the molecules around me:
information sources

There are several valuable reference books that can provide you with the information asked for in this assignment. These books include the "Condensed Chemical Dictionary," "Merck Index," "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics," and "Lange's Handbook of Chemistry." These books should be available either in the library on campus or at the University of Utah.

There are also many resources on the Internet that can help you find the required information. Note: inclusion of these sites in this list does not constitute an endorsement, either of the company, or of their products, or of the content of their web sites, nor does it constitute a guarantee of the correctness of the information provided by the site.

Be sure to type chemical names correctly when searching the web for information!

• ChemSpider: The Free Chemical Database (http://www.chemspider.com/) "is a free chemical structure database providing fast text and structure search access to over 26 million structures from hundreds of data sources." Sponsored by The Royal Society of Chemistry, the site is free of charge and does not require reigration for use.
• PubChem (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) is maintained by the National Institutes of Health. This should be a good place to find the molecular structures and toxicity information for many common compounds.
• Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) always contain molecular formulae, physical properties, toxicity information, and sometimes contain molecular structures. A good place to start is "Where to find MSDS on the Internet" (http://www.ilpi.com/msds/).
• ChemExper Chemical Directory (http://www.chemexper.com/) is a database which currently lists more than 100,000 chemicals from an international range of suppliers. You may find structures and melting and boiling point information at this site.
• The Chemical Database (http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/erd/) at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Akron may provide structures, physical information, and toxicity information.
• NIST Chemistry WebBook (http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/) administered by The National Institute of Standards and Technology, provides a variety of information, including structures
• Copernic (www.copernic.com) offers free software (PC only) that searches multiple web-based search engines, eliminates duplicate hits, and ranks results. I have used it since 1998 and don't search the web without it.
• Google (www.google.com) is probably the largest web-based search engine today, but it does not rank the results it returns. It is a good place to look for combinations of search terms. When searching phrases remember to enclose them in quotation marks, such as "material safety data sheets".
• KartOO (www.kartoo.com) provides a very helpful way to refine searches and seems to provide almost as many hits as a Google search.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/default.htm) has links to all sorts of information, some of which might even be useful.
• Food additives sites
  • A Food Additive Database (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/eafus.html), a database of 2,000 chemicals maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Provides names, CAS numbers, and molar masses but nothing else.
  • Chemical Cuisine: CSPI's Guide to Food Additives (http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm) contains an alphabetical listing of a number of food additives and their purposes
  • FAIA - Food Additive and Ingredients Association (http://www.faia.org.uk/ ) is a British site with information about food additives and much more
  • Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) (http://www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/en/) contains a large database of food additives used as other than flavoring agents and may include the molecular structures of listed compounds
• Cosmetic additive sites
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition: Cosmetics (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-toc.html) includes a section on cosmetic additives
  • A & E Connock (Perfumery & Cosmetics) Ltd (http://www.connock.co.uk/) is an example of a site that contains some limited information about cosmetic additives
• Other Products
  • Household Products Database (http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/) co-sponsored by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. Tells you the composition of many common household products, but not what they're for. Still, pretty interesting. . . .