What is BIOSCI and bionet?
We’ll spare you the fascinating historical details and say simply that BIOSCI is a series of freely accessible electronic communication forums (i.e., electronic bulletin boards or “newsgroups”) for use by biological scientists worldwide. No fees are charged for the service. The system is intended to promote communication between professionals in the biological sciences. All postings to the newsgroups should be made in that spirit. While the general public may “listen in” to the discussions, these newsgroups are intended primarily for communications between researchers. There are other forums on Usenet such as sci.bio for the asking and answering of biological questions from lay persons. BIOSCI messages are distributed without editorial intervention in most cases. Dissemination is by both electronic mail and over Usenet in the form of the “bionet” newsgroups (see below for Usenet details). The contents of the electronic mail distribution is identical to the Usenet news distribution, but
