Jenna Wortham’s piece from the NY Times Magazine, How an Archive of the Internet Could Change History, is a smart discussion of the importance of primary sources and the rare opportunity that preservation of today’s social media could provide historians in the future. Consider this;
“The internet is pushing us — in good ways and in bad — to realize that the official version of events shouldn’t always be trusted or accepted without question. And historians are constantly updating the record by looking for primary sources that were overlooked in earlier eras, often from marginalized figures. These days, such omissions will still happen, but we can catch them faster. Oversights that would have taken decades to correct are now resolved in weeks, even hours. We now get a kaleidoscopic view of events as they unfold, often in real time, on our screens and devices. History is not neutral or synonymous with truth, but the internet affords us a newfound vantage on the totality of passing time — the profound implications of which we are just now beginning to grasp.”
A hat tip to @SLA-NewYork for sharing this article.
PubMed is 20! The news came via a post in NLM’s Technical Bulletin which discusses recent enhancements to the database we use so much.
News outlets and social media are reacting to Britain’s historic referendum vote in favor of leaving the EU. Here are a few items related to how this may impact science and healthcare;
- From Nature News and Comment, Researchers Reeling as UK Votes to Leave EU
- Pharma, Researchers, NHS Face Uncertainty after Brexit Win from Politico.