, a journey that led to his theory of evolution. BioMedNet of New York hired Sarah Greene, a publisher of an acclaimed series of books on the life sciences, to design a site that would woo doctors and health researchers to buy articles from BioMedNet's professional data base.

What she did was that and then some. The site she created, a digest of more than 150 professional journals carrying the latest in medical and biological research, can be read with pleasure by ordinary people. Newsweek recently named HMS Beagle one of the four best magazines on the Web.

HMS Beagle surveys not only widely distributed magazines like Science and Nature, but publications that are harder to get, like the New Scientist from Britain. And instead of using the typically dry style of academic journals, HMS Beagle's articles are clear and accessible. "Scientists want to read something very quickly and not have to think very hard while doing it, just like you and me," Ms. Greene said.

Those eager to check out HMS Beagle should note that the site is being upgraded and won't be available until tomorrow.

WHAT YOU SEE - Ms. Greene and her 11-member staff (which includes a poetry editor) wanted what she described as a "classical science look," so the site is built around a parchmentlike background, like a Leonardo da Vinci notebook.

It also has shown a knack for timely stories. Just as the news media began focusing on human trials of new anticancer drugs, HMS Beagle ran a detailed profile of Entremed, the company that has licensed one of the more promising drug strategies, known as anti-angiogenesis. HMS Beagle explained the strategy this way: "Cut off a tumor's blood supply, its source of nutrients and growth factors, and the tumor should perish."

One of the site's more innovative sections is Cutting Edge, at which researchers debate various topics. Jon W. Gordon, an obstetrics professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and an expert in fertilization, discussed the potential risks of human cloning.

"If the fetus has a spinal defect and is a quadriplegic," Dr. Gordon wrote, "how can the doctor honestly say to the patient, 'Don't blame cloning, these things happen.'? If the patient does not accept this explanation and sues the physician for millions, I assure you a jury would be very sympathetic to the notion that the patient, because she couldn't truly understand cloning, was unable to give 'informed' consent."

He concluded, "Given these realities, I can't believe anyone in his/her right mind would ever embark on the effort."

LINKS - Hundreds, including the Mouse and Rat Research Home Page, a loving look at rodent experimentation.

WHAT YOU GET - The Sports Illustrated of biomedical research.

Newsweek International Business Resource Center - May 1998

This award-winning biomedical mag presents breaking news from the most important professional journals in its field while at the same time serving its users' most pragmatic demands. Whether guiding a young researcher in search of grant money or dispensing advise on the business of science, HMS Beagle does it all with style and flare. The best thing about this site may be that, while its intended audience is the professional biomedical researcher, it is engaging enough to lure the rest of us. As for its business model: the Beagle stands as the e-zine attraction for BioMedNet, an advertising- and commerce-based biomedical arena serving up quality research.

Pronews - November 1997

Respect!

HMS Beagle Rules the Waves of Biomedicine

We are impressed. A rare occurance when surfing the Net. So let's get the minor grouse out of the way first. Navigation could be better - the layout is rather dense. But this is a two-sided coin. HMS Beagle is updated fortnightly and it offers such a huge amount of online information that it is difficult to maintain a clear overview. However, if that does not put you off, the reward is great! Everything on biomedical sciences and related subjects can be found on this site. The Webzine got its name from the famous ship that brought Charles Darwin to the Galapogos Islands. The site encourages feedback and discussion, and offers such features as conferences reports, authoritative commentaries, an art gallery with a scientific flair - the list goes on and on; you are spoilt for choice. Most of it is extremely interesting - the numerous Web links are the best feature. HMS Beagle also provides an introductory course for bioscientists and doctors on how to access particular sites on the Net. More than one hundred scientific online magazines are on offer; one can access numerous biomedical newsgroups, or search for specific data.

HMS Beagle is a trans-Atlantic coproduction. The parent site, BioMedNet, part of the Current Science Group, specializes in scientific publications. Sarah Greene, editor in chief, puts HMS Beagle together in New York.

The Astrobiology Web - September 14, 1997

First there were discussion groups, then Usenet newsgroups, then chat rooms. All serve a purpose, yet all suffer from a severe signal-to-noise problem - even when moderated. What the folks at HMS Beagle have done is stage a Web-based talk show in slow motion. Participants interact with one another but do so with the luxury of some time to mull over questions and responses. For this particular debate, a who's who of the field of exobiology has been assembled. The questions posed are clear and the responses, complete with references, are illuminating and to the point.

As for the rest of HMS Beagle - and BioMedNet, I have only visited a small fraction of the immense resource they have created. Free Medline, journal access, special features . . . the list seems to grow every day. One can only imagine what this jewel of the Web will become in the years to come. Subscription is free. Do it now.

The word 'quality' seems inadequate to describe what these folks are doing. If you do anything associated with biology this should be the first place you visit on the Web - it is that good.

The New Yorker - September 15, 1997

Though this excellent biweekly science site is aimed at biomedical researchers and professionals, it can be accessed (and largely understood) by the lay reader as well. You'll find research news culled here from Science, Nature, JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association), and other scientific medical journals, most of which you can browse just by registering with this site.

While the actual articles can prove tough slogging, the summaries are concise and presented under such sassy headlines as "Meteorites not needed, thank you" for a Nature article taking issue with the theory that dinosaur extinction was the result of a celestial body's smashing into the earth)and "Not again?" (for a Science study in the bad things that happened when European weevils were brought to North America to control a nasty wild thistle). Cutting Edge provides a forum for debate on topics of import ("Optimum Mutation Rates in Evolution & Disease"). There are book excerpts, games and puzzles that go way beyond Tetris, and a list of links to Web sites of the day, which range from the arcane ("Candida albicans Information") to the general interest ("The Farm: Mushroompeople," a site "for mycologists and gourmets alike"). In keeping with the recent boom in laboratory pages that provide more than synopses of experiments and offer a place for scientists to exchange information,there's even a Featured Lab Page.

While the Beagle's information may be hard, its tone is friendly; it offers cartoons and even a bit of Shakespeare. To quote the late biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, from the site's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations: "Knowledge is a sacred cow, and my problem will be how we can milk her while keeping clear of her horns."

The Sciences - the July/August 1997 issue of the journal of the New York Academy of Sciences reported:

HMS Beagle is an aptly named five-month-old webzine for biological and medical investigators, as well as for just plain science buffs. Like its namesake, the ship that carried Darwin on his voyage of evolutionary discovery, it tracks the four corners of cyber- as well as print-space to find out what's new and presents it in an attractive, easy-to-use format. The main advantage webzines should offer over their print counterparts is the ability to post constant updates and deliver instant interaction. It's links, links, links that count, and HMS Beagle does the job.

Daily picks off the Web and headlines culled by the editors from a score of journals keep the reader current. Abstracts of the headlined articles are linked to the journals in which they appear (some require registration or charge a fee for the full text).

Workers active in the field take part in online debates on cutting-edge topics, refereed by a moderator who keeps the discussion moving and periodically sums things up. References, background reading and relevant Internet links complement this section of the site, and readers are invited to comment. By selecting topics such as academic tenure, antisense technology and the science and ethics of cloning, the editors have done for the biomedical sciences what ought to be the envy of pundits and politicians in others communications media.

The site also offers polls on controversial topics (physician-assisted suicide, NIH funding practices); meeting briefs written by scientist-attendees; reviews of books and software; poetry; puzzles for prizes; and an art gallery.

To access the HMS Beagle site, http://www.hmsbeagle.com, you have to join its sponsor, BioMedNet, an online club for the biological and medical community. Membership is free, and club benefits include a job exchange, and electronic shopping mall and a library with more than a hundred full-text journals.

The Net - the June 1997 issue named HMS Beagle "Net Site of the Month" in June 1997:

The HMS Beagle, a biweekly e-zine for biomedical researchers (and named after the ship that took Darwin to the Galapogos), took up residence on the Internet February 3, 1997. I dropped by for the second edition and found an attractive, well-organized Web site blessedly free of the bugs typical of such projects in their early stages. A service of BioMedNet, the "worldwide club of biomedical scientists," the Beagle covers all facets of biology with original material, online debates, and annotated pointers to the best biological resources on the Web.

The Beagle's welcome page, updated daily, contains links to research articles culled from several established journals covering the span of biological disciplines. A sidebar menu directs visitors through the sections of the site: Main, Books and Software, Research News, Cutting Edge, People and Opinions, and the Rec Room. While the menu was helpful once I knew my way around, initially it was easier to work from the exhaustive table of contents.

To enter the main body of the journal, you'll need to register first; the process is free and takes only a few minutes. Once inside, you'll have access to a bewildering array of scientific information, the lion's share of it residing in the Research News section. Here you can browse or search more than 90 biological and medical journals, including Cell, JAMA, and Science. The Beagle provides abstracts for these articles, and notes whether or not payment is required to view the full text. Additionally, this section provides reviews of and direct links to each journal's Web site.

When you tire of reading journal articles, you can head for the Newsgroups area and explore the Beagle's Usenet summaries, BioMedNet discussion groups, or browse the threads from the Bionet.* and Sci.* newsgroups.

The Beagle also sponsors moderated debates among experts on a wide range of topics, with threaded discussions for visitors afterwards. And unlike many other such Internet debates, these come with biographies of the participants, links to references cited in the discussion, and a final summary.

There is, finally, a great deal more here than can be covered in a short review, including op-ed pieces, bulletin boards, conference listings, book, software, and Web site reviews - all of it thoroughly hyperlinked and well organized. Whether you're a biomedical researcher, or just someone who gets a kick out of the topic, stop by for a visit; you're sure to learn something.

Yahoo, in March 1997, selected HMS Beagle as one of their 32 "incredibly useful" sites. According to their statement, "we believe the 25 sites make for a solid "first round," but we also believe that there are, in fact, '32 Incredibly Useful Sites.' We really don't want to ruffle any feathers, but we'd like to be useful and rectify the situation." They went on to review Beagle:

When it comes to useful, there's nothing like man's best friend. A beagle can guard the house, get your slippers, and retrieve downed waterfowl. But HMS Beagle is a companion of a different breed. It's a compendium of current issues and information from the worlds of biology, medicine, and biotechnology. And although the site requires free registration into BioMedNet ("The World Wide Club for the Biological and Medical Community"), the bountiful riches of the Beagle are well worth it. With a wealth of research articles, online debates, discussion groups, book reviews, featured websites, poems, art,quotes, cartoons, and games, this site is both incredible and useful. Attaboy!

Sherrod Research (now Albany Molecular Research) - Website of the Month for the month of May.

The Education Index award:

Congratulations! HMS Beagle: The BioMedNet Magazine has been named an outstanding education-related site on the Web by The Education Index. At The Education Index we select sites which offer interesting, well organized, reliable information to busy people looking for the best sources in any of our 50 subject and 10 lifestage categories. Your site is in our biology and health/medicine sections. We appreciate your efforts to produce a valuable resource on the Web!

NetVet Site of the Week (April 14-20):

I suppose a site that I visit every day should be worthy of a &quotPick." HMS Beagle lists all current happenings in biomedical research, biotech industry, and biological science. To dig deeper into the site, you'll need to sign up, but it's free. Created by BioMedNet.com, excellent design, well-written, and I just can't say enough good things about it. Definitely worth your next click.

Science Magazine featured our tenure debate in their April 4, 1997, issue.

New Scientist - their February 22, 1997, issue's Netropolitan column featured HMS Beagle's site with a favorable review. An excerpt:

While BioMedNet's new site [HMS Beagle] cannot promise something as radical as the origin of the species, it provides a useful chart for the oceans of medical journals and information on the Web.

Many online journals found on the Web are just a pale imitation of a real-world counterpart. But a few, like the Beagle, take advantage of the possibilities of the medium by hosting online discussions about research topics and providing pointers to trustworthy sources of information.

USA Today named us, on February 19, 1997, a "Hot Site" and said the following:

Anyone who's a member of the medical/scientific community shouldn't pass up the maiden voyage of the HMS Beagle. The new 'zine aims to filter out the most important info from the "tsunami" of material available in print and online.

InterNIC's Scout Report - "the premier weekly collection of useful Internet sites for discerning Internauts" - featured HMS Beagle the week of February 14, 1997. According to the publisher, "care is taken in the selection of items included in the Scout Report basic criteria include depth of content, author, information maintenance, and presentation." The Scout Report is a publication of Net Scout Services, a project of the InterNIC, based at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Their description of HMS Beagle:

Provided by BioMedNet, HMS Beagle offers a new way for biological and medical researchers to stay current with the latest developments. The site contains a daily updated range of articles, debates, reviews, and editorials, as well as annotated pointers to the best biological and medical web resources. The site is free to registered members of BioMedNet (which is free as well), and draws upon BioMedNet's library of 90+ biological and medical journals. Abstracts of articles are presented on the HMS Beagle site, while full text may cost the user a fee (determined by the journal itself). A feature that more web sites offering original content should adopt is a guide to citing the site as a source, ensuring that web authors get the bibliographic credit they deserve. (from The Scout Report, "the premier weekly collection of useful Internet sites for discerning Internauts")

Scientific American's online site selected us as their Current Pick of the Web in our first week of publication (February 3, 1997):

[HMS Beagle] covers nearly every aspect of biology, and does so in an unusually intelligent way. Research news, scientific debates, opinion pieces and even biology-themed cartoons are all part of the mix. The format is quite clear and easy to navigate. Best of all, HMS Beagle communicates the freewheeling exchange of ideas that makes science so exciting, using language that non-experts can really understand. (from Scientific American Online, Current Pick of the Web)

PRESS RELEASE
Woman in Home Office
Masterminds Successful
Science Webzine, HMS Beagle

BROOKLYN, New York, April 8, 1997 - Judging from the acclaim already garnered by HMS Beagle, the new science and medicine online magazine, one might be forgiven for assuming that it is the product of a major Web development studio. In fact, it is the brainchild of one woman, with no prior online experience, who works out of her home office in Brooklyn. With modem and ISDN line, she has pulled together an expert team of scientists, editors, programmers, and designers working around the world and around the clock to keep the publication up to date.

Beagle, the first biological and medical science magazine developed specifically for the World Wide Web, filters essential research information from both the Internet and print sources, delivering key material in an easy-to-use digest form, complete with links. It also offers profiles, opinion pieces, online debates, book, software and Web site reviews, weekly puzzles and games, a reading room and an art gallery.

Beagle was launched in early February - "launched" being the operative word. In its first week, it was cited by Scientific American's website as a Pick of the Week, and in the weeks since, it has been featured by, among others, USA Today, New Scientist, CNET, Media Central and InterNIC as one of the top Web sites. Reviewers laud The Beagle's originality, usefulness, beautiful look, and fun quotient.

The webzine is a "subsite" of BioMedNet, the world's largest Internet club for the biological and medical community, which offers members a 100+ full-text journal library, job exchange, shopping mall, and a host of other features - now including HMS Beagle. The Beagle has had a major effect on BioMedNet membership (which is free), doubling the weekly enrollment from 1,000 to 2,000 since its introduction.

A major boost was given to HMS Beagle by Yahoo! Internet Life, which not only named the site as a Pick of the Week, but gave it a permanent spot on its list of "32 Incredibly Useful Sites" (the list originally numbered 25, but, seven more being discovered, was expanded accordingly). According to Yahoo!:

Although the site requires free registration into BioMedNet ("The World Wide Club for the Biological and Medical Community"), the bountiful riches of The Beagle are well worth it. With a wealth of research articles, online debates, discussion groups, book reviews, featured websites, poems, art, quotes, cartoons, and games, this site is both incredible and useful. Attaboy!

Attagirl would perhaps be more the mot juste. All this energy is being generated from the Brooklyn home office of the Beagle's editor-in-chief Sarah Greene - with Greene herself the dynamo supplying the power. With a bare-bones operation staffed by four core women, plus two freelance science writers and two consulting science editors, Greene got her webzine online just six months after initiating the project. In the "home" area of the brownstone, in Brooklyn's charming Park Slope area, Greene lives with her husband, the investigative reporter William Tucker (co-author with Newt Gingrich of To Renew America), and their three sons - Kevan, 14, Fritz, 11, and Dylan, 7.

Greene was originally approached by Vitek Tracz and Richard Charkin, chairman and CEO, respectively, of Current Science Group in London (BioMedNet's parent company). They asked her to create a website with contests and other entertainment features that would help increase traffic on BioMedNet. But Greene had a bigger idea: why not create something different from other science websites, a complete "webzine" that offered readers something genuinely useful? Greene had a proven track record as a successful innovator in science publishing (in 1986, with John Wiley & Sons, she founded the widely admired Current Protocols, a series of "updateable" methods books and CDs for biomedical researchers), and her idea was approved.

Because of the difficulty of working long-distance with London, it was decided that Greene, rather than the production team at BioMedNet, would handle the webzine's design and production. "I had to learn the mechanics of Web publishing from a production standpoint," says Greene. "After a couple of months spent defining the task, my job description escalated from acquisitions editor to publisher and managing director." Further challenges arose from her determination to develop a new type of website, one that utilizes Web technology to both provide new information and connect scientists with the most valuable resources on the Internet. Her task became not just to create a webzine, but to invent a new model for one.

After meeting with Web development companies in New York City, Greene decided to oversee the creation of her webzine herself. All the womanpower she needed was in or near her own neighborhood - Malgorzata Machniewska, a novice Web developer who is studying art history, Sally Kuzma, an artist, and Amy Nadel, a friend and former banker who came aboard as a production editor. These women conduct Beagle's business primarily from their home offices, meeting around Greene's dining room table once a week, and communicating by e-mail. Virtual production conferences begin each morning around 4:30, keeping Beaglers in step with the London office and piling up dozens of emails before other family members awake. Part-timers are also nearby - one medical writer lives so close to Greene that, when NYNEX disabled their block's phone (and therefore modem) lines for several critical days, the two women were able to exchange information on computer disks in their adjoining backyards.

Greene decided early on to pack Beagle's homepage with useful information - unlike the majority of websites, which have a very Spartan look. "My models were the Microsoft Explorer, CNN, CNet homepages - places that you check right away each morning, because they are chock full of news," she says. "If you have to click several levels into a site, you have the sense that the information isn't as critical." One of the hallmarks of her webzine is a homepage that changes daily, with research news headlines, quotes, and links to useful sites. The news from journals is timely, often available on HMS Beagle before subscribers get their print copies.

Greene originally planned to devote 30 hours a week to the Beagle - she says she now logs up some 60 to 70 hours in her seven-day work weeks. She hopes to secure some personal downtime in the future with the addition of new staff. Her husband, she adds, has helped ease her workload. "Not only do we work closely to solve daily crises in the household, but for the first time in our careers we're collaborating professionally, because Bill is enthusiastic about the product." Tucker has moderated one of the Beagle's online debates, on academic tenure, and has contributed a book review and profile.

Greene also has an interest in science education, which she is drawn to both as a science publisher and as a mother. As a volunteer she has worked with the New York City Board of Education and New York Academy of Sciences to improve hands-on science learning in schools. Programs she has helped implement include "Meet the Scientist" and an initiative to promote teaching and learning skills in developing science fair projects. She also donates her time as a Cub Scout den leader.

"This volunteer work keeps me involved in the lives of our three sons," remarks Greene. "Not to mention the hours I put in at baseball and soccer games." The two younger boys are already talking about careers as scientists. As for the future of Beagle? Not surprisingly, Greene responds, "We're just getting started."