A bond index (BI) approximately measures the totals of the bond orders at any given atom in a molecule. Here I ponder what the maximum values might be for elements with filled valence shells.

Looking for platforms to start prototyping the Atom text editor or its superior platform Electron passed our way at the Research and Development Department recently. For feasibility studies we sometimes test new frameworks and when we can use web technologies to start coding, there is quite a good chance for a seamless connection between data structures, algorithms and the front end.

On February 6th I was alerted to this intriguing article[cite]10.1038/nchem.2716[/cite] by a phone call, made 55 minutes before the article embargo was due to be released. Gizmodo wanted to know if I could provide an (almost) ^† instant ^‡ quote. After a few days, this report of a stable compound of helium and sodium still seems impressive to me and I now impart a few more thoughts here.

Continuing on from my previous post Viewing scientific articles on the iPad: towards a universal article reader, here are some brief notes on the PLoS iPad app that I've previously been critical of.There are two key things to note about this app. The first is that it uses the page turning metaphor. The article is displayed as a PDF, a page at a time, and the user swipes the page to turn it over.