More WorldCat news re: Science Direct collections

Elsevier metadata for SCOPUS and ScienceDirect collections from 2006 to the present have now been indexed in WorldCat.org search results. 

This article-level metadata joins similar content such as the GPO Monthly Catalog, ArticleFirst, Medline, ERIC and the British Library Inside Serials. The ScienceDirect content corresponds to 1,800 journals, 150 book series and more than 1.3 million records. 

Totally Tubular - FRP Bridge Design

NYTimes.com: Building a Bridge of (and to) the Future

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Carbon- and glass-fiber fabric tubes filled with concrete offer strength, light weight and resistance to corrosion.

"Long the stuff of surfboards and pleasure boats, and more recently used in aircraft wings and other components, plastic polymers reinforced with fibers were first researched for use in bridges in the 1980s. Civil engineers were attracted to them for the same reasons other designers were — their strength, light weight and corrosion resistance."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/13bridge.html

Though more expensive to create, the technology makes the bridge less expensive in the long run, due to lower maintenance, transportation, labor and equipment costs.  

IBM journals to be available via IEEE Xplore, exclusively

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and IBM, US, have announced a publishing agreement. Under the deal, all papers published in IBM journals will be available exclusively in the IEEE Xplore digital library (www.ieee.org/ieeexplore) from the first quarter of 2010 onwards. The aim is to disseminate key technical articles and papers in computer hardware, software and information systems to a wider audience of researchers and interested readers around the world. The IBM Journal of Research and Development, which now includes the IBM Systems Journal, is claimed to be one of the top-cited journals in the field. The two, which have been published online since 1998, merged into one fee-based online publication in 2009. The production of future editions of the current publication, the IBM Journal of Research and Development, will be handled by IEEE. IBM will be responsible for the content acquisition and peer review, while IEEE assumes the article production, copy editing, data conversion, online hosting and maintenance.

Rockets Able To Run On Toffee

For real!

The UK's The Scotsman (10/7) reports, "Rockets can run on toffee, a scientist has proved. Jem Stansfield demonstrated a hybrid rocket powered by the sweet on BBC1's Bang Goes The Theory." Ray Wilkinson of the University of Hertfordshire "suggested the experiment could help scientists find environmentally-friendly materials to fuel rockets."

The rocket was capable of powering a bicycle ridden by Mr Stansfield at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Hybrid rockets require nothing more than a cheap solid that burns and a gas – in this case nitrous oxide – to provide oxygen, he said. Ray Wilkinson, principal lecturer in aerospace design and rocket propulsion at the University of Hertfordshire, suggested the experiment could help scientists find environmentally-friendly materials to fuel rockets.