Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists • Hacker News Board

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#21

Post by twanvl » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

hackinthebochs wrote: post #20

pyb wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The fact that they received a Nobel doesn't mean they were notable before they received the Nobel." It does, pretty much by definition of a Nobel prize.

Notable in this context meaning notable to the general public. But wikipedia isn't for original research, and so it needs some external institution to validate notability to the general public. A Nobel prize is one such mechanism.

Wikipedia is not just for the general public, many pages go into a lot of detail, and to people who understand the details of certain subfields of chemistry, these people might be well-known. I'm not a chemist, so I wouldn't know in this case.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#22

Post by pradn » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #15

This has not been a good Nobel year for Wikipedia. First, yesterday, we find that Physics winner Donna Strickland did not have a page. She had one four years ago briefly, but it had been quickly deleted on notability grounds. And now today we get a Chemistry winner, George P. Smith, who also did not have a page--not even an old deleted page. His first page was created this morning after the Prize was announced. This…

It is possible that they didn't meet the notability criteria before winning the prize. Not everyone who wins was already famous, even in their field.

Wikipedia is volunteer-edited. You can write articles for scientists too!

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#23

Post by mikepurvis » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

pradn wrote: post #22

tzs wrote: post #15

This has not been a good Nobel year for Wikipedia. First, yesterday, we find that Physics winner Donna Strickland did not have a page. She had one four years ago briefly, but it had been quickly deleted on notability grounds. And now today we get a Chemistry winner, George P. Smith, who also did not have a page--not even an old deleted page. His first page was created this morning after the Prize was announced. This…

It is possible that they didn't meet the notability criteria before winning the prize. Not everyone who wins was already famous, even in their field. Wikipedia is volunteer-edited. You can write articles for scientists too!

Right, and then immediately have some editor come along and delete them for not being notable enough. No thanks.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#24

Post by sctb » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

Numberwang wrote: post #2

Evolution? That has not even been proven yet.

We've asked you many times to please follow the guidelines, so we've banned the account.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#25

Post by chriskanan » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

hackinthebochs wrote: post #17

tzs wrote: post #15

This has not been a good Nobel year for Wikipedia. First, yesterday, we find that Physics winner Donna Strickland did not have a page. She had one four years ago briefly, but it had been quickly deleted on notability grounds. And now today we get a Chemistry winner, George P. Smith, who also did not have a page--not even an old deleted page. His first page was created this morning after the Prize was announced. This…

I don't see what the problem is. Should every published scientist have a wikipedia page? It's not obvious that they should, not every scientist is notable to the general public. The fact that they received a Nobel doesn't mean they were notable before they received the Nobel.

I don't disagree, but it does seem like if someone discovers something Nobel worthy that the discovery itself or the paper should have been cited within Wikipedia somewhere.

That said, Prof. Arnold definitely deserved a Wikipedia page before winning the Nobel: she had trained multiple students that had Wikipedia pages, won numerous awards, been elected to all three National Academies, did seminal work using DE, and has had many other research accomplishments.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#26

Post by danggg » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 6:33 PM UTC

Important bit: a woman won it. You can imagine how many cocks she had to take to get there. You can see how little merits she has, jeez.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#27

Post by wolfgke » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 6:56 PM UTC

hackinthebochs wrote: post #17

tzs wrote: post #15

This has not been a good Nobel year for Wikipedia. First, yesterday, we find that Physics winner Donna Strickland did not have a page. She had one four years ago briefly, but it had been quickly deleted on notability grounds. And now today we get a Chemistry winner, George P. Smith, who also did not have a page--not even an old deleted page. His first page was created this morning after the Prize was announced. This…

I don't see what the problem is. Should every published scientist have a wikipedia page? It's not obvious that they should, not every scientist is notable to the general public. The fact that they received a Nobel doesn't mean they were notable before they received the Nobel.

> Should every published scientist have a wikipedia page? It's not obvious that they should, not every scientist is notable to the general public.

To me it rather shows what a bad judgement the Wikipedia moderators have on notability.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#28

Post by andrepd » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

Numberwang wrote: post #14

fifnir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely inciting, but so is spewing anti-scientific and ignorant one-liners

You need to behave yourself and love Material Design, or the mods will not be happy with you.

What are you on about? Please, knock it off or remove yourself from this website.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#29

Post by chrisbrandow » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 7:38 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #15

This has not been a good Nobel year for Wikipedia. First, yesterday, we find that Physics winner Donna Strickland did not have a page. She had one four years ago briefly, but it had been quickly deleted on notability grounds. And now today we get a Chemistry winner, George P. Smith, who also did not have a page--not even an old deleted page. His first page was created this morning after the Prize was announced. This…

It would be worthwhile to go back for the last 5 years of chemistry/physics nobels and see how many winners had a Wikipedia page. Maybe this has been done, but I haven’t seen it.

If had to guess, I bet it’s not uncommon to not be in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not as much of interest to most in the academic research environment and as noted by others, these folks are often not well known outside their specialized disciplines.

Re: Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Evolutionary Scientists

#30

Post by simonh » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 7:46 PM UTC

wolfgke wrote: post #27

hackinthebochs wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see what the problem is. Should every published scientist have a wikipedia page? It's not obvious that they should, not every scientist is notable to the general public. The fact that they received a Nobel doesn't mean they were notable before they received the Nobel.

> Should every published scientist have a wikipedia page? It's not obvious that they should, not every scientist is notable to the general public. To me it rather shows what a bad judgement the Wikipedia moderators have on notability.

I really don’t think that is fair. Wikipedia mods aren’t expected to be experts on research chemistry or theoretical physics. As had already been noted before you commented, in many cases, including the ones cited above, the researchers in question were credited in the pages on the research. I think that’s reasonable for a resource intended for a general rather than specialist audience.