March 2004 Newsletter

Useful / Interesting Websites

Engineering timelines map of the British Isles

Have you ever wondered why the Forth Rail Bridge is a milestone in Engineering ? Or when lighthouses in Britain changed shape?

The engineering-timelines map of the British Isles is an interactive map showing the many geographical locations of interest to engineers around the British Isles.

Leonardo at National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan
Features the Leonardo da Vinci gallery, which provides information on the 100+ models of the inventor's machines. An outline of his life is given, together with details of his manuscripts.

MathCentre

A UK online support centre offering mathematics support materials to students, teachers and lecturers in further and higher education. The mathematics subjects are categorised for use by physical scientists, engineers, materials scientists and business.

Resources included are: quick reference leaflets; teach yourself booklets for a more in-depth treatment of a topic, including worked examples; practice and revision booklets, with answers;

Topics covered include: algebra, arithmetic, differentiation, integration, geometry, trigonometry, functions and vectors.

Open Access

Professor John Willinsky, Director of the Public Knowledge Project at UBC gave the second annual QUFA Lecture, The Future of the Academic Journal: Online, Open, Public, Global? Examples of his recent work, including demonstrations of open source publishing and conference software, are available at the Public Knowledge Project

Electronic Library of Mathematics
The Electronic Library of Mathematics contains online Journals, article collections, Classical works, monographs, and other electronic resources in the field of mathematics. All material is in electronic form and access is generally free, except for some periodicals with a "moving wall", i.e., a certain delay period after which resources become freely available.

"Open" versus "Free" Journals
"Worried that advocates of "open access" scientific publishing have seized the moral and rhetorical high ground, a coalition of 48 nonprofit science societies today rolled out a statement highlighting their commitment to "free access" to technical literature."Science, March 16, 2004

Nature has begun a new web forum discussion called "Access to the literature: the debate continues". Each week, the website will publish specially commissioned insights and analysis from leading scientists, librarians, publishers and other stakeholders, as well as key links, and articles from our archive.

Articles

Three butterflies exquisitely preserved in amber for 15-20 million years are described online in the Proceedings: Biological Sciences. Researchers say the find suggests butterflies may be more ancient than previously thought.

Naturalists' Surveys Show That British Butterflies Are Going, Going ... Long-term studies of bird, butterfly, and plant populations across Great Britain suggest that, contrary to current thinking, insect species may be disappearing even more rapidly than other organisms.Science, 19 March, 2004

Wireless monitor frees patients to roam - Researchers in Germany have invented a wireless wristband that can monitor heart rates and blood oxygen levels. The invention could liberate recuperating hospital patients or the elderly from their beds. Nature, March 22, 2004

Communicating original research in chemistry and related sciences - This paper discusses the early history of electronic communications, the costs, benefits and challenges of electronic publishing, and the future of the publishing industry. Accounts of Chemical Research, March 2004