An interesting variation on the "web page", the podcast seems to be taking off in chemistry. To start, see http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html The best developed/integrated environment (arguably) is iTunes. Fire it up and go to the Music store section, then select the sub-category Podcasts. A search on chemistry reveals a little of what is now available (Apple only have Science as a category, and not chemistry as a sub-category, so chemistry is there only by virtue of appearing in eg the title of any given podcast). The basic podcast is an audio file, although more recently video podcasts (vodcasts?) have started appearing. Rather more messy, is the "enhanced" podcast (which smacks of lack of planning and foresight!). This entrains artwork (ie slides, Acrobat files etc) at various trigger points in an audio stream; it means that "enhancement" is only possible for audio, not video. A few of these have started appearing as well (its what SMIL was supposed to achieve a few years back). I might mention that the "molcast" (or "chemcast") appears to have been invented somewhat before the podcast became popular (it was called CMLRSS then, which is why it probably did not catch on!). The theory is that the podcast solves the "bandwidth" problem, assumed to be an issue for eg students and others with slow Internet connections, in that the content is delivered at "off peak" times without the user being present, and can then be rapidly transferred to a mobile device such as an iPod (or I suppose in the future a mobile phone). The idea of a student revising for their quantum chemistry exam by peering at their iPod or phone makes for an interesting vision. Is anyone on this list investing in this genre? -- Henry Rzepa. +44 (020) 7594 5774 (Voice); +44 (0870) 132 3747 (eFax); rzepahs@mac.com (iChat) http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, UK. (Voracious anti-spam filter in operation for received email. If expected reply not received, please phone/fax).