Just Don't Pick a Geeky Avatar...

A number of universities have presences in virtual universes such as Second Life. Sarah Everts writes about chemistry islands and the chemists who built them in Second Life. One of the chemists, Jean-Claude Bradley at Drexel, talks about using Second Life as a teaching tool, especially in terms of its promise using 3D animation for visualizing chemical structures. NASA, JPL and the Exploratorium are all using Second Life to communicate.

Writer Wanted!

If you can share your experience about science in virutal communities by writing a short piece that explains the basics, please e-mail diandra2(at)unl.edu and put "Broader Impacts Toolbox" in the subject line so that it doesn't get stuck in the spam filter. Short quotes with helpful advice are also welcome. All contributions will be credited to their authors.