One would think that in a virtual world such as Second Life where the laws of physics can be defied, that science and science fiction would be portrayed widely. However that generally doesn’t seem to be the case. However I did stumble across Exploratorium whereby science is not only dipslayed, it’s also discussed in the shape and form of the Virtually Speaking Science podcast.
The blurb for the latest edition of the podcast reads :
Ten years after the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE opened up the age of private-sector spaceflight, two XPRIZE pioneers reflect on the past decade and look ahead to the future of innovation prizes. Tune in to hear from Robert Weiss, a Hollywood producer (“The Blues Brothers,” “The Naked Gun”) who is vice chairman and president of X Prize; and energy and space expert, Gregg Maryniak, who helped get the Ansari XPRIZE off the ground.
This isn’t a new show or sim, they have both been running for quite some time but like many things in Second Life you don’t actually realise they are there until you stumble across them. I’m not blaming anyone for this, Second Life remains a vast space with lots of different events going on and it’s impossible to really keep up with all the ins and outs.
The sim itself is better visited than looked at via my dodgy pictures as my pictures don’t really do the sim justice. There’s quite a lot going on there such as fun and games with Pi, including poetry and word searches. There”s also information regarding eclipses, the orbit of the moon, galaxy clusters and much more.
Some of the displays are interactive and will kick into action where you click them whereas in other areas there are notecards to provide further information.
There are also media based presentations on the sim, it’s an interesting place to visit if you want to look at a bit of science and if you really are into your science then you will probably enjoy the virtually speaking science podcast series.
SLURL To Exploratroium : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Exploratorium/147/52/26
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