Star Picks

The Online Chemistry Resource Center  (http://nobel.scas.bcit.ca/resource/) The Online Chemistry Resource Center offers a little bit of everything for those interested in chemistry. From a chemistry crossword puzzle to a Periodic Table quiz and more. Among the other gems is the foundation course notes for entry to the British Columbia Institute of Technology, which are there free for anyone who wishes to brush up on their chemistry.

Acronyms, Symbols and Abbreviations  (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/stasa/)     Acronyms, Symbols and Abbreviations Usually, if I cannot recall what a particular acronym stands for, e.g. MALDI-TOF or some other mouthful, I'll plug it into a search engine and hope that one of the top entries will give me the expansion. In this case, Google falls down as the first entry is in Japanese...not to worry, Wiley's Acronyms database comes to the rescue for those more esoteric scientific and technical abbreviations, offering the answer-Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight, a type of mass spectrometry.

Brainbashers (http://www.brainbashers.com/)     Brainbashers offers puzzles, games, and illusions. Try your hand at solving Morse code riddles, or get addicted to Triplets and other seemingly simple games. It's a great pity there are so many pop-ups and flashing ads on the site, but then there are programs available to block such annoyances, and admittedly the site itself offers the option of removing their banner ad while you're playing.