Thursday 25 June 2009

New Science Database


Calling all chemistry, physics, computing and biomedical researchers. Introducing Academic Search Premier......a new DIT Library subject database. This Ebsco d-base provides fulltext access to over 4,500 journals in the sciences and includes cited references for more than 1000 titles as well as 3,700 peer reviewed journals. Reviews welcome. Contact Ask A Librarian if you need help. Remember if you're accessing this resource remotely you'll need your DIT staff/student number and Library PIN.

Kevin St Library now on Twitter


For all you tweeple out there Kevin St Library is now on Twitter at https://twitter.com/KevinStLibrary - there's also a feed from this blog.

See you in the tweetosphere.

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Summer Opening Hours


From Wednesday 17th June summer opening hours will apply in DIT Library Kevin St:

  • Monday - Friday: 9.30am-5.15pm
  • Saturdays: Closed
For other DIT Library sites summer opening hours see http://www.dit.ie/library/hours/

Thursday 11 June 2009

Perioidic table gets a new element


The periodic table will soon have a new addition - the "super-heavy" element 112. The element 112, discovered at the Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed the recognition of element 112 in an official letter to the head of the discovering team, Professor Sigurd Hofmann. The letter furthermore asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element. In about 6 months, after the proposed name has been assessed by IUPAC, the element will receive its official name. The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table.

Image from scienceblogs.com

Declaring war on MRSA & C.diff


A RESEARCH group in Cork has enlisted a new ally in the fight against hospital superbugs – designer bacteria. They are building tougher bacteria as a way to tackle the dangerous Clostridium difficile. It is germ warfare out there as researchers do battle against the new emerging superbugs, says University College Cork’s Dr Roy Sleator. Many have developed resistance to our best antibiotics leaving doctors without weapons that can stop C difficile and the infamous MRSA. He and colleagues at UCC’s Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) are taking an alternative approach, adding extra genes that will give their designer bacteria the edge over C difficile . Full details here.

Wednesday 10 June 2009

New sustainable engineering report


Engineering for sustainable development: guiding principles
This full text report is available in pdf format and covers principles for sustainable development. It is provided by the Royal Academy of Engineering. There are abbreviations of technical terms as well as diagrams, tables and references. Download it here.
Image from zazzle.com

Tuesday 9 June 2009

Google waves at Twitter

Everyone uses email and instant messaging on the web now, but imagine if you could tie those two forms of communication together and add a load of functionality on top of it. At its most fundamental form, that’s essentially what Google Wave is. Wave was born out of the idea that email and instant messaging, as successful as they still are, were both created a very long time ago. Or as Lars Rasumussen put it, “Wave is what email would look like if it were invented today.” Still at developer stage see reviews, vids and content at

Monday 8 June 2009

Microsoft launch new search engine.


Microsoft's new 'decision engine' launched last week bing.com - although it's still in beta version in Europe. So what's new here and can it challenge culture king Google?

Choose a Bing-optimised subject and results are sorted by category, along with a menu at the left that lets you refine your search with topics such as Images, Biography, Quotes and News. Search for a product and you get categories including Shopping, Types, Buying Guide and Reviews. Microsoft calls these Web Groups, and although they only cover a small subset of searches, they are a key Bing concept that will be extended in future.

Microsoft calls Bing a decision engine - their aim is to provide weblinks but also to solve the wider task being undertaken. Sentiment extraction is less painful than it sounds and collects reviews and opinions from accross the web and Instant answers is a feature that aims to resolve your question without needing to leave Bing. Type "weather" and you get a summary of weather in the location of your choice now and for the next five days.

Another Bing feature, Best Match, appears after a search with a highly predictable result. Type a company name and Best Match shows the website at the top of the results, with deep links into common destinations on that site, a telephone number, and sometimes a search box that likes to the search engine on the site itself. See some Bing reviews here

Quite a Google gap to bridge especially with Google's new Search Options and Google Squared in testing, but time will tell.....