BIOSCI Newsgroups Information - Europe, Africa, Central Asia

[David Kristofferson]

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      THE BIOSCI ELECTRONIC NEWSGROUP NETWORK INFORMATION SHEET
		       (last revised 02-SEP-93)
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This is the BIOSCI information sheet for Europe, Africa, and Central
Asia.  If you are located in the Americas or the Pacific Rim
countries, please request that version of the BIOSCI information sheet
by sending e-mail to the Internet address:

                       biosci at net.bio.net.

New users of BIOSCI/bionet may want to read the "Frequently Asked
Questions" or "FAQ" sheet for BIOSCI.  The FAQ provides details on how
to participate in these forums and is available for anonymous FTP from
net.bio.net [134.172.2.69] in pub/BIOSCI/biosci.FAQ.  It may also be
requested by sending e-mail to biosci at net.bio.net (use plain English
for your request).  The FAQ is also posted on the first of each month
to the newsgroup BIONEWS/bionet.announce immediately following the
posting of the BIOSCI information sheet.
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Introduction
------------

The BIOSCI newsgroup network was developed to allow easy worldwide
communications between biological scientists who work on a variety of
computer networks.  By having distribution sites or "nodes" on each
major network, BIOSCI allows its users to contact people around the
world without having to learn a variety of computer addressing tricks.
Any user can simply post a message to his/her regional BIOSCI node and
copies of that message will be distributed automatically to all other
subscribers on all of the participating networks, including the
Internet, USENET, BITNET, EARN, NETNORTH, HEANET, and JANET.


E-mail Subscription Requests and other Information
--------------------------------------------------

If you need to receive BIOSCI messages by e-mail, please send all
subscription requests, subscription cancellations, or any other
questions about using BIOSCI to the JANET address


                       biosci at daresbury.ac.uk


As your request will be read by a human, there is no need for special
syntax in your message.  Simply select the newsgroups from the list
below to which you would like to subscribe.

**********************************************************************
DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT POST SUBSCRIPTION REQUESTS DIRECTLY TO ANY OF
	THE NEWSGROUP ADDRESSES.  PLEASE USE ONLY THE ADDRESS
			biosci at daresbury.ac.uk

Your posting could go to several thousand people.  Supposing that each
person spends a couple of seconds to figure out that you did this,
before they go on to the next message.  You will have wasted the
equivalent of several hours of one person's time, not to mention
the computer time and disk storage that are wasted.
**********************************************************************

PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO USENET NEWS YOU DO NOT NEED AN
E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION!!  Simply read and post to the newsgroups in the
"bionet" newsgroup heirarchy using your USENET news software (e.g.,
readnews, rn, vnews, ANU-NEWS, postnews).

WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE ALL INTERESTED USERS TO EXPLORE GETTING USENET
NEWS SOFTWARE AT YOUR SITE.  THE SOFTWARE IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, AND
YOU WILL FIND IT MUCH MORE CONVENIENT THAN SUBSCRIBING TO NEWSGROUPS
BY E-MAIL.  Please consult your systems manager or contact
biosci at net.bio.net for assistance if needed.


Canceling E-mail Subscriptions
------------------------------
**********************************************************************
AS WE NOTED ABOVE, PLEASE DO NOT SEND CANCELLATION NOTICES TO THE
NEWSGROUP E-MAIL POSTING ADDRESSES.  PLEASE USE ONLY THE ADDRESS
			biosci at daresbury.ac.uk
FOR CANCELLATION NOTICES.
**********************************************************************

If you have subscribed to a newsgroup and are now leaving an
institution or changing your e-mail address, it is IMPERATIVE that you
send a note to biosci at daresbury.ac.uk and cancel your subscription!
Non-existent addresses or overflowing mailboxes cause computer mail
programs to send back "daemon" messages which might bother everybody
on the newsgroup.  We will immediately remove any address causing such
a problem, but would prefer it if you would notify us in advance as a
courtesy to the rest of the user community.


Interruption of E-mail Service
------------------------------

It is our policy to remove any address from our mailing lists which
becomes inaccessible and causes mail to bounce back to the sender.
This might happen to you if your local computer or network fails for a
significant period of time.  If you notice that you are no longer
receiving BIOSCI postings, it may be because your address was removed
for the above reason.  It will be necessary for you to contact
biosci at daresbury.ac.uk and resubscribe.  Please see the BIOSCI FAQ,
mentioned at the beginning of this document, for more details on how
BIOSCI handles addresses which reject mail.


Retrieval of old postings from the BIOSCI archives
--------------------------------------------------
Users with Internet access can use either the WAIS or gopher software
to search the BIOSCI archives as described in the BIOSCI FAQ.  E-mail
users can retrieve messages from our waismail e-mail server.  For
waismail instructions, send the word

help

in a message to waismail at net.bio.net.  Please leave the Subject: line
of your message blank.


List of BIOSCI Newsgroups
-------------------------

NEWSGROUP NAME               TOPIC
--------------               -----
ACEDB-SOFT                   Discussions by users and developers of genome
                                databases using the ACEDB software.
AGEING                       Discussions about ageing research
AGROFORESTRY                 Discussions about agroforestry research
ARABIDOPSIS                  Newsgroup for the Arabidopsis Genome Project
BIOFORUM                     Discussions about biological topics for
                                which there is not yet a dedicated newsgroup
BIOLOGICAL-INFORMATION-
  THEORY-AND-CHOWDER-SOCIETY Applications of information theory to biology
BIONAUTS                     Question/answer forum for help using
                                electronic networks, locating e-mail
                                addresses, etc.
BIONEWS **                   General announcements of widespread
                                interest to biologists
BIO-JOURNALS **              Tables of Contents of biological journals
BIO-MATRIX                   Applications of computers to biological databases
BIO-SOFTWARE                 Information on software for the biological
                                sciences
BIOTHERMOKINETICS            Discussions about the kinetics, thermodynamics
                                and control of biological processes at
                                the cellular level
CELL-BIOLOGY                 Discussions about cell biology including
                                cancer research at the cellular level
CHLAMYDOMONAS                Discussions about the biology of the green alga
                                Chlamydomonas and related genera
CHROMOSOMES                  Discussions about mapping and sequencing
                                of eucaryote chromosomes
COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY **     Mathematical and computer applications in biology
DROSOPHILA                   Discussions about biological research on
                                Drosophila
EMBL-DATABANK                Messages to and from the EMBL database staff
EMPLOYMENT                   Job opportunities in biology (see BIOSCI
                               FAQ *before* posting commercial job openings)
GDB                          Messages to and from the Genome Data Bank staff
GENBANK-BB                   Messages to and from the GenBank database staff
GENETIC-LINKAGE              Newsgroup for genetic linkage analysis
HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY        Discussions about the molecular biology of HIV
HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM         NIH-sponsored newsgroup on human genome issues
IMMUNOLOGY                   Discussions about research in immunology
INFO-GCG                     Discussions about the GCG sequence
                               analysis software
JOURNAL-NOTES                Practical advice on dealing with professional
                               journals
METHODS-AND-REAGENTS         Requests for information and lab reagents
MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION          Discussions about research in molecular evolution
MYCOLOGY                     Discussions about research on filamentous fungi
NEUROSCIENCE                 Discussions about research in the neurosciences
N2-FIXATION                  Discussion about biological nitrogen fixation
PHOTOSYNTHESIS               Discussions about photosynthesis research
PLANT-BIOLOGY                Discussions about research in plant biology
POPULATION-BIOLOGY           Discussions about research in population biology
PROTEIN-ANALYSIS             Discussions about research on proteins and
                                messages for the PIR and SWISS-PROT databank
                                staffs.
PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY      Discussion about crystallography of macromolecules
                                and messages for the PDB staff
RAPD                         Discussions about Randomly Amplified Polymorphic
                                DNA
SCIENCE-RESOURCES **         Information from/about scientific funding
                                agencies
TROPICAL-BIOLOGY             Discussions about research in tropical biology
VIROLOGY                     Discussions about research in virology
WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY             Discussions about issues concerning women
                                biologists
YEAST                        Discussions about the molecular biology
                                and genetics of yeast


** Note that newsgroups flagged with ** are moderated, i.e., postings
are directed to a moderator (editor) who later forwards messages
(possibly edited or condensed) to the newsgroup.


Posting Messages to Newsgroups
------------------------------

The lists below include the addresses for posting messages and also
the names of the corresponding UNIX USENET newsgroups.  Messages can
either be posted into the USENET newsgroups using "postnews" or
similar software or they can be submitted by electronic mail to the
mailing addresses given below.  In most cases, messages are posted
directly to the newsgroups without editorial intervention.

USENET users who use the "postnews" or similar software on their local
computer should be sure to set the message distribution to "world" or
"bionet" or else your message may not be distributed beyond your local
computer.  USENET newsgroups are read using, e.g., the "readnews,"
"rn," or "vnews" software on UNIX systems.  USENET news software is in
the public domain and is available for most UNIX systems.  A public
domain USENET news software package named ANU-NEWS is also available
for VAX/VMS systems.  Your local BIOSCI node can point you towards
acquiring the software for use on your computer system.

Those who use e-mail to post messages should send their mail to the
following addresses in the U.K.:

NEWSGROUP NAME              Mailing Address 
--------------              ----------------      
ACEDB-SOFT                  acedb at daresbury.ac.uk
AGEING                      ageing at daresbury.ac.uk
AGROFORESTRY                ag-forst at daresbury.ac.uk
ARABIDOPSIS                 arab-gen at daresbury.ac.uk
BIOFORUM                    bioforum at daresbury.ac.uk
BIO-INFORMATION-THEORY +    bio-info at daresbury.ac.uk
BIONAUTS                    bio-naut at daresbury.ac.uk
BIONEWS **                  bionews at daresbury.ac.uk 
BIO-JOURNALS **             bio-jrnl at daresbury.ac.uk
BIO-MATRIX                  biomatrx at daresbury.ac.uk
BIO-SOFTWARE                bio-soft at daresbury.ac.uk
BIOTHERMOKINETICS           btk-mca at daresbury.ac.uk
CELL-BIOLOGY                cellbiol at daresbury.ac.uk
CHLAMYDOMONAS               chlamy at daresbury.ac.uk
CHROMOSOMES                 biochrom at daresbury.ac.uk
COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY **    comp-bio at daresbury.ac.uk
DROSOPHILA                  dros at daresbury.ac.uk
EMBL-DATABANK               embl-db at daresbury.ac.uk 
EMPLOYMENT                  biojobs at daresbury.ac.uk 
GDB                         gdb at daresbury.ac.uk
GENBANK-BB                  genbankb at daresbury.ac.uk
GENETIC-LINKAGE             gen-link at daresbury.ac.uk
HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY       hiv-biol at daresbury.ac.uk
HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM        gnome-pr at daresbury.ac.uk
IMMUNOLOGY                  immuno at daresbury.ac.uk 
INFO-GCG                    info-gcg at daresbury.ac.uk 
JOURNAL-NOTES               jrnlnote at daresbury.ac.uk
METHODS-AND-REAGENTS        methods at daresbury.ac.uk 
MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION         mol-evol at daresbury.ac.uk
MYCOLOGY                    mycology at daresbury.ac.uk
NEUROSCIENCE                neur-sci at daresbury.ac.uk
N2-FIXATION                 n2fix at daresbury.ac.uk
PHOTOSYNTHESIS              photosyn at daresbury.ac.uk
PLANT-BIOLOGY               plantbio at daresbury.ac.uk
POPULATION-BIOLOGY          pop-bio at daresbury.ac.uk 
PROTEIN-ANALYSIS            proteins at daresbury.ac.uk
PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     xtal-log at daresbury.ac.uk
RAPD                        rapd at daresbury.ac.uk
SCIENCE-RESOURCES **        sci-res at daresbury.ac.uk
TROPICAL-BIOLOGY            trop-bio at daresbury.ac.uk
VIROLOGY                    virology at daresbury.ac.uk
WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY            womenbio at daresbury.ac.uk
YEAST                       yeast at daresbury.ac.uk

+ full name is BIOLOGICAL-INFORMATION-THEORY-AND-CHOWDER-SOCIETY

** Note that newsgroups flagged with ** are moderated, i.e., postings
are directed to a moderator (editor) who later forwards messages
(possibly edited or condensed) to the newsgroup.


List of USENET newsgroups
-------------------------

BIOSCI messages are distributed on the following USENET newsgroups in
the "bionet" heirarchy.  Contents of the USENET newsgroups and the
e-mail distributions listed above are the same, i.e., messages sent in
by e-mail are also forwarded to USENET and messages posted to USENET
newsgroups are also distributed to e-mail subscribers.


NEWSGROUP NAME             USENET Newsgroup Name
--------------             ---------------------
ACEDB-SOFT                 bionet.software.acedb
AGEING                     bionet.molbio.ageing
AGROFORESTRY               bionet.agroforestry
ARABIDOPSIS                bionet.genome.arabidopsis
BIOFORUM                   bionet.general
BIO-INFORMATION-THEORY +   bionet.info-theory
BIONAUTS                   bionet.users.addresses
BIONEWS **                 bionet.announce
BIO-JOURNALS **            bionet.journals.contents
BIO-MATRIX                 bionet.molbio.bio-matrix
BIO-SOFTWARE               bionet.software
BIOTHERMOKINETICS          bionet.metabolic-reg
CELL-BIOLOGY               bionet.cellbiol
CHLAMYDOMONAS              bionet.chlamydomonas
CHROMOSOMES                bionet.genome.chromosomes
COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY **   bionet.biology.computational
DROSOPHILA                 bionet.drosophila
EMBL-DATABANK              bionet.molbio.embldatabank
EMPLOYMENT                 bionet.jobs
GDB                        bionet.molbio.gdb
GENBANK-BB                 bionet.molbio.genbank
GENETIC-LINKAGE            bionet.molbio.gene-linkage
HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY      bionet.molbio.hiv
HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM       bionet.molbio.genome-program
IMMUNOLOGY                 bionet.immunology
INFO-GCG                   bionet.software.gcg
JOURNAL-NOTES              bionet.journals.note
METHODS-AND-REAGENTS       bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION        bionet.molbio.evolution
MYCOLOGY                   bionet.mycology
NEUROSCIENCE               bionet.neuroscience
N2-FIXATION                bionet.biology.n2-fixation
PHOTOSYNTHESIS             bionet.photosynthesis
PLANT-BIOLOGY              bionet.plants
POPULATION-BIOLOGY         bionet.population-bio
PROTEIN-ANALYSIS           bionet.molbio.proteins
PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY    bionet.xtallography
RAPD                       bionet.molbio.rapd
SCIENCE-RESOURCES **       bionet.sci-resources
TROPICAL-BIOLOGY           bionet.biology.tropical
VIROLOGY                   bionet.virology
WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY           bionet.women-in-bio
YEAST                      bionet.molbio.yeast

+ full name is BIOLOGICAL-INFORMATION-THEORY-AND-CHOWDER-SOCIETY

** Note that newsgroups flagged with ** are moderated, i.e., postings
are directed to a moderator (editor) who later forwards messages
(possibly edited or condensed) to the newsgroup.


BIOSCI "prototype" newsgroups
-----------------------------

To assist areas of research in developing their own electronic
communication forums, BIOSCI at net.bio.net will set up on request a
mailing list *without* an associated USENET newsgroup.  The mailing
list is created only at net.bio.net, the U.S. BIOSCI node, and all
subscription requests must be sent to biosci at net.bio.net regardless of
one's geographical location.  There is no charge for this or any other
BIOSCI service, as usual.  

This procedure waives the rule that requires each new newsgroup
proposal to be put to a vote of the readership first (see
the BIOSCI FAQ, mentioned at the beginning of this document, for
details on creating new full-fledged newsgroups and prototype
newsgroups).  Each mailing list ("prototype newsgroup") must have a
scientist volunteer to serve as its discussion leader.  The prototype
newsgroup has six months to build up its readership after which time
it is put out for a vote for full newsgroup status (i.e., to have both
a mailing list *and* parallel USENET newsgroup created at both BIOSCI
nodes in the U.S. and U.K.).  If you are interested in establishing
such a forum for your research specialty, please contact
biosci at net.bio.net.

The current prototype newsgroups are listed below.  Please send
subscription requests to biosci at net.bio.net and NOT to the newsgroup
posting addresses.  Prototype newsgroups are *not* archived, so please
be sure to save any messages that you may want to refer to again.

Posting Address         Purpose
---------------         -------
pep-libs at net.bio.net    Discussion on generation and use of peptide
                          molecular repertoires displayed on phage or
                          prepared as synthetic peptide combinatorial
                          libraries.  
rna at net.bio.net         Discussions about RNA editing, RNA splicing,
                          and ribozyme activities of RNA.
yac at net.bio.net         Dicussions about yeast artificial chromosomes


FURTHER QUESTIONS???  Please address them to biosci at daresbury.ac.uk.