"The Letter S" by Donald E. Knuth. An entire paper on the typographical design of the letter S and variants based on type size and other attributes. An elegant paper on a single letter: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF03023051#page-1
It is a sad tragedy that this article is not freely available on the web (at least as I can find).
Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
21–30 of 90 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#22Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#23https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf
(12 pages, quick read)
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#24It made me realise how political science can be and how facts on large issues can be covered up for political reasons.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#25As an economics undergraduate, Paul Krugman's paper on The Theory of Interstellar Trade was a must read, exclusively for its light-heartedness: https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf (12 pages, quick read)
It's really an interesting situation; thinking about how there would no longer be an 'unambiguous' measure of time when we have faster than light travel.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#26Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women[1] and Low-carbohydrate nutrition and metabolism[2]. After spending most of my life obese, even after having bariatric surgery to "correct" it, I found I had to dive into the science on my own to see past the charlatans and the demagogues. These two papers lit the way for me.
1. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=205916
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#27Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#28This paper achieves a wonderful balance between being incredibly important and almost absurdly easy to read and understand.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#29http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0020187
"Those who get first-generation therapies only just in time will in fact be unlikely to live more than 20–30 years more than their parents, because they will spend many frail years with a short remaining life expectancy (i.e., a high risk of imminent death), whereas those only a little younger will never get that frail and will spend rather few years even in biological middle age. Quantitatively, what this means is that if a 10% per year decline of mortality rates at all ages is achieved and sustained indefinitely, then the first 1000-year-old is probably only 5–10 years younger than the first 150-year-old."
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite scholarly papers? Why?
#30As an economics undergraduate, Paul Krugman's paper on The Theory of Interstellar Trade was a must read, exclusively for its light-heartedness: https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf (12 pages, quick read)
Came here to say this. It really is awesome; and I hate Krugman! It's really an interesting situation; thinking about how there would no longer be an 'unambiguous' measure of time when we have faster than light travel.
I try to separate academic Krugman from New York Times Krugman. It helps.