The advent of ever-more sophisticated methods of information retrieval is revolutionising the way chemists work. The possibility of accessing a database which, in a matter of seconds, is capable of providing hundreds of methods of carrying out a synthetic transformation means that the time in which a synthetic strategy can be planned is reduced enormously. A subtle, but no less profound effect of this completely new approach is in the way chemists handle the 'vocabulary' of their profession, a knowledge of possible chemical transformations. It could be said that it will become less important to memorise lists of synthetic methods, but this creates a problem. Computer reaction.
