Scrawled Shortcuts through the Research Maze
In addition to the basic facts about each chemical element, there's a Au* mine of chemical information in these books:
The Merck Index
Where does neatsfoot oil come from? “The feet of neat (bovine) cattle,” of course (p. 1103)! (When you're done imagining the Felix Ungers of the bovine world, look up neat cattle in the Oxford English Dictionary quick link on the Research Resource page.) Reference 615.103 M555m 1996 (Also available in the Science Building Library)
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
Quick! What is the density of water at 90 degrees Celsius? No problem for you if this book is handy.
Reference 540.202 C111c 2006/2007
Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry
What is buckminsterfullerene? Is the Heidi complex a psychological problem? What's a prosthetic group? These and more are in this 10 volume compendium of information.
Reference 546.03 E56e 2005
Encyclopedia of the Elements
The blowpipe, depicted as a goldsmith's tool in ancient Egyptian paintings, was an instrument for mineral analysis during the 1600s. What instrument, still in use today, replaced it in the 1800s?
Reference 546 E57e
Van Nostrand's Encyclopedia of Chemistry
Wax poetic about yesterday's lunch using the Flavors and Essences table. Whether you are praising a “citrusy, marshmallowy” pie or panning a “sweat socklike, cowy” cheese, appropriate descriptive words are probably on the list.
Reference 540.3 V269v
Still stumped?
How to Find Chemical Information
Reference 540.7 M232 1998
*Au is the chemical symbol for gold.