Carolina Science Concourse

Soon, we will be shifting our Scifinder Scholar subscription from the local client we use now to the web version. The web version has been available for two years, but we chose to wait until it was sufficiently debugged. Based on reviews from other universities and the fact that CAS is no longer updating the desktop client, we have decided that now is the time to initiate this change.

For more information on the web client, see the following page: http://www.cas.org/products/scifindr/sfweb/ .

Also, CAS will be hosting an open virtual seminar tomorrow, November 19, at 3pm. This will be an excellent opportunity to get hands-on experience with the new web interface. To register for the seminar, go to this website and click on the heading “Exploring the web version of SciFinder using the CAS Virtual Lab!” under Thursday, November 19, 2009. When it asks for your SciFinder Login ID, you can simply type your name.

Finally, one of our colleagues at Buffalo, Ben Wagner, has made a list to compare the features and weaknesses of both the web interface and the desktop client. You can access that list here.

We always welcome your feedback, so please either comment on this post or email Zari Kamarei.

Research is changing. With the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, there are endless new avenues for scholars to share information, collaborate on their work, and come up with results more quickly than ever.

One of the most impressive examples of this is the Polymath Project. In January 2009, Tim Gowers wrote a piece on the possibility of open research in mathematics via a blog or wiki. From there, Gowers—along with Michael Nielsen, Terence Tao, and Gil Kalai—launched a discussion on the density Hales-Jewett theorem. Several hundred participants and a month later, the combinatorial proof was declared essentially complete.

Currently, the Polymath Project is examining other problems. These are being run concurrently on a wiki and a blog.

Most notably, that proof of DHJ(k) was formally written up and is available on the arXiv. The complex issue of authorship—How does one attribute authorship to hundreds of participants?—was solved by submitting the paper under the appropriate pseudonym “D.H.J. Polymath”.

Gowers and Nielsen published an article in Nature about the Polymath project and its implications for open source science. For more information on the Project, there is an extensive list of articles and background on the Polymath Wiki. Also, if you’d like to discuss the Polymath Project further, talk with Tyler Dzuba in the Math/Physics Library.

Participation in the Polymath Project is open to all, so it would be very exciting if some of our established and rising scholars at Carolina would get involved. What do you think?

Geological Society of London is launching a new book series on the Lyell Collection. The Petroleum Geology Conference series is a sequence of edited and peer-reviewed volumes arising from the prestigious London-hosted conferences. The series feature papers, posters, animations and core photographs with commentary. The principle focus is on North-West Europe, but papers also detail many generic advances made in petroleum geology.

The Lyell Collection features full text articles and books from the publications of the Geological Society of London including:
-Journal of the Geological Society (1845-present)
-Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
-Special Publications of the GSL (book series)
-Memoirs of the GSL (book series)
-Engineering Geology Special Publications (book series)

To search the Lyell Collection from the Library website go to E-Research Tools and select it from the “L” page.

Questions about the Lyell Collection? Contact Miriam Kennard.

The Science Libraries have acquired a trial subscription to Reaxys, “a new workflow solution for synthetic chemists”, and we’d appreciate your feedback!

https://www.reaxys.com/

Reaxys contains an extensive database of structures, reactions, and physical properties. Based on CrossFire Beilstein, CrossFire Gmelin, and Patent Chemistry Database, this new resource should be applicable to chemistry research campus-wide.

This trial subscription will expire on 12/31/2009, so take a look and tell us your thoughts soon! You can provide feedback by commenting on this post or by emailing Zari Kamarei at zkamarei@email.unc.edu.

Terence Tao, Fields Medalist and Professor of Mathematics at UCLA, recently made a post on his blog regarding the difficulties of rendering math on the web. For print, LaTeX is the gold standard, but there isn’t yet an established means of generating complex mathematical expressions on a web browser.

Tao has asked his readers to discuss this important topic for a quickly-moving academic culture in the comments of his post. This discussion should be quite intriguing to watch.

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/displaying-mathematics-on-the-web/

The Science Libraries have initiated a trial subscription to EOLSS, an interdisciplinary resource integrating 20 component encyclopedias. Take a look and tell us what you think!

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) has contributions from international scholars and is edited by more than 300 subject experts. Topics range from the earth, atmospheric, mathematical, biological, and chemical sciences to the social sciences and humanities, including natural resources policy and management and area studies.

This is only a trial subscription—it will expire on 2/22/2010.  Please try it out and give us your feedback.  Leave a comment on this post or contact Miriam Kennard.

Read more about EOLSS here.

The Science Libraries have secured a trial subscription to a database which we’d love for you to take a look at and tell us what you think!

http://www.reviews.com/

Computing Reviews offers article and book reviews on materials related to computer science. Topics covered include theory of computation, hardware, software, methodologies, and mathematics of computing, among many others.

This is only a trial subscription—it will expire on 11/23/2009. Once you’ve had a chance to look it over, please leave a comment on this post or contact Zari Kamarei at zkamarei@email.unc.edu with your feedback.

The Science Libraries have acquired another trial for a set of journals. We’d love your input on them!

http://www.nowpublishers.com/

now Publishers regularly publishes monographs in the fields of business and technology under the name of their journal series, Foundations and Trends. Our trial subscription entitles us to online access for all issues of the Foundations and Trends Technology journals. These peer-reviewed reference works are an excellent resource.

The trial will expire on 12/31/2009, so be sure to take a look before then and let us know what you think. You can leave a comment on this post or email the librarian, Zari Kamarei, at zkamarei@email.unc.edu with your feedback.

Professor Sherwood Rowland, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry will present the public talk “Greenhouse Gases & Climate Change” (Oct 29th, 7:30pm, Carroll Hall Auditorium) and the technical talk “The CFC-Ozone story” (Oct 30th, 11am,Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium).

I am holding a SciFinder Scholar workshop on Thursday October 8th, in the Undergrad Library, Room 124.  This is a hands on workshop.  So, you will be doing the searches yourself.  If this time is not good for you, you can make an appointment with me, and I am more than happy to work with you individually.
If you are coming, please email me at zkamarei@email.unc.edu.