In science, questions are phrased in terms of hypotheses. Usually, two hypotheses are developed and then an experiment is designed to see which hypothesis is more likely to be true. For this column, I’m engaging in a little hypothetical slight of hand.
It seems to me that there are many, many sims that have science as their theme. I wondered if SL was particularity attractive to science minded folks. So if it was, then the number of science-related sims would be more than one would expect by random chance. I set out to do a small field study. My two hypotheses were: 1) there are no more science sims in SL than any other theme, and 2) there are significantly more science sims in SL than other themes.
I had initially intended to select a random sample of sims, separate them into categories and then see if science sims were more frequent than other categories.
My plan fell apart when I ran into Yan Lauria, a marine scientist who is very involved in Second Life, he said I was wasting my time as science sims were everywhere. He said, “Ah ha, I recommend 100 sites.”
Actually, he could recommend hundreds of sites. Lauria and his colleagues have developed the One Prim Teleport Hub System to Science Exhibits & Inspiring Places in Second Life. This is a wonderful resource to everything science-related in Second Life. It will teleport you to hundreds of places, all organized in categories and updated on a regular basis. If you want to explore science, this is your resource. The hub itself is a one prim object that is found in many locations in Second Life. The picture shows Deepy checking out the hub at the Abyss Observatory and the link is below. You can even get your own copy and rezz it at your home.
I have wandered many, many sims in Second Life and the science oriented ones are fascinating and challenging. There is no better way to spend your time than to explore these places.
Below are some links to start your Second Life journey into science.
- Abyss Observatory. Museum and aquarium of earth & ocean science, marine life, underwater technology & sense of wonder. Deep submersibles, whales, coral reef, kelp forest, earth simulator (supercomputer), research ship, diving, Jules Verne’s Nautilus, Jacque Cousteau’s research ship Calypso and much more.
Farewell (75, 78, 95) - There is a spreadsheet available with all the locations found in the Teleport Hub for Education
- The Science Circle. The Science Circle is an alliance of scientists, educators and entrepreneurs. They gather many times a month with their student groups in Second Life for field trips and presentations.
The Science Circle (66, 127, 32) - The Second Life web site provides a brief list of selected science locations: http://secondlife.com/destinations/science
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