New Internet Resources - Virtual textbooks

Two New Internet resources posted by the Scout Report and Intute - this time focusing on virtual textbooks in Microbiology and Chemistry:

Virtual Microbiology
http://inst.bact.wisc.edu/inst/index.php?module=Book&func=toc&book_id=3
Created at the University of Wisconsin, the Virtual Microbiology site contains a wide range of high-quality scientific educational materials that are meant to supplement and enhance more traditional materials. This particular item is an online textbook, divided into eighteen chapters. Of course, there are the traditional text passages and charts to enhance all of the material, but there are also number of nifty videos that provide additional exploration of topics like pond microbes and hands-on demonstrations. Visitors can also sign up to receive updates about new materials that make their way to the site and they can also provide user feedback.

Internet version of Mark Bishop's An Introduction to Chemistry Text and Tools
http://www.preparatorychemistry.com/Bishop_tour.htm
This website provides an Internet-based version of Mark Bishop's chemistry textbook "An introduction to Chemistry", first published by Benjamin Cummings in 2002. There are two versions of the text. "The new atoms-first version provides a more complete description of atomic theory, chemical bonding, and chemical calculations early. The chemistry-first version has a early emphasis on descriptions of the structure of matter and the nature of chemical changes, postponing the description of unit conversions and chemical calculations." The text is available as PDF and audio files. The site also includes Shockwave animations and tutorials, PowerPoint presentations for each chapter, chapter maps, Shockwave glossary quizzes, and molecular structures.

Periodic Table of Videos

http://www.periodicvideos.com/ A new site from University of Nottingham that's getting rave reviews. The Periodic Table of Videos gives a new slant to the periodic table by providing a short (around 3 mins) video about each element. There are also extra videos on the chemistry of tea, snow, etc. and for April Fool's Day, Fool's Gold. Read the Daily Telegraph article about it here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3347317/YouTube-periodic-table-Explosive-video-guides.html

Online access to Nature

Something I know a lot of you have been waiting for - online access to the journal Nature. Our new subscription allows access to the current year plus four previous years. For access from outside College click on Login and then on Athens Login and enter your ITS username and password. I expect to see high usage stats for this one!

SciTopics

SciTopics is a useful new website from Elsevier consisting of articles written by experts on hot topics in the sciences. Each article gives a round-up of current research, recommendations for further reading, links to selected web pages and details of 10 recent and highly cited journal article on the topic. A good place to start for research on an unfamiliar topic. Try SciTopics now at http://www.scitopics.com/

Top 5 most popular SciTopics pages at time of posting:
Measuring Research Output with Science & Technology Indicators By Loet Leydesdorff, 02 Jun 2008
Vaginal drug delivery By José das Neves, 09 May 2008
Sustainable development, renewable, and non-renewable resources By Jeremy Richards, 24 Nov 2008
Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria: Origins and Emergence By Don Clewell, 16 Jun 2008
Solid-state fermentation By Ashok Pandey, 13 Jun 2008

Top Science Blogs of 2008

Can't get enough of blogs? Here's some more to whet your appetite:

• Nature journal has listed its top 50 popular science Blogs
• The 2008 Weblog awards - Science category
• Science blogs chosen for inclusion by Intute
• Scienceblogs.com A community of science bloggers - 76 blogs and counting.

National eBooks Survey

Have you used eBooks? Researchers at UCL would like to hear from you. Click here to take part in the survey and, if you leave your Birkbeck email address, you will be entered into a prize draw for £200 Amazon vouchers.

Saturday eLibrary workshops - Spring term

There will be a series of Saturday workshops in the Library this term. Of interest to Science students will be the sessions on Using the Citation Indexes on Saturday 14th Feb. The 12 noon session is introductory and the 2pm session is more advanced. Other sessions you may be interested in are eBooks (17th Jan) and Finding newspaper articles (7th Feb) For more details on the program and to book see the Library web site