There are more and more community sites dedicated to scientists, so they have to come up with at least one unique feature that may make them more useful than the other similar services. Here is a good example, Epernicus, that was created by researchers at Harvard and MIT:

Epernicus is a professional networking platform for health and life scientists. Our goal is to connect researchers with their real world scientific networks, enabling them to find the resources they need to advance their work. We believe that having a useful network isn’t necessarily about adding as many contacts as possible. In fact, most scientists already have a large network based on their current institution and their prior research advisors. The bigger challenge is tapping this network to find the right people with the right expertise at the right time. That’s why we created Epernicus.

The reason I really liked it was the BenchQ option where you can contact the whole community easily and fast:

• Send questions to your scientific network
• Reach your department with one click
• New questions & responses appear instantly
• Click on the questions that interest you
• Participate on your own schedule

Give it a try and let us know whether you like it.

Further reading:

• Community Sites for Scientists and Physicians: The List
• iMedix: find and share health information
• MyOpenCare: A Social Utility for Healthcare
• My Medical Career: Serving Medical Students
• Blogabetes: Bloggers about Diabetes!
• SciLink: Science Connected
• SocialMD - Social Network for Physicians
• Digg-like site for physicians and scientists
• Our Health Circle: a new patient community
• TuDiabetes: hardcore web 2.0 for people touched by diabetes
• MyBioWizard: Your homepage for medical and life science information
• DoctorsHangout.com: Real Social Network