In August of 2000, Advanced Chemistry Development (ACD) released the free all-purpose chemical drawing and graphics software ChemSketch; recently, ACD announced its 150,000th download. The software allows users to "click and draw molecules, ions, stereobonds, text, polygons, arrows, and do automatic calculation of Molecular Weight and formula and see estimates of density, refractive index, molar...

Designed by a trio of scientists working in Germany (Marcus Rehbein, Asif Karim, and Rolf Eckhardt), this fun and educational website is designed to facilitate the use of balloons in scientific education. More specifically, the site offers detailed instruction on how to create a variety of molecule models out of balloons, such as the octahedron, the diamond, the graphite lattice, and the...

Created and maintained by Dr. Dave Woodcock of the Chemistry Department at Okanagan University College in British Columbia, Canada, this site features models of over 1,100 molecules in .pdb, or Chemscape Chime, format (link to free download provided). Users may search the molecular database using an internal search engine or browse by category or alphabetically. Index page entries include the...

From the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry, this site features a new molecule each month. For example, the molecule for April is Melatonin. Each molecule comes with a link to a Webpage from a university or commercial site containing further information. (Links may require Chime, VRML, or Java.) Contributors may submit molecule pages to be considered in future months. Monthly molecules...

The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB) is a non-profit group "dedicated to improving our understanding of the function of biological systems through the study of the 3-D structure of biological macromolecules." The goal of RCSB is to provide free public resources and publications to further the fields of bioinformatics and biology. RCSB members include the Department of...

Dr. Phillip Barak, Associate Professor of Soil Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has put together this "web-based focal point and resource for 3-D visualizations of molecules and minerals." A collection of 3-D, interactive models of molecules and minerals, these detailed, color images and animations are designed for instructors and students alike. Visualizations include soil organic...