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Virtual Laboratories and Virtual Worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2007

Piet Hut*
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA email: piet@ias.edu
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Abstract

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Since we cannot put stars in a laboratory, astrophysicists had to wait till the invention of computers before becoming laboratory scientists. For half a century now, we have been conducting experiments in our virtual laboratories. However, we ourselves have remained behind the keyboard, with the screen of the monitor separating us from the world we are simulating. Recently, 3D on-line technology, developed first for games but now deployed in virtual worlds like Second Life, is beginning to make it possible for astrophysicists to enter their virtual labs themselves, in virtual form as avatars. This has several advantages, from new possibilities to explore the results of the simulations to a shared presence in a virtual lab with remote collaborators on different continents. I will report my experiences with the use of Qwaq Forums, a virtual world developed by a new company (see http://www.qwaq.com).

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Gaburov, E., Lombardi, J. C., & Portegies Zwart, S. 2007, preprint, http://arxiv.org/abs/0707.3021Google Scholar
Hut, P. 2007, Prog. Theor. Phys. Suppl., 164, 38 (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0610222).Google Scholar