Archive for the ‘Chemical IT’ Category

Accessing (raw) chemical data: a peek into the CIF format.

Friday, July 21st, 2017

There is much focus at the moment on how to ensure experimental replicability in e.g. the molecular sciences. An important aspect of that is having access to FAIR data; data which is findable, accessible, inter-operable and re-usable. One of the “gold standards” in chemistry is the data associated with crystal structures. Here I take an inside peek into the standard file-type for carrying crystal structure data, the CIF file (the Crystallographic Information File).

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How to search data repositories for FAIR chemical content and data: SubjectScheme

Thursday, June 8th, 2017

As data repositories start to flourish, it is reasonable to ask questions such as what sort of chemistry can be found there and how can I find it? Here I give an updated[cite]10.1515/ci-2016-3-408[/cite] worked example of a digital repository search for chemical content and also pose an important issue for the chemistry domain.

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FAIR Research data: Gravitational waves as an example from the astrophysics community.

Friday, June 2nd, 2017

In 2016, the world heard that gravitational waves had been detected and now a third instance is reported. Given that the data associated with these detections are perhaps amongst the most important instances in recent times, I thought I might take a peek at how it was managed.

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Tautomeric polymorphism.

Thursday, June 1st, 2017

Conformational polymorphism occurs when a compound crystallises in two polymorphs differing only in the relative orientations of flexible groups (e.g. Ritonavir).[cite]10.1039/D1SC06074K[/cite] At the Beilstein conference, Ian Bruno mentioned another type;  tautomeric polymorphism, where a compound can crystallise in two forms differing in the position of acidic protons. Here I explore three such examples.

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Challenges in reliably representing the chemistry of crystal structures.

Monday, May 29th, 2017

The title here is taken from a presentation made by Ian Bruno from CCDC at the recent conference on Open Science. It also addresses the theme here of the issues that might arise in assigning identifiers for any given molecule.

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Curating a nine year old journal FAIR data table.

Monday, May 29th, 2017

As the Internet and its Web-components age, so early pages start to decay as technology moves on. A few posts ago, I talked about the maintenance of a relatively simple page first hosted some 21 years ago. In my notes on the curation, I wrote the phrase “Less successful was the attempt to include buttons which could be used to annotate the structures with highlights. These buttons no longer work and will have to be entirely replaced in the future at some stage.” Well, that time has now come, for a rather more crucial page associated with a journal article published more recently in 2009.[cite]10.1039/b810301a[/cite]

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Conference report: an example of collaborative open science (reaction IRCs).

Thursday, May 25th, 2017

It is a sign of the times that one travels to a conference well-connected. By which I mean email is on a constant drip-feed, with venue organisers ensuring each delegate receives their WiFi password even before their room key. So whilst I was at a conference espousing the benefits of open science, a nice example of open collaboration was initiated as a result of a received email.

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The challenges in curating research data: one case study.

Friday, April 28th, 2017

Research data (and its management) is rapidly emerging as a focal point for the development of research dissemination practices. An important aspect of ensuring that such data remains fit for purpose is identifying what curation activities need to be associated with it. Here I revisit one particular case study associated with the molecular structure of a product identified from a photolysis reaction[cite]10.1126/science.1188002[/cite] and the curation of the crystallographic data associated with this study.

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Supporting information: chemical graveyard or invaluable resource for chemical structures.

Friday, March 31st, 2017

Nowadays, data supporting most publications relating to the synthesis of organic compounds is more likely than not to be found in associated “supporting information” rather than the (often page limited) article itself. For example, this article[cite]10.1021/jacs.6b13229[/cite] has an SI which is paginated at 907; almost a mini-database in its own right! Here I ponder whether such dissemination of data is FAIR (Findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable).[cite]10.1038/sdata.2016.18[/cite]

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