THE APPLICATION OF CHEMICAL MULTIPURPOSE INTERNET MAIL EXTENSIONS (CHEMICAL MIME) INTERNET STANDARDS TO ELECTRONIC MAIL AND WORLD-WIDE-WEB INFORMATION EXCHANGE

The proposal and subsequent global use of an Internet standard based o n chemical primary Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (chemical MIM E) media type is reviewed. Examples of the configuration of this stand ard for use with Internet-based electronic mail and World Wide Web cli ents are shown. The longterm objectives of the integration and interop erability of chemical information across the boundaries of Internet-ba sed electronic journals, conferences, virtual courses, databases, mode ling, and newly emerging information handling and modeling tools are s et out. We believe that one way forward is by concentrating on more fi nely grained chemical information components, using generic tools base d on XML (eXtensible markup language) and its support in chemistry via CML (chemical markup language).