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Robert Rohde @rarohde
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THREAD) How famous do you have to be to get a place in @Wikipedia?

Sometimes, you have to win a Nobel Prize.

This is a thread looking at all the scientists who have been added to Wikipedia since 2007, but only after having been awarded a #NobelPrize. 1/
The English Wikipedia is an amazing resource, but its coverage of scientists can be a bit haphazard and at times misses many important figures.

(This is in contrast to athletes, who are pretty much guaranteed to have an article if they have ever appeared professionally.) 2/
This particular thread was inspired by Professor Donna Strickland, one of this year's Physics Nobel Laureates. At the time she won the Nobel, she not only didn't have an article in Wikipedia, but previously she had a proposed article rejected. 3/
qz.com/1410909/wikipe…
Prof. Strickland shared the 2018 Physics prize for pioneering work in the development of ultrafast pulsed lasers capable of reaching power levels orders of magnitude higher than previous systems. She's also the first female Physics winner since 1963. 4/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Str…
Of the 30 Physics Nobel Laureates since 2007, 2 others share the distinction of not having had a Wikipedia page before their Nobel Prize, Takaaki Kajita in 2015 and Hiroshi Amano in 2014. 5/
Professor Hiroshi Amano shared the Nobel Prize for the invention of blue light emitting diodes. His work led the way for the development of full color LED displays and high-efficiency white LED lamps that are now ubiquitous. 6/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_A…
Professor Takaaki Kajita shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery of neutrino oscillations and proving that neutrinos have mass. 7/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takaaki_K…
Turning to Chemistry, 31 people have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry since 2007. Of these, 6(!) were awarded the Prize prior to having had a Wikipedia article created for them. 8/
Included in this group is Professor George Smith who shared this year's Chemistry Prize for developing phage displays, an analytic technique for studying protein interactions. Wikipedia still has no photo of Prof. Smith. 9/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sm…
Professor Jacques Dubochet shared the 2017 Chemistry Nobel for developing the techniques of cryo-electron microscopy, allowing individual molecules to be imaged and characterized. 10/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_D…
Professor Eric Betzig shared the 2014 Nobel Prize for developing super-resolved fluorescent microscopy, allowing techniques for optical microscopy to achieve greater resolution than previously thought possible. 11/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Betz…
Professor Thomas A. Steitz shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for helping discover the structure and mechanisms by which the ribosome turns mRNA into proteins. 12/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A.…
Professor Martin Chalfie shared 2008 Nobel Prize for the discovery and development of green fluorescent protein, a now ubiquitous tool for biological research. 13/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Ch…
Professor Osamu Shimomura also shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for green fluorescent protein. 14/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Shi…
Turning to the prizes in Physiology or Medicine, 30 people have shared a prize in this category since 2007. Of these, there are 3 more scientists who received the honor of a Nobel before having anyone add their biography to Wikipedia. 15/
Professor Satoshi Ōmura shared the 2015 Nobel for isolating 480 new compounds and 25 pharmaceuticals extracted from microorganisms, including the antiparasite drug avermectin. 16/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_%…
Dr. William C. Campbell also shared the 2015 Nobel for the development of avermectin and ivermectin, drugs that drastically reduced the harm caused parasitic diseases including river blindness and elephantiasis. 17/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C…
Lastly, Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for discovering HIV and helping prove its connection to causing AIDS. 18/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A…
All 12 of these distinguished scientists had somehow been overlooked by the world's largest encyclopedia until after the Swedes got involved and awarded them a Nobel Prize. Obviously, Wikipedia still has room to improve its coverage and recognition of scientists. 19/19
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At the end of another year, I am going to take a moment to again reflect on my 10 most popular (i.e. retweeted) tweets of 2018.

#1 and my most popular tweet ever was an animation helping to connect California wildfires to climate change:
My 2nd most retweeted tweet of 2018 was a map from Climate Reanalyzer showing an exceptional surge of warmth that had brought above freezing air to the North Pole in the middle of Arctic winter, more than 30C warmer than normal for that time of year:
My 3rd most retweeted tweet of 2018 was my animated map showing Berkeley Earth's history of climate change from 1850 to 2017:
Read 13 tweets
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1/ In the reporting on the National Climate Assessment, some articles (such as this by @CNN) have focused on the far end of the risk distribution and say that "the economy could lose ... more than 10% of its GDP" by 2100.

I'd like to push back a little.

edition.cnn.com/2018/11/23/hea…
2/ The "10% of GDP" claim comes from this figure in Chapter 29: nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/29/

It compares the increase in global mean temperature to the projected US economic losses at 2100.
3/ So yes, the top end of the figure does exceed 10%.

However, the high estimate comes from RCP8.5 (red dots), an emissions scenario which assumes extremely aggressive growth of CO2 emissions.

While possible, I certainly wouldn't regard RCP8.5 as a likely future.
Read 12 tweets
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This year, like 2017, California has had an unusually hot & dry fire season. Most of the largest and most destructive wildfires in CA history have happened under such conditions. Climate change is making this situation worse.

#CaliforniaFires #ClimateChange
I also created an animated version which helps to emphasize how weather conditions during California's fire season have evolved over time. #CaliforniaFires #ClimateChange
Weather data for these images is taken from @NOAA's Climate at a Glance Data Explorer, e.g. ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/statewide/….

Information on the ranking of wildfires comes from @CAL_FIRE.
Read 5 tweets

Related threads

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2nd #Thread of responses from women in aerodynamics to the question, 'what do you currently see as being the major obstacle to women entering your field?'

Responses incl gender career stereotypes from an early age, lack of self-esteem and lack of female role models #WomeninSTEM
1. "I think that there is not enough awareness of female role-models in my field. There need to be more initiatives that allow young women to connect with female role-models so that they can be inspired and motivated to follow in their footsteps."
2. "Discouragement from teachers in high school to pursue a STEM career and an unwelcoming atmosphere in technical universities."
Read 86 tweets
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When you win the Nobel Prize and it means you have to do photo ops with the president’s completely unqualified presidential advisor slash daughter.
They do not look excited
Someone wishes they didn’t win their Nobel
Read 3 tweets
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#Alberta has an 8.2% unemployment rate. Massively uncomfortable question: What do you think the rate would be if #Alberta was a U-S state? The correct answer is full employment. Everyone knows how much I love Canada and #Alberta So it breaks my Cdn heart to think our federal
system is so incompetent,unflexible & ideologically biased that we should have to ask uncomfortable questions like this. Look at the low unemployment numbers in U-S states that have far fewer advantages and assets than #Alberta and you don't have to be a #Nobel prize winner in
Economics to know that #Alberta would be the superstar, the Connor McDavid of state economies if the government and courts weren't albatrosses around the necks of #Albertans I always want #Alberta to be part of Canada.But how I could blame #Albertans looking at 8.2% unemployment
Read 8 tweets
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A woman won the Nobel Prize in Physics?!?!?!? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Right. Time to learn about Donna Strickland, the 3rd woman to EVER be awarded the prize. cbc.ca/news/technolog…
I still think the Nobel Prizes (particularly for physics) are sexist garbage with this whole “50 years between each woman” trend they’ve got going on, but I’ll take learning a new name, dammit.

& she’s not even a variant of Maria!!!
I’m not covering the Nobel Prizes, but if any of my women scicomm peeps are doing explainers on chirped pulse amplification of lasers, please ping so I can boost your work. 💥
Read 21 tweets
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It's #IWD2018, so we thought we should highlight some of the incredible #WomeninSTEM we've written about recently.

First up, Melanie @SanfordLab –gardener & gymnast with a treadmill desk:

chemistryworld.com/opinion/im-a-b… 1/10
Next, Lesley Yellowlees, former president of @RoySocChem, whose favourite place to think is the shower, loves Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and says a @TakeThat gig was 'the most uplifting thing I’d ever seen'

#IWD2018

chemistryworld.com/opinion/lesley… 2/10
Geri Richmond, former president of @AAAS, enjoys urban farming and track & field, and is a big fan of @PinkMartiniBand

#IWD2018

chemistryworld.com/culture/i-was-… 3/10
Read 10 tweets
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ELIZABETH BESSIE COLEMAN
First African American female pilot and First African American holder of an international pilot license #WomensHistoryMonth #Day1
MAE C. JEMISON
First African-American female astronaut & First African-American woman in space. #WomensHistoryMonth #Day2
MAYA ANGELOU
Actor, writer, director, producer, author, poet, and civil rights activist. #WomensHistoryMonth #Day3
Read 18 tweets

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