The Naked Scientists is a weekly one-hour audience-interactive science radio talk show, broadcast live by the BBC. Listen to and discuss the show with fellow science enthusiasts at The Naked Scientists’ mansion in Second Life. All are welcome!
Date: Sundays
Time: 18.00 UK Time (usually 10:00 AM Pacific Time)
Location: The island in the middle of the sim named ‘SciLands’
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/SciLands/102/129/26
If you have never been in a virtual world, here is your chance to visit one of the most popular, Second Life, and see how people are using this online environment to address real world environmental issues ranging from tackling climate change to fostering more sustainable consumption patterns. The Second Life Eco-Tour was developed by The Wilson Center and is part of a larger project with the Environmental Protection Agency to explore how computer and video game technologies can be applied to environmental issues. The Eco-Tour was developed by UC/Berkeley graduate student Stephanie Gerson (Sequioa Hax in Second Life) and Charles Lawrence (Geuis Teses in Second Life). It highlights many environmentally oriented areas in Second Life including our very own SciLands. Click below to watch the video.
This coming Tuesday, Dr. Simon Portegies Zwart will give a presentation titled “Simulating the Galaxy”, about how he and his colleagues use computers to simulate thousands of stars. All are welcome - the talk is accessible to the general public.
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 26
Time: 11:00 AM PST (SL Time), 2:00 PM EST, 19.00 GMT
Location: The Galaxy Dome on the sim named ‘Spaceport Bravo’
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/117/66/278
The Andromeda Galaxy (Credit: John Lanoue)
Next Tuesday, Dr. JT Janssen will give a talk titled “Nano-Science and the Quantum World”
Date: Tuesday, 12 February
Time: 9am PST (SL Time) = 1700 GMT
Location: The outdoor theatre on the sim named ‘Nanotechnology’. Here’s a SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nanotechnology/219/145/22
Here’s the abstract of the talk:
Nanotechnology has allowed us to engineer systems which can exploit novel quantum effects. Already a number of these have resulted in some interesting applications which will be discussed in this talk.
Information about how to attend this event (if you’re new to SL) can be found at the NanoShow website.
Photo taken at the NanoShow on 29 January
Physics World just came out with an article about how SL is being used for physics, and more generally, science. The writer, João Medeiros, did extensive research for the article and it shows.
The cover story in this week’s (Jan 29, 2009) edition of the Metaverse Messenger is all about the SciLands. The story will be continued in next week’s edition. The Metaverse Messenger is one of SL’s oldest and most respected weekly newspapers.
Click here for links to archival copies of the paper.
Next Tuesday, Professor Leslie Pendrill will give a talk titled “Supporting Growth in Nanoproduction”.
Date: Tuesday, 29 January
Time: 9am PST (SL Time) = 1700 GMT
Location: The outdoor theatre on the sim named ‘Nanotechnology’. Here’s a SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nanotechnology/219/145/22
Here’s the abstract of the talk:
Much has been said about the predicted spectacular growth in nanotechnological production in the coming years. In order to sustain such growth, a considerable investment in technological and manufacturing/business infrastructure is needed. Part of that infrastructure is quality-assured metrology and standardisation in nanotechnology. This talk will review national, European and international efforts, particularly addressing nomenclature, metrology, risks and product specifications and including prenormative R&D in nanotechnology.
Information about how to attend this event (if you’re new to SL) can be found at the NanoShow website.
Photo taken at the Second NanoShow
Next Tuesday, Dr. Richard Leach from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory will give a talk titled “Metrology: a tool to enable micro- to nanotechnology”.
Date: Tuesday, 15 January
Time: 9am PST (SL Time) = 1700 GMT
Location: The outdoor theatre on the sim named ‘Nanotechnology’. Here’s a SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nanotechnology/219/145/22
Here’s the abstract of the talk:
It is now fully appreciated that metrology will play an integral role in the successful development and commercialisation of micro- and nanotechnology. To this end the UK Government, through the National Measurement System, funded several groundbreaking projects in its 2005 - 2008 Programme for Engineering Measurement. This review will briefly describe the background of the research, concentrating on the technical details of the projects. Projects include the development of traceable instrumentation to measure thin films, areal surface texture, very low forces and micro-scale geometry.
Information about how to attend this event (if you’re new to SL) can be found at the NanoShow website.
Screenshot from the NanoShow on December 18, 2007.
Cory Ondrejka (formerly Cory Linden), a co-founder of Second Life who recently left Linden Lab, wrote about his predictions for 2007, grading his prognosticating record. In item 6 of his blog entry, he mentioned the science-based discussions held by the SciLands (although he misspelled it “SciIslands”) and Science Friday as an unexpected alternative mixed reality to presidential candidates using SL.
Thanks to Dr. Piet Hut (Pema Pera in SL) for pointing out this bit of buzz about the SciLands.
REVOLUTIONIZING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
Tech Museum of Innovation Calls Upon Curators and Artists to Embrace New Open Source
Creative Process to Develop Virtual Exhibits within Second Life
The Tech Museum of Innovation (The Tech), one of the nation’s premier science and technology museums, today announced the convergence of technology and art in the virtual world with the launch of The Tech in Second Life®. This
integration of The Tech in Linden Lab’s® Second Life has the potential to revolutionize the development of new museum exhibitions.
The Tech has built a replica of its San Jose facility in Second Life. The virtual Tech has been left empty to provide space for the development of new, virtual exhibits and educational programming through an exhibit design competition hosted by The Tech Museum. The virtual exhibits, contributed by talented individuals around the world, will be shared under a Creative Commons license and displayed in the virtual Tech.
Figure 1: The Virtual Tech Building
The Tech is especially interested in reaching out to exhibition builders, craftspeople, museum curators and artists who seek to extend their creativity in new ways and formats. As exhibit contributors, designers have the opportunity to team up with other experts who share similar interests and complementary skills via an online collaboration platform created by The Tech, www.thetechvirtual.org. This online collaboration platform will enable participants to find and work with others, access tools, participate in forums and view guidelines and tutorials.
Figure 2: A “ridable” virtual guitar.
“This is a unique and exciting use of Second Life and we are excited to lead this new initiative to revolutionize the way museums create exhibits,” said Peter Friess, President of The Tech Museum. “The Tech is using Second Life as an open source platform for content development, tapping into creative talent worldwide. I am looking forward to seeing the ideas and contributions that exhibition builders, craftspeople, and museum curators create during the course of this challenge.”
The virtual Tech, which can be found by searching for “The Tech” island from within Second Life (http://secondlife.com), will begin accepting exhibits immediately as part of an exhibition design competition around the theme of “Art, Film, and Music.” The Tech plans to replicate a number of the winning exhibits in its real-world museum in San Jose. A world-class panel of experts will review the virtual exhibits in Second Life, awarding prizes to winning projects for the physical museum. Winners will be announced in connection with the 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, produced by ZER01: The Art and Technology Network, in June 2008.
“The Second Life virtual world is an innovative forum for users to interact online and we applaud The Tech for utilizing Second Life’s platform to enhance the museum experience,” said Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO of Linden Lab, creators of Second Life. “The Tech has captured the essence of Second Life with this initiative: leveraging the ideas of an entire community to build and create an experience for others to enjoy. I am confident that it will bring curators and developers together in an exciting blend of creativity, talent and interactive, online collaboration.”
Tours, general meetings, Q&A sessions, “Learn to Build” and “Learn to Script” sessions will be offered by The Tech in Second Life on a regular basis starting today at 11:00 a.m. PST. The complete schedule of events can be found on the collaboration web site at www.thetechvirtual.org, and everyone interested is welcome to attend.
The Tech’s use of Second Life’s platform to build, test and launch new exhibition content serves as a model and a hands-on opportunity for other museums interested in experimenting with new methods for creating content. The Tech’s experience with Second Life will be shared and open to all to participate in and learn from. To join thetechvirtual.org community or to find out more about this initiative, please visit http://www.thetech.org/.
The Tech worked with Involve, Inc. of Woburn, Mass., a leading developer of virtual worlds and interactive experience design, to build its island and create a replica of the physical museum in Second Life.
The Tech’s virtual exhibition creation initiative in Second Life is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. Located in San Jose, California - the Capital of Silicon Valley - its mission, as a public-benefit corporation, is to inspire the innovator in everyone. Through hands-on exhibits, educational programs, the annual Tech Challenge team competition for youth, and the internationally recognized Tech Museum Awards, presented by Applied Materials, Inc., The Tech Museum of Innovation honors the past, celebrates the present, and encourages the development of innovative ideas for a more promising future. For more information about The Tech Museum of Innovation, visit www.thetech.org.
