Nascent

Since Nature Network launched in 2007, the plan has always been to launch more new city-based ‘hubs’ to serve the many local communities of scientists active on Nature Network.

Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of the first new hub since Nature Network first went live with the Boston and London hubs – Nature Network New York .

Nature Network New York has its own blog, forum, jobs and events listings, geared towards researchers based in the greater New York area and those around the world interested in the scientific activities happening in the Big Apple. With more than a dozen top research institutes concentrated in a relatively small area, New York is a hotbed of research and Nature Network New York intends to bring that community closer together.

NN NY is run by two scientists from Columbia University, Caryn Shechtman and Barry Hudson. They will be posting regularly to the New York blog about the latest news and trends in New York city science. You can check out their latest posts here and here.

Check it out and let us know what you think. You can post to the NY forum or email us at network at nature.com.

Posted by Corie Lok at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In these belt-tightening times I'm cutting back a lot on conferences. But not ETech — that's the one event I have to attend each year if I'm to fully recharge my ideas battery. It's also been a pleasure and privilege to once again act as a member of the program committee, helping to identify the right mix of speakers to enlighten and entertain.

To understand why you should go too, see Brady Forrest's preview as well as the full conference schedule. A special early registration price applies until Monday (26th January), and Nascent readers can get an additional 10% discount at any time by entering the code 'et09nat'.

See you there, I hope.

Posted by Timo Hannay at 04:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scitable is a new way to learn about and teach science, and also NPG's most significant web launch for... erm... a long time. So I asked Vikram Savkar, director of Nature Education and principal force behind Scitable, to provide some info for Nascent readers. Here it is (click on the thumbnail images for full-size screenshots):

Scitable is an online learning tool for students in science. It has three main parts: content, tools, and community. Most of the content has been specially developed for this site by NPG staff editors, supported by an Editorial Board of teaching faculty, leading an author group of faculty, researchers, and science writers. Some of the content comes from various NPG journals, and another segment has been provided by Freeman and Sinauer, two excellent publishers who have partnered with us. All of the content is pitched at the university level. The most interesting tools – yet at an early stage – are intended to personalize learning paths and experiences (utilizing site content) for individual students or classrooms of students, based on their needs and preferences. The community is registered site members – for the most part they are structured within online classroom groups created by their faculty, but we intend to make it easier in time for site members to connect with each other across traditional academic boundaries for purposes of common interest, whether study or dialogue.

Right now the site is focused on genetics, but we plan to expand to other sciences over time. We’ve been in beta for a few months, and out of beta for a week. What I’ve been most excited by is seeing faculty and students in far-flung places pick the site up and begin to use it in their classrooms . . . Turkmenistan, Nigeria, Australia, Brazil, California. Even so, there’s a lot of work yet to do to build this out into its full potential, but we’ve got a great team of passionate and creative people here (near Boston) who are heads down doing just that. I expect the site to change quite a lot over the next year, even in the basics of how students and faculty experience it.

If you’ve taken a look at the site, let us know what you think . . . and if you like it, let the faculty and students near you know about it.

Posted by Timo Hannay at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nature Network bloggers have made a strong showing in the anthology of the best science blog posts of 2008, Open Laboratory (click here to see the 2007 edition).

A panel of science blogger-judges (headed up by our own Jenny Rohn acting as this year's editor) pored over hundreds nominations and selected the 50 best posts, six of which were written by Nature Network bloggers! They are (drum roll, please):

“I get my kicks from thermodynamicks!”
from Reciprocal Space
by Stephen Curry

“Someone should invent a device to look at the micro world”
by Charles Darwin

“On the hardness of biology”
from The End of the Pier Show
by Henry Gee

“On the nature of networking”
from The Scientist
by Richard Grant

“Poster session paparazzi”
from Nothing’s Shocking
by Noah Gray

“In which science becomes a sport – hypothetically speaking”
from Mind the Gap
by Jennifer Rohn

You can find links to all 52 winners (50 posts, one cartoon and one poem) here.

The editors and winners are busy compiling the posts to be published later this month as a book for purchase on lulu.com.

Congratulations to everyone!

Posted by Corie Lok at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)