This week I did a search on Metacrawler on "health related interest groups". One of the results of this search led me to Public Health Center which contained Martindale's Health Science Guide '95
, a virtual public health center. The virtual public health center was and information source on Netscape with information on What's Happening Today, Travel Warnings and Immunization, International Services, On-Line Journals, Genetic Maps, Interactive An
atomy, Demography and Population Database, a Public Health Schools Complete Curriculum along with Courses, Textbooks, Cases and Images. Each of these major subtopics had a synopsis of what the link leads to, and this makes it easy to access the informati
on that you are looking for. The layout of the page was pleasant to look at because each topic was contained in its own box and there was effective use of color. The page was blue with yellow lettering and the visited links were purple.
I clicked on Courses, Textbooks, Cases and Images. This are had three major subtopics: Case Studies in Environmental Health, Pesticide Poisoning Handbook, and Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Biotechnology. Again, each sublink has a brief description of what's in the link. I clicked on the latter. The purpose of this link was to "provide access to readable, current, and useful i
nformation about genetic ELSI issues for all members of society." Like the previous pages, this page had an introduction describing its aims, and descriptions of what the links lead to. The bulk of the information is transmitted to the reader in what th
ey call Scope Notes. These are "abstracts that give a comprehensive overview of particular subjects along with references and suggested further reading."
I looked at two Scope Notes in particular -- No. 17 on The Human Genome Project, an effort to map the human genome and No. 28 on Eugenics, giving a history from Galton to the Nazi's of World War II. I found the Scope Notes easy to read and highly inform
ative.
Overall, I am very
impressed by what I found in this virtual public
health center. The whole layout of the pages were easy to follow and information was easily accessed. The goal of this public health center was to get information out to the public in
a simple manner which we can all follow. I think they easily achieve their goal, and in terms of social psychology, the information they provide is vitally important for the general community. In particular, the topics covered in Scope Notes were things
that could drastically impact our lives in the future. If the human genome were to be mapped, we could create clones of human beings or regulate the traits that are expressed in a population. We could get rid of undesirable traits and even promote posi
tive traits, as Galton suggested when he coined the term "eugenics". The possibilities are profound and immense and such a resource on the internet brings more information to more people in an easily accessible manner.
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