This is a fantastic demonstration of the power of the web to educate and inform. The Oxford University Virtual Reality Group is developing a three-dimensional simulated laboratory which can be used in teaching chemistry. Virtual reality techniques provide the bones and interactive multimedia experiments the substance. Students can move around the lab in a web browser window and take part in various experiments with digitised video and animations, animated three-dimensional simulations of chemical objects (including molecules), interactive questions and links to other sites.

DAIN Metadatabase of Internet Resources for Environmental Chemicals      
( http://dino.wiz.uni-kassel.de/dain/index.html)

This site is designed to help one find relevant databases for environmental chemicals. The metabase is searchable by name or by subject, such as chemical use, bioaccumulation and the like, with the subject search providing structure searching too. You can choose which database to search but obviously for the widest approach the meta-search is the most comprehensive.

SciCentral     
(http://www.scicentral.com)

The guys at SciCentral are very choosy about what sites they link to in their comprehensive database. Rather than simply creating a burgeoning list of resources in chemistry, biology, analytical and most other areas they only retain some 5-10% of the sites that are initially uploaded. This makes SciCentral more like Yahoo than some of the less picky web directories around. The inclusion of research news provides some additional interest while you're surfing.

NextWave - now renamed and relocated   
(http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/)

If you're a young scientist after a new, or even first job, but really don't know where to start, then NextWave, a spin-off from the AAAS/Science provides and excellent springboard to some invaluable information. There are advice-based features on finding jobs as well as more general features on work-related ethics, law and issues. What makes NextWave stand out, perhaps, is that it has UK, German and Canadian versions of the site, so it is far more international than many other jobs and careers sites around.