The growing role of computers—tools now as important to chemists as microscopes—in the chemistry lab, is reflected in the number of computer-related products that will appear and exposition workshops that will be held at the meeting. More than half of the announcements that The Scientist received about products that will make their debuts at the ACS meeting described computer hardware and software that will be of use to chemists or new instruments that work with computers to collect and analyze data. Twelve of the 21 exposition workshops being conducted by exhibitors focus on computer-related issues. Chemical information management and molecular modeling talks dominate the workshops, but newcomers to computers for use in chemistry can, for example, attend "What Do I Do with My PC?."
One especially clever new application of an existing technology will be introduced by Spectrex Corp., Redwood City, Calif. Its new computer-controlled method for counting and sizing ...