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| Photo courtesy of Doug Dechow |
Physics talk 2.0
From his California office, Doug Dechow stretched out on a grassy hill and listened to a particle physics lecture taking place in Chicago.
He hadn't found an often-theorized parallel universe, but a real virtual one.
In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, Adler Planetarium had added an extra seating option for a lecture by Fermilab physicist Herman White.
The talk was broadcast live over projection screens on Astronomy 2009 Island in Second Life, the online world that simulates buildings, places, and people interacting as they would in real life. Dechow's virtual self, or avatar, was in the island's virtual audience as White explained the search for the Higgs boson, the use of antimatter in medical diagnostic tools, and how particle accelerators are used to study the basic components of matter.
Avatars from across the nation e-mailed questions to White and shared instant-messaged comments as easily as if they were sitting side by side.
"Since we started using Astronomy 2009 Island, the reach of our lecture attendance has increased 25 percent," says Nancy Ross Dribin, director of interactive media at Adler.
White started giving talks to flesh-and-blood audiences nearly three decades ago. He still does that, but you can also catch his talks on YouTube, read about them in 140-word Tweets, find Facebook pages related to the scientists and experiments he talks about, and follow links to his talks from various blogs.
And now the physicist from Illinois has been instantaneously brought face to face–sort of–with Dechow, a librarian from Chapman University in California.
Tia Jones
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