Science Lovers Web Traffic People who are intrigued with physics are somewhat intrigued with computer science, too, but they are crazy about fashion. Who knew?
Hilary Mason did. At Scientific American’s request, the chief scientist at bitly (www.bitly.com), which shortens URLs for Web users, examined 600 science Web page addresses sent to the company’s servers on August 23 and 24. Then she tracked 6,000 pages people visited next and mapped the connections (below). The results revealed which subjects were strongly and weakly associated. Chemistry was linked to almost no other science. Biology was linked to almost all of them. Health was tied more to business than to food. But why did fashion connect strongly to physics? And why was astronomy linked to genetics? Check out the interactive graphic at www.ScientificAmerican.com .
From: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-links-we-love
Thanks to Klaus Seiersen for the link!
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 
Can’t get a high res. image..you’re going to have to click the link folks!
hi: could you post a better focused pic? This is very fuzzy. Thanks!
somewhat smaller pic, but can make out words. Thanks..
If you go to the Sci Am site, the image is fine. I just couldn’t capture it as an image.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-links-we-love
Thank you! I did do that!
Owen Phillips , be sure to put a fashion node in, for those physics lovers like Koen De Paus 😉
Perhaps this has something to do with physicists looking up how normal people dress? ^^ (although fashion isn’t really normal imo) I probably shouldn’t generalize but many of them look kind of rough and their “out of bed” look tends to be natural instead of styled… :p
I am just an amateur physicist (although I am working on a degree) but I only have one pair of shoes and if you ask me about a pair of pants my first thought would be; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_of_pants – Hooray for not fitting the norm? 😉
Koen De Paus , first of all, anyone knowing more physics than I do qualifies as a physicist by my definition! LOL on the pants ! I was just discussing, with a visiting scientist, how lipids attached to membrane proteins, and we both agreed that they were best described as “jackets”..otherwise, those poor proteins would be “naked”. 🙂
Make it official! Before you know it something that nobody is even able to pronounce will take its place and we will all be worse off for it. ^^ Many of the “science” words in use today have latin roots which means you have to learn its definition when you first come across it. We shouldn’t be afraid to just pick some wellknown English words when it makes it intuitive to understand. I love the pants and I love the jacket! :p
Hmz, I am beginning to sound like a fashion person afterall. 😉
Actually, it’s very true. I’m into fashion. I often look for Babylon 5 suits (Captain/President John Sheridan set the trend), Doctor Who’s bow tie and coat, and binary watches. I believe most engineers and scientists influence the nerd chic trend.
Now, why is everybody so disconnected with Chemistry? Don’t you have a kitchen at home? It’s pretty much a chem lab!
Shah Auckburaully , where d’you get your cape? 🙂
Comic book store. But I don’t wear a cape anymore. I’m The Flash. LOL.
Anyhow, say an artist releases a piece of art or fashion aka Superman’s cape. A group of nerds/most likely scientists/engineers buy the capes and influence their peers. Scientists are the primary influences in fashion (esp. nerd chic). We defined the hipster look, BTW. Somehow, knowing that we are linked to fashion makes us less cool. Don’t you think so?
Flash is way cooler because of this: Queen – Flash
I would agree that scientists/engineers were fashionably cool long before it became hip to be nerdy chic but that would not be cool.
I say that this correlates with the “palatibility” or “relevance” or “ease of understanding” of a science. Biology is fairly easy to relate to and fairly ubiquitous. As a biologist researcher, I am constantly looking up other sciences to make correlations, which is consistent with the findings. Chemistry is closely associated with physics and biology, however, the details of chemistry need not be related to any other science but itself, which also is consistent with the data. Also, being in the pharma/health care business, I can also attest that my next most visited domain after the sciences is indeed business, again correlating with the chart. Physics, I posit, is a devilishly complex math oriented science that needs nothing other than itself to survive. Further, I posit, it is a dastardly boring subject to read anything about (I dare you to read anything from Physics Letters A or B and live to tell about it) and it occurs to me that anybody that ventures to a physics site must necessarily soon visit a suitably vapid site, say about fashion, to purge the nth dimensional strings that clog up your mind.. Just my opinion… No offense meant at all!
Haha, tox med , I’m going to let those physicists defend themselves (if they can)!
http://images.iop.org/objects/phw/news/14/8/22/budget1.jpg
I rest my case. :p
I love how the pics name is “budget”… We totally get the coolest toys to play with. ^^
Nice color coordination with the physics dude’s blue jeans/white lab coat and the cat walk. Also, note the yellow accessory ID ribbon coordinates with the spokes of the thingummyjig 😉
Lol; I can feel it… This fashion thing is gonna start haunting physicists for the rest of time. ^^
Cheryl Ann Fillekes, You never know on the internet and this sure sounds like a joke but I am guessing you are serious? It actually sounds plausible. You’ve given me an idea for a post but I am going to save it for ScienceSunday. :p
Koen De Paus , I can only await Sunday with bated breath 😉 Cheryl Ann Fillekes , must add those to my collection of radiation badge, ring, geeky plastic glasses and doubled purple gloves next time I play with my collection of 3H, 45Ca or 22Na.
Haven’t you heard? You can just use healing chi energy necklaces for that. :p
I hate to keep you all waiting so… It’s not that related but when people were working on the atom bomb, they didn’t know all that much about radiation and seriously underestimated its effects. They thought that wearing lead aprons would keep them safe… My post is going to be about two forgotten physicists who died during the Manhattan Project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_K._Daghlian,_Jr. & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin
Both incidents, a year apart, involved the very same 6.2 kg delta phase plutonium bomb core which is now known as the demon core… Their mistakes were mindbogglingly silly but I guess they were a product of the time.
good
traffic jam