S ome 9.4 billion dollars per year are spent for the purchase of scientific instruments and supplies worldwide. A laboratory scientist probably orders various lab supplies on a weekly basis and a piece of equipment every few months. A typical routine would be to first try to locate the product catalogs: In a large laboratory, this may not be a trivial task, because these catalogs tend to end up on many different benches. Then, you would need to scan through these catalogs to find which supplier is carrying the product of interest. A given product might be offered by more than one supplier, and you need to decide which is the best buy. Next, you typically call the customer service line to find out if the product is in stock. Finally, you fill out your purchase order. The Internet is revolutionizing every aspect of the economy, and it was just a matter of time before online scientific supplies stores were available. This month, we review two such “stores” on the Web. Both have a similar business model: for every item you purchase, the supplier pays a commission fee to the virtual store. The convenience for you is that you can search product catalogs online and order the products you want with a few clicks of the mouse. You can pay by credit card or by purchase order. In each case, you need to be a registered user of the site to be able to purchase items. The first store we reviewed is Chemdex ([www.chemdex.com][1]). The company states that 150,000 to 240,000 products (depending of which area of the site you read) are offered on its site from more than 110 suppliers. When accessing the site, you can search products by suppliers (such as Amersham or Calbiochem) or by category (such as antibody or DNA products). Also, you can build a list of the favorite products that you order often. You can read more about the product you search for by clicking on its name. A drawback of the site is that you have to register in order to view the prices of the items that are available. The other online store is SciQuest ([www.sciquest.com][2]). This site features more than 100,000 products from 100 suppliers. It, too, lets you organize supplies into favorite items that you frequently reorder. You can search the site by products or suppliers, or both. For each product, there is information that appears in a pop-up window. A definite plus of this site is that prices are published openly, so you only need to register if you want to buy something. The site also features a link to another site that is owned by SciQuest: LabDeals ([www.labdeals.com][3]). There, discounted equipment and supplies are available either as fixed-price items or through online auctions. (We did not try buying any items from these sites, so we cannot comment on their speed for fulfilling orders or their customer service.) In summary, we were impressed by the breadth of products offered at both sites and the ease with which a busy scientist can navigate through them. By ordering through these online stores, you simply sit at your computer and do a little comparison shopping. In the end, you may save time and money. That's why we love the Net. [1]: http://www.chemdex.com [2]: http://www.sciquest.com [3]: http://www.labdeals.com