Can Google PageRank Predict Nobel Prize Winners?
Two researchers ask whether citation patterns in scientific papers can be analyzed to figure out future Nobel Prize winners. And the answer is… sort of, kind of, yes.
After Sergei Maslov from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Sidney Redner at Boston University reviewed 353,268 articles using Google’s PageRank, they discovered almost all the authors of the top 10 ranked papers have won Nobels. It seems citation patterns form similar weighted networks as those found on the Web.
Missing from the list: number 1 ranked Nicola Cabibbo. Perhaps this year’s his year. (Hat tip: the physics arXiv blog)
Michael Cervieri is a ScribeLabs co-founder and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs where he teaches a course called Tubes, Code and Content. On Twitter, he's @bmunch.
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