Mossbauer analysis of the atomic and magnetic structure of alloys

Visualizing chemistry : the progress and promise of advanced chemical imaging

Biological, social, and organizational components of success for women in academic science and engineering

Start with a story: the case study method of teaching college science

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the British Library, along with eight other participating countries, have opened an online global gateway to science information from 15 national portals. The gateway, WorldWideScience.org, gives citizens, researchers and anyone interested in science the capability to search science portals not easily accessible through popular search technology such as that deployed by Google, Yahoo! and many other commercial search engines.

Results cover a wide range of resources and currently there is no linking to Drexel holdings. However, for picking up that rare item that just could fit the bill, this resource is worth keeping in mind.

In 2007, CAS celebrates its 100th year of serving chemists and other scientists around the world.

Read all about it in:
Chemical & Engineering News, June 11 2007, Vol. 85, Number 24
Special issue features CAS’ 100th Anniversary

This is the original logo for CAS:

Last week’s issue of Science devoted much of it’s content to The World of Undergraduate Education

A sampling of some of the articles:

Keeping Score
This map offers basic information on five important components of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the countries profiled in this special issue.

AUSTRALIA:
‘A Crisis in Student Quantity and Quality’
John Bohannon
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA–Kath Handasyde enlists native species, assertive Americans, and anything else on hand to rekindle a passion for science among undergrads.

UNITED STATES:
‘This Is the Front Line … Where I Can Really Make a Difference’
Elizabeth Culotta
AKRON, OHIO–Lisa Park and her colleagues take on creationism and other antiscientific attitudes in the classroom–and in the voting booth.

UNITED KINGDOM:
‘Much of What We Were Doing Didn’t Work’
Daniel Clery
LEICESTER, U.K.–Derek Raine sees integrated sciences as a potential savior for disciplines facing declining student interest and a dwindling number of departments.

FRANCE:
Opening Up to the Rest of the World
Martin Enserink
BORDEAUX, FRANCE–Antoine de Daruvar injects the real world into his bioinformatics classroom in an attempt to reinvigorate higher education.

BRAZIL:
‘I Do Not Make a Distinction Between Teaching and Research’
Marcelo Leite
RECIFE, BRAZIL–Antônio Carlos Pavão combines the ideal with the practical to bring science to the masses and create the next generation of scientists.

and more can be found at: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol317/issue5834/news-summaries.dtl

In the most recent national library conferences (SLA and ALA), there have been presentations on popular perceptions of librarians as presented in the media. It seems that every discipline is concerned about how their profession and professionals are portrayed and perceived. Chemists are no exception. I just came across a web site that Chris Magee of the School of Chemistry, Bristol University has created.

It’s really quite fun! Check it out at:
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2006/Macgee/Web%20Project/main_page.htm

The Journal Citation Reports is product of Thompson ISI, in which the citation patterns of research papers are tracked. One of the outcomes of this analysis is the impact factor of a journal. Journal editors and publishers are keen on this number as a measure of the “worth” of their product. The everlasting debate on the true value of this number and its methodology notwithstanding, it is interesting to assess the relative rankings of journals within disciplines.

The 2006 impact factors for the top 5 journals in four Chemistry subdisciplines follows. It should be noted that the highest ranking journal for Organic Chemistry is Aldrichimica Acta, a publication of the ALDRICH CHEMICAL CO INC, and it is FREE!