Nascent

If you have been in Second Life and visited Second Nature recently, you will have noticed a sudden burst of activity. Last month I spoke at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Chicago in a very interesting session about using social networking tools to teach chemistry. My topic was Second Life as a chemical education medium, and although Second Life was entirely new to most of the audience, there was a lot of interest during and after the session.

Since that trip, Second Nature has become the proud host of some really interesting new exhibits, joining the existing collections of Yoe May and Hiro Sheridan. The largest exhibits are the Blue Obelisk Cemetery and the neighbouring Jean-Claude Bradley Center for Open Notebook Science. The work of Jean-Claude Bradley and Beth Ritter-Guth for Drexel University, the blue obelisks are an interactive quiz, while the center provides all sorts of resources and links for students.

Just behind that, Mary Anne Clark from Texas Wesleyan University has created an excellent genetics area, featuring a chromosome gallery and a giant 3D eukaryotic cell which you can enter to see the components from the inside. Mary Anne is also the brains behind one of Second Life's most interesting and well known scientific areas: the Gene Pool.

As always in Second Life, I can't possibly do justice to any of these excellent exhibits: please do drop into Second Nature to see for yourself.

In the coming weeks, we will be developing the infrastructure of the island, including a welcome and navigation area, Graphic Science will continue to develop their part of the land and we will also be starting work in earnest on our second island: more on those later, but feel free to visit for a sneak preview...

In the meantime, Second Nature will remain a place where all scientists are welcome to freely showcase their work, hold events or simply experiment with Second Life: if you would like some land, or are just interested in science and Second Life, I'd love to hear from you: join the Second Life group on Nature Network, email me at j DOT scott AT nature DOT com or find me in world as Joanna Wombat.