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Not a comment in regard to this article in particular, but I love Quanta Magazine. Just the right amount of detail for a non-scientist and consistently fascinat
by doctorhandshake 4y ago
Not a comment in regard to this article in particular, but I love Quanta Magazine. Just the right amount of detail for a non-scientist and consistently fascinating subject matter.
- antegamisou 4y agoI'd agree with you ~1 year ago but I think a lot of their articles now tend to water-down lots of complex subjects in rigorous math papers. Still remains one of my favorite websites.
- paulpauper 4y agoi think they have to water it down so much because hardly anyone would understand the math, even people who consider themselves good at math or have degrees in STEM..it's just so advanced even relative to that .
- MattPalmer1086 4y agoI think this is probably right. They are among the few to even attempt it. As someone who loves math but who only knows a little, I find the articles manage to convey the broad ideas quite well. What it is, why it matters. I could stand more detail, but I guess many others couldn't.
- doctorhandshake 4y agoYeah this is me. No advanced STEM background so just barely hanging on by a thread. I enjoy being immersed in topics I don’t understand but I get more out of it with a little something to hang on to.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- wenc 4y agoI don't. Most Quanta articles have this pattern: they pepper the article with quotes from famous professors and only mention the authors in the middle of the page. I suppose one could argue this provides context and is a kind of attestation to the importance/relevance of the work. But I don't think this is right. To me, I want to know who the authors are in the first paragraph. They deserve the credit. The famous professor quotes should come later.
- HelloNurse 4y agoI also find Quanta articles rarely satisfactory with respect to the historical and social aspects of science (culture, ideas, experiments, interest...) but prioritizing explaining research and concepts over talking about people is a well justified editorial choice for a scientific magazine. In this case there is a link to the article in the first paragraph and as the article discusses the whole history of maximum flow finding the new and exciting developments in the second half is quite reasonable.
- lkozma 4y agoYou are right in general, but when the quote is from someone on whose research the result builds in an important way (as it is the case here), I would say it is fair.
- MattPalmer1086 4y agoSame here. I love that they also cover maths, which few pop sci publications do.