CAS Launches Free Web-Based “Common Chemistry”

Common Chemistry Press Release
This is a neat resource for the general public. It allows people to look up CAS Registry numbers and chemical names. It isn’t comprehensive, but does contain information on “7800 chemicals of widespread and general interest.” Direct link to Common Chemistry: www.commonchemistry.org

10 Strange Species Discovered Last Year

Wired’s article on 10 Strange Species Discovered Last Year
This is a great article, with fantastic images, of 10 species discovered last year. It might be a nice article to point students in ecology or biodiversity classes to read.

Lifehacker

Lifehacker
While not strictly a science resource, Lifehacker is a great resource for tips, tricks and “life hacks” to make your life and work easier. If you haven’t checked it out, you don’t know what you are missing. It is a great resource and you can even RSS the posts.

Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar

Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar
An interesting paper looking at the strengths and weaknesses of these four journal article databases. This might be interesting for students to read, especially if they are prone to searching Google Scholar at the expense of these other subject specific databases.

Standards for Online Datasets

“We Need Standards for Online Datasets (PDF)”
White paper about the need to publish standardized datasets online along with proposed guidelines and standards. An interesting idea that would definitely make it easier to use datasets and to preserve them in the online environment.

TED talks and Data

TED: Ideas worth Spreading
If you’ve never listened to or watched a TED talk, go to the site and watch one now. These are wonderful, 18-minute, talks from some of the brightest, most creative people around. There are talks on many different subjects and themes that you can use in your classes. So go get an idea worth sharing.

TED Talks Spreadsheet
This is a great, up-to-date spreadsheet of all the TED Talks. It gives the URL to the talk, the speaker’s name, title of the talk and a short summary. This is a great way of finding a talk if you don’t want to use the searching feature on the TED site or just want to scan quickly through the talks.

NSF Report on Strategy for Digital Scientific Data
A summary of the report and link to the full report about preserving digital scientific data. Very timely and talks about one of the greatest issues in ensuring longterm access to digital data–preservation.

SLA Poll of Top 100 Journals

Poll of Top 100 Biology and Medicine Journals
The BioMedical & Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) took a poll to create a list of the top 100 journals in biology and medicine as part of their Centennial project. Take a look and see if you agree or disagree with the picks. What journals do you think are the most influential?

Transforming Agricultural Education

Transforming Agricultural Education Report
A must read if you are involved with agricultural education. Definitely a hot topic tied closely with issues of global warming and crop production.

State of the Birds

State of the Birds
Here is another site that is a good compliment to BirdLife International and also includes information from the 2009 report on the state of birds in the United States. Very nicely done site; easy to navigate with lots of information, images and figures.

Mendeley

Mendeley
Here is another resource to check out for managing your research papers and citations. Mendeley also incorporates some social networking features by allowing you share your library with others. To me, the layout looks very similar to Zotero. So if you use Zotero, getting used to Mendeley shouldn’t be a problem. If you do use this, let me know if you find it helpful.

Cult of Done Manifesto
This is not related directly to science, but helpful for everyone. This is a great manifesto by Joshua Rothhass on how to get more done and stop procrasinating.