The lab home page

Getting a home page for the lab onto the internet is relatively easy — all you need is a server to store the file — but making it look good and having some useful content is a different matter. The spider has crawled across the full spectrum of lab pages: some are tedious, listing lab personnel and their rodent pets; some are almost art, so clever is their use of graphics, Java and other gadgets; and many make a genuine contribution to the scientific community, with protocols, software or data for other biologists, or explanations for a wider audience. When all the best elements are present, you get a useful home page such as that of the Molecular Motors Group (Marie Curie Research Institute). They have simple explanations of their work for those who know nothing of kinesins, a short movie of a kinesin strolling along a microtubule, and pictures of the microtubules themselves. Some lab pages, of course, are fanatical rants against the injustices of the peer-review system or the editors of journals; these are seldom useful, just free speech.