PRESS RELEASE FROM NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
25 February 2009

Contact: Grace Baynes
Corporate Public Relations, Nature Publishing Group
T:+44 (0)20 7014 4063
g.baynes@nature.com

The Elucian Islands, the Second Life home of Nature Publishing Group and Macmillan Publishers, today celebrate the launch of a new Charles Darwin -themed island. The lush re-creation of South America and the Galapagos Islands includes a Second Life-scale replica of HMS Beagle and an interactive, educational game, Notes from the Voyage.

The new island will be opened by Dr Karen James, the Darwin coordinator at the Natural History Museum, London, and Director for Science on the HMS Beagle Project. After cutting a virtual ribbon, Karen will speak about Darwin bicentenary science projects at the Natural History Museum and the HMS Beagle Project.

Players of Notes from the Voyage can relive the highlights of Darwin's famous voyage on HMS Beagle and rediscover his key scientific findings. Completing a series of tasks, avatars brave earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, swim among coral reefs and uncover buried fossils, as well as encounter wildlife including jaguars, sloths and tortoises. The game is free to play and open to anyone in Second Life.

"Our objective for launching this part of the Elucian Islands is to provide engaging, educational content," says Kristen French, head of online community business development at Nature Publishing Group. "The Notes from the Voyage, the Beagle replica and the island provide a fun and interactive way for anyone interested in science to find out more about Darwin, his ideas and his historic voyage."

The HMS Beagle replica is based on the 1832 drawings which first appeared in the 1890 edition of Voyage of the Beagle. The replica includes a top deck with interactive features including firing cannons, ship's bell and sails that move in the wind. The Beagle replica also has one lower deck which offers the chance to explore the confined living and sleeping quarters for over 60 sailors that travelled on the voyage, as well as visit Darwin's own tiny, private cabin.

In celebration of Darwin's bicentenary, over the coming weeks the Elucian Islands will host a special series of talks on topics including the history of Darwin and Darwinism in research today. Confirmed speakers include Professor Jim Secord, University of Cambridge and Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, and Dr Andrew Berry, Harvard University. The island will also feature themed podcasts and short films from Nature Video, including an interview with acclaimed broadcaster David Attenborough about Darwin. All of these events will be free to attend.

Elucian Omega, the new island in the Elucian Islands archipelago, will keep its Darwin theme for much of 2009.

Notes from the Voyage was developed by the Elucian Islands team, with MadPea productions (madpea.com), a Second Life games development company, and freelance developers.

-ENDS-

Useful links:

More details about the launch event are available here:
www.nature.com/secondnature/archive_pages/2009_02_25.html

Elucian Islands website

Second Life links:

Elucian Omega - Darwin-themed island

The Elucian Islands

Instructions are available on how to create an account in Second Life:
www.nature.com/elucianislands/basics.html

More information:

About Nature Publishing Group (NPG):

Elucian Islands is the Second Life home of Nature Publishing Group and its parent company Macmillan Publishers Ltd, unveiled in October 2008. NPG has had a presence in Second Life since 2006 when it launched Second Nature. The islands have been redeveloped and expanded to form The Elucian Islands, including a large central island dedicated to all areas of learning. The Elucian Islands feature conference and meeting facilities, skylabs for virtual experiments, a bookstore and a café. More information: www.nature.com/elucianislands

About Nature Publishing Group (NPG):

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. NPG's flagship title, Nature, was first published in 1869. Other publications include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature Clinical Practice and a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. NPG also provides news content through Nature News. Scientific career information and free job postings are offered on Naturejobs.

NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo and offices in Basingstoke, Boston, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Hong Kong, Madrid, Melbourne, Munich, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul and Washington DC. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.

About Macmillan Publishers Ltd:

With 350 companies operating in over 80 countries, Macmillan Publishers Limited is one of the largest and best known international publishing groups in the world. Its portfolio is very diverse, ranging from consumer fiction and non-fiction books, to education resources, humanities, social sciences and scholarly English language publishing.
For more information, please go to international.macmillan.com