[Molvis-list] Molecular Symmetry Online

[Inbal Tuvi-Arad]

Hello to all,
   I'm glad to report our recent development at the Open University of
Israel - the "Molecular Symmetry Online" Website at
http://telem.openu.ac.il/symmetry - a Chime based collection of tools that
allow users to practice molecular symmetry in 3D.  It contains an example
window with a small database of molecules and their symmetry elements.
Animations of symmetry operations made with Flash are also included. Another
useful tool is an Excel based symmetry toolkit that can be downloaded to the
user's computer. The toolkit allows users to create their own symmetry
elements for any molecule given in molfile format.  Help files, links and
short tutorial on molecular symmetry are included in the Website. The site
has both Hebrew and English versions, and access to it is free. The Website
requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or above.

The technology that enabled the development of this site is based to a large
extent on the Symmetry Tutorial site developed by Prof. Dean H. Johnston of
Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio
(http://www.otterbein.edu/home/fac/dnhjhns/symmetry). Our site could not
have been established without Prof. Johnston's assistance and we greatly
appreciate his help.  We would also like to thank Prof. Eric Martz of the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for fruitful discussions and helpful
information we gathered from the Molvis Website.

I hope you will find our site useful, and will be happy to receive any
comments from you or your colleagues.  If any of you are interested in
reseasrch collaboration regarding the effectivity of learning with the tools
in our site - please let me know.

Wish you a merry Christmas and happy new year!

Inbal

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Dr. Inbal Tuvi-Arad
Department of Natural Sciences
The Open University of Israel
108 Ravutski St., POB 808, 
Raanana, 43107, Israel
Tel: 972-9-778-1773
Fax: 972-9-778-0661
Email: inbaltu at openu.ac.il
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