Places & Spaces

Places & Spaces: Mapping Science

Contact | Where | When | What | Lectures and Events | Acknowledgements | Reading List | Press

Are you interested in seeing science from above? Curious to see what impact one single person or invention can have? Keen to find pockets of innovation? Desperate for better tools to manage the information flood? Or are you simply fascinated by maps? Then visit the Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibit at on display at the NRC, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April 3rd - June 27th, 2008.

The exhibit aims to demonstrate the power of maps to navigate and make sense of physical places and abstract topic spaces. The display at NRC features the first three of ten iterations of the Places & Spaces exhibit entitled 'The Power of Maps', 'The Power of Reference Systems', and 'The Power of Forecasts'. Also shown are Illuminated Diagram displays by W. Bradford Paley, Kevin Boyack, John Burgoon, Peter Kennard, and Richard Klavans and Worldprocessor globes by Ingo Günther, and hands-on science maps for kids with paintings by Fileve Palmer.

Scientists will be stimulated, students and teachers encouraged, and the general public fascinated by this multi-layered accessible approach to the worlds of modern scientific thought.

CONTACT:
Exhibit Curators:
Dr. Katy Börner <katy@indiana.edu> and Elisha Hardy <efhardy@gmail.com>,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Exhibit Advisor:
Jamie Gregoire <Jamie.Gregoire@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca>

WHERE:
National Research Council -
Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information
South Foyer of M-55 Building
1200 Montreal Road
Ottawa, ON
Canada

WHEN: April 3rd - June 27th, 2008
See Special Events for information about talks and tours related to the exhibit

WHAT: The Power of Maps: Four Early Maps of Our World VERSUS Six Early Maps of Science (1st Iteration of Places & Spaces Exhibit)

This iteration aims to show the power of maps to help us understand, navigate, and manage both physical places and abstract knowledge spaces. The first maps of our planet were not perfectly correct. Yet they were invaluable for navigation, exploration, and communication. Maps of science generated today cannot be comprehensive as they are generated based on only a small portion of mankind's knowledge. The generation of a comprehensive map requires the proper interlinkage of multilingual, multidisciplinary, multi-media scholarly knowledge. Note that each of the six early maps of science displayed here use a different metaphor. We are interested in inspiring discussion about which metaphors will be most effective in designing a visual index of mankind's knowledge.

Click on any map below for more information.



The Power of Reference Systems: Four Existing Reference Systems VERSUS Six Potential Reference Systems (2nd Iteration of Places & Spaces Exhibit)

This iteration aims to inspire discussion about a common reference system for all of mankind's scientific knowledge. Scientists in many disciplines battled to agree on standardized reference systems such as the electromagnetic spectrum, the periodic table of elements, geographic mappings, and the celestial reference systems shown here. These standardized systems are invaluable for indexing, storing, accessing, and managing scientific data efficiently. Note that each of the six potential reference systems-- from the one-dimensional time-based system to the geospatial system to the semantic system--could potentially be used to identify the "location" of an author, paper, patent, or grant, or to show the dynamics of an author's trajectory or contribution, as well as the impact of a particular work.

Click on any map below for more information.

The Power of Forecasts: Four Existing Forecasts VERSUS Six Potential Science Forecasts (3rd Iteration of Places & Spaces Exhibit)

The third iteration compares and contrasts seismic hazard, economic, resource depletion, and epidemic forecast maps with maps forecasting the structure and evolution of science. Rea time weather forecasts are served by the national Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Computational models of the movements of tectonic plates help reduce losses due to earthquakes, volcanic activity, or tsunamis. Economic models let us simulate catastrophic and sustainable futures for mankind. Epidemic models make us understand how interconnected we all are and how actions far away affect us right here. Daily science and technology forecasts would show science maps with overlays of top experts/institutions/countries, major activity bursts, or emerging research frontiers augmenting our knowledge and decision making. Why are they not available on TV, in press and online?

Click on any map below for more information.



Worldprocessor Globes


Foreign US Patent Holders [Worldprocessor #294]
This globe represents half of all patents in the US - those registered to foreign holders. Countries with more than 1000 patents registered in the US are indicated by name, with the point size of the representative text scaled according to the square root of the total number of US patents held. Were the number of domestically held US patents to be indicated according to this logic, the entire surface of the globe would be covered. Special thanks to John Burgoon, Monika Zhu, and Stephen Oh © 2006 Ingo Gunther

Patterns of Patents & Zones of Invention [Worldprocessor #286]
This globe plots the total amount of patents granted worldwide, beginning in 1883 with just under 50,000, hitting 650,000 in 1993 (near the North Pole), and (shifting the scale to the southern hemisphere) continuing to 2002 on a rapid climb towards 1 million. Geographic regions where countries offer environments conducive to fostering innovation are represented by topology. Additionally, nations where residents are granted an average of 500 or more US patents per year are called out in red by their respective averages in the years after 2000. © 2005 Ingo Gunther

Shape of Science
This rendering is of a prospective tangible sculpture of the Shape of Science, based on the research of Richard Klavans and Kevin Boyack, spatializing the quantified connectivities and relative flows of inquiry within the world of science. © 2006 Ingo Gunther w/ Stephen Oh

Illuminated Diagram Display

The illuminated diagram maps and installations were created by Kevin W. Boyack (scientometrics and data shaping), John Burgoon (geographic mapmaking), Peter Kennard (system design and programming), Richard Klavans (scientometrics and node layout), W. Bradford Paley (typography, graphics, and interaction design); data courtesy of Thomson ISI; images © 2006.
W. Bradford Paley, all rights reserved.

Topic Map

The word "science" covers a huge diversity of topics: from mathematics and astronomy to medicine, even to certain approaches to the humanities. This map begins to show how distinct areas of study are defined and how they are related.

Seven hundred seventy-six nodes are distributed around a generally ring-like structure. They represent scientific topics, more properly called paradigms, and are essentially groups of recently published papers. Each node represents tens or thousands of papers; this map was created by scrutinizing more than 1.3 million of them.

The writers of scientific papers are careful to reveal all the work they build on, so we can think of each paper's author as a micro-librarian: gathering all the other papers relevant to his or her topic. In this map we put two papers in the same node if four authors gathered them into a later paper. Nodes are labeled with the unique terms that occur most often in the papers, provided those terms can be understood in a wider context. Thus you can read the actual language used by the scientists exploring each topic.

The curving links between nodes show how topics are related: the more strongly two topics are related, the darker that link is drawn. Links curve to make them easier to follow with the eye. We show 4,370 links here, leaving thousands of fainter ones undrawn.

The circular structure is no accident, nor is it arbitrarily imposed on the data; it comes from the structure of science itself. If you imagine that every link is a rubber band (stronger when it's darker), and every node has a small force field around it, pushing away nearby nodes, this dynamic balance of forces automatically creates the layout. Thus we can see that Physics (at approximately 1:00) relates through Astrophysics to Astronomy (around 12:30), but it also relates to Chemistry (more toward 2:00). And the jutting peninsula of Organic Chemistry at 3:00 has unexpectedly few connections to the thicket of Medicine, spread from 5:30 to 7:00. Instead, it connects to Medicine through Analytical Chemistry: the tool base of applied chemistry actually used in medicine, which studies techniques like Spectroscopy and Proteomics (the large node at the base of the peninsula).

Geographic Map

Here we have arranged the same papers on a more familiar map. Each tiny glyph on the map represents not cities, but a number of papers that have an author in that location. In the field of Information Visualization there is an expectation that if you show the same data in two different views you can get a better feel for it, much as an architect will look at both floor plan and elevations to understand a building. But how can we tell where in the world papers in one topic node were published? Or what topics are studied in a specific geographic location? We simply paint them to look the same in both views. The InfoVis technique called "brushing and linking" lets you do exactly that. Paint a location (by brushing your finger over an area on the lectern's touchscreen) and it will glow on the geographic map. Since the views are linked by the computer, it can paint topics studied in that area on the topic map: the brighter a topic glows, the more papers on that topic originated in your brushed area. Conversely, touching a topic node will tell you where in the world that topic is studied. We use a display technique called "Illuminated Diagrams" to add the flexibility of an interactive program to the incredibly high data density of a print.

This technique is generally useful when there is too much pertinent data to be displayed on a screen but the data is relatively stable. The computer can direct the eye to what's important by using projectors as smart spotlights, animating stories in the static data (such as the spread of an idea's influence), giving a radar-like "grand tour" of science, or highlighting query results (as when you touch the lectern) with an overlay of moving light.

Hands-On Science Maps for Kids

The puzzle maps were created by Fileve Palmer (painting), Julie Smith (data acquisition), Elisha Hardy and Katy Börner (graphic design).
We would like to thank Stephen Miles Uzzo, Director of Technology and Michael Lane, Director of Exhibit Services at the New York Hall of Science for manufacturing the physical maps.

They invite children to see, explore, and understand science from above. One map shows our world and the places where science gets done. The other shows major areas of science and their complex interrelationships. Both maps also appear in the Illuminated Diagram display, see above. Drawings by Fileve Palmer were added to make different continents as well as different areas of science more tangible. Children and adults alike are invited to help solve the puzzle by sliding major scientists, inventors, and inventions into their proper places. Start by selecting either of the two maps. Decide if you want to place famous people or major inventions first. Turn the map over when you are done and start again. Look for the many hints hidden in the drawings to find the perfect place for each puzzle piece. Click on the map below and learn about scientists, inventors, and the history of their inventions. Pick-up one of the handouts and make your very own map of science. What science experiments do you like best? Where would your favorite science teachers go? What area of science do you want to explore next?

Download the Learning Objective for the exhibit.
Download the Clue Sheet for the Hands on Maps of for Kids.
View more information about the Hands-on Maps for Kids.



Lectures and Events

Special Events:
April 3rd, 1PM - Opening by Director of NRC, talk & tour by Russell Duhon, Indiana University and Ingo Günther, creator of Worldprocessor Globes
Join Ingo Günther for a half hour sit-down talk after the opening

Rusell Duhon
Russell Duhon designs, programs, parses, researches, and visualizes at Dr. Katy Borner's Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at Indiana University. He likes making the little algorithms that fit between the big ones. Among his areas of interest are economics-inspired modelling of scientific activity, statistical methods for understanding data, and unusual data sets. He attended the School of Informatics of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, which is also his home town.

Ingo Gunther
Gunther's early sculptural works with video led him to more journalistically oriented projects, which he pursued in TV, print, and the art field. Based in New York, he played a crucial role in the evaluation
and interpretation of satellite data gathered from political and military crisis zones. On an artistic level, the work with satellite data and mapping them for TV led to Gunther's contribution to documenta 8 (1987), the installation K4 (C3i). Since 1989, Gunther has used globes as a medium for his artistic and journalistic interests (see WorldProcessor.com ). In 1989, he founded the first independent and non-commercial TV station in Eastern Europe, Channel X, Leipzig. He has contributed his work to numerous institutions, conferences, conventions and museums around the world, notably to the Nationalgalerie Berlin, 1983 and 1985; Venice Biennale, 1984; documenta, Kassel, 1987; P3 Art and Environment, Tokyo, 1990, 1992, 1996 and 1997; Ars Electronica, Linz, 1991; Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon, 1995; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, 1995; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1996; Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, 1998; Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, 1999; World Economic Forum, Davos, 2000; V2 Rotterdam,2003; Yokohama Triennale 2005; Kunstverein Ruhr, Essen , Germany, 2005; IFC/World Bank, Washington DC; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, 2006; Siggraph, San Diego, CA, 2007.

From 1990 to 1994, he was a professor at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne; from 2001 to
2003 professor at the University for Media, Art, and Design in Zurich, and from 2006 to 2007 he was a visiting professor at the Tokyo National University for Fine Arts and Music.

Public and corporate collections include Obayashi Gumi, Tokyo, Japan; World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland; Volkswagen Corporation, Germany; Town of Hoi An, Quang Nam, Vietnam; Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan and others.

April 4th, Lunch & Learn talk by Russell Duhon (PDF)

June, Closing events by curator Katy Börner and collaborator Yves Gringas. (more info coming soon)

Special Exhibits:
NRC Laboratories Connections Across the World visualization by Yves Gingras (Data Provider), Russell Duhon (Layout), Elisha Hardy (Graphic Design)

Download printable version

Visualization by Jeffrey Demaine, Researcher, NRC and Russell Duhon, Indiana University
(coming soon)

Acknowledgements

Places & Spaces is curated by Dr. Katy Börner and Elisha Hardy, School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University. Places & Spaces also receives input from the Advisory Board listed on the website.

Thanks to the National Research Council, Canada for all their support.

Places & Spaces at NRC is sponsored by National Science Foundation awards IIS-0238261, CHE-0524661, IIS-0737783 and IIS-0715303; Thomson Scientific; the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center, University Information Technology Services, and the School of Library and Information Science, all three at Indiana University. Much of the data used to generate the science maps is from Thomson Scientific.

Reading List