It's a shame
SciCentral is no more but at least the message they wrote to their users is helpful:
"Dear SciCentral User:
As of May 1, 2003, the research news aggregation service hosted on the SciCentral Web site and associated weekly customized newsletter have been discontinued.
This new site is a transition site whose purpose is to help you identify alternate research news information sources. This "light" version of SciCentral features our favorite resources and tools, organized by specialty area. We hope that you will find it helpful in dealing with the change. Please click here for a short tutorial.
SciCentral was launched in 1997, at a time when research information on the Internet was essentially fragmented and disorganized. The aim of SciCentral was to identify the most valuable online research resources and provide a central location for users to access the information. Over the past few years, however, powerful Web search tools have emerged, online research news channels have become more organized, and specialized sources now provide comprehensive, timely, and reliable information.
Since the emergence of a more coherent and organized scientific Internet had always been the anticipation of the SciCentral founders, editors, and patrons, we have decided that the time has come to discontinue the original SciCentral offering.
We would like to thank the original team members for their faith in the venture, the SciCentral editors for their dedication to the project's mission, and SciQuest, Inc. for its active support and commitment to SciCentral, which allowed us to continue to bring the free service to the scientific community over the past three years.
Since the launch of SciCentral, we have tremendously enjoyed the continuous support, enthusiasm, and loyalty of our users.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
The SciCentral Team "
― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Friday, 2 May 2003 02:27 (twenty-two years ago)
...but no matter how they try to sweet the deal, the web still can't brief us like they did to help us stay in touch with science in general, filtering pertinent info and sorting it into categories we could subscribe to, like
BIOCHEMISTRY
BIOTECHNOLOGY
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY
FORESTRY & RENEWABLE RESOURCES
MICROBIOLOGY
MOLECULAR & CELL BIOLOGY, GENETICS & DEVELOPMENT
NEUROSCIENCES
ASTRONOMY
GEOGRAPHY/GIS
GEOLOGY
GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY
AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ELECTRONIC & ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INTERNET
MATERIALS ENGINEERING
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING & ROBOTICS
MINING
NANOTECHNOLOGY
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
GERIATRICS & AGING RESEARCH
INFECTIOUS DISEASES & EPIDEMIOLOGY
EMERGENCY MEDICINE & CRITICAL CARE
NEUROLOGY & NEUROSURGERY
NUTRITION
PHARMACY & PHARMACOLOGY
RADIOLOGY & IMAGING
TOXICOLOGY
ATOMIC & PLASMA PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
COMPUTER SCIENCE
PHYSICS & RELATIVITY
ATOMIC & PLASMA PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY
MATERIALS & POLYMER SCIENCE
NUCLEAR PHYSICS & ENGINEERING
HIGH ENERGY & PARTICLE PHYSICS
TOXICOLOGY
OPTICS, PHOTONICS, & LASER SCIENCE
SPECTROSCOPY & CHROMATOGRAPHY
etc etc
For about the last 3 years their newsletter was part of my weekly routine; if it would not have stopped I don't think it would have crossed my mind to talk about it.
I hope I'll adapt soon to the new pattern or find an alternative news source to keep down my searching time and up the signal/noise ratio.
― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)