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Archive for the ‘news’ Category

Humans Force Earth into New Geologic Epoch

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

From LiveScience:
“Humans have altered Earth so much that scientists say a new epoch in the planet’s geologic history has begun.

Say goodbye to the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch and hello to the Anthropocene.”

Science rejoins JSTOR

Friday, January 4th, 2008

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:
The influential journal Science has reversed course and rejoined JSTOR, The Chronicle has learned. The journal and the popular online archive of scholarly publications reached an agreement this morning, said a spokesperson for Science. The journal’s decision to withdraw last summer was the subject of much criticism by librarians and others.

Neither Science nor JSTOR would describe the terms of the new license, but Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal, said the changes had to do with price and with linking of articles within JSTOR to other articles. “We’re very pleased about it,” he said.

Michael P. Spinella, executive director of JSTOR, echoed Mr. Leshner’s cheer. “I think it’s very good for everyone,” he said.

IEEE Downtime

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

On Thursday, 13 December, IEEE will perform planned maintenance to the IEEE Xploredigital library.

During the maintenance, users may experience up to two hours of downtime beginning at approximately 4:00PM (EST). A message will be posted to the IEEE Xplorehome page to alert your users to the planned downtime. Please encourage your users to take this into account when they plan their research.

IEEE Xplore downtime for update

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

On Saturday, 10 November, IEEE will implement an upgrade to the IEEE Xplore digital library.

As a result, users will experience approximately 2-4 hours of downtime on that date, between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. EST. A message will be posted to the IEEE Xplore home page to alert your users to the planned downtime. Please encourage your users to take this into account when they plan their research.

This update includes the following features:
*Tabbed search results, including a beta test of Application Notes, practical content for working engineers
*Citation (Known Item) search, RefWorks/BibTeX citation download, and improved author search
*Subscriptions to IEEE Expert Now educational courses available through the IEEE Xplore platform

BioMed Central Launches Biology Image Library

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

BioMed Central Launches Biology Image Library Online Resource for Biological Images will aid in Research and Education

BioMed Central today announced the launch of Biology Image Library, an online resource that provides access to over 11,000 carefully selected biology-related images. This is the latest service from BioMed Central, part of the Science Navigation Group of companies which was also responsible for the creation of images.MD, a popular medical image resource.

The Library is a new subscription-based service offering access to an annotated selection of high-quality biological images, movies, illustrations and animations. Subscribers may make royalty-free use of images in the collection for research and educational purposes, while commercial usage rights will be available for an additional fee.

“Biology Image Library will be an invaluable resource for biological researchers and educators” said Matthew Cockerill, Publisher, BioMed Central. “Researchers often maintain their own collections of useful images, but until now there has been no easy way for others to find them. By annotating the best images, making them searchable and accessible, and licensing them to allow convenient reuse, Biology Image Library will help academics and other biologists to illustrate their work and to create eye-catching presentations and course material.”

Biology Image Library gives researchers, teachers and students an easy way to find and download high-quality visual material. All content comes from sources that are peer-reviewed by academic editors prior to publication online, so researchers can be sure that the images are scientifically reliable. Subjects covered include developmental biology, histology & pathology, immunology, microbiology & parasitology, molecular & cellular biology, neuroscience and plant biology.

The Biology Image Library is continuously working to expand its collection of images. Potential contributors should email:
info@biologyimagelibrary.com or see
http://www.biologyimagelibrary.com/contribute for more information.

To view Biology Image Library and register for a free trial, visit http://www.biologyimagelibrary.com.

WRS — National Chemistry Week Blog

Monday, September 24th, 2007

The National Chemistry Week Blog is live. Check it out for lots of chemistry-related information.

WRS: WorldWideScience.org

Friday, July 6th, 2007

From GCN:

“A new portal that crosses both international and database boundaries was launched recently for people interested in scientific sources that are unavailable through commercial search engines such as Google.

WorldWideScience.org was developed by the Energy Department and the British Library, along with science and technology organizations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. It employs federated search technology — a search method that simultaneously executes a query against an array of databases, then aggregates and ranks the results — and gives users a single entry point for searching far-flung science portals in parallel with only one query.

“Scientific research results are archived globally in a plethora of sources, many unknown and unreachable through [the] usual search engines,” said Raymond Orbach, Energy’s undersecretary for science. “This international partnership will open up this vast reservoir of knowledge in a rapid and convenient manner, something that will add great value to our existing knowledge.”

WorldWideScience.org follows the model of Science.gov, the searchable portal for science databases of federal science agencies. WorldWideScience.org was developed and is maintained by Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information, which also played a central role in the development of Science.gov. The participating countries contributed databases that can be searched through the portal.”

Scientists Work on Encyclopedia of Life

Thursday, May 10th, 2007

In a whale-sized project, the world’s scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth’s 1.8 million known species and put it all on one website, open to everyone.

CRS Report: Fuel Ethanol: Background and Public Policy Issues

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

A Congressional Research Service report entitled “Fuel Ethanol: Background and Public Policy Issues“.

Presentation on renewable energy

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

Here is a powerpoint presentation entitled “Live Green, Go Yellow?“, part of the Sustainable Agriculture Colloquium at Iowa State University.