The complex tasks chemistry is faced with, such as analysis of substances, development of new products and prediction of properties, require the application of computers to an increasing extent. Chemists are actually among the main users of computer power, e.g., by performing quantum chemical calculations, molecular modeling or complicated simulations. An efficient interpretation of the vast amount of experimental and theoretical data is only possible by intelligent methods of information processing. Moreover, there is a flood of information available in the Internet and in data bases dealing with chemical or biochemical problems, but individual scientists cannot spend sufficient time on the retrieval and critical evaluation of the relevant information. Therefore the setting up of an information service for the area of chemistry should help enormously by offering an easy access to well-structured information.
It should be mentioned that the particular way of the presentation of structural formulas or amino acid sequences (two-dimensional), spatial structures and surfaces (three-dimensional) or video sequences of chemical reactions present serious problems to the representation of data and to search strategies which are only solved in part and require further development.
The aims of the project Chemie.DE can be summarized as follows:
Search tools, particularly for 2D and 3D molecular structures, and tools for an automated classification of documents will have to be developed. Specialized data bases (hazardous substances, thesauri for technical terms, molecular structures, industrial safety, waste disposal) shall be offered.
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