Back Index Forward
Weekly News Digest
May 18, 2009 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITI’s Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks. CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

CAS Launches Free “Common Chemistry” Site

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS; www.cas.org), a division of the American Chemical Society (www.acs.org) has launched a new, free, web-based resource called Common Chemistry (www.commonchemistry.org). This resource is designed to help nonchemists and others who might know either a chemical name or a CAS Registry Number of a common everyday chemical and want to pair both pieces of information.

Common Chemistry contains approximately 7,800 chemicals of widespread and general interest, as well as all 118 elements from the periodic table. With the exception of some of the elements, all other substances in this collection were deemed of widespread interest by having been cited 1,000 or more times in the CAS databases. Examples of substances in Common Chemistry include widely recognizable ones such as caffeine, benzoyl peroxide (acne treatment), and sodium chloride (table salt).

While not intended to be a comprehensive CAS Registry Number (CAS RN) look-up service, Common Chemistry does provide access to information on chemicals of general interest. The CAS Registry Number is recognized throughout the world as the most commonly used, unique identifier of chemical substances. The full CAS REGISTRY database contains more than 46 million organic and inorganic substances. Research discovery and patent tools such as SciFinder and STN allow users to search the entire database.

CAS thanks the Wikipedia volunteers, especially Professor Martin Walker at the State University of New York-Potsdam, who collaborated with CAS to provide the links to Wikipedia records (when available). The Common Chemistry database will be updated periodically, and Wikipedia links will be added when possible.

Source: Chemical Abstracts Service