Project mentors: Damon Ridley (Reaxys) and Anja Brunner (Reaxys)
Arguably chemistry is more about the properties of substances than the substances themselves. Sure, we know that ibuprofen has 13 carbons, 18 hydrogens and a couple of oxygens and we know silver is an element, but the fact that ibuprofen is a great anti-inflammatory agent and silver is the most electrically conductive element really gets us chemists interested.
Most databases focus on bibliographic and/or substance/reaction records, and few focus on properties. Further those property databases that exist often cover a few properties, and few property databases allow us to perform a precise search for a property and then obtain the substances with the property.
So in this Project we are going to focus on properties – and the properties that interest you! We can approach this in various ways. One way would be to discover the main databases with property information, and then learn the tricks of the trade in searching for properties. Another way would be to pick a property and find out about the substances that have these properties.
Once we go down this path we’ll find a bunch of specific facts about specific substances, and, if our interest is in visualization of results then we could think of ways to present our data – or even make our own webpages.
So, here’s the deal. You define your project and you define its scope. The only condition is that it must focus on properties.
Sound tough? Could be! But be brave and give it a go. We’ll help you …