Chemistry Chem.WWW
By Kristin Kili Lay
Science for Everyone
Hypography Science Forums
Web forums have recently gained popularity as a means to connect like-minded people around the world. Just as with their predecessors, the bulletin boards and newsgroups of the 1980s, forums strengthen virtual communities because these Web-based venues encourage all members to participate in ongoing discussions. Hypography Science Forums is a community that shares interesting Web sites, news, book reviews, and more, all with the goal of piquing the interest of a wider audience. Hypography is a neologism credited to Tormod Guldvog in 1999, a combination of “hyperlink” and “bibliography,” according to Wikipedia. Since its conception, Hypography Science Forums has developed into an extensive science community with more than 9000 threads and roughly 150,000 posts made by its 4255 members. Impeccable manners do count for something; they set the stage for a lively discussion forum. Clever labels denoting a member’s participation, such as curious, thinking, or questioning, indicate the level of participation. Clear forum rules ensure topics are categorized properly for a searchable and usable index.
Peer-Reviewed Digital Library
NSF’s Analytical Science Digital Library
A virtual visit to this library provides open access to analytical chemistry class material, including animations, e-texts, exercises and lab experiments, virtual labs, techniques, applications, and teaching resources. Show your class an animation depicting how a scanning tunneling microscope works before they analyze images from one. Supplement your course textbook or find specialized reference material with online e-texts on such topics as chemical separations or chromatography theory. When physical labs are impossible or impractical, take advantage of the 13 different virtual analytical labs available, like an introduction to chemical equilibrium or DNA evidence training. Submit your own work to be reviewed and published or browse the work of others. E-courseware contains innovative problems, data sets, and scenarios to supplement lectures, case studies, or recitation sections for traditional and Web courses. Similarly, you can submit articles for review on innovative experiments, courses, approaches, and even entire lab manuals on educational practices and also on undergraduate research.
The Treasured Past
Chemical Heritage Foundation
The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) site allows visitors, students, researchers, and other interested individuals the opportunity “to explore and discover how the chemical and molecular sciences have changed the world in which we live.” The CHF newsletter is available online or in print, and it is widely represented at national science conferences in order to serve the community and help us treasure the past, be educated on the present, and inspire the future. In a special section on women, CHF provides access to the often-unheard stories of female innovators in science. The stories make a wonderful addition to a classroom lecture on medicine, radioactivity, food, computers, the universe, and our environment, helping to provide a personal touch to any lesson plan. Students should be fascinated by the lives these scientists led and perhaps find connections that will stimulate, encourage, or interest them in science-oriented careers. Articles on a variety of topics engage readers through personal stories describing the individual challenges a particular innovator had to overcome.
What’s in Your Backyard?
USGS Science Site
Science is in your backyard, and you can find out what’s happening in your state through this U.S. Geological Survey science site. New releases, real-time monitoring, and links of interest for the selected state are available. So, too, is general state information such as the capital, land area, and geographic center. On the Great Lakes State (Michigan) Web page, articles on asbestos localities and carbon dioxide impact on marine life are among the top five, and additional links on earthquakes, minerals, recreational activities, and water-resource information indicate other areas of scientific interest. The Golden State (California) Web page features information on erosion, seismic activity, and sea otters, and the highlighted sections on the Old Dominion (Virginia) Web page feature federal standards of groundwater, geomagnetic research, and an invitation to the news media to see a mile of the earth’s crust from the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. You can also monitor in real time each state’s water data, stream flow conditions, floods and high water flows, or groundwater climate response data.
Quick Hits
Your mission, Bond, Mr. Carbon Bond, is to discover all there is to know about the element carbon and the compounds it forms. This clever, interactive experience allows you to explore a series of spy files and interactive missions to gather information about organic chemistry, polymers, covalent bonds, and more. This site was created and designed by three high school students in 1999, and Agents 002, 003, and 004 will meet back at headquarters after you have successfully accomplished your mission.
This 60-page science education booklet provides an overview of how basic chemistry and biochemistry research can give us a better understanding of human health. Five succinct chapters are preceded by “Pathways of Life” and concluded with “Chemistry for the Future.” Inside, various examples, including how scientific curiosity led to the creation of a company that is exploring potential medicinal uses of an enzyme in frog skin, illustrate what an integral role research plays in today’s chemistry labs.
The top URL out of 11,300,000 hits returned from a Google search for periodic tables is Mark Winter’s Web elements periodic table. Furthermore, when I assign my element research project, his site always appears on my students’ list of works cited. Easy to read, with basic and advanced information, related news articles on the selected element, compounds formed, and more are why it is their no. 1 choice . . . or maybe it’s because it is Google’s most relevant hit.
Interesting facts about common and not-so-common chemicals abound at this Molecule of the Month Web site, which currently features 133 different molecules. Authors submit their molecules and, because of demand, have about two months to polish their page for publication. Read about historical uses of hydrogen peroxide to power jet planes and submarines, the difference between true cinnamon and Chinese cinnamon, the real difficulty in obtaining the correct dosage of chloroform to knock someone unconscious, and why a gin and tonic won’t cure your malaria.
Access some of the great lectures from the top universities around the world. This site gives students a chance to learn more about theoretical chemistry while they are studying it, or provides those of us already in the working world an opportunity to see where theoretical chemistry might benefit us. This self-guided exploration into theoretical chemistry answers questions such as where the underlying concepts and equations of quantitative chemistry come from, who invented them, and how they were invented.
Perhaps not everyone shares a passion for these unusual, hump-backed beasts of burden, but this site is devoted to the camel, camel trainers, camel equipment, veterinarians, discussion groups, articles, photos, stories, and more. The camel hub of the Web features Gobi the camel and his stories. Read about his camping adventures, and get to know the curious, clever, and cuddly Gobi. Owner Roger Berry shares a side of camels few of us have seen.
Protocol Online is an online reference tool for life-science labs. Search for research protocols contributed by researchers from around the world, and find links to other online protocols hosted by research labs, biotech companies, and personal Web sites. Discipline-specific discussion forums are also hosted at Protocol Online, and they provide a PubMed search as well as the PubAlert alerting service. Animal techniques, immunology, and neuroscience protocols are just a few of the available categories.
The study of fungi and their use to humans is known as mycology. The importance of fungi ranges from sources of antibiotics and toxins, their potency in breaking down wood, their role in the carbon cycle, and as responsible agents of the potato blight. Mycology Online, a joint project of the University of Adelaide Mycology Unit and the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, offers a wide range of reference materials and access to course offerings from the Mycology Unit. Check out the Fungus Photo of the Month and Mould Identification.
Nano Hits
As an alternative to solitaire or hangman, try a game of concentration made with cute public-domain chemistry images.
Use this animated and interactive explorer to help students visualize the concept of viscosity and test several liquids at different temperatures.
Chlorine gets a bad rap, but it is one of the most useful elements. Read about its uses, find teacher education materials, order free materials, and more.
When you’re not in the know, note the abbreviation and search the chemical compound abbreviation database.
Promise to be healthier this year? This site can help you find restaurants so you can eat better and lead a healthier life, particularly when you’re traveling.
Kristin Kili Lay teaches chemistry at the Benjamin Franklin International School in Barcelona, Spain. She often uses the Chem.WWW links to supplement the curriculum for her advanced placement, conceptual chemistry, and other courses.