Science in virtual worlds
If you are in striking distance of London on the evening of Tuesday 19 June and want to find out more about this Second Nature in Second Life that you keep reading and hearing about, then please attend a free event, "Science in Virtual Worlds", in association with the Royal Institution and Nature Network.
It’s when you’re flying next to a Saturn V rocket or climbing around a protein molecule that you realise the potential for science in virtual worlds. In an online place like Second Life, you can do things that are dangerous, expensive or downright impossible in real life (or ‘meatspace’). That’s why scientists have begun using such places to conference, teach, build and experiment, in fields from astrophysics to neuroscience, chemistry to psychology. Fancy a stroll through a four-dimensional house? Log on and do it in Second Life.
Online worlds are social spaces too, and that makes them attractive to social scientists. How do we develop meaningful relationships with people we’ve never seen or heard? How do those with autism or schizophrenia fare? Do gender roles or moral codes alter? How does information travel and how can there be economies, uprisings and fads? What are the ethics of studying the denizens of these worlds — are they different from real world citizens? Join Aleks Krotoski , Dave Taylor and Nature Publishing Group's Joanna Scott at the Apple Store on Regent Street for a free event on how science is expanding into virtual life.
Venue: The Apple Store, 235 Regent Street, London W1B 2ET: See the Royal Institution website for more details.
See this previous Nautlius post about opportunities to present your work virtually on the Second Nature island.
This previous Nautlius post describes more about Second Nature and Second Life.
