Following the cancellation of “The Importance of Patents to Scientists” by Sue Scott on Tuesday, I am pleased to announce that Sue has kindly agreed to reschedule the talk.

The new date is Monday 5th November at 11am SLT/PDT, 7pm GMT. Brits take note – this is 7pm UK time, the clocks having changed the week before!

I would like to thank Sue very much for being so calm about everything and agreeing to reschedule and apologise to her and to everyone else who came along.

A quick explanation: around half six, everything was running smoothly, voice was clear and the presentation was prepared. By 6:45, the voice had stopped working for some unknown reason. We prepared to give the talk by text only. Then, just before seven, the whole region started crashing – myself, Ian and Sue, in the Nature offices could only stay on the island for a few seconds before crashing again. Others reported the same problems, and it became apparent that there was no option but to reschedule. We tried our best to explain this to everyone in our brief visits in between being unceremoniously logged out again!

I have investigated the cause and can’t see anything wrong with the island: I can only assume it was just Second Life being temperamental.

I hope this won’t happen again, but Second Life being Second Life, we will take note from this and ensure we have a plan B in case it does. In the meantime, there seem to be no problems today, so fingers crossed all will be well now, and at the next event which is on Monday – more details in the next post, hope to see you there!