Hi Folks,

There’s an article in Science News about scientists and Second Life.  ACS Island is featured as is Jean-Claude Bradley. 

Check it out!

Introducing our most recent ACS Island Resident Chemist, Professor Olivia Graeve (Lucia Sablatnig in-world)

Olivia is an assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she heads the Nanomaterials Processing Laboratory. Her area of research is broadly described as the synthesis and processing of nanostructured materials, including ceramic and metallic nanomaterials, and amorphous/nanocrystalline composites.

She has received research grants and contracts exceeding $1,600,000 from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Energy, as well as from industrial partners. She has published over 20 refereed journal articles as well as a book chapter on zirconium oxide properties. She has also published several papers in conference proceedings that include both research contributions and pedagogy and curriculum development contributions. In addition, Olivia has co-edited two conference proceedings, a special issue of the Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, and a special issue of the International Journal of Modern Physics B. Her scientific contributions have been published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, the Journal of Materials Research, and Optical Materials, among others, and have been presented in over 60 invited, contributed, and poster presentations at local, national, and international meetings.

As an ACS Island Resident Chemist, she hopes to provide demonstrations and present general information on the chemistry of materials, including the synthesis aspects of advanced materials.

Visit Lucia on ACS Island

We have 5 spaces left in our village.  If you are interested in becoming an ACS Island Resident Chemist (or just have questions) please feel free to contact me at k_sellar@acs.org or Finola Graves in-world. 

Thanks to everyone who helped out/attended Joan Slonczewski’s in-world talk on science and science fiction.  Here are some pics from the talk:

Mark your calenders!

Join us in the presentation area of ACS Island as sci-fi author, microbiology professor and ACS Resident Scientist Joan L. Slonczewski (Andra Renard in SL), discusses concepts of science and hard-core science fiction.  Joan is the author of several science fiction novels including A Door Into Ocean.  One of her short stories, Microbe, can be accessed for free online.

Prior to Joan’s talk, I will be on Second Nature to hear Prof. Mark Brake and Rev. Neil Hook of Glamorgan University give their talk, How Science Drive Fiction and Fiction Drives Science.  This talk is taking place one hour before at 9 am SLT.  See Joanna Scott’s blog for more details.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, ACS Island has a small but thriving community of Resident Chemists.  The Residents’ are all real-life ACS members and are keenly interested in using this environment towards educational and/or research purposes.  Each Resident is given building privileges and their own sky-lab.  They’re welcome to use the island for meetings, classes, presentations, etc.  In fact, a large portion of our real-estate has been devoted to this venture.

It’s been a pleasure getting to know such a diverse group of people.  I thought I would give you, dear reader, the opportunity to know them better as well by periodically spotlighting one of them on this blog.

My first interview is with Resident Chemist Andra Renard.

By the way, we do have a few spaces left in our village.  If you are interested in becoming an ACS Island Resident Chemist (or just have questions) please feel free to contact me at k_sellar@acs.org or Finola Graves in-world. 

1) Please state your name and profession.

• Joan L. Slonczewski, Professor of Biology, Kenyon College
• Andra Renard, SL avatar

I teach microbiology and molecular biology.  I have research grants from NSF and NIH to study stress responses in E. coli and Bacillus subtilis.  For this research I developed a proteomics method, and a GFP fluorescence method for measuring bacterial internal pH.  I also direct an HHMI Undergraduate Science Education award to Kenyon College.  I develop various on-line resources for education, such as Biomolecules at Kenyon, molecular tutorials created by Kenyon undergraduates and the student-authored reference MicrobeWiki.

I have a second career writing science fiction, including the novels, A Door into Ocean and Brain Plague.  I used these novels in teaching the course “Biology in Science Fiction.”

2) When did you first hear about Second Life and what originally motivated you to check it out?

I think I first read about Second Life in the New York Times and Newsweek. It sounded very similar to technologies that I imagined in my science fiction novels, particularly Brain Plague. I was immediately intrigued by the possibilities for enhancing student understanding of the molecular world.

3) Were you immediately hooked, or was it a gradual process?

When I first started working in SL, it took a while to figure out how things worked.  I received help from several people, including (SL names) Clowey Greenwood at Biome Island; Graham Mills; and Hiro Sheridan.  Graham and Hiro were especially helpful in providing scripts to generate molecules.  I then was able to assign our HHMI-funded programming assistant (Daniel Patterson) to work on scripting the SL models.

4) What inspired the name of your avatar?

“Andra” comes from the andradite stone.  Characters with this name appear in Brain Plague and in my on-line short story “Microbe”.

5) Why did you modify your avatar to look the way she does?

The avatar is developing to be a “Sharer,” one of a population of ocean-adapted humans from my book, A Door into Ocean.  The Sharers have no hair, and they usually wear no clothing; when they visit other worlds, they wear seaweed (Spirogyra is shown).  Sharer skin is colored purple by symbiotic microbes
(breathmicrobes) that store oxygen for swimming underwater.  They have webbed fingers and toes but I haven’t yet figured out how to do those in SL.

6) Can you briefly describe your scientific and educational activities thus far in Second Life?

Given the limited number of building blocks, I am developing exhibits that focus on the most elementary levels of understanding biological molecules.  My aim right now is to figure out dramatic ways to present a molecule to a student, so as to inspire interest and enhance understanding.  Our first model (which Daniel has been editing) is a tripeptide with clickable parts, such as backbone, C and N termini, and R-groups.  When each R-group is clicked, the title flashes, and a copy of the R-group pops out at the viewer’s feet.

7) What do you like the most about Second Life?

I like the potential for experiencing molecular forms in an architectural sense.  I also like the potential for interaction at a distance.  I have already met several great colleagues in SL.  Next week I am doing a presentation on science fiction for Hiro’s class.

What do you like the least about Second Life (wish you could change)?

More prims are needed, before we can do anything with the kinds of molecules my advanced students are exploring, such as the HIV reverse transcriptase complex.  Also the engine is finicky; it works on some machines, not others.  It works on my ancient laptop at home, but not on our state-of-the-art machines at work.

So the Spring 2008 ACS National Meeting & Exposition in New Orleans has come and gone. The ACS Island booth drew quite a crowd and I had a fun time demonstrating the island as well as talking to the carbon-based folks in front of me. I got to meet quite a few of the real life people behind the avatars I’ve been chatting with for months - including Juan Hinestroza, Joanna Scot, Sandy Adams (our pioneer virtual vendor from Sigma-Aldrich), Jean-Claude Bradley and Liz Dorland. For your viewing pleasure I have posted some pics (both 1st and 2nd Life) from the event. Thanks to everyone for participating and helping to make it a success!

I’ve also created an ACS Island flickr site.

My bags are packed and I’m ready for New Orleans! On Saturday (April 5th) I’ll be helping out with the upcoming ACS Member Network. We will be easy to spot at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - look for the ACS staffers with the VERY bright yellow t-shirts and we will happily sign you up for early opt-in.

On Monday night (April 7th) I will be back at the convention center for SciMix held from 8-10 pm (CDT). Come visit me - I’ll be demonstrating ACS Island and making last minute preparations for the ACS Island virtual SciMix event. I’m quite excited about this event as it will be the first ACS-sponsored 3D, virtual poster session.

As promised, here is the list of our diverse, virtual SciMix presenters:

For all those able to attend the ACS Island Grand Opening, thank you!  There were plenty of familiar faces there including Max Chatnoir, Georgianna Blackburn, Hiro Sheridan, Caia Alter, Troy McLuhan and many of my fellow ACS staff members.  In addition, I was pleasantly surprised by all the new faces!  

Amidst all the dancing and imbibing (I used to find “eating” or “drinking” in Second Life quite silly but in this context it made strange sense), I also heard some pretty relevant scientific conversations going on, and I can only hope those who attended were able to make some valuable contacts.

For those of you who missed it - I put together a 30-second video on a terrific site Troy turned me onto called Animoto. Enjoy!

ACS Island Grand Opening

While difficult to overstate the silliness of the image above, I hope it serves to draw your attention to the fact that ACS Island is having a party to:

• celebrate its opening to the public,
• highlight what we’ve been doing and what we hope to accomplish in the months to come, and
• most importantly to meet more of the Second Life scientific community. 

This virtual event occurs on the eve of the real-life ACS National Meeting in New Orleans (April 6-10) - so anticipate a festive atmosphere.

 The ACS Island Grand Opening is on April 2nd, 6 to 8 pm EDT.

I realize I haven’t written in a while - blame it on the pre-National Meeting fever that infects all ACS employees as we prepare to host an event for thousands of people.  Usually, I stay in DC and help with web production but this time I will be in New Orleans.  Specifically, I’ll be at the SciMix poster session held on April 7th from 8-10 pm (CDT) at the Morial Convention Center.  Come visit me - I’ll be the one promoting ACS Island via my laptop and assisting Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley with our virtual SciMix event. The virtual SciMix event will officially open on ACS Island, April 7th at 10 pm (CDT).  I’ll post the presenters and location as we get nearer to the event.

Prior to our Virtual SciMix poster session, please join us for the ACS Island Grand Opening, April 2nd from 6-8 pm (EST).  Although the island has been publicily available for a while now, we’ve not yet had a big party where folks can come hear about our plans and where ACS in-world staff can meet more of the SL science community.  In keeping with the New Orleans flavor, you can expect some fun freebies, excellent music and a down-home casual feel.