The top 100 papers The discovery of high-temperature superconductors, the determination of DNA’s double-helix structure, the first observations that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating — all of these breakthroughs won Nobel prizes and international acclaim. Yet none of the papers that announced them comes anywhere close to ranking among the 100 most highly cited papers of all time. Citations, in which one paper refers to earlier works, are the standard means by which authors acknowledge the source of their methods, ideas and findings, and are often used as a rough measure of a paper’s importance. Fifty years ago, Eugene Garfield published the Science Citation Index (SCI), the first systematic effort to track citations in the scientific literature. To mark the anniversary, Nature asked Thomson Reuters, which now owns the SCI, to list the 100 most highly cited papers of all time. (See the full list at Web of Science Top 100.xls or the interactive graphic, below.) Biological techniques Phylogenetics
Why Isn't the Sky Blue? What is the color of honey, and "faces pale with fear"? If you're Homer--one of the most influential poets in human history--that color is green. And the sea is "wine-dark," just like oxen...though sheep are violet. Which all sounds...well, really off. Producer Tim Howard introduces us to linguist Guy Deutscher, and the story of William Gladstone (a British Prime Minister back in the 1800s, and a huge Homer-ophile). Read more: Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages Homer, The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation
What Scientists Really Do by Priyamvada Natarajan Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything by Philip Ball University of Chicago Press, 465 pp., $35.00 Ignorance: How It Drives Science by Stuart Firestein Oxford University Press, 195 pp., $21.95 Rien ne dure que le provisoire. —French proverb The current misuse of scientific findings can be tragic. One of the expert geologists at the assessment meeting, Enzo Boschi, drew attention to this scientific uncertainty and noted that while a large earthquake was “unlikely,” the possibility could not be excluded. When the jolt of a quake woke up his two teenage children, a local resident, Giustino Parisse, trusting the report he had heard earlier on TV, calmed them down and put them back to sleep. Closer to home, on June 12, 2012, the North Carolina Senate passed a law that effectively prohibited the use of any data about sea-level changes in determining coastal policy in the state. This article is available to subscribers only. Print Subscription — $74.95 Online Subscription — $69.00
The top ten myths about evolution For those of you who are not familiar Cameron Smith's The Top Ten Myths About Evolution, it is an excellent book. Like the best works of popular science, it guides the reader without expecting them to already know anything about the subject. While its main purpose is to rebut the most popular misconceptions about the theory of evolution, it also teaches the science needed to fill the void that abandoning creationism leaves. In this post, I am going to provide my own rebuttals to Cameron's "top ten myths." 1: Survival of the fittest. A common misunderstanding about evolution is that "survival of the fittest" means only the strong and ruthless survive. It should also be noted that many of the best strategies for passing on ones genes often have nothing to do with strength or ruthlessness. 2: Its just a theory A common objection made to evolution is that the science must be still out because it is "only a theory." 3: The ladder of progress 4: The missing link 5: Evolution is random Conclusion
How Real-Life Science Influenced Guardians of the Galaxy | Underwire Marvel Studios Of all the people who are partially responsible for Friday’s much-anticipated Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy—studio head Kevin Feige, co-stars Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, Jack Kirby and Jim Starlin for pioneering Marvel’s “cosmic” stories—the most surprising one might be scientist Richard Feynman. Not that the celebrated physicist known for his work in the fields of quantum mechanics and nanotechnology contributed directly to the movie in any way (having died in 1988, that would’ve been unlikely), but without Feynman, GotG screenwriter Nicole Perlman might never have gotten involved in writing in the first place. “Science was my gateway drug,” Perlman says, “so I tried to see if I could apply my interest in science stories to actual science—and discovered that the nitty gritty is a lot less exciting than the stories.” Nicole Perlman. Ben Rasmussen/WIRED As a teenager, Perlman idolized the physicist the way some of her peers admired Tiger Beat cover boys.
The Renaissance Mathematicus | Just another WordPress.com weblog Anthropocene: The human age Illustration by Jessica Fortner Almost all the dinosaurs have vanished from the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. The fossil hall is now mostly empty and painted in deep shadows as palaeobiologist Scott Wing wanders through the cavernous room. Wing is part of a team carrying out a radical, US$45-million redesign of the exhibition space, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. “We want to help people imagine their role in the world, which is maybe more important than many of them realize,” says Wing. Simon Lewis discusses the best candidate dates to define the beginning of the Anthropocene This provocative exhibit will focus on the Anthropocene — the slice of Earth's history during which people have become a major geological force. Given the magnitude of these changes, many researchers propose that the Anthropocene represents a new division of geological time. The greeting was a tad premature. Written in stone Walker's work sits at the top of the timescale.
How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists « Violent metaphors Update (1/3/18) I’ve been overwhelmed with requests for the shorter guide, and the email address below no longer works. So I’ve uploaded a copy of the guide for anyone to download and share here: How to read and understand a scientific article. Please feel free to use it however you wish (although I’d appreciate being credited as the author). I apologize to everyone who emailed me and didn’t get a response! If you would like to let me know who you are and what you’re using it for in the comments below, I’d love to hear! Update (8/30/14): I’ve written a shorter version of this guide for teachers to hand out to their classes. Last week’s post (The truth about vaccinations: Your physician knows more than the University of Google) sparked a very lively discussion, with comments from several people trying to persuade me (and the other readers) that their paper disproved everything that I’d been saying. It’s not just a fun academic problem. “Be skeptical. What constitutes enough proof? 1. 2.