Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Experiments with Googling

[Disclaimer - I couldn't think of any good images for this blog post, so to liven it up a bit here are a few things you can use: 1) An ASCII game you can play in your browser that is quite fun - pro tip - let it run in the background while you're at work, 2) The even better sequel, 3) A link to this post with Nyan Cat on top. And now on with the science.]

Searching the chemical literature is part of the process of doing bench chemistry, or even thinking about doing bench chemistry. I can't even fathom how much slower my days would be if I needed to go to the library to find a reaction instead of turning to "The Googlefox." These days, we've got all  kinds of methods for scouring the chemical literature, Scifinder and Reaxys being two of the best. Of course, there are other useful databases: the ACS has a search feature , SDBS is super useful, and you can even get a good deal of information from Sigma-Aldrich. I'm certain there are plenty more.

And yet... I turn to Google.


During my Ph.D. I've uncovered some amusing things while trying to search for chemistry terms in google. One of the earliest actually happened as an undergraduate, I remember needing to find conditions for a dehydration reaction, so I googled it. It was with much indignation that I realized that dehydration was in fact, a medical condition. You can easily clear this search up by just searching for "dehydration reaction."

Here are a few other things I've uncovered during my tenure as a chemist:

However, I recently discovered the most infuriating thing to try and find using Google: the Gif reaction. Try googling the following:
In this case, I finally had to search it on ACS (1) (2).

7 comments:

  1. Am I the only one who thinks that NPR stands for Natural Product Reports and not National Public Radio?

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    1. You and I are on the same page. Jamal saw that NPR was following us on twitter and he was impressed for 5 seconds before he realized it wasn't National Public Radio.

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  2. Learned thanks to Google that its definitely the CCDC, not the CCDB. One is the crystallographic database, the other is the Cats Costume Discussion Board.

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  3. Pretty sure I should go and join Dallas Baptist University the amount of times I've googled DBU

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  4. Bizarrely enough, the first hit for TEA is the Texas Education Agency and not, well, TEA. I mean, tea. Wait, what?

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    1. I solve this one by searching for "net3," which also gives you "net3technology." But I typically know the triethylamine data (101.19, 0.725)... I use it a lot.

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  5. I googled nOe recently and found this...http://noeundergarments.com

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