YouTube has revolutionized the Web, with video content from the serious to the mundane. Can science co-opt this latest grassroots craze in an attempt to reach the researchers of tomorrow? On Nautilus, the Nature Publishing Group blog for past, present and future authors, a group of biological-science professors from the National University of Singapore make the intriguing suggestion of outreach via YouTube (http://blogs.nature.com/nautilus/2007/04/science_outreach_by_online_vid.html).

YouTube is a free website containing more than 70 million video clips. It's viewed monthly by around 20 million people. Videos can be tagged with key words by the user who uploads them, and hyperlinked to other websites, such as authenticated science information sites. Hence, argue the professors, YouTube is an ideal venue for scientists to contribute expert opinions and persuasive videos to an audience “that primarily consists of impressionable 12- to 17-year-olds”. They provide a link in their Nautilus post to a dramatic example: a video documenting deforestation within Lore Lindu National Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia.