World-leading scientific databases now accessible via handhelds

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – In an industry first, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) demonstrated the delivery of chemical information, including structures, via live interaction using BlackBerry® and other handheld devices at the CAS European conference in Vienna this week. More than 20 handheld devices were used simultaneously by conference participants to retrieve hundreds of literature references as well as molecular structure and related data for specific substances in real time.

"This capability opens up a new vista of convenient and personalized access to CAS data," said Bob Massie, CAS president. "Information professionals and scientists can retrieve key scientific information from CAS' unparalleled databases at any time and anywhere."

Bringing chemical information including structure diagrams to the small-screen handheld devices resulted from a CAS team effort led by Brian Bergner, CAS vice president of information technology.

"Our goal is to make CAS information available on the platforms and through the tools gaining the most rapid and widespread use," said Bergner. "We know the pace of scientific research demands instant access to the best research data, and this advancement will give researchers the ability to log in even when they are away from their desktop workstations – during a meeting with colleagues, attending a conference or while taking a break from the lab."

The demonstration illustrated the ability to retrieve and analyze information from CAS' principal databases, CAplusSM and CAS RegistrySM. The Registry database contains records for more than 25 million organic and inorganic substances, including small molecules, and more than 56 million sequences. In addition, CAplus contains more than 23 million chemistry-related literature and patent references back to 1900.

CAS will be making this new mobile route to scientific databases, called CAS MobileTM, available through its STN® and SciFinder® services in the near future.

CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, is an organization of scientists creating and delivering the most complete and effective digital information environment for scientific research and discovery. CAS provides pathways to published research in the world's journal and patent literature – virtually everything relevant to chemistry plus a wealth of information in the life sciences and a wide range of other scientific disciplines – back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In addition to offering STN in North America, CAS publishes the print version of Chemical AbstractsTM (CA), related publications and CD-ROM services; operates the CAS Chemical Registry; produces a family of online databases; and offers the SciFinder desktop research tool. The CAS Web site is at www.cas.org.

BlackBerry is a registered trademark of Research In Motion Limited. Other product names are registered trademarks or marks of the American Chemical Society.

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