A tour around the testis: Education in Second Life

DrDoug Pennell's real life avatar works at Ohio State University, looking at reproductive organs: that's testes and ovaries in case you are in any doubt. He has spent several months (and in the interests of disclosure some money taking classes with me, and a bit of friendly mentoring too) building a tour of a testis in Second Life. Whilst this aimed at his students, it makes a fascinating trip in and of itself, and displays some of the more wonderful things that can be achieved in Second Life with some time and effort.

Pictured above, the tour takes you through the base of the sertoli cells in a "Sertoli Cell Only" sufferer, where there are no developing sperm. After the break there are a couple more photos of various parts of the tour.

The plan is to develop a similar model of the ovary, Dr. Danforth's main subject of research over the next little while as well. Once you have finished the tour, you can even take a quiz to discover how much you have learnt – all for fun and only 11 questions.

If you feel inspired to visit, please tour the testis from this slurl.