New internet meme: google suggestions for scientists
I’m sure this will become a new internet or blog meme.
Bioemphemera (aka Jessica Palmer) has a post describing the top google suggestions for ‘are scientists’ and ‘do scientists’, shown using a lovely infographic. Do check it out.
When you type in a phrase, google offers the most frequent completions for the phrase. I get slightly different results to Jessica. Atheism ranks higher in ‘are’, but like her, global warming tops evolution in ‘do’. Being lazy, I’m just going to just use cut’npaste from my screen (shame on me…):
As Jessica pointed out on her blog, cures for sexual transmitted diseases must be an eternal question!
Maybe it’s just me, but I find most of the suggested phrases negative, or at least seem strange given that most have obvious answers. It’s bit sad, really. (Quickly, for ‘do scientists’: most don’t, no, yes, yes, no, no, yes, all but a very few don’t and those that get caught get punished, yes, geologists do.) Maybe the largest group of internet users are young kids? It would be appalling to think this reflects most adults’ understanding of scientists.
That said, the question ‘are scientists creative’ is a good one, I think. (Short answer: yes.)
‘Will scientists’ offers one forlorn–and crazy–question:
It reminds me that I must see the movie, which Jennifer Rohn rates as representing science in a good light, despite the nutty premise of the movie: ’[…] Instead, this time, science gets to be the good guy overall […]’.
Getting more specific helps a little:
The fourth one (‘how much to biologists make’) strikes a chord… If you try different branches of science (physicists, zoologists, etc.) you’ll find how much they earn is a common query.
Maybe it’s the recent large earthquakes, but geology comes to the fore in queries starting with ‘how scientists’.
Try out some yourself and let us know what you find. That should keep you busy for a bit!
Footnote
I don’t know if the different results reflect some time having past, or that I’m using Google New Zealand or perhaps both; Jessica Palmer used the American site.
Other lighter–hey, it’s Friday!–articles on Code for life:
Undiluted humour: If Homeopathy Beats Science
Preconceptual science, the dismissal-ness of it all
Craziest research paper titles, awards and authors
The inheritance of face recognition, or should you blame your parents if you can’t recognise faces?
9 Responses to “New internet meme: google suggestions for scientists”
Never really all that happy with ‘believe’ juxtaposed with ‘science/scientists’… yes, yes, nit-picky, I know! But ‘believe’ to me has the same connotations as religious belief ie a matter of personal faith. As I tell my first-year students, I don’t ‘believe’ in evolution, but I do accept it as the best current explanation for life’s diversity. (Sorry, said it was a nit-pick 🙂 )
It won’t become a new meme — because it already is one: http://suggestoftheday.com/
Alison,
I agree. I should have picked up on that!
Repton,
Good link!
I had little doubt that the general thing wasn’t new: it’s too obvious to not have already been done! I actually thinking about science blogs and how memes tend to spread through the science blogs networks; if you follow them—as I do—frequently a topic spreads around the science blogs and this struck me as one that would be likely to do that.
In the light of this ‘belief’ thing, you might be interested in this piece of research: http://www.ejmste.com/v4n3/EURASIA_v4n3_Coll.pdf (I hope the link works!)
Thanks, Alison. Another one for the “to read†pile 🙂
Those following the use of “believe†should read Alison’s latest blog article:
http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/bioblog/2010/03/belief-knowledge-a-plea-about.shtml
It also deals with quite a few of the terms that these google suggestions bring up, putting them in the right context for science.
you’ll find how much they earn is a common query
On this note, Nature is running the 2010 edition of their international survey on salaries:
http://readerpanel.nature.com/wix5/p364743829.aspx
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