#IYC2011 - International Year of #Chemistry

As 2011 is the International Year of Chemistry, it can be a stimulus for our Wikipedia communities to share in the fun. On the official website there are many objectives mentioned that make Wikipedia a great platform for many activities.

The stated objectives are very much congruent with Wikimedia goals:

• increase appreciation and understanding of chemistry
• increase the interest of young people
• generate enthusiasm for the future of chemistry
• celebrate the role of women and major events in chemistry

As one of the Public Policy Initiative  objectives is to forge collaboration with academia, the IYC2011 makes the worldwide chemistry departments an obvious target for more collaboration.

There are also technical opportunities where MediaWiki and the Wikimedia Foundation can shine. It would be so cool when we finally enable the JMOL functionality in our projects. Another opportunity will present itself when what many call "Wikidata" functionality. There is a plan for a conference on this subject and, there is a wealth of data available for use in our projects.

IYC2011 may make 2011 the year when chemistry gets to the next level of great information in many languages for an important subject.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Jmol - a paradigm shift in crystallographic visualization

Jmol provides state of the art visualisation of chemical structures. With the publication of Jmol - a paradigm shift in crystallographic visualization in Applied crystallography online, Robert Hanson argues how current technology provides unprecedented opportunities to teach about symmetry, uncertainty and the overall enterprise of molecular structure determination.

A portion of a DNA-protein complex - Toggle it !!

By just browsing the paper, you find many illustrations that show chemical structures that rotate, that can be toggled, that leave no doubt that chemicals are three dimensional. There have been many people who have argued that something like Jmol would be a worthwhile addition to Wikipedia. There is an extension that works and that is still waiting for some TLC so that it will be safe and fast enough. It will be the moment when the many existing Jmol generated illustrations in Wikipedia can be replaced by the real stuff.

Thanks,

     GerardM

Jmol

Wikipedia is about education. Many of the subject in science are hard to grasp. How do you get your mind around a molecule, a protein.

The picture is one called 1D66.pdb, it is part of a group of five called "cartoons". When you look at the cartoons, you have the option to spin it or zoom in. The realisation that this is three dimensional really sinks in when you see it rotate.

The power of Jmol, is understood. I can remember that Tim Starling looked at the code and found that it is possible to include malicious code.

When you read the Jmol article on MediaWiki, you will read that they have fixed this in their revision 10467. What I would like is to have the extension for the WMF checked again. I do think it is important that we share the benefit of visualisation tools like Jmol.

The problem is the capacity of the WMF to review code. There are too few people who assess code. This is a problem that prevents tools like Jmol to be (re-)assessed. It is a problem that prevents the work of several developers from going live. This makes MediaWiki inward looking and prevents a wider acceptance of MediaWiki in the rest of the world.

I wonder, if the assessment of Jmol would gain priority when translatewiki.net localises this code ?
Thanks,
GerardM

JMOL

When you are talking about chemicals, pretty pictures can express much better the complex relations between the various atoms that make up a molecule then a lot of words. JMOL is a set of applications that illustrate chemicals The software is open source, there is an extension for MediaWiki and it is not used in any of the Wikipedias.

The problem was that security issues were found with the software, further developments happened and then nothing. Recently, the subject of JMOL was raised again. The software had stopped working against the "bleeding edge" of MediaWiki, this has now been fixed.

Only one question is left. Now what ?
Thanks,
GerardM