Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini)

Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) has brightened enough to see with binoculars and, if you're lucky, with naked eyes.

Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) continues to brighten faster than predicted, and has now reached about 6th magnitude. That's bright enough that you can see it without optical aid under excellent conditions, and it should be a relatively easy target through binoculars. The comet currently lies low in the southwestern sky after darkness falls, but it won't stay there long. It can be seen among the background stars of the southern constellation Pyxis the Compass. It lies at about the same altitude at the bright star Procyon in Canis Minor.

The Comet's best view is until the 1st week of June from Southern Hemisphere. Afterwards it will be lost in the glow of the Sun until it emerges in the 1st week of July. Then the Northern Hemisphere population will also have a good look at the comet (hopefully without optical aid). These couple of evenings the sky is not that clear here in Johannesburg, to go comet hunting, but I'm looking for an opportunity to see it soon.

Read more about this comet on:

Astronomy.com - Look quick to spy a bright comet & Comet Boattini: Barely Visible Now, Bright in July?

Wiley-Blackwell Library Newsletter

Keep abreast with the latest Wiley-Blackwell developments (May 2008), by reading through this newsletter:

The sections under New Titles Online highlight some of Wiley-Blackwell latest publications, and be sure to check Platform Update for up-to-the-moment news on the merger of Blackwell Synergy content into Wiley InterScience.

* Latest News in Select Subject Areas featuring

Life Science Medicine & Health Environmental Science

* View New Titles Online From Wiley-Blackwell
Journals - First issues of new journals now online
Journal Backfiles - Blackwell backfiles reach 5.3 million pages
Online Books - Spotlight on Life Science and Earth Science
Reference Works - New works and sample content

* Platform Update - July 1, 2008.

All journal content on Blackwell Synergy merges into Wiley InterScience:
As of July 1, 2008, all Blackwell journal content—including all full-text HTML and PDF versions of articles from current issues, backfiles, and issues published online before print—will be incorporated into Wiley InterScience.

Over the weekend of June 28th and 29th, 2008, there will be a period when both Blackwell Synergy and Wiley InterScience will be unavailable while we transition and re-index data.
After July 1, 2008, Blackwell Synergy will no longer be available online.
For complete details, go to: interscience.wiley.com/transition

The Newsletter is AVAILABLE ONLINE AT: www.wiley.com/go/wiley-blackwell/librarynews

The Latest from Science Online Magazine

23 May 2008, Vol 320, Issue 5879, Pages 981-1096: Table of Contents

Don't forget that the Library subscribe to the full-text online!

Special Issue: Microbial Ecology

In the 23 May 2008 issue, Science and its online companion Science Signaling explore the stunning diversity and dynamics of the microbial universe. In Science, News stories look at the hidden microbial world inside sponges and ongoing efforts to classify microbes with respect to their environments, while Review articles discuss the microbial processes that drive earth's biogeochemical cycles and approaches to understanding the distribution of microbial taxa and their traits. In Science Signaling, Perspectives explore how different plant pathogens use similar signaling molecules in distinct ways, how gut microbes dampen the host immune response, and how mast cells use extracellular traps to kill microbes.

* Editorial

-Microbes in the Energy Grid

* News of the Week

- SICHUAN DISASTER: Landslides, Flooding Pose Threats as Experts Survey Quake's Impact

- RESEARCH FUNDING: Australia's New Science Budget Gets a Mixed Review

- GLOBAL WARMING: Hurricanes Won't Go Wild, According to Climate Models

- CLIMATE CHANGE: Polar Bear Listing Opens Door to New Lawsuits

- CLIMATE CHANGE: The Threat to the World's Plants

- MICROBIOLOGY: Bacteria Are Picky About Their Homes on Human Skin

* News Focus

- ENGINEERING: The End of an Intellectual Dark Age?

- COMMUNITY ECOLOGY: All That Makes Fungus Gardens Grow

- ASTROPHYSICS: GLAST Mission Prepares to Explore the Extremes of Cosmic Violence

* Letters

- Free Access to Landsat Imagery

- Science Education: Should Facts Come First?

* Books et al.

- EVOLUTION: Hard Facts About Soft Animals

- Books Received: A listing of books received at Science during the week ended May 16, 2008.

* Perspectives

- BIOCHEMISTRY: SNO Removal

- OCEAN SCIENCE: Marine Calcifiers in a High-CO2 Ocean

- MATERIALS SCIENCE: Stronger, Tougher Steels

- MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: Slicing and Dicing for Small RNAs

* Brevia

- Extending the Sub-Sea-Floor Biosphere

* Research articles

- Virus Population Dynamics and Acquired Virus Resistance in Natural Microbial Communities

- Regulated Protein Denitrosylation by Cytosolic and Mitochondrial Thioredoxins

* Reports

- Structural Diversity of Sodium

- Formation of Box Canyon, Idaho, by Megaflood: Implications for Seepage Erosion on Earth and Mars

- Anticorrelated Seismic Velocity Anomalies from Post-Perovskite in the Lowermost Mantle

- Endogenous siRNAs Derived from Transposons and mRNAs in Drosophila Somatic Cells

- The Serine Protease TMPRSS6 Is Required to Sense Iron Deficiency

Nature Magazine: Latest issue

Have a look at selected articles from Nature: 22 May 2008; 453 (7194): 427 - 562

* Editorials

- Two symbols, one solution p.427: Saving a handful of photogenic species — or iconic rainforests — is no substitute for a comprehensive plan that deals with climate, economics and the environment together. Full Text PDF (62K)

- The Universe at home p428
The digitization of astronomy is a transformation and a delight for both amateurs and professionals. Full Text PDF (58K)

* News

- Polar bear numbers set to fall p432 Full Text PDF (1,646K)
Climate-change icon gains 'threatened' status from United States.

- Whales are on the rise p433 Full Text PDF (169K)

Humpback population shows signs of recovery.

-Sidelines p435:

Scribbles on the margins of science. Full Text PDF (134K)

- No star left behind p437 Full Text PDF (247K)
An open-source software project could help unify every existing astronomical image into a single data set.

- US plans more primate research p439
HIV and clinical research drive up demand for experiments. Full Text PDF (91K)

- NOAA chief backs bid for climate-change agency p441:

The chief of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has called for the creation of a National Climate Service to manage and disseminate information about global warming. Full Text PDF (191K)

* Correspondence

- Open-access more harm than good in developing world p450

* Books

- Security in an uncertain world p451: Biological protection systems that have evolved over billions of years could be the key to strengthening national defences against unforeseen threats. Jessica Flack reviews "Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World" Full Text PDF (302K)

- Genetic medicine at the bedside p452 Full Text PDF (160K)
Hugh Y. Rienhoff Jr reviews Heredity and Hope: "The Case for Genetic Screening" by Ruth Schwartz Cowan

* News & Views

- Laser technology: Over the rainbow p459
Many laser diodes provide light in only a limited range of the visible spectrum. A hybrid laser made out of plastic, driven by a high-power light-emitting diode, looks to offer a more flexible approach.

- Cell biology: Two hands for degradation p460
Living cells must do away with regulatory proteins that are not needed. News comes of a considerable advance in understanding how the main agent of destruction, the proteasome, catches its targets.
- Biophysics: Cells get in shape for a crawl p461
A cell's shape changes as it moves along a surface. The forward-thinking cytoskeletal elements are all for progress, but the conservative cell membrane keeps them under control by physically opposing their movement.

- Astronomy: Supernova bursts onto the scene p462
The stellar explosions known as supernovae are spectacular but common cosmic events. A satellite telescope's chance observation of a burst of X-ray light might be the first record of a supernova's earliest minutes.

- Structural biology: Snapshots of DNA repair p463
In recombinational DNA repair, nearly identical sequences in chromosomes are found and swapped. Structures of the RecA–DNA complexes involved provide insight into the mechanism and energetics of this universal process.

- Cell biology: Viruses in camouflage p466
The vaccinia virus acts like a Trojan Horse to enter its host cells: it envelops itself in the membrane of a dying cell, and is then taken up by healthy cells.

* Articles

- An extremely luminous X-ray outburst at the birth of a supernova p469

- Mechanism of shape determination in motile cells p475

- Proteasome subunit Rpn13 is a novel ubiquitin receptor p481

- Mechanism of homologous recombination from the RecA–ssDNA/dsDNA structures p489

* Letters

- Seismogenic lavas and explosive eruption forecasting p507

- Evidence for seismogenic fracture of silicic magma p511

- A stem batrachian from the Early Permian of Texas and the origin of frogs and salamanders p515

- The ground state of embryonic stem cell self-renewal p519

- Transcriptome-wide noise controls lineage choice in mammalian progenitor cells p544

- A novel route for ATP acquisition by the remnant mitochondria of Encephalitozoon cuniculi p553

* Naturejobs

- Upping student numbers and diversity p560
Undergraduate research awardees emphasize diversity. Full Text PDF (72K)

China's Earthquake: A shattering experience

China's devastating earthquake!

More satellite images have been released portraying the devastation caused by the May 12, 2008 earthquake that struck China's Sichaun Basin. This pair of images, captured by Taiwan’s Formosat-2, illustrates the challenges faced by rescuers bringing equipment and supplies to survivors of the massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake.

Universe Today: More Satellite Images of China's Earthquake

Original News Source: NASA's Earth Observatory

OvidSP New Interface: Now available @ UJ

Finally we have the new Ovid/SilverPlatter (OvidSP) interface.

The two Bibliographic databases relevant to the Sciences are:

- Analytical Abstracts (1 user at the time), Coverage: 1980-2008

- Parasitology (1 user at the time), Coverage: 1973 - 2008

Access is available through the UJ Library Databases

Analytical Abstracts is the world's most comprehensive abstracts service dealing solely with analytical chemistry. It contains references to articles from more than 3000 journals, with coverage beginning in 1980.
CAB Parisitology includes all relevant records from the CAB ABSTRACTS database, corresponding to selections from a number of abstract journals in the CABI range. Subject areas:

- diagnosis of parasitic infections and vector-borne diseases.
- pathology and pathogenesis of parasitic infections and vector-borne diseases.
-therapy of parasitic infections and vector-borne diseases - including drug therapy, immunization, immunotherapy, and surgical interventions.

Interface characteristics:
* Basic Search:

OvidSP's Basic Search is a natural language search. Enter your search terms and click the Search button. OvidSP posts results to your search history. In addition, OvidSP's Basic Search tab makes it easy for you to apply limit criteria to your searches.
* Advanced Search:

When you select the Advanced Ovid Search tab, keyword searching is the default search type of the command line. The Advanced Ovid Search tab offers these search types: Keyword Author Title Journal
* Find Citation:

OvidSP's Find Citation tab lets you submit fielded data to retrieve specific journal article citations.

* Search Fields:

From the Search Fields tab, you can view all indexed fields of a database. You can also browse for other fields to search in the index display. OvidSP displays the fielded index with the term you entered.
* Search Tools:

OvidSP provides tools that let you discover more about the relationship between terms and subjects within the context of the database in which you are searching.

* Search History

Under each search option, there is an Search History tab. It keeps you aware of all searches you have done during that session.

* Saved Searches/Alerts

You need to create your personal account

* Help Options:

You have three options to learn more about the databases:

- Help (if you are, for example on the Basic Search screen and have problem, click on Help for instructions)

- Database Field Guide - provide information on the database you currently search

- Display Knowledge - a list of 347 available answers (RSS feed programs compatible with OvidSP; Is there a way to enter multiple email addresses for eTOC email alerts?; Setting up eTOCs for other users, etc.)
* Log off - don't forget to "log off" each time you finish your search. Keep in mind that we have an 1 users licence.

Chemspider: Chemical Search Engine

I have found about this product through the Nature issue dated 8/05/08.

This New Chemical Search Engine can be accessed @ http://www.chemspider.com/

According to their web page:

ChemSpider is a free access service providing a structure centric community for chemists. Providing access to millions of chemical structures and integration to a multitude of other online services ChemSpider is the richest single source of structure-based chemistry information.

It has been built with the intention of aggregating and indexing chemical structures and their associated information into a single searchable repository and make it available to everybody, at no charge.
ChemSpider is a value-added offering of publicly available chemical structures since many additional properties have been added to each of the chemical structures. We intend ChemSpider to offer the fastest chemical structure searches available online and delivered with the flexibility and usability necessary to encourage repeat usage. A quick browse of the manual will help understand how ChemSpider can be of value.

With ChemSpider the intention is to aggregate into a single database all chemical structures available within open access and commercial databases and to provide the necessary pointers from the ChemSpider search engine to the information of interest. This service will allow users to either access the data immediately via open access links or have the information necessary to continue their searches into commercially available systems.

ChemSpider was released in March of 2007. At present the database contains information from such diverse sources as a marine natural products database, from all commercially available ACD/Labs databases, from the EPA’s DSSTox efforts and from a series of chemical vendors. The data collections will continue to expand.

Click on ChemRef to search through the following literature sources:
- International Journal of Electrochemical Science
- Association of Clinical Biochemists of India
- Molecular Diversity Preservation International
- PubMed Central
- Hindawi Publishing Corporation
- International Union of Crystallography
- Medknow Publications
- RepositoriUM

Click on Search to have different search options:
- Simple search: Systematic Name, Synonym, Trade Name,Registry Number
- Structure search
- LASSO search: A new 3D ligand activity surfaced-based similarity tool from SImBioSys gives users the power to quickly screen large datasets for structurally diverse active molecules
- Advanced LASSO
- Chemical elements
- Properties search
- Predicted properties
- Data Source search
- Literature source (see ChemRef)
- PubChem search
- Advanced search
- Searches history

Have a look at this search engine, and explore all the possibilities that offers

Useful reading, the article publish in Nature, 7th May 2008:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013937/posts

Nature Magazine: Latest Issues

The latest two issues of Nature (some full-text is available)
15 May 2008; 453 (7193): 257 - 426

* Editorials
- The next big climate challenge p257
Governments should work together to build the supercomputers needed for future predictions that can capture the detail required to inform policy.
- Stuck in the mud p258
The Environmental Protection Agency must gather data on the toxicity of spreading sewage sludge.
- Negative results p258
Retracted papers require a thorough explanation of what went wrong in the experiments.
* Research Highlights
- Marine ecology: Deep-sea cheetahs p260
- Palaeoclimate: Methane didn't act alone p260
- Geoscience: The dust settles p260
- Ecology: Hand-me-down bacteria p261
* News
- German universities bow to public pressure over GM crops p263
Plug is pulled on maize research.
- Snapshot: Charged clouds p267
Lightning rages over Chilean volcano.
* News Features
- Chemistry: Designer Debacle p275
A high-profile scientist, a graduate student and two major retractions. Erika Check Hayden reports on a case that has rocked the chemistry community.
* Correspondance
- Deforestation: call for justice, not militarization p280
* Books and Arts
- Big problems, big decisions p282
Sustainable solutions to worldwide crises such as overpopulation and climate change need regulating by global bodies, but whose views should these organizations represent?
Michael Sargent reviews Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population by Matthew Connelly and Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs
- Enshrining the right to live or die p284
Emily Jackson reviews Understanding Bioethics and the Law: The Promises and Perils of the Brave New World of Biotechnology by Barry R. Schaller and Easeful Death: Is There a Case for Assisted Dying? by Mary Warnock & Elisabeth Macdonald
- Charting the water's edge p285
Deborah Jean Warner reviews Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change by Mark Monmonier
- 25 years of HIV p289
Reflecting on how far we have come scientifically since isolating HIV in 1983, Anthony S. Fauci urges a renewed commitment to the far greater challenges ahead, especially that of vaccine development.
* News and Views
- Palaeoclimate: Windows on the greenhouse p291
Data laboriously extracted from an Antarctic ice core provide an unprecedented view of temperature, and levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane, over the past 800,000 years of Earth's history.
- Quantum information: An integrated light circuit p294
There's a long wish list for a workable quantum computer: a viable system must be fast, compact and stable. The first integrated optical quantum logic circuits are a step in the right direction.
- Tuberculosis: Deadly combination p295
Many factors affect the severity of tuberculosis in infected individuals. Among these are the genetic make-up of the bacterial strain, that of the host, and the interplay between the two.
- Climate change: Attributing cause and effect p296
The climate is changing, and so are aspects of the world's physical and biological systems. It is no easy matter to link cause and effect — the latest attack on the problem brings the power of meta-analysis to bear.
- Solid-state physics: Polaritronics in view p297
Polaritons are an odd cross-breed of a particle, half-matter, half-light. They could offer an abundant crop of new and improved optoelectronic devices — a promise already being fulfilled.
- Plant biology: In their neighbour's shadow p298
They can't move away from shade, so plants resort to a molecular solution to find a place in the sun. The action they take is quite radical, and involves a reprogramming of their development.
* Articles
- Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change p353
- Nucleosome organization in the Drosophila genome p358
- Crystal structure of squid rhodopsin p363

8 May 2008; 453 (7192): 132 - 256

* Research Highlights
- Climatic volcanoes p136
- Materials science: Carbon on display p136
- Developmental biology: Antler insight p136
- Nanotechnology: Tiny carbon workers p137
- Microbiology: Fuel cell p137
* News
- Top billing for platypus at end of evolution tree p138
Monotreme's genome shares features with mammals, birds and reptiles.
- Chemists spin a web of data p139
Chemspider website provides free information on millions of molecules.
* News Features

- Earth science: Harnessing the hum p146
A new way to analyse seismic vibrations is bringing order out of noise to help predict volcanic eruptions or create detailed images of Earth's interior.

- Cell biology: The cellular hullabaloo p150
The inner life of a cell is noisy. Helen Pearson discovers how the resulting randomness makes life more challenging — and richer.

* Correspondence

- Energy assumptions were reasonable at the time, but not now p154
- Future scenarios for emissions need continual adjustment p155
- Climate policies will stimulate technology development p155
- IPCC's climate-policy assumptions were justified p155
* Books and Arts
- Learning from climates past p158
Chris Turney reviews Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat — and How to Counter It by Wallace S. Broecker & Robert Kunzig
* News and Views
- Computational biochemistry: Old enzymes, new tricks p164
Although enzymes are superb catalysts, their range of reactions is limited to those that support life. Their repertoire could be expanded by a method that allows artificial enzymes to be made from scratch.
- Quantum information: Stopping the rot p167
Uncontrollable outside influences undermine the whole enterprise of quantum computing. Nailing down the sources of this 'decoherence' in a solid-state system is a step towards solving the problem.
- Molecular biology: An HIV secret uncovered p169
With two catalytic activities and many substrates, how does HIV's reverse transcriptase enzyme know what to do to which substrate? Zooming in on the enzyme's molecular interactions provides tantalizing clues.
- Scale effects and human impact on the elevational species richness gradients p216

The Latest from Science Online Magazine

Look at the latest two issues from Science Online Magazine. Don't forget that you have a full-text access to these articles:

16 May 2008, Vol 320, Issue 5878, Pages 845-954

* News of the Week

- LATIN AMERICA: Price Is the Main Barrier to Wider Use of Papillomavirus Vaccine

- ITALY: A Plea for 'Transparent' Funding

A furor over political meddling in grants for stem cell research in Italy has erupted into a broad protest about favoritism and the lack of peer review in deciding who receives national science funding.

* News Focus

- ENTOMOLOGY: A Mosquito Goes Global

- PLANETARY SCIENCE: Layers Within Layers Hint at a Wobbly Martian Climate

- CHEMISTRY: Click Chemistry Clicks Along

Researchers seeking new ways to forge molecules are saving steps and effort by adapting high-yield reactions to fill a variety of needs.

- PHYSICS: The Hot Question: How New Are the New Superconductors?

* Letters

- Financing Tropical Forest Preservation

* Books et al.

- A listing of books received at Science during the week ended May 9, 2008.

* Perspectives

- CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS: Integrating Circadian Timekeeping with Cellular Physiology

- PLANT SCIENCE: Plant Stress Profiles

- CHEMISTRY: The Changing Shapes of Molecules

- GEOCHEMISTRY: The Origin of Alkaline Lavas

- CHEMISTRY: To Be or Not to Be Localized

The hole created by emission of a core electron in a diatomic molecule resides in an entangled state.

- BIOPHYSICS: The Intrigue of the Interface

* Brevia

- The Energetic Cost of Climbing in Primates

* Reports

- Measuring Picosecond Isomerization Kinetics via Broadband Microwave Spectroscopy

- Genome-Scale Proteomics Reveals Arabidopsis thaliana Gene Models and Proteome Dynamics

- Early Forebrain Wiring: Genetic Dissection Using Conditional Celsr3 Mutant Mice

* Technical Comments:

- Comment on "Habitat Split and the Global Decline of Amphibians"

- Response to Comment on "Habitat Split and the Global Decline of Amphibians"

9 May 2008, Vol 320, Issue 5877, Pages 713-815

* News of the Week

- GENOMICS: Genome Speaks to Transitional Nature of Monotremes

* News Focus

- CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: Into the Wild: Reintroduced Animals Face Daunting Odds

* Books et al.

- A listing of books received at Science during the week ended May 2, 2008.

* Policy Forum

- PUBLIC HEALTH: Reassessing HIV Prevention

* Perspectives

- PHYSICS: Designer Atomic Nuclei

- ECOLOGY: How the Sahara Became Dry

- AIDS/HIV: A STEP into Darkness or Light?

- BIOCHEMISTRY: Tinkering with Acellular Division

- BIOGEOCHEMISTRY: News About Nitrogen

* Reviews

- Toward an AIDS Vaccine

* Research Article

- Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara: The Past 6000 Years

A climate record from lake sediments in Chad shows that the Sahara changed gradually from a tropical ecosystem to a desert, not abruptly as implied by Atlantic dust layers

* Reports

- Controlled Phase Shifts with a Single Quantum Dot

- Fracture Propagation to the Base of the Greenland Ice Sheet During Supraglacial Lake Drainage

- Monte Verde: Seaweed, Food, Medicine, and the Peopling of South America

- Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity in Response to Climate Change in a Wild Bird Population

- Regulation of the Cellular Heat Shock Response in Caenorhabditis elegans by Thermosensory Neurons

TOP 25 Hottest Articles, October-December 2007

View ScienceDirect the TOP 25 Hottest Articles, October-December 2007 per subject area:

* Agricultural and Biological Sciences

-->The fathead minnow in aquatic toxicology: Past, present and future

* Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

* Chemical Engineering

* Chemistry

* Computer Science

* Earth and Planetary Sciences

-->Do evolution and ecology need the Gaia hypothesis?

-->Australian gold exploration 1976-2003

-->Exploration and discovery of Australia's copper, nickel, lead and zinc resources 1976-2005

* Energy

-->Progress and recent trends in biofuels

-->Possible methods for biodiesel

-->Transparent conductors as solar energy materials: A panoramic review production

-->Importance of biodiesel as transportation fuel

-->A prospective study of bioenergy use in Mexico

-->The car and fuel of the future

-->Public policy and biofuels: The way forward?

-->Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel demand and solar energy conversion efficiency in European bioethanol production for automotive purposes

-->The energy-climate challenge: Recent trends in CO"2 emissions from fuel combustion

* Engineering

* Environmental Science

-->Soil erosion and the global carbon budget

-->The multitude and diversity of environmental carcinogens

-->A comparative study of the production of ethyl esters from vegetable oils as a biodiesel fuel optimization by factorial design

* Immunology and Microbiology

* Materials Science

* Mathematics

* Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science

* Physics and Astronomy

* Social Sciences

-->Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality?

World Wide Telescope: New Astronomy Software from Microsoft

WorldWide Telescope (WWT)

Software giant Microsoft is now reaching for the stars with the release of its WorldWide Telescope (WorldWideTelescope.org)

* Want to see the same images that scientists at NASA use for their research or perform your own research with those images?

* Or do you want to see the Earth from the same perspective that astronauts see as they descend to Earth?

WorldWide Telescope is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space-based telescopes to enable seamless exploration of the universe.

Features:

- Exploring the Sky: Within WorldWide Telescope, you can explore deeply into the sky discovering stars, planets, constellations and rich panoramas. You navigate the same way for each — select a view, select the imagery and explore the images in the field of view.

- Zoom and Pan: WorldWide Telescope supports zooming and panning on objects in the sky. As you move through the sky, thumbnails of celestial objects in that constellation display in the navigation pane below the field of view.

- Orientation in the Sky: WorldWide Telescope provides two mechanisms to orient you in the sky. The first is the Sky Ball which represents the field of view with a flat yellow plane. The plane expands and contracts as you zoom into and out of the sky. The other mechanism is the Constellation Overview which represents the size of the field of view in relation to the constellation boundary. You also can orient yourself by selecting your city as the default sky view.

- Collections: WorldWide Telescope includes a rich set of collections of the deep sky objects including constellations, the solar system, images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Spitzer Space Telescope, Sky Surveys, the Messier Catalog, named stars and more.

- Guided tours: A number of expert-created guided tours of the sky, objects in space and collections of celestial objects are built into WorldWide Telescope. Users can create their own tours and share them with others. Slide-based tours are similar to a PowerPoint slide show. Creating tours can be as simple as showing images of deep sky objects or places on the Earth that you have visited. Or it can be as immersive as combining images with art and music to illustrate and enhance your tour. You also can add common license art and music to complement your tour.

- Research the Sky: Using the Finder Scope, it is easy to identify and research objects in the deep sky. The Finder Scope opens a wealth of data and image resources to use when researching the deep sky objects in Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data (SIMBAD), Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), Wikipedia, NASA and the Internet.

Read more on: Microsoft Launches Astronomy Software

The first step is to download and install WWT itself from WorldWideTelescope.org. It took me 30 min to download the software, but of course it depends on the speed of the Internet.

For those who enjoyed the night sky, WorldWide Telescope is one more option (remember Google Sky was launched 2 months ago?) to explore the Universe.

NRF Ratings per Institution

Summary of valid ratings per institution in all disciplines: 2006

Celebrating Astronomy Day in Pictures

Celebrate the Astronomy Day, 10th of May by looking at these and more pictures @

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Picture 1: Galaxies Collide in NGC 3256; Picture 2: Shaping NGC 6188; Picture 3: The Tarantula Zone

Open Access Journals Collection (Beta): South African Journals

Open Access Journals Collection (Beta)

Welcome to the beta version of Sabinet's Full Open Access Journal Collection.

The collection currently comprises 44 South African journals, which may be searched individually, and provides immediate access to the PDF versions of 6 000+ full-text articles.

Of the journals in the collection, 14 appear on the Approved South African Journals list, the ISI list, or the IBSS list. New journal titles and issues are added to the collection on an ongoing basis. Some journals also contain metadata records (including abstracts) for older articles where full text is not available.

Publishers who would like to make their journals available as Open Access journals, are welcome to contact us. We would also value any feedback on the Sabinet Full Open Access Journal Collection.

Some useful journals for Sciences are:

* Bulletin of Statistics (business)

* Journal for New Generation Sciences

* South African Journal of Chemical Engineering

* Water SA

* Water Wheel

PLEASE NOTE:

All these OPEN ACCESS journals are already available to UJ through SA E-Publications database.