Efficient Reading of Papers in Science and Technology Prepared by: Michael J. Hanson Updated by: Dylan J. McNamee version of January 6, 2000
Introduction: Why Read? [态度] Before beginning to read a paper, consider why you are doing it. What do you want to get out of it? Your needs control how you read. If you only need an overview, a brief skim may suffice. If you will present the paper to others, you will need to dig deeply, to challenge the paper’s arguments until you understand it fully. If you will use the information later, taking notes will help you remember it. If you don’t know what you hope to gain from the paper, you can not tell whether reading it will be beneficial or a waste of time. [不同目的选择不同态度和方式]
Titanium Dioxide Almost Breaks the Energy Barrier Dr. John Emsley, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Hydrogen gas (H2) promises to solve many of the world's energy problems. As a liquid it could fuel all forms of transport, including aircraft, and as a gas it could be pumped into homes and workplaces to power heating systems and cooking appliances. All we need are unlimited supplies of it, which of course we do not have. What we do have are unlimited supplies of its most stable compound: H2O.
Extracting the H2 from H2O has tantalized generations of chemists since it was shown two centuries ago that passing an electric current through water would split it into its component elements. Of course if electrical energy has to be used to extract H2, then the net benefit in energy terms will be nil, but there is a source of energy that is equally unlimited, and that is light from the sun. Paper S.U.M. Khan, M. Al Shahry, W.B. Ingler, Jr., "Efficient photochemical water splitting by a chemically modified n~TiO2," Science, 297: 2243~5, 27 September 2002. in the current Hot Ten brings closer the day when sunlight may make all the H2 we need.
There’s Something New Under the Sun Dr. John Emsley, Department of Chemistry, Cambridge University, U.K.
In 1996 the Royal National Theatre in London staged a play by Stephen Poliakoff called Blinded by the Sun in which a chemist claimed to have discovered a catalyst that would produce copious quantities of hydrogen gas from water, simply by exposing it to sunlight. Of course the claim was false, not that it prevented the chemist from becoming famous—and infamous. Much as the world might long for such a method of solving its energy problems, the idea seemed intrinsically implausible. A mere five years later, however, a group of Japanese scientists was within reach of such a goal.
If hydrogen gas is to be the fuel of the future, then water will be the source from which it is derived. Although the raw material costs nothing, extracting hydrogen from it is energy intensive. It can be done by electrolytic means, but the electricity has to be generated and indeed that source of power might be better used in other ways. The cheapest source of energy on planet Earth is of course sunlight, and now paper Z.G. Zou, et al., "Direct splitting of water under visible light irradiation with an oxide semiconductor photocatalyst," Nature, 414: 625~7, 6 December 2001. shows how this too might be used to generate hydrogen gas from water.
3D-Dock suite - The growing number of individual protein structures in the databases and the relatively small number of solved complexes makes predictive docking an important theoretical method. FTDock ( F ourier T ransform Dock ) performs rigid-body docking on two biomolecules in order to predict their correct binding geometry. RPScore ( R esidue level P air potential Score ) uses a single distance constraint empiricaly derived pair potential to screen the ouptut from FTDock. MultiDock ( Multiple copy side-chain refinement Dock ) : A further improvement in the quality of the predictions [U]Accelrys[/U] - Accelrys is the leading provider of simulation and informatics software and services to R&D organizations in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemicals industries.