Already seen this reported all over, but for completeness, interesting article in Science News on various scientific things in Second Life:

Scientists get a 2nd Life

Saw a mention of Second Life in the London Paper last week. It was entirely devoid of any real content and completely irrelevant to what we’re doing here, but I’m going to report on it anyway, because it generated the largest number (4) of enquiries from friends about Second Life so far…

It was called “How to Bag a Geek” and featured a reporter going to three events to attempt to chat up “geeks” of varying descriptions.

One of these categories was “science geek”. Science has always been cool, geeks definitely are now, so I have good news for Second Lifers: the chosen “science geek” event was the Dana Centre event about virtual worlds.

Anyway, it seems that not all scientists are quite so pleased at the association. After the discussion, our intrepid reporter approached a “fit geek” with the chat-up line “So are you on Second Life?”.

It was unsuccessful.

Read the full story here, although I take no responsibility for any advice gleaned from an article which does not know the difference between a geek and a nerd…

Without wanting to game the system, I’m puzzled about the Group Search feature in Second Life.

We have a group, Nature, with 400 odd members. It used to be the top result when using the in-world group search for “Nature” and in the top 5 or so when searching for “science”.

I last noticed a few weeks ago that when searching for Nature that we now appear on p3! I wouldn’t mind, but the majority of the groups above us have hardly any members and even less relevance to science/nature. I see that we are not the only victims: the “science” search is now hit and miss, the Science Center is way down the list, lots of relevant results have disappeared entirely and all sorts of odd groups have appeared above them.

I’ve submitted a ticket (via concierge) asking about this, but typically have received precisely no response whatsoever a fortnight later. So two questions:

1. Any idea why the rankings have suddenly changed?
2. Has anyone ever received a response to a help request to LL?

I went to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum on Saturday. This was my third year, and although the format’s always the same, I really enjoyed it again.

The winning one (an elephant spraying water everywhere) was good, but my personal favourite was the goat on the mountain:

Not a helpful post, really, since the exhibition has closed now, but you can still see the photos online.

The only complaint I would make about it is the merchandise, or lack of it. I understand you want to splash the winners all over everything, but I’m sure everyone has their own favourite and I couldn’t find so much as a goat postcard.

On Monday we welcome Professor Mark Brake and Reverend Neil Hook to Second Nature.

Since its emergence in the seventeenth century, science fiction has been a sustained, coherent and subversive check on the promises and pitfalls of science. In their turn, invention and discovery have forced fiction writers to confront the nature and limits of reality.

Join us with Neil Hook and Mark Brake, authors of Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science to trace the way in which we’ve imagined the future.

Neil and Mark are both at the University of Glamorgan, teaching courses in Science Fiction and Science Communication respectively. All are welcome to join us for what promises to be a fascinating event.

---

Title: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science

Speakers: Prof Mark Brake and Rev. Neil Hook, Glamorgan University

Date: Mon 28th April

Time: 9am SLT, Midday NY time, 4pm GMT, 5pm London time

Location: Second Nature Island

Contact: Joanna Wombat

---

Immediately after the event, we will be hopping over to ACS Island, where there will be a second talk with Joan L. Slonczewski, Kenyon College, on science fiction from the point of view of the author. Joan is a Professor of Microbiology, specifically stress responses in E. coli and Bacillus subtilis, and also the author of several science fiction novels including Brain Plague and A Door Into Ocean.

All welcome to both talks: voice will be used.

During this short break from events, we thought it would be a good idea to have a survey, to try and assess how we’re getting on so far, what worked, what didn’t, what we should do in the future, that kind of thing. We get all sorts of feedback after every event, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to consolidate some of it after the first six months of events and give everyone a chance to comment.

If you have ever attended, tried to, or just thought about attending one of our events, please do go and take the survey.

No prizes, but the reward of knowing you’ve done something good for mankind. Also, anyone reading this is an early adopter, so there’s a good chance your suggestion will get acted on!

Lastly, it’s very short and easy and it would really be helpful for me.

I was pointed in the direction of this article by a colleague – a video of two people demonstrating a new system to operate Second Life using a webcam rather than a mouse or keyboard. The webcam picks up body movements and translates them into avatar movement, gestures and even expressions. Some of the movements are prescribed (hands behind back to land gracefully, for example), but many are natural: jump, your avatar jumps.

It’s only in the early stages of development, but it’s an interesting video nonetheless. But I am a bit disappointed you don’t need a spinning desk chair and a long corridor to fly any more…

Nascent cross-post alert

Every day I tell people about Second Nature who say “How cool! Where can I find out more?” and I’m torn between giving them a SLURL they won’t know what to do with or this blog which is not a lot more than a list of upcoming events and certainly no place for newbies.

With this in mind, I’m pleased to introduce a new site on nature.com:

http://www.nature.com/secondnature

Something of a work in progress, we hope this website will be a starting point for newcomers, an introduction to what Second Life’s all about and what we’re doing there, as well as providing listings of all our upcoming events and guides to the best places to see in Second Life. Obviously this is just the first version, but we will be regularly adding to and rotating the content, so if you know a good science-y place in Second Life, by all means send it over and it’ll pop up there sometime.

Most importantly, we hope this will make it easier for people who have heard of Second Life to see what it can be used for and to help experienced users follow activity. Please do take a look: any feedback is very much appreciated from any perspective – in the comments or direct to me at j.scott @ nature.com.

PS: Any SL-experts out there – next on the to-do list is to use the Reg API to allow registration through the website. Anyone got any experience/advice on that?

I have a new event and a change of time to report for next week.

NOTE: The event will be earlier than normal, at 2pm GMT/10am EST/7am SLT

On Monday 10th March, we will be joined on Second Nature by Helen Meredith, project co-ordinator for the EDGE Amphibian project.. The EDGE project is run by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and stands for Evolutionarily Distinct, Globally Endangered. In words of one syllable, if it’s endangered and there’s nothing else genetically similar to it, then the EDGE project wants to conserve it.

EDGE is in its second year now: last year they focused on mammals, almost certainly to get some cuddly, publicity-happy species to be the face of the launch. This year attention has shifted to amphibians and as Helen commented earlier this year “These animals may not be cute and cuddly, but hopefully their weird looks and bizarre behaviours will inspire people to support their conservation”.

Join us with Helen to hear how they decide what is Evolutionarily Distinct, the current status of the EDGE species and the future of the project. All welcome!

Title: The EDGE Project for Amphibians

Speaker: Helen Meredith, ZSL

Date: Monday 10th March

Time: 2pm GMT/1am EST/7am SLT

Location: Second Nature Island

Apologies for the short notice, but today (Monday) we are joined on Second Nature by Simon Colton from Imperial College’s Department of Computing. For an introduction to his work, over to my colleague Matt Brown:

Computers might be able to spew out facts and tally your accounts, but could they ever make great art? Simon Colton from Imperial’s Department of Computing thinks so. With colleagues Maja Pantic and Michel Valstar he’s created an award-winning system called The Painting Fool , which paints stylised portraits after analysing facial expressions.

If, for example, it sees an angry face, the portrait might incorporate strong brushstrokes in fiery colours, while a depressed person might be rendered in dismal hues.

The results are impressive and last month bagged the team a prestigious award for machine intelligence at a British Computer Society conference.

For more on Simon’s work, read Matt’s full article and then join us on Second Nature for a talk with Simon himself all about his work. All welcome – no specialist knowledge, just an open mind, required!

---

Speaker: Dr Simon Colton, Imperial College

Date: Monday 3rd March

Time: 9am SLT/PST, Midday EST, 5pm GMT

Location: Second Nature Island