In 2005 Nature magazine compared the accuracy of the scientific articles in two online reference sources, Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica. The news story that accompanied the study opened with the following paragraph:
One of the extraordinary stories of the Internet age is that of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. This radical and rapidly growing publication, which includes close to 4 million entries, is now a much-used resource. But it is also controversial: if anyone can edit entries, how do users know if Wikipedia is as accurate as established sources such as Encyclopaedia Britannica?
Perhaps surprisingly, Nature found that the two sources were comparably accurate. Whereas the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica had an average error rate of 3 per article, the upstart Wikipedia had 4.
I use Wikipedia a lot. Just one minute ago, when I was writing a post for Physics Today‘s Facebook page, I needed to check when Klaus von Klitzing first observed the quantum Hall effect (1980). Indeed, Google’s Chrome browser tells me that Wikipedia is the website I visit most often.
Wikipedia does have shortcomings. By my count, its entry on the sabre, a curved cavalry sword used in Europe and elsewhere for centuries, contains 1531 words. The entry on the lightsaber, a fictional weapon from the Star Wars movie franchise, contains 2530 words. Unless you’re a fan of Yoda, Wookiees, etc., that difference in attention might seem disproportionate.
Anthony Burgess (1917–93) wrote 32 novels, including A Clockwork Orange, and numerous musical works, including three symphonies. He also contributed to Encyclopaedia Britannica. CREDIT: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
A similar lack of proportion afflicts the Wikipedia entry on the originator of the Bill of Rights, George Mason (1725–92). The entry’s writers and editors saw fit to devote 532 somewhat tedious words to Mason’s forebears and family, yet only 347 to his political philosophy, which begat one of the pillars of the US Constitution.
I don’t doubt—to quote the entry’s authors—that “George Mason’s sixth child, christened Sarah Eilbeck Mason but fondly known as Sally, was born on December 11, 1760 and married in 1778.” Still, as Albert Einstein observed, information is not knowledge.
But knowledge does ultimately consist of information. Imparting knowledge effectively entails arranging information in a sequence that takes a reader or student down a path of increasing understanding. My teachers at Imperial College London, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, did that brilliantly.
For his third-year course on astronomy and cosmology, Peter Meikle decided to begin with the Big Bang and the ensuing expansion of the universe. Next came galaxies, followed by the birth, life, and death of stars. Each section of the course set the astrophysical context for the next one. I was so inspired that I went on to study astrophysics in graduate school.
Before I started writing this blog post, I hadn’t thought of—let alone consulted—the Encyclopaedia Britannica for years. But now that it’s sprung to mind, I recall the magisterial entry, “Novel, the.” Written in 1970 by novelist, critic, and composer Anthony Burgess, the 30 000-word entry surveyed and scrutinized the history, nature, and variants of the literary form.
Wikipedia’s entry on the novel is just as long and informative, but it lacks the single, authoritative voice of Britannica‘s. That said, I used Wikipedia to check the date of Burgess’s entry.
Unusual Arctic fire activity in 2019–21 was driven by, among other factors, earlier snowmelt and varying atmospheric conditions brought about by rising temperatures.
January 06, 2023 12:00 AM
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The Week in Physics" is likely a reference to the regular updates or summaries of new physics research, such as those found in publications like Physics Today from AIP Publishing or on news aggregators like Phys.org.
