Sunday, May 6, 2007

Public Exposure to Great Scientists Of Our Time

In light of the recent discussion of the topic of 'Framing Science' on the blogosphere I noticed that the experts in the field, most notably Matthew Nisbet, seemed to give the impression that the success of scientists was in no small way linked to their exposure to the public. That said, I have done a quick survey by way of our friend Google that indicates the number of hits returned after typing in a few notable scientists names - in quotation marks.


59 000 - google hits

Craig Mello

Professor of Molecular Medicine University of Massachusetts Medical School

Co-discoverer of RNA interference technique and biological pathway.

Nobel Prize for Medicine 2006



31 800 - google hits

Casey Luskin

No comment



27 100 - google hits

Motoo Kimura

Evolutionary Geneticist

Introduced the neutral theory of molecular evolution in 1968



26 700 - google hits

Fred Sanger

Determined the amino acid sequence of insulin in 1955 – Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1958

Developed dideoxy chain termination DNA sequencing technique – Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980


16 600 - google hits

John Mattick

Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Queensland

Developed one of the first recombinant DNA-based vaccines

Renowned expert on non-coding RNA


15,900 - google hits

Susumu Ohno

Genetic pioneer

Discovered that the cellular structures known as Barr bodies were in fact inactivated X chromosomes.

Pioneered the idea of evolution by gene duplication

Coined the term “junk DNA”

Wrote the 1971 landmark paper “Genetic implication of karyological instability of malignant somatic cells” describing cancer as a genetic disease and putting forward the two-hit hypothesis of mutation-induced tumors.'


9, 820 - google hits

Sidney Brenner

Discoverer with Francis Crick of frame shift mutations

Advocate of C.elegans as a model system for genetic analysis

Nobel Prize in 2002