sciencetech-blog

comments

Kim Kardashian may have taken Instagram's crown of 2014, while the World Cup dominated this year's web searches, but that doesn't mean the work of scientists hasn't gone unnoticed online.

Analytics experts have tracked the most discussed and shared scientific papers over the past 12 months to see which breakthroughs got us all talking. 

Facebook's controversial emotion experiment in June topped the list, while the mystery of the sliding rocks in Death Valley, James Bond's alcohol addiction and time travelling also made the index.

The Altmetric Top 100 list tracks and analyses online activity, including discussions on social media as well as shares, around scholarly literature. The most shared debated paper of the year was a study on how people's emotions were altered based on what they saw on Facebook (pictured)

The Altmetric Top 100 list was compiled by the London-based firm.

It specifically tracks and analyses online activity, including discussions on social media as well as shares, around scholarly literature.

Data experts collected metric information for a year from 14 November 2013.

It didn't include editorial, comment, review or other non-original research content, and the names and institute details were collected from PubMed.

The ranking takes into account mentions of published research in mainstream media and blogs, as well as shares on social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Facebook.

According to the analytics, the most shared and debated paper of the year was a study on how people's emotions and moods were altered based on what they saw their friends express in Facebook status updates.

The research prompted widespread outcry after publication, when it was discovered Facebook user timelines were manipulated without their knowledge.

During one week in 2012, the social media giant edited feeds to highlight either positive or negative items, and then monitored the responses.

The site apologised in June for the way the paper described the research, and any anxiety that was caused, adding, 'the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this.'

Tests affected around 0.04 per cent of users - or 1 in 2500 - for a week, in early 2012.

'The reason we did this research is because we care about the emotional impact of Facebook and the people that use our product,' said Facebook data scientist Adam D. I. Kramer at the time.

But according to Kramer, nobody's posts were 'hidden,' they just didn't show up on some feeds. And the research was permitted under the site's Privacy policy.

Facebook's study was featured on 169 news outlets, 107 blogs and was tweeted by 3,529 Twitter users. It was most popular in the US, followed by the UK and Canada.

Another study that caused controversy was 'Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency' by in fourth place.

Japanese scientist Haruko Obokato's paper claimed to have turned ordinary cells could be turned into stem cells using acid. 

But the researcher was later accused of falsifying the data. 

In second spot, 'Variation in Melanism and Female Preference in Proximate but Ecologically Distinct Environments' studied why fish in different species have evolved different pigmentations. 

Almost half of the research that generated the most attention focused on topics within medical and health sciences.

In particular, articles that impact everyday life were particularly popular.

These included studies which examined the effect of sugary drinks on glucose intolerance, how long chocolate lasts on hospital wards, and another which detailed bodily maps of emotions.

Other popular topics included research related to some of the most notable events this year.

For example, an article which used genomic evidence as a basis for establishing the origin of the Ebola virus and transmission during the 2014 outbreak was tweeted nearly 2,000 times and featured in more than 65 of the mainstream global news outlets tracked by Altmetric.

Facebook's study was featured on 169 news outlets, 107 blogs and was tweeted by 3,529 Twitter users. It was most popular in the US, followed by the UK and Canada 

The site apologised in June for the way the paper described the research, and any anxiety that was caused, adding, 'the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this.' 'The reason we did this research is because we care about the emotional impact of Facebook,' said data scientist Adam D. I. Kramer at the time

In May, a Czech study found that dogs not only align their bodies with the Earth's north-south axis when defecating, but this position can be affected by the slightest of fluctuations in the planet's magnetic field.

The researchers discovered that in the morning, dogs tended to position their bodies towards the west, but would then shift to an easterly direction in the afternoon.

This study was fifth on the Top 100 list and was the highest ranking article in the Frontiers in Zoology journal.

A popular article, published in August, was 'Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion'.

It came 15th on the list and was published in the Plos One journal and claimed to have solved the mystery of the sliding rocks, that had baffled scientists for nearly a century.

The researchers found that the stones, weighing as much as 700lbs (317kg) each, can move hundreds of feet due to a mix rain, wind, ice and sun.

The lake in the region fills with water which must be deep enough for floating ice, this creates 'windowpane' ice which is thin enough to move freely and on sunny days, ice begins to melt and break up into floating panels.

Light winds then drive across the dry lake, pushing rocks in front of them.

The paper was shared by 56 news sites, 1,404 tweeters and 90 Facebook users.

At the start of the year, Professor Robert Nemiroff from Michigan Technology University published a paper in the arXiv journal detailing his hunt for time travellers.

He wanted to use the web to try and find evidence of people from the future living among us.

He began by selecting two events from recent history - the Comet ISON in September 2012, and the appointment of Pope Francis in March 2013.

Almost half of the research that generated the most attention were within medical and health sciences. In particular, articles that impact everyday life were popular. This included a study that examined the effect of sugary drinks on glucose intolerance, and another which detailed bodily maps of emotions (pictured)

Another popular article, published in August, was about Deaath Valley's mysterious sliding rocks (pictured left and annotated right). It came 15th on the list and claimed to have solved the mystery of the rocks, that had baffled scientists for nearly a century

He then scanned websites and search engine results for conversations or references to these events made between January 2006 and September 2013. But, the paper explained they found no evidence of such time travellers.

This particular paper ranked eighth.

In May, a Czech study found dogs align their bodies with the Earth's north-south axis when defecating

Last November, the British Medical Journal published a paper by Graham Johnson called 'Were James Bond's drinks shaken because of alcohol induced tremor?'.

It was the 10th most shared article and discussed how, based on James Bond's level of alcohol intake in Ian Fleming's book, he would have been at high risk of multiple alcohol related diseases and an early death.

'The level of functioning as displayed in the books is inconsistent with the physical, mental, and indeed sexual functioning expected from someone drinking this much alcohol,' explained the report.

'We advise an immediate referral for further assessment and treatment, a reduction in alcohol consumption to safe levels, and suspect that the famous catchphrase 'shaken, not stirred' could be because of alcohol induced tremor affecting his hands.'

In the realms of space, one of the most popular astronomical discovery was of Earth-like planet Kepler-186f.

The planet - 492 light years away in the Cygnus constellation -peaked people's interests because it marked the first planet to be found that was almost exactly the same size as Earth orbiting in the 'habitable zone'.

This is the distance from a star in which we might expect liquid water, and perhaps life.

In the realms of space, one of the most popular astronomical discovery was of Earth-like planet Kepler-186f (illustrated). It peaked people's interests because it marked the first planet to be found that was almost exactly the same size as Earth orbiting in the 'habitable zone'

Last November, the British Medical Journal published a paper called 'Were James Bond's drinks shaken because of alcohol induced tremor?'. It was the 10th most shared article and discussed how, based on James Bond's level of alcohol intake (pictured) he would have been at high risk of multiple alcohol related diseases

The paper was published in the journal Science and ranked 31st.

Another stand out paper, which came in ninth position, was Alvaro Pascual-Leone from Harvard Medical School's 'Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies' article.

In it, he demonstrated the first 'brain to brain' conversation online - with participants who were 5,000 miles apart.

The team transmitted signals over the internet directly from brain sensors. They were able to send the words 'hola' and 'ciao' from a location in India to a location in France.

It was tweeted by 1,529 unique Twitter users, 311 Facebook users and featured on 74 news outlets.

And 83 per cent of the tweeters were everyday members of the public, and not scientists of scientific communicators.

The Altmetric score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a paper received.

Altmetric counts one mention from each person per source, so if a user tweets about the same paper more than once, Altmetric only counts it once.

Each category of mention contributes a different base amount to the final score.

For example, a newspaper article contributes more than a blog post, which contributes more than a tweet.

Journals studied include those published by Elsevier, Nature Publishing Group, Springer and the Wellcome Trust.

Another stand out paper, which came in ninth position, was Alvaro Pascual-Leone from Harvard Medical School's 'Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies' article. In it, he demonstrated the first 'brain to brain' conversation online - with participants who were 5,000 miles apart

It was tweeted by 1,529 unique Twitter users, 311 Facebook users and featured on 74 news outlets. And 83 per cent of the tweeters were everyday members of the public, and not scientists of scientific communicators