There's a new kid on the ever-growing virtual bock of social networking websites. Last year I wrote about how scientists might use these sites to optimize their impact in the scientific community, and a new social networking website geared specifically toward life scientists is set to go live this month.

BioMedExperts.com compiles information about authors whose research papers appear on PubMed, showing the links between those scientists, their coauthors and even their coauthors' coauthors. Bill Kirkland, CEO of Collexis - the company that runs the site - told The Scientist that BioMedExperts.com is distinctive among other social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Nature Networks, and Zoominfo, because it creates "unique knowledge profiles of researchers based on what they've published."

Kirkland said that BioMedExperts has already profiled more than 1.4 million researchers who have published work appearing in PubMed over the last decade and lists more than six million papers from about 6,500 journals.

For each researcher, BioMedExperts lists his or her field, publications and collaborations, among other characteristics of professional life. Collexis' chief marketing officer, Darrell Gunter, gave me a sneak preview of the site and guided me through spider web-like visualizations of connections between coauthors and lists of publications in a particular field of interest.

Over all, the site looks to be a good one for life scientists seeking a greater connection to their community. "I think it's going to allow a lot of folks to open new ground in research," Gunter told The Scientist.

The site will be free and open to the public, and will also offer searches for experts in specific fields and locations.