Looking for the scientist's spouse?
Leslie Vosshal noticed yesterday that when you search for a woman scientist, Google seems to often predict that it's their spouse you really want to read about.
Top 5 search suggestions for female scientists often include "husband". WTF? pic.twitter.com/6EuSkEO0AC
— Leslie Vosshall (@pollyp1) May 20, 2016
Matt Davis noted that the same often happens when you search for famous men.
@pollyp1 mere observation: google famous non-scientist men and "wife" is suggested for most of them.
— Matthew Davis (@deadsmiths) May 20, 2016
This made me curious and I decided to check the Google suggestions for the first 50 women listed on the HHMI site, comparing to the first 50 HHMI men. (Yes, I did that late on a Friday night. No, in retrospect, it was not the most riveting experience. At least, with kids asleep and the wife at a conference, I wasn't being anti-social.)
One of the four Google suggestions was "husband" for 3/50 women. For the men, Google recommended "wife" for 2/50 scientists. So, it appears that the spouse search auto-completion isn't very common, and it may not be all that different for men versus women.
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HHMI Women:
Name | Spouse in GoogleHint? |
Susan Ackerman | |
Kristi Anseth | |
Tania Baker | |
Cornelia Bargmann | |
Bonnie Bassler | |
Dominique Bergmann | |
Carolyn Bertozzi | |
Sangeeta Bhatia | yes |
Sue Biggins | |
Olga Boudker | |
Linda Buck | |
Constance Cepko | |
Jue Chen | |
Xuemei Chen | |
Vivian Cheung | |
Joanne Chory | |
Yang Dan | |
Abby Dernburg | |
Xinnian Dong | |
Jennifer Doudna | yes |
Catherine Drennan | |
Cahterine Dulac | |
Elizabeth Engle | |
Susan Ferror-Novick | |
Elaine Fuchs | |
Britt Glaunsinger | |
Helen Hobbs | |
Hopi Hoekstra | yes |
Lora Hooper | |
Akiko Iwasaki | |
Christine Jacobs-Wagner | |
Lily Jan | |
Yishi Jin | |
Leemor Joshua-tor | |
Dorothee Kern | |
Judith Kimble | |
Nicole King | |
Jeannie Lee | |
Ruth Lehmann | |
Beth Levine | |
Susan Lindquist | |
Karolin Luger | |
Philippa Marrack | |
Barbara Meyer | |
Melissa Moore | |
Dianne Newman | |
Eva Nogales | |
Kim Orth | |
Tanya Paull |
HHMI Men:
Name | Spouse in GoogleHint? |
David Agard | |
Paul Ahlquist | |
Frederick Alt | |
David Anderson | |
Richard Axel | yes |
David Baker | |
James Bardwell | |
David Bartel | |
Peter Baumann | |
Philip Beachy | |
Stephen Bell | |
Hugo Bellen | |
Philip Benfey | |
Vann Bennett | |
Paul Bieniasz | |
Gunter Blobel | |
Squire Booker | |
Michael Brainard | |
Ronald Breaker | |
Carlos Brody | |
Axel Brunger | |
Carlos Bustamante | |
Bradley Cairns | |
Andrew Camilli | |
Kevin Campbell | |
Jean-Laurent Casanova | |
Thomas Cech | |
Christopher Chang | |
Edwin Chapman | |
Zhijian Chen | |
Yifan Cheng | |
Arul Chinnaiyan | |
David Clapham | |
Adam Cohen | |
David Corey | |
Geral Crabtree | |
Peter Cresswell | |
Jason Cyster | |
George Daley | |
Jeffery Dangl | |
Robert Darnell | |
Mark Davis | |
Roger Davis | |
Pietro De Camilli | |
Edward De Robertis | |
Karl Deisseroth | yes |
Joseph DeRisi | |
Raymond Deshaies | |
Harry Dietz |
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