Image courtesy Nature

Now that you have read our stories about astronomy and distributed computing, do you find yourself wanting to know more?

For that matter, have you generally wanted to followup, get the contact details of an author or interviewee, comment on stories, give feedback, pick your colleagues’ brains, or post questions about those nagging little things you’ve always wondered about?

Or simply have a ‘virtual water cooler’ to hang around and talk shop?

Now you can do all that, and more.

International Science Grid This Week now has an electronic “forum” on Nature Networks, the online scientific community moderated by the journal Nature. It’s non-profit and non-proprietary. Anyone can read a post; just go to the Nature Networks site and click on the forum entitled “iSGTW: grid computing, and more . . . ”

If you decide you want to add your own posts, that’s easy to do — just be sure to register first. (Details about joining Nature Networks and the iSGTW forum at the Nature Networks FAQ.) And then you, too, can tell about your latest plans, express your feelings about the latest developments in computing, and cite your observations about a topic in our articles. You can also bring up provocative questions, such as:

•“Is the cloud really ‘just a grid with a business model?’ ”

• “Why has magnetic tape hung around so long in high-throughput and high-performance computing?” 

• “What is the next killer app in computing?”

• “What EXACTLY was in that traditional Catalan drink they set on fire and served us after dinner that night at the computing conference in Barcelona, and why did my head hurt the next morning? I know it had coffee and rum . . . ”

And don’t forget that iSGTW has a presence on Facebook too!