10 June, 2012

FBI files on Richard Feynman published

In 1955 Richard Feynman got invited to a prestigious conference in Moscow, with all the expenses payed by the Soviets.

And here we go: "The FBI found out about the proposed trip while sifting through the trash of Soviet Union Ambassador Georgi Zaroubin’s office."

In the end of the day Feynman didn't go, but the FBI surveillance continued for another few years anyway. Now we can enjoy the original documents from that time.

Take care,

Misha

02 June, 2012

Barcode for scientists

Soon every scientist will be assigned a unique number, ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID). That will be just a little tattoo on the inner side of the wrist... just kidding.

There aren't that many unique last names out there and looking for a paper by someone with a popular name might be a pain. For instance, according to statistics, the author named Y. Wang publishes more than 10 papers a day, and obviously it's not the same person :-)

Also, sometimes people change their names, use nicknames, or omit some of their initials, so introducing such unique ID's will be greatly appreciated.

The idea was around for quite a long time, with a few attempts of realization (one of those being the ResearcherID by Thomson Reuters). I hope it will work out this time.


Take care,

Misha