Researchers at universities and government agencies are using virtual worlds such as Second Life for scientific and sociological experiments. An article in Linux Insider details the many ways that researchers are utilizing these virtual environments, including emergency response planning.
Children’s Memorial hospital in Chicago, for example, has built a three-dimensional hospital, complete with the exact streets and scenery of Lincoln Park, to practice mock emergency drills for real-life responses. This would be nearly impossible for the hospital safety and emergency staff to simulate in real life and the virtual model allows for unlimited possible scenarios at a very low cost to help with future emergency planning
