Following the RSC's acquisition of ChemSpider, Graham McCann, Business Manager for ChemSpider,  joined Antony Williams, ChemSpider Vice President of Strategic Development, on the ChemSpider stand to share future plans on what the collaboration will bring to scientists. The new website, demonstrated on the stand, gave delegates the opportunity to navigate around the website to see the new functionality it offers to users.

The RSC stand was also very well attended, and showcased hot new titles including the very latest news on Analytical Methods and Nanoscale, the new journals to be launched later this year, and Polymer Chemistry, a new journal for 2010.

This year's IUPAC conference also saw the successful launch of RSC's highly interactive social networking tool, MyRSC.

MyRSC allows chemical scientists to network with one another across the globe, share information about themselves and their research, receive details of career opportunities and join specialist groups.

Visit the web page for my.rsc.org for the very latest information on this exciting new development, and to find out details on how to join.   

Don't miss out on the next IUPAC Congress in Puerto Rico in 2011!

They are all ways in which the RSC is working with the global scientific community - and they all feature in Issue 2, 2009 of Fusion, RSC Publishing's newsletter, which has a distinct technology theme. We, as members of the community, have a vast range of new and emerging technologies at our disposal. We can alert you to an article immediately it is published online, and provide links to open online resources to help you enhance your knowledge.

You can share your experiences with other scientists via virtual discussion groups, and allow a global audience to view details of your work on videos.

There are many other ways in which technology has facilitated international networking and dissemination of the latest scientific advances. Gone are the days when a researcher waited for a print journal to arrive on the desk to see the latest developments, or relied on the occasional overseas trip to a scientific conference to catch up with like-minded researchers!

So can these new technologies help us to work together to overcome some of the global challenges that are facing scientists?  We'd like to think so.

August marks a milestone in ChemSpider's 2009 calendar. Just two months after announcing RSC's new partnership, we unveiled to the world at the 42nd IUPAC Congress in Glasgow a refreshed looking ChemSpider, now hosted on powerful RSC servers.

The ChemSpider booth at the event was abuzz: delegates searched for chemicals they didn't expect ChemSpider to have.and found them! They deposited and curated data live. People who'd never heard of ChemSpider rushed to tell others. We heard comments like, 'This is the best thing I have seen all day' and 'Do you realise how much this will do for the world of chemistry?'

Delegates were impressed by the fast text and structure searching capabilities, the size and diversity of the database (including videos, reactions and blog posts). They were also complimentary about the new ChemSpider look and feel delivered through the logo, exhibition booth and literature, and excited about ChemSpider's vision for the future.

The ChemSpider team thanks everyone for their support.