FOLSOM, California, May 8 /PRNewswire/ -- ION Publications LLC, publisher of ScientificBlogging.com ( http://www.ScientificBlogging.com), The world's premier online science community, today announced its feature set for version 2.0 and partnerships with LiveScience.com (http://www.livescience.com/)and Magnify.net (http://www.magnify.net/).

ScientificBlogging.com (http://www.ScientificBlogging.com) is an online science community where world-class scientists, professionals and science enthusiasts alike contribute to writing science articles and blogs while facilitating discussions about physical science, earth science, biology, medicine, neuroscience and culture. The 25 featured writers include best-selling science authors as well as academics who are leading cutting-edge research in their respective fields while total membership includes people from all areas of science academia and the private sector.

    
    - Enhanced Profile customization will allow more individuality
      for writers
    - Open access will allow tens of thousands of science members to
      participate
    - Chat, forums, email and onsite collaboration
    - New front page will make more articles available to readers
    - An integrated video platform increases the breadth of the science
      content
    - Going live July 2008

"The new features along with the ground-up optimization we have done will allow us to continue to grow as a community but maintain a speedy interface and allow readers to get to content quickly," says Hank Campbell, publisher of ScientificBlogging.com.

Along with new features the company has new partnerships. LiveScience.com , part of the Imaginova network, will be bringing ScientificBlogging.com articles directly to their audience with a syndication agreement for select features.

"Our current partnership allows the science enthusiasts who visit Scientific Blogging to also have direct access to premium original content from LiveScience, while the intellectually curious LiveScience audience was able to learn more about the latest scientific breakthroughs directly from the scientists and researchers themselves," says Campbell. "This new agreement takes that a step further and some of our articles will appear directly on LiveScience.com as part of their syndication worldwide."

Announced as part of the feature set for version 2.0, video capability is currently live on the site in test mode. To insure that the Scientific Blogging audience has the best possible experience, Scientific Blogging teamed up with Magnify.net to create video.scientificblogging.com (http://video.scientificblogging.com/). Users enjoying an article will now have access to keyword-specific related articles and also video presentations on that topic hosted on that video page. Authors will also be able to use it to embed their own videos for articles, search for relevant video content to include in their articles or create custom video using the webcam option.

"Our writers and our audience are definitely thought leaders and want cutting edge capability," said Campbell, "Magnify is definitely the future of video integration and we're thrilled they were able to do this for us. They went above and beyond to make this a terrific asset for our audience."

"We're excited to power video for ScientificBlogging.com ( http://www.ScientificBlogging.com)" said Steve Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify.net. "As one of the top science sites on the Internet, ScientificBlogging.com (http://www.ScientificBlogging.com) has done an incredible job of being at the forefront of breaking science news. Now, with Magnify's video platform, Scientific Blogging's writers will be able to complement their text posts with rich video content."

About ION Publications

ION Publications, publisher of ScientificBlogging.com, is the world's largest online science community and among the top science sites on the Internet. Members and writers can create feature articles, chat, collaborate, interact, use the forums or host their own science blogs and get paid to do it. Founded in 2006, ION Publications is privately held and based in Folsom, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.ScientificBlogging.com.

About Imaginova

Imaginova is a leading digital media and commerce company and the preeminent online destination for the Intellectually Curious. The Imaginova Network of media properties, including LiveScience.com, Space.com, Aviation.com, Newsarama.com and Space News (SpaceNews.com), delivers engaging and entertaining editorial and multimedia content to a robust community of curious and well-informed users. Imaginova's original content is syndicated through major online portals and licensed by educational publishers and institutions. Imaginova is also the premier source of innovative consumer and educational products available at OrionTelescopes.com, LiveScienceStore.com, and StarryNightStore.com. Founded in 1999, Imaginova Corp. is privately held and based in New York City, with offices and news bureaus in Virginia, California, Toronto and Paris. For more information, please visit http://www.Imaginova.com.

About Magnify.net

Magnify hosts more than 35,000 video channels for its Enterprise, Pro and Free customers. Magnify's video platform allows websites to easily add custom branded video channels to their existing sites. Please visit Magnify.net (http://www.magnify.net/) for more information on custom video solutions for websites.