You probably didn’t notice, but we released a new version of Nature Network yesterday (version 3.24). This month’s upgrade was mostly a series of fixes, bug squashings and improvements while we gird our loins for next month’s major revamp (more of which below). Of over 30 changes to the site in this release, here are a few highlights.

• You can now use hyphens in tags (‘Yay!’ shouts Dr Rohn)

• If, for some reason, you’re not happy being in someone else’s network, you can now extricate yourself by following the link on that person’s profile page.

• We put in a bit of helper text next to the Most Commented blog posts, to make it clear that the comment count relates to posts made in the past two weeks. This was confusing some people.

And many more behind-the-scenes fixes that I won’t bore you with. Let me know if you spot any bugs in the new release.

We’re now gearing up for some major changes in the Jul/Aug/Sep releases. Coming up…a more rational Groups/Forums system, improved navigation bars, NEW HUBS, new-look local pages and much more. We’ve got a busy summer ahead.

We just pushed the big, red button (actually just an ENTER key) that put the latest version of Nature Network live. You’re now looking at version 3.15.

Most of the changes are bug fixes and making operations smoother, but we do have one new feature to tell you about.

Our People page now has a ‘one degree of seperation’ section. It’s a good way of seeing who the friends of your friends are. Chances are that they’ll work in a similar field to you, and might be worth getting to know. Note, you have to be logged in to view this, or the system won’t know who you (and therefore your friends) are.

2008 will see many big changes for the network. We’ll be reworking the local hubs idea, introducing better tools for finding similar scientists and a whole rollcall of things that must remain secret for now. Stay tuned, folks.