Science at Collins

Like the physics and medicine prizes, the 2009 Nobel prize in chemistry was split between three researchers: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Thomas A. Steitz, at Yale University, and Ada E. Yonath, at Weizmann Institute of Science. The three were honored for their work on the structure of the ribosome. The bacterial ribosome is the target of most antibiotics, and understanding how the bacterial ribosome is structured is launchpad for developing structure-based drugs to combat drug-resistant bacteria.

Read the Nobel scientific background report, or check out some of the primary research reports:

• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
• Thomas A. Steitz
  (click the right-hand link, ‘Search PubMed for Steitz Lab Publications’)
• Ada E. Yonath

The American Chemical Society will be moving all but three of its publications to online only formats for institutions and individual subscribers in 2010. While this will not affect Collins Library subscriptions, which are already fully online through the ACS Web Editions and ACS Legacy Archives, it’s another major step increasing the prevalence and credibility of electronic publishing in science.

While a few users have been anxious about the change, or regretted the serendipity of the stack search, most have been pleased by the more limited environmental impact and the increased potential for innovative data presentation and reuse.

For more information try:

• The June 17 Nature article breaking the story based on the leaked ACS memo detailing the plan.
• Further details in the Ars Technica blog  entry of July 6
• The July 10 note in the Chronicle’s Wired Campus

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickdimmock/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

• Conklin, Alfred R. 2005. Introduction to soil chemistry : Analysis and instrumentation. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience.
• Dreiss, Meredith L., and Sharon Greenhill. 2008. Chocolate : Pathway to the gods. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Gaines, Susan M., G. Eglinton, and J. Rullkötter, eds. 2009. Echoes of life : What fossil molecules reveal about earth history. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

SciFinder is now working with IE8, so users will no longer have to use the C0mpatibility View settings.

However, difficulties printing detailed reference answers have been reported, with sections of content missing from the printouts. SciFinder’s publisher, CAS, suggests exporting your answers to a PDF or RTF file and then printing from the file until the problem is resolved later in the year.

• Jacobsen, Neil E. 2007. NMR spectroscopy explained : Simplified theory, applications and examples for organic chemistry and structural biology. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience.
•  Ortiz de Montellano, Paul R., ed. 2005. Cytochrome P450 : Structure, mechanism, and biochemistry. 3rd ed. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.Bryan, Jeff C. 2009. Introduction to nuclear science. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
• Roat-Malone, Rosette M. 2007. Bioinorganic chemistry : A short course. 2nd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience.

Click the titles of these new arrivals to be taken to the catalog record to find call numbers and availability.

• Chang, Hasok, and Catherine Jackson, eds. 2007. An element of controversy : The life of chlorine in science, medicine, technology and war. London: British Society for the History of Science.
• Hartmann, Jean-Michel, Christian Boulet, and Daniel Robert, eds. 2008. Collisional effects on molecular spectra : Laboratory experiments and models, consequences for applications. 1st ed. Amsterdam ; Boston: Elsevier Science.

SciFinder, a key database for chemistry and related fields, is now available on the web. Until now, using SciFinder required downloading an application, limiting where you could use it.

Now, the key features of SciFinder are available online and are accessible on campus or off. Watch a demo of the new SciFinder, or compare the features of the Web and desktop versions.

After April 10, 2009, we will have SciFinder Web only, so now is a good time to get started with the web version.

Registering:

First, you’ll need to register for an individual account. This makes it possible for you to save searches, track new content, and more.

1. Click the registration link above; then click ‘next’ on the first page to get to the registration screen.

2. Fill out the starred sections of the registration form, choose a username and password, and click ‘Register’.

SciFinder requires you to use your @ups.edu email to register successfully!

3. Check your email for a confirmation message:

(SciFinder Registration – Your Confirmation Required).

4. Click on the link in the confirmation email, and you’re set to search. The link is valid for a limited time, but you can re-register if you forget to activate right away.

Using SciFinder Web:

Start at the links to SciFinder Web in Databases A-Z or on the Chemistry Research Gateway page. Click and log in.

When you open SciFinder Web, you’ll start out at the literature search. Just type and go as you used to, or use the menu at the top of the page to select another tool.

When you’re finished, log out. SciFinder Web is still limited to 3 simultaneous users. There is an automatic time-out, but it takes longer to activate if the browser is closed without logging out.

Notes on structure drawing:

Structure drawing is the only aspect that requires software, a Java plugin you may already be running. If you do not have it, you’ll be prompted to install it, or you can download it from http://www.cas.org/misc/downloads/jreplugin.html (PC and Mac versions available).

The first time you use the structure drawing too, it will open slowly. Subsequent uses are quicker.

Questions or Comments?

Please contact your science librarian (email or x3646) with any questions or comments you may have about SciFinder Web.

More resources:

Video Tutorials and PDF How-to Guides

CAS e-Seminars (Registration required)

CAS Search Strategies

Would you like to be able to write chemical papers in a word processor with a dictionary that can tell the difference between a correctly spelled technical term and an actual misspelling? Tired of trying to convince your computer that ‘dimer’ is, in fact, correct and should not automatically become ‘dimmer’?

If so, you might like to download and install the Chemistry Dictionary for Word Processors (version 2.0).

Developed by Adam Azman, a PhD candidate in synthetic organic chemistry, this dictionary contains over 104,000 chemical terms, and is compatible with Microsoft Office (Windows or Mac) or OpenOffice (Windows or Linux). The dictionary is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, and was built using a previous draft and resources from ChemSpider.

Download, correct, or request additions to the Chemistry Dictionary for Word Processors at the Chemistry Blog, or find out more about how it was built.

• Anslyn, Eric V., and Dennis A. Dougherty, eds. 2006. Modern physical organic chemistry. Sausalito, CA: University Science.
• Ebel, Hans Friedrich, Claus Bliefert, and William E. Russey, eds. 2004. The art of scientific writing : From student reports to professional publications in chemistry and related fields. 2nd, completely rev. ed. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.
• Kim, Mi Gyung. 2003. Affinity, that elusive dream : A genealogy of the chemical revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
• Markov, Ivan V. 2003. Crystal growth for beginners : Fundamentals of nucleation, crystal growth and epitaxy. 2nd ed. Singapore ; Hackensack, N.J.: World Scientific.
• Petrenko, Victor F., and Robert W. Whitworth, eds. 1999. Physics of ice. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
• Saito, Yukio. 1996. Statistical physics of crystal growth. Singapore ; River Edge, N.J.: World Scientific.
• Turro, Nicholas J., V. Ramamurthy, and J. C. Scaiano, eds. 2009. Principles of molecular photochemistry : An introduction. Sausalito, Calif.: University Science Books.
• Walsh, Patrick J., and Marisa C. Kozlowski, eds. 2009. Fundamentals of asymmetric catalysis. Sausalito, Calif.: University Science Books