Berkman, Second Nature and the M4
I'm nearing the end of an interesting and productive, but also long and tiring, tour of the US East Coast (Atlanta, Baltimore, DC, Boston and NY). It's election time over here, of course, and it looks like it's going to be very interesting this time around. Helpfully, this week's Nature has a News Feature and Commentary on what politics might mean for science, and vice versa.
On Tuesday, among many other things, I paid a visit to the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School. I was catching up with David Weinberger (who was kind enough to give a great talk at our London office last year). David reciprocated by inviting me to give a talk at their Luncheon Series. (Was he kidding? How could I refuse?) My talk was entitled 'What the web means for science' and was about the web revolution in science communication and research.
My slides are too big to post right now, but I'll do that later and put a link in the comments below. In any case, David's notes are probably more comprehensible. It was webcast (and also Second Life-cast), but I don't know if the video is archived somewhere. If anyone has a link, please post it below.
Speaking of Second Life, I mentioned at the end of my talk that Nature now has an island in Second Life, called (inevitably) Second Nature. We've only just begun work, so it's barren right now, but here's a picture:
(Science geeks might like to ponder the significance of the shape.)
We also have an updated version of our M4 (Magical Molecular Model Maker), which builds in-world models of chemical structures by querying the NIH's PubChem database:
(Those who knew the answer to the previous question might like to stretch themselves further by identifying the molecule in this picture.)
We have several more science-related things in the pipeline for Second Nature &mdash watch this space — and we're always on the lookout for other interesting 'virtual science' ideas. If you have one, let us know: either contact Jo Scott (avatar name 'Joanna Wombat') in Second Life, or if you prefer email write to me: t DOT hannay AT nature DOT com.
Comments
I'll guess H20 and ATP :). If you do want to post your talk online you might want to have a look at slideshare. You can upload a presentation and have it embedded on the blog.
Posted by: Pedro Beltrao | October 19, 2006 03:50 PM
Slides and video are available via the MediaBerkman blog. (There's also an interesting still frame of me apparently casting a spell or something.)
Pedro, well done, you clearly concentrated during biochem classes. ;)
Thanks for the Slideshare suggestion too -- it's an interesting site (though still in closed beta, I think). Unfortunately my slide problems were mainly bandwidth-related. I'm back on a fast connection again now, but happily the kind folks at the Berkman Center have done my work for me. :)
Posted by: Timo Hannay | October 20, 2006 10:08 AM
Hi Timo - I think the chemical structure shown is actually the enantiomer of ATP. (ATP is CID 5957, not 5316453.) But it's hard to know for sure from that angle...
Posted by: Joshua | October 23, 2006 01:27 PM
Thanks, Josh.
There speaks a real chemist. ;)
You're probably right. We're still at 'random testing by non-chemists' stage. Once we've polished the code a bit more, perhaps some real chemists can take it for a test run...
Posted by: Timo Hannay | October 23, 2006 01:45 PM
This is Sweet! I joined SL recently to look for or develop new ways of communicating science, and it seems I won't have to build it all by myself :)
Some ideas I've been toying with:
- a virtual living room for scientists, a place for discussing ideas. With a slide/poster-viewing board, access to PubMed and Connotea (within SL - with a HUD?). There are already book clubs, what about a journal club?
- mentoring for grads and post-docs, and others, or at least help in finding it; this would be especially helpful for people working in countries outside US and Europe where good contacts are harder to find
- a "science cafe", more targeted for scientist-nonscientist interaction, with resident scientists answering science-related questions (a la Naked Scientists).
- broadcasting from RL symposia into SL (missed SfN this year...)
- maybe it would be possible to record methods in 3D VR, such as, how exactly do you position the sample for that new plane of cutting.
- Already I think it would be possible to have realistic enough models of equipment, say, confocal microscopes, for potential users to check on them (say, how do the various pieces fit together).
(Sorry for long post, feel free to cut it short if you like:)
-Yoe
Posted by: Marylka Yoe Uusisaari | October 23, 2006 09:59 PM
Thanks, Yoe.
You have some great ideas there. If you want some land on Second Nature to work on any of them, please contact Joanna Wombat in-world (or Timo Twin, but I'm not there so much). Jo can also explain to you some of the other things we're up to right now, in case you want to get involved in those.
Posted by: Timo Hannay | October 24, 2006 02:12 AM