More Top Websites for Chemistry Students

I teach synthetic chemistry in the laboratory, so my answer reflects what the students use on a very regular basis.

Two of the three top websites are very specific to chemistry, but of general use within our sub-disciplines. One is a spectroscopy database that has standard spectra recorded on most of the compounds that we use as starting materials in a reaction. It is important to be able to show that something has changed during a reaction procedure, so distinguishing which indicators come from the starting materials is of value. In an ideal world, we would each run the data on our own starting materials, but there are only so many hours in each day. Most of those are devoted to collecting the data on the products! The web-site is:

http://riodb01.ibase.aist.go.jp/sdbs/cgi-bin/cre_index.cgi?lang=eng  

As you might imagine, safety is a major concern when handling chemicals. Before each experiment is begun, we require our students to check the properties and hazards of the materials they are about to use. There are many such databases online - quite a few are created by the chemical suppliers. One fine example is:

http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/chemistry.html which is very popular among our students.

The third web-site is Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/). Now before my colleagues throw their hands in the air and shout that it should not be a valid reference source, let me explain myself. Many lab courses are run independently of a lecture course, even if academic credit is tied to the two combined. Thus, it is common for new ideas and terminology to reach the student in the lab before hearing it in the lecture. While this takes a recent high school graduate by surprise, it really does not matter where they hear it first, provided a reasonable explanation is included. Memory lapses or quick refreshers on short topics can be supplied by Wikipedia, and my students typically have this up on their screens when they are preparing for a new experiment. And no, I do not accept it as a reference source in place of an article from the primary literature.
           
Dave Berry, Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria, and 3M National Teaching Fellow.

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