We present a novel chemical database for gas-phase astrochemistry. Named the KInetic Database for Astrochemistry (KIDA), this database consists of gas-phase reactions with rate coefficients and uncertainties that will be vetted to the greatest extent possible. Submissions of measured and calculated rate coefficients are welcome, and will be studied by experts before inclusion into the database. Besides providing kinetic information for the interstellar medium, KIDA is planned to contain such data for planetary atmospheres and for circumstellar envelopes. Each year, a subset of the reactions in the database (kida.uva) will be provided as a network for the simulation of the chemistry of dense interstellar clouds with temperatures between 10 K and 300 K. We also provide a code, named Nahoon, to study the timedependent gas-phase chemistry of 0D and 1D interstellar sources.

In 2018, it is expected that there will be a major revision of the International System of Units (SI) which will result in all of the seven base units being defined by fixing the values of certain atomic or fundamental constants. As part of this revision, the kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, will be redefined by assigning a value to the Boltzmann constant k. This explicit-constant definition will define the kelvin in terms of the SI derived unit of energy, the joule. It is sufficiently wide to encompass any form of thermometry. The planned redefinition has motivated the creation of an extended mise en pratique ('practical realization') of the definition of the kelvin (MeP-K), which describes how the new definition can be put into practice. The MeP-K incorporates both of the defined International Temperature Scales (ITS-90 and PLTS-2000) in current use and approved primary-thermometry methods for determining thermodynamic temperature values. The MeP-K is a guide that provides or makes reference to the information needed to perform measurements of temperature in accord with the SI at the highest level. In this article, the background and the content of the extended second version of the MeP-K are presented.

An experimental assembly has been constructed to measure the specific heat capacity of macroscopic graphite samples at room temperature. The same batch of graphite constitutes the core of a graphite calorimeter, which is currently being realized to measure the absorbed dose due to ionizing radiation. Two different experimental procedures have been applied. In the first method the specific heat capacity of graphite was measured directly, where its value is corrected for the influence of impurities. The second method, to our knowledge not previously applied to macroscopic samples, is based on a series of differential measurements where no correction for added impurities is needed. By its nature, the second method reduces systematic effects. The specific heat capacity of a particular graphite sample is determined to be 706.9 J K −1 kg −1 with a combined relative standard uncertainty of 9 parts in 10 4 at 295.15 K. The specific heat capacity of cyanoacrylate has also been determined.