Berlin's Institute of Chemistry maintains the Acronyms and Abbreviations database, which contains more than 12,000 entries geared towards chemistry and spectroscopy. Users need only type in an acronym or abbreviation and then click to get a list of possible results. A search for "GC," for example, brings up gas chromatography, glycerol, graphic context, and strangely enough garbage collection....

Hosted online by chemsoc, compiled by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and originally published in print form by Blackwell Science in 1997, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Compendium of Chemical Terminology has recently been made available online for free. The searchable compendium, popularly referred to as the "Gold Book," contains "nearly 7000 terms, with...