ACS To Go Electronic Only

The Chronicle of Higher Education and Ars Technica report that the American Chemical Society, publisher of journals such as Chemical Reviews, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Langmuir, and Nano Letters (to name a few), is preparing to publish their content electronically only and step away from print production.

What impact will this have? Both reports have some interesting comments.

Article from The Scientist on "Citation Amnesia"

Interesting comment on citation practice in journal articles. Below is quoted only the first few paragraphs. Full article and comments from readers are well worth reading. Click on the title of this blog post for a link to the article.

The Scientist: NewsBlog:

Citation amnesia: The results

Posted by Bob Grant

[Entry posted at 25th June 2009 03:57 PM GMT]

Citing past scientific work in present-day research papers can be a slippery business. Contributions from competing labs can be lossed over, pertinent studies accidentally left out, or similar research not mentioned in an attempt to give the study at hand a sheen of novelty. We at The Scientist often hear complaints from our readers concerning what they regard as either honest or purposeful omissions in the reference lists of high-profile scientific papers. So we conducted a study of our own to try and quantify the prevalence of these types of slights and ask our readers how the problem might be fixed. Image: Wikimedia Indeed, the vast majority of the survey's roughly 550 respondents -- 85% -- said that citation amnesia in the life sciences literature is an already-serious or potentially serious problem. A full 72% of respondents said their own work had been regularly or frequently ignored in the citations list of subsequent publications. Respondents' explanations of the causes range from maliciousness to laziness. ...

Journal of Biology editorial - Biologists Who Count

Editorial in a recent Journal of Biology discusses the debate about the importance of numeracy in the study of biology. First paragraph below. The title of this post is a link to the full text.

Biologists Who Count

Miranda Robertson

Journal of Biology 2009, 8:34doi:10.1186/jbiol146

Published:

27 May 2009

© 2009 BioMed Central Ltd

Editorial

The importance of mathematics in biology is a matter of perennial debate. The squabbles of early 20th century geneticists on the value of mathematics to the study of evolution have recently been revisited in Journal of Biology [1], and the 21st century has seen an explosion of information from various -omics and imaging techniques that has provided fresh impetus to the arguments urging the need for mathematical competence in the life sciences [2]. While there can be no question about the contribution of mathematics to many fields in biology, there is a curious tendency on the part of numerate biologists (often immigrants from the physical sciences) to insist that it is an essential part of the equipment of a biologist and none should be without it. This seems, on the evidence, extreme.

Peregrine falcon chicks atop Du Bois Library - photos of banding

Click on the blogpost title to see photos of the 'Class of 2009' falcon chicks from library staffer Lorraine LaPointe. There are 4 chicks in this year's brood, 3 females and one male. Lorraine says in her email:

The males are much smaller than the females. The male is in Richard Nathorst’s right hand in the group photo. If you don’t know who Richard is he is the one that looks like the “proud Papa”. Hopefully he will send some better photos.

Common Chemistry

“Common Chemistry” new CAS website

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS; http://www.cas.org/) , a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS; http://www.acs.org/) has launched a new, free, web-based resource called Common Chemistry (http://www.commonchemistry.org/). This resource is designed to help connect a chemical name to its CAS Registry Number. The CAS Registry Number is considered to be the most commonly used and unique identifier of a chemical substance.

Helpful to non-chemists this site contains approximately 7,800 chemicals of widespread and general interest as well as information about 118 elements from the periodic table. The results page provides the compound’s Registry Number, molecular formula, and chemical name (chemical name synonyms) and a Wikipedia link if available.

While not intended to be a comprehensive CAS Registry number look-up service, it does provide a good starting point for common chemicals. In testing the site my only concern is that it does not provide look-up service by entering a common drug name such as “Prozac.” If this site was truly designed for the non-chemist I would think that it would provide look-up service to those “common” household chemical names.

Reaxys Database Trial through 6/30/09

The UMass Library is pleased to announce a database trial to Reaxys.

Reaxys is a web-based search and retrieval system for chemical compounds, bibliographic data and chemical reactions. Reaxys is based on data from Elsevier’s chemistry databases – CrossFire Beilstein, CrossFire Gmelin and Patent Chemistry Databases.

Offering a wealth of experimentally validated information, Reaxys brings a fresh look to synthetic chemistry with powerful functionality, combined content and relevant information.

Powerful Functionality
Reaxys search, analysis and workflow tools are designed around the needs and common tasks of users, including:
· Synthesis planner to design the optimum synthesis route
· Multi-step reactions to identify precursor reactions underlying synthesis of target compounds
· Additional search capabilities such as the ability to generate structure query from names or phrases
· Search result filters by key properties, synthesis yield, or other ranking criteria
· Results visualization
· Similarity search
· Transformation analysis

Combined Content
The merger of three prestigious databases puts all the relevant data at the user’s fingertips. A search across the Reaxys database delivers a single results set and each record provides details excerpted from multiple patent or journal sources.

Relevant Information
Reaxys contains an extensive repository of experimentally validated data that chemists need including structures, reactions (including multi-step reactions) and physical properties. Now chemists can get relevant data not found elsewhere, drawn from source publications carefully selected for their importance and relevance to synthetic chemists.

To access the database go to the Reaxys link on the database trials page:
http://www.library.umass.edu/ndl/view/type/databasetrials

Send comments to pborrego@library.umass.edu.

NASA astronaut sends Twitter messages from Hubble

Article from the Telegraph.co.uk:

Twitter has broken through the final frontier: it has gone into outer space, thanks to one of the NASA astronauts servicing the Hubble Telescope.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 4:57PM BST 13 May 2009

(L to R) Mike Massimino, Drew Good, Andrew Feustel, and Jon Grunsfeld

Mike Massimino, a member of the crew sent to Hubble, has become the first person to use Twitter from space.

His first tweet proclaimed: "From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!"

His second, sent via the computers on board the space shuttle Atlantis, said: "From orbit: Getting more accustomed to living in space today and getting ready for our big rendezvous with hubble."

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has been used by thousands of people in unusual and controversial locations – including the Mumbai terrorist attacks, a child's funeral, and even inside the womb, thanks a pregnant woman wearing a belt with a sensor, which automatically tweeted when it felt the baby kick.

NASA, however, confirmed that this Mr Massimino – who goes by the Twitter nickname Astro_Mike – was the first man to have sent a Twitter message from out of space.

"Tweeting happens every day down here on earth, so why not take it to beyond Earth?" a spokesman at the Kennedy Space Centre.

Mr Massimino started using the blogging service in April and until recently had just a few hundred followers.

He now has in excess of quarter of a million people following his updates on Twitter, thanks to his regular messages in the lead up to launch day on Monday, which gave small details about his preparations and fitness regime.

Twitter, which allows people to post small messages, of no more than 140 characters, has taken off this year, with celebrities, politicians as well as about 15 million of ordinary people using the service.

Two New International Telescopes Launching May 14 - watch the launch live!

Steve Lord, a graduate of UMass Amherst in Astronomy and Electrical and Computer Engineering, who now works at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Jet Propulsion Lab at Cal Tech in Pasadena, CA, sent me this email:

Dear Friends,

Today [Tomorrow] - On the same day when the Space Shuttle astronauts reach NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to repair it and give it 5 more years of life, a new telescope will be launched from Kourou, French Guiana, South America:

The Herschel Space Observatory:

Herschel was built by 25 European countries with some help from the US - 1000 people x 10 years and 1 billion dollars. The US (NASA) gave 20% in instrumentation. I have worked on Herschel exclusively for 10 years.

Herschel (and another telescope, Planck) will be launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) and for a month steered to its Sun orbital position located five times further than the Moon.

The Herschel telescope is the largest telescope to be put into space by far, having more than twice the collecting surface area of the Hubble.

Herschel's instruments are cooled with liquid helium to near zero -273 C and the large mirror cools to -200C.

Herschel will observe the "cool" Universe for 3.5-5 years studing the origin of the Universe and the prebiotic chemistry taking place in space.

Herschel Launch time:
Thursday 14 May*/ /*by the French Aerospace Company
- Trois, deux, un

6:12 AM PST
9:12 AM EST
10:12 AM Rio Janeiro
2:12 PM GMT
3:12 PM CET
6:12 PM India
9:12 PM China

Watch the launch live here (it takes 25 min of burn) http://www.videocorner.tv/

Here are some Herschel info links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7864087.stm
http://www.wikio.co.uk/video/1091848


Links from the European Space Agency (ESA) on

the Herschel and Planck Observatories:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/SEMBM00YUFF_0.html
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=17

And the launch campaign:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=44286