Until recently, computer incompatibility and expense have hampered U.S. astronomers from easily accessing a valuable, extensively stocked French database called SIMBAD. But NASA and NSF have teamed up to pay for a permanent network hookup, circuit costs, and charges for scientists' use of the database itself. SIMBAD (Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data), maintained in Strasbourg, France, makes it possible for an astronomer to look up an astronomical object, such as a star or the recent supernova, by its astronomical designation. The scientists can access nearly all known information and a listing of papers published about a given subject since 1950. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., will register U.S. astronomers and provide them with passwords.
Asymmetric Synthesis Database
Molecular Design Limited has announced that it is developing an asymmetric synthesis database called CHIRAS for use with REACCS, the company's reaction access system. Planning to release the database during the last quarter of 1988, the company claims that CHIRAS will be of value to researchers whose work entails producing organic molecules with controlled absolute and relative stereochemistry. Prospective customers, the developer feels, would include, for example, investigators working in the pharmaceutical or agrochemical industries. The initial release will include data on approximately 6,000 reactions, with an additional 6,000 expected to be added by the end of 1989, with the total covering the chemical literature from 1975 to 1987. The company plans to release yearly updates thereafter.
