As always, leave your links in the comments!

A wealth of information exists outside of Google, although both Google and Google Scholar are powerful tools. How do you search for chemistry related information, documents, references, and other literature?

What if you wanted…

1. to find references related to your current laboratory experiment?
2. to find references for your writing assignments?
3. to find references for your research?
4. to determine if the ‘science’ you are interested in pursuing is already known?
5. to cultivate new research or project ideas?

Chemical Databases

Many databases exist that allow searching by author, keyword, title, structure, or even reaction! Most provide tools for exporting search results to text files, word docs (or rtf’s), or reference managers (e.g., RefWorks). The library maintains a current list of major resources. Those that I use most often follow (in no particular order):

1. American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications (pubs.acs.org)
2. Article1st and WorldCat (search journals and books, respectively – not chemistry specific)
3. SciFinder Scholar + structure searching (ChemAbstracts search client)
4. Reaxys + structure/reaction searching
5. ScienceDirect (not chemistry specific)
6. Cambridge Crystallographic Data Center (ConQuest – crystal structure search)
7. Google Scholar (not chemistry specific)

Be careful…

Do not assume that each of these databases is comprehensive! As much as they would like to be the “one stop shop,” each will have omissions or exclusions of some sort. A good strategy is to use multiple searches of multiple databases. Also remember that a single search term is unlikely to provide comprehensive results. Small changes (additional terms, change in case, etc.) may give drastically different results. Remember to always put your search results in context with the ultimate question(s) asked, and that smaller, complementary searches are usually better than attempting one world beating search!

Searches to try… (use multiple databases as appropriate)

Author

1. DeSimone, Joeseph
2. Sorensen, Eric
3. Trofimenko, S.
4. Rabinovich, Daniel
5. Riordan, C.

Topic

1. organometallic (complex)
2. olefin metathesis
3. oxidation
4. olefin oxidation
5. epoxidation (styrene)
6. asymmetric oxidation
7. trispyrazoylborate (synthesis)

Structure

1. Search using a simple ethylenediamineNi(II) fragment
2. Search for both nitrito and nitro cobalt complexes, and other metal nitrito/nitro complexes
3. Consider the salen ligand and derivatives
4. Consider a fragment of the tris(pyrazolyl)borate ligand using different R groups (e.g., Me, t-Bu, Ph, halogens… use your imagination)

All stars start out using hydrogen as nuclear fuel. This hydrogen is fused together to form helium in a very explosive nuclear reaction that “powers” the star. As the hydrogen runs out, the star begins to collapse from a lack of radiative pressure from the core. The collapse of this much mass increases the temperature until the core is hot enough for Helium fusion. This process is repeated as the fuel continues to be consumed, from hydrogen to helium, helium to carbon, carbon to silicon, and silicon to iron. It is at this point that the already explosive reactions become even more cataclysmic. All of the previous fusion reactions release energy, but an iron fusion reaction actually requires energy. This process reverses the radiation pressure which causes a irreversible pull towards the center of mass. At its most compressed state, all electrons in the star are compressed into contact with the nucleus against the strong force. The resulting rebound causes one of the most powerful explosions in the universe a supernova.

Since Betelgeuse is near the end of its life as a super giant it is due to supernova in the next several years. When this happens, the resulting explosion will be approximately 10,000 times brighter than our sun, though it will be very distant. The supernova will last for several months, up to even a year. The brightness will block out every star in the night sky and will even be brighter than the moon. It will even be visible in the daytime. The extreme distance will limit any detrimental effects here on Earth (whether it be radiation or charged particles), preventing any poorly done future Hollywood movies. It won’t end the world, but having two suns in the sky will sure look cool.

See Also: http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/betelgeuse.html