Nature PastCasts

The Nature PastCast is a podcast series telling the stories behind some of the biggest papers in Nature's archive. Each month for a year, the PastCast will explore Nature's back catalogue, setting in context key moments in the history of science – and rooting out some of the quirkier reports from the journal – with the help of scientists and historians.

Click on the links below to access each episode:

October 1993: Could there be life on other planets?
September 1963: Plate Tectonics
August 1975: Monoclonal antibodies: from basic science to blockbuster medicine
July 1942: WW2 Radar Design
June 1876: The arrival of the first Gorilla in Europe
May 1985: The discovery of a hole in the ozone layer
April 1953: The structure of DNA

 

Welcome to new science students

 

Welcome to all new Birkbeck science students. I hope to see you all at induction events over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime if you would like to find out more about what the Library offers, there are lots of ways to do that:

• Watch our Library video
• Download our Welcome guide
• Come on a Library tour or try our QR code tour
• Try our Library and Information Skills Moodle module
• Sign up for a Saturday workshop
• Take a look at the guide to Library resources for your subject

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us http://www.bbk.ac.uk/lib/contact/

Astronomy Photographer Of The Year exhibition

Planetary Sciences students may want to take some time off from studying to visit this exhibition at the Royal Obervatory - Astronomy Photographer Of The Year

They are also running a course on digital astrophotography in the New Year http://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/events/digital-astro-2014

Library Saturday Workshops

Come along to a Saturday workshop and learn to make the most of what the Library offers. This term our workshops are aimed at new students, but all are welcome.

Learn to understand your reading list, use the Library catalogue and find ejournals.

See the list of dates and times, and book your place


We look forward to seeng you at a workshop.

2014 - International year of Crystallography

Those of you who pursue studies, research and careers in Crystallography, you will be very pleased to know that 2014 has been declared as the International year of Crystallography (IYCr2014 for short) to celebrate a century since M. Von Laue was awarded the Nobel Prize for the Diffraction of X-rays by crystals and Kepler’s observation in 1611 on symmetry of ice crystals.

The celebratory year will commence with a "glittering" Opening Ceremony in UNESCO's HQ, in Paris, in 20-21 January 2014.
UNESCO and the International Union of Crystallography launched a new website where you can follow up events, announcements and learning materials such as Audio/Visual presentations and a plethora of educational websites. The website will be sustained after the end of 2014 as a permanent resource of the International Union of Crystallography's web presence.

It is valuable to note that a new peer-reviewed open access journal will be launched as part of the 2014 celebrations. The International Union of Crystallography Journal (IUCrJ for short).

The journal will cover:

• biology and medicine
• chemistry and crystal engineering
• materials and computation
• neutron and synchrotron science and technology
• physics and free electron laser science and technology[1]

Image credits: All the images are hyper-linked and not saved on the website.


Note:
[1] Source: http://www.iucrj.org/m/

Web of Science and Medline maintenance this Friday (23rd)

We have received the following warning from Thompson Reuters regarding the Web Of Knowledge database platform:

Web of Knowledge maintenance will begin on Friday August 23, 2013 at 0900 BST and ending by Friday August 23, 2013 at 1900 BST
Web of Knowledge may not be available during the above times. Thomson Reuters would like to apologise for any interruption this may cause.

Web of Knowledge includes the Science Citation Index and the Medline database.

Reviews on Tuberculosis

The Cochrane Library provides evidence-based reviews in medical and health subject areas and at the moment they have a spotlight on their reviews related to tuberculosis. The reviews linked from this page http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/collection/4299181/Tuberculosis.html
cover prevention, diagnosis, drug and other types of treatment and drug delivery.

Seach the Cochrane Library for more evidence-based reviews here
http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/index.html