The Journal of Physical Chemistry and Biophysics in a Turbulent World of Ever-Increasing Scientific Output

Abstract

We live in a world of databases. We are flooded with information. Is it good or bad? It’s certainly a good thing that comes with challenges. It is like a cloud with a silver lining, and the latter is real bright and luminous. Any information about atoms, molecules, supramolecular assemblies is just a few clicks away, something the midand even late20th century researchers could not even dream of. For example, you can attain the sequence and properties, and in most cases the structure, of any protein in less than a minute. Moreover, physical and chemical details of atoms and molecules such as energy levels, transitions, thermodynamics, various kinds of electronic, vibrational, and magnetic resonance spectra, are easily available from multiple databases, such as the 69 Standard Reference Databases offered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. On the other hand, it’s not easy to keep pace with the fiercely mounting scientific and technology information. Reaxys reports properties of ~ 2.2 million inorganic and organometallic compounds, PubChem offers around 160 million chemical compounds, 60 million chemical structures, and 1 million biological assays [1]. Along with over 100 million DNA and protein sequences involving ~ 260,000 species that are available through the National Center for Biotechnology Information, over 115,000 macromolecular structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank, the amount of information simply becomes incomprehensible. Oftentimes we feel like we can’t see the trees because of the forest.