Free, Authoritative Online Science Library

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Erin Mitchell
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Cambridge, Mass.,—October 22, 2009— Nature Education, a division of global science publisher Nature Publishing Group and creator of Scitable, the free online science learning space,  today announced availability of Essentials of Genetics, a free and authoritative mini-text on core concepts in genetics for undergraduate and high school science students. Essentials of Genetics includes clear, straightforward explanations, high quality video simulations, and links to research papers and reviews on advanced topics in genetics, all created and approved by teaching faculty.

“We want to provide students a reliable and citable online research library for term papers and exam prep,” said Nature Education Senior Vice President & Publishing Director Vikram Savkar, “and at the same time help the science come alive through high-quality visualizations.” In addition to Essentials of Genetics, Scitable features hundreds of free overviews of advanced topics in genetics, containing reliable and accurate content written and reviewed expressly for students by scientists. Students can also post questions to the Ask the Expert feature, where scientists will answer questions within 48 – 72 hours.  Active students can reach out to Scitable’s global community of faculty, researchers, and grad students to form study groups or ask advice.  Faculty may create free online research spaces for their classes in Scitable , including customizable reading lists and news feeds from major science magazines.

For more information, visit www.nature.com/scitable.

About Nature Education
Nature Education is a new division of Nature Publishing Group devoted to facilitating high quality, accessible science education in all countries of the world. Nature Education is currently focused on bringing together high quality content, a global community of faculty, researchers, and students, and technology-based learning tools to provide a powerful new generation of science learning tools for the academic and consumer community.

About Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine.Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. In addition, for this audience, NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, plus a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 5 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and online databases and services, including Nature News and Nature Jobs plus access to Nature Network and Nature Education.

Throughout all its businesses NPG is dedicated to serving the scientific and medical communities and the wider scientifically interested general public. Part of Macmillan Publishers Limited, NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and offices in cities worldwide including Boston, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Hong Kong, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Heidelberg, Basingstoke, Melbourne, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul and Washington DC. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.