In "Web Explodes With Chemical Applications" (C&EN, Sept. 16, page 38), Stu Borman stated, "The first group to use VRML, and still one of the most active in the field, is that of chemistry professor Jürgen Brickmann of the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany."
We believe that early use of Virtual Reality Modeling Language in a chemical context was more widespread than this statement implies. In particular, we believe the two earliest publications in this area are by Casher and Rzepa, "A Chemical Collaboratory Using Explorer EyeChem and the Common Client Interface" [Comput Graphics, 29, 52 (1995)], which was submitted in December 1994 (http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/CG/CG.html); and "Chemical Collaboratories Using World Wide Web Servers and EyeChem Based Viewers" [J. Mol. Graphics, 13, 268 (1995)], which derived from a talk given at the ACS national meeting in Anaheim, Calif., in April 1995.