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Environmental Biochemistry CHEM 470

Below is a list of resources helpful in completing the lab assignments for CHEM 470. If you need help in using these resources, please contact the chemistry librarian.

How to evaluate websites

When finding information sources on the internet, you must be selective and evaluate each source individually to ensure credibility and accuracy. Evaluating websites is a question of asking yourself 6 simple questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?

  • How did you locate the information source? From a trusted website? Searching a library database?
  • Who authored the source material? Are their qualifications given? Who is responsible for this information?
  • What type of data does the source provide? Are the research methods provided?
  • Why was the material published? Look for articles that aim to communicate results of scientific studies.
  • When was the material published? Is it current?
  • Where is the source data published? Is it the website of a respected organization or a commercial website?

Have a look at the How to Evaluate Information Sources handout for more guidelines on evaluating the appropriateness of your web resources.

Below are examples of inappropriate websites and alternative appropriate information sources:

What is peer review?

The process of Peer Review is when journals give submitted articles to a panel of experts to review and assess the merit and suitability of the research. This ensures that the conclusions and research methods are held to rigorous scholarly standards. Check out this video prepared by the University of Western Ontario for a more in-depth explanation.

Searching for articles

PubMed (MEDLINE) contains abstracts to worldwide biomedical literature.

 

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) can be searched to give the most relevant results:

  • Choose MeSH Database from the Explore menu (found on the lower right side, below the search box on the home screen). 
  • Type in your substance or topic and select Search.
  • On the right hand side of the screen there is an Add to search builder button. Select this button, with AND selected from the dropdown menu.
  • You can now type in other search terms with AND or hit Search PubMed.

Try limiting to review articles in PubMed. In the left hand column of the results page, under Article type, click on Review.

This database is provided freely from the National Library of Medicine but must be accessed from the Concordia Library website to see our holdings.

 

GreenFILE covers many aspects of environmental sciences.

How to cite

When writing your assignments it is very important to document and cite your information sources properly. The citation style used in chemistry is The American Chemical Society citation style. Check out our ACS guide for examples and instructions.

Books on reserve

The following books have been put on reserve at the Vanier Library:

Reading list

*All of these readings can be accessed using the Course Reserve System

Sulfotransferases

Glutathione-S-transferases

Cytochrome P450

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor

Mar regulon

Drug resistance

Organic solvents

Pathway engineering

Xyl operon

Mercury

Metallothionein

Bioremediation, examples

Radiation

Dissimilatory metal reduction

  • White, C., Sharman, A.K., and Gadd, G.M. 1998. An integrated microbial process for the bioremediation of soil contaminated with toxic metals. Nature Biotechnology. 16:572-575. 

Arsenic

Antifreeze

Plants

Journals

Here are a few journals that are important in the field of Environmental Biochemistry.

Environmental biochemistry websites

Here is a list of websites useful for completing your assignments:

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