Vol. 2  Iss. 6  The Chemical Educator  © 1997 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

ISSN 1430-4171 http://journals.springer-ny.com/chedr S 1430-4171(97)06155-0

Computer Applications in Chemistry Books; ACS Professional Reference Book; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1996. Tables, Figs. xv + 344 pp 15.0 x 22.8 cm. $31.95 HB ISBN 0-8412-3223-7; $25.95 PB ISBN 0-8412-3224-5.

Today, the overload of information and hype available in the print and electronic media about the so-called "information revolution," "electronic superhighway," and the Internet, the matrix of networks and computer systems linked together around the world and reaching even into war-torn and Third World countries, is staggering. Almost every television commercial seems to be accompanied by the URL for a World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) home page, and even the late but unlamented Tupac Amaru rebels who recently held so many persons hostage at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru had a home page on the Internet as does Saddam Hussein. Also, Sir Harold W. Kroto learned via the WWW that he had been awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (he had been out for lunch when the telephone call from Stockholm came), probably making him the first Nobel laureate to receive notification on the Internet.

Although designed primarily for chemists just beginning to use the "Net," The Internet: A Guide for Chemists, a 13-chapter valuable resource by ten contributors from eight academic, industrial, or governmental organizations, is also a good reference for veteran Internet chemists. The book is divided into two parts: "Basic Information" (Chapters 1-8) and "Specifically for Chemists" (Chapters 9-13). Chapter 1, "History of the Internet," recounts its evolution from a humble beginning as the ARPANET in 1969 with four sites to its tens of thousands of sites today. The ACS's contribution to early ARPANET development is also chronicled.

Chapters 2-4 ("Electronic Mail," "The Berkeley Mail Program," and "Electronic Lists") all deal with e-mail. A general discussion of how e-mail works is followed by numerous examples of using e-mail, sending e-mail to other countries, decrypting e-mail addresses (a necessary skill that extends to guessing Internet addresses for other services), and a very brief description of Usenet discussion groups.

However, two points are overlooked. First, all the examples are devoted to Unix-based computers. With more than 90% of the personal computer and workstation market using PCs or Macintoshes, it appears that the book is designed mostly for the university educational market, where Unix is still used on a large percentage of the systems. In view of the fact that personal computers are a very large market, ignoring them almost completely in these chapters and yet including an entire chapter on the Berkeley Unix mail program assumes that chemists use only Unix workstations. Also, most of the examples throughout the book involve Unix, with the exception of Web browsing. Second, the discussion of Usenet, a hierarchy of electronic discussion groups, is limited to only two paragraphs. Usenet is very important in research, especially for broadcasting requests such as "Does anyone have or know...?", and it certainly merits a chapter of its own.

Chapter 5, "Gopher," presents a very good discussion of the program developed in an effort to streamline and simplify use of the enormous resources available on the Internet, including information on PC and Macintosh implementations of Gopher clients. However, considering the historical and continued use of the file transfer protocol (FTP) and programs that implement it, for sending and retrieving files on the Internet, it is surprising that the discussion of FTP is only a preface within this chapter rather than a separate chapter itself.

Perhaps the most important section on information sharing is the longest chapter (Chapter 6, 57 pp), "The World Wide Web", which is rapidly becoming the preeminent method of publishing information. Its basis is HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and its accompanying HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP). This extremely flexible set of protocols has been adapted to include not only text, but also sounds, images, movies, three-dimensional modeling, and virtual reality simulations. Extensible Web browsers now include so much functionality (themselves or with added extensions) that separate programs for FTP, Usenet discussions, Gopher, and e-mail are becoming unnecessary. This chapter contains a good explanation of the basics for accessing the Web, a subject about which entire books have been written. It even mentions the newer Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image file format, but oddly, it does not mention the Portable Document Format (PDF) that is becoming quite common for document publishing.

The Unix orientation of the book is again underscored in Chapter 7, "Designing an Internet-Accessible Database," which is entirely devoted to creating a textual database with Unix tools. "The Almost (but Never Quite) Complete Buckminsterfullerene Bibliography," started as a personal collection by 1996 Nobel chemistry laureate Richard E. Smalley and affectionately known as the "Bucky Bib," is used as an archetypal database example. While this information may be useful for some Unix users, the reader would be well advised to consult books written specifically for this purpose. Because most of the information in Chapter 8, "Electronic Conferencing," would need to be program- and platform-specific, the bulk of this chapter is wisely given to a history of electronic chemistry conferences.

Beginning with a reference to a discussion group on mercury amalgam and ending with a group concerning the Young Scientists' Network, Chapter 9, "Electronic Lists for Chemists," is one of the book's meatiest chapters for chemists. Each reference contains a description of the group, a list of editors, information on subscribing and unsubscribing to the group, and the FTP and WWW addresses, among other items. This chapter alone may be worth the price of the book. Chapters 10-12, "Managing the Computational Chemistry List," "Chemistry and Gopher" (the shortest chapter, 5 pp), and "Chemistry and the World Wide Web," add more lists of useful Internet addresses, helping to make them excellent reference sources. Chapter 13, "Chemical Industry and the Internet" discusses the history and predicts the future of this topic. The authors agree with other industry analysts that the Internet represents a major paradigm shift in information sharing.

A two-page appendix, "Anonymous FTP," presents a brief primer on file transfer protocol, which is used to send files across the Internet. A three-page bibliography provides a list of books (through 1995) and online resources (given as URLs). A detailed index (18 double-column pages) makes the volume especially user-friendly. The book is a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms and neologisms, all of which are lucidly defined or explained in a detailed 11-page glossary.

As a survey book of a topic that changes daily on multiple fronts, this volume has a large subject to cover. The authors have done a very good job of providing a bird's-eye view, with enough down-to-earth instructions and details for the Internet chemist. In our opinion, they have also admirably fulfilled their "desire to encourage more individuals to become information providers on the Internet." We also share their hope that "this book will spur others to develop their own Internet resources and create exciting, novel applications that will entice the chemical community."

Since the book's publication in 1996, the Internet has been undergoing tremendous growth and change. The rapid adoption of Java and its offshoots (e.g., Java Script, Java Beans, and Java OS), the incredible proliferation of Websites, the development of Meta-Content Format (MCF) for three-dimensional Website navigation, and virtual reality formats for information display, beg for the release of an updated second edition. (Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems.) Despite these omissions, this well organized book is a worthy addition to the reference shelf of any chemist working on the Internet today.