Science, Culture And The Google Ngram Viewer

By AJITA KAMAL - NIRMUKTA
Added: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:38:35 UTC

Thanks to Bala for the link.

Scientific study of cultural trends involves years of training and preparation, followed by a few additional years of data compilation, ending with spending a major chunk of one’s life analyzing all that data collected.

With Google’s new Ngram Viewer application you can become a scientific researcher on cultural trends without having to leave your room!

Here’s how it works. Google has archived tons of books in a few different languages, going back a few centuries. This archival material can be subjected to Google’s search algorithms, given various criteria. The result is that this vast database of information can be scanned for specific words, and this information presented in useful graphical comparisons.

Comparison of books containing the word "science" vs those containing "religion".

Richard Dawkins - RichardDawkins.net Comments

Rats Manipulated to be Attracted to Cats

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- - The Royal Society Comments

Research suggesting that grey parrots can reason about cause and effect from audio cues alone- a skill that monkeys and dogs lack- is presented in Proceedings of the Royal Society B today.

Modern culture emerged in Africa 20,000...

Thomas H. Maugh II - LA Times Comments

Modern culture emerged in southern Africa at least 44,000 years ago, more than 20,000 years earlier than anthropologists had previously believed

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Michael Balter - Science Comments

Studies to examine how children learn tasks that are not obvious and can even be counterintuitive.

Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling...

Ker Than - National Geographic News Comments

After a poacher's snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas worked together Tuesday to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home