Finding a gene for a specific disease is not unlike looking for a particular restaurant in the phone book. With nothing to guide you, you could go through the entire phone book, page by page, until you found the listing. Knowing the chromosome would put you in the restaurant section of the yellow pages, possibly even in the right ethnic category. Or maybe someone recommended a particular spot (inherited traits), giving you a head start on where to look. A (gene) map can narrow the search even more. Finally you find the phone number and can call it or visit the location and see if it is still in business and how good the food (information) is. Searching for useful and reliable science news on the Internet puts you in a comparable situation.

As you cruise the Internet, you will sometimes hunger for science news. Your choices range from fast food offering a quick look at science stories on the wires, to diners, bistros, and smorgasbords offering full-course meals. What are the criteria for a good data-dining spot? First of all, the news should be fresh. It is also good to know who is preparing it. Presentation (graphics, layout, and multimedia) is important, but can be overlooked if the material really hits the spot. I like a good dessert, too. By this I mean hyperlinks to other in-depth sources of information. Finally, I'm no cheapskate, but it is nice if the data is also free or reasonably priced.

For fast food served in familiar surroundings, drop by CNN Interactive. If you saw a story on TV and want to follow it up, start here. For example, a quick look at the health section reports the approval of a new monoclonal antibody treatment for breast cancer. At the end of the story there is a link to the Food and Drug Administration's U.S. Department of Health and Human Services News for more information on the story. A quick trip to Medscape (free registration required) provides in-depth coverage on the drug from an oncology conference held earlier this year. Still hungry? See the menu at Yahoo for more on this topic.

If you want something more substantial, the leading science magazines and journals have company cafeterias with plenty to offer. Nature, offers easy access to appetizers of science news along with a main course from the pages of the journal itself. Dessert comes in the form of Web specials on topics such as cloning, with links and discussion of hot topics.

Science, the other leading weekly journal, doesn't offer nearly as much for the information-starved, at least for those without reservations. If you are a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the parent organization of Science, with a subscription to the print edition of the magazine, you can have unlimited access to the Web site for $12. Science's Next Wave, formerly free, will cost visitors $19.95 a year. Want the online stuff without the print version? Sorry, no can do. This is like requiring the diner to buy the cookbook before having the meal. However, the AAAS does offer two free services: EurekAlert, a buffet of press releases, and InScight, which offers quick, informative snacks.

For more in the way of style and flair, you might visit some of the leading online science magazines' sites. The Web site of the weekly New Scientist magazine offers a particularly good data diner. A recent menu invites you to read a story on vaccines created with patients' dendritic cells. The news is well-presented and includes an abstract from the Journal of Experimental Medicine. If you want the full meal (the whole article), however, you will have to pony up ($450 for institutions, $130 for individuals) for an online subscription to JEM.

If you have an appetite for space-science news, NASA rarely disappoints. Who could resist a story comparing the batting prowess of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire - on Mars? NASA's news bistro is particularly strong on dessert, offering lots of related links along with the latest images from Mars Surveyor. Careful, the space photos can be addictive. This site also invites you join a free email list that will update you on space-science news, including all the latest in the field of exobiology.

The NASA mailing list brings up a good point. If you don't feel like going out on the net in search of the latest news treats, why not order in? Quite a few resources will feed you news stories on your favorite topics by email or a Web-page-based approach. Running in a separate window on your screen, Pointcast allows you to customize news delivery to your desktop from a variety of newswires, newspapers, and magazines. Yahoo offers My Yahoo, a similar service that will feed new stories on specified topics to your browser. AOL users have access to a little-known feature called news profiles (keyword: news profiles) that will drop news reports on specified topics in your email.

Endlinks

American Institute of Physics: Public Information - where to go for the latest news in physics, including links to online journal services and conference proceedings.

Environmental News Network - a daily dose of environmental-news stories, which can accessed at this site or delivered as email.

Netsurfer Science - an email-delivered magazine of science and technology sites, divided nicely into categories.

NewsHub: Science News - a one-stop-shopping science-news site with headlines from a handful of other sites.

TechWeb - a great source of technology news. Updated daily.

The APA Monitor Online - a monthly online magazine for the psychological sciences, divided into categories including education, practice, and public interest.

UnCover Web - a searchable database of journals where you can find an article and even order it delivered by fax.

What's New in Mathematics - a good place to find reviews of papers and books in mathematics, plus links to many math-oriented sites.

CNN: Sci-Tech and CNN: Health - sections provide quick news overviews.

Yahoo Science & Technology News and Medscape - more detailed medical news, background information, conference reports, medline, and other searches.

InteliHealth - offers a compendium of health news and information. created by the Johns Hopkins University Hospital and Health System.

EurekAlert and InScight - post press releases from institutions, drug companies, and universities covering all areas of science.

Mayo Clinic: Health Oasis - source for news and information from all areas of health and medicine.

Nature - leading journal offers news articles and access to journal contents. Also offers occasional Web specials on hot topics such as cloning.

Science - full access only to AAAS members.

American Medical Association - offers access to JAMA and other related news sources. Also offers news on specific conditions, including HIV and migraine.

American Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians: Online Journal Guide - links to more journals.

NASA - news from every imaginable aspect of space science, with links to related NASA sites.

New Scientist - Web site of the weekly, news- and commentary-rich magazine.

Scientific American - Web features and searchability are added to the print content.

Discovery - even if you don't get the Discovery Channel on cable, this site is well worth a visit, with interactive multimedia, news, and features.

Microbes in the News - news and journal abstracts indexed on the basis of heroic, dangerous, ancient, and strange microbes from Michigan State University.

The Edge - the South Florida Sun-Sentinel offers interactive science features utilizing the Shockwave plug-in.

Access Excellence Online - forum facilitating communication among science teachers and researchers. Includes regular news updates, factoids, interviews, and media guide.

Hot Air - "the excitingly graphical and trendoid homepage of The Annals of Improbable Research." Features the Ig Nobel Prize, awarded on the heels of the Nobel Prize.

Pointcast - customized news delivered to your desktop from a wide range of news sources.

Yahoo - the premier Web index offers a My Yahoo option, regularly updating a personal Web page with news in areas you specify.

Excite - this leading search engine's home page features breaking news, including some science news.

Web Ferret - this software can search the net for any topic you specify, as often as you say.