Opinion
A Challenge to Microscopists Alwyn Eades
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Emeritus, Lehigh University , Lehigh University , Bethlehem , PA 18015
jae5@lehigh.edu
A wonderful thing Wikipedia Acknowledged by all of the media Everything’s in it
From “epoch” to “minute” And a number of bits that are seedier [1]
Wikipedia is indeed a splendid achievement. It is the place we all go on an almost daily basis to find out about things. It is also the place where other people first make contact with the topic of microscopy. Prompted by this thought, I have searched Wikipedia for a number of things related to microscopy—and our field comes up sadly lacking. The Microscopy Society of America ( MSA) has an entry with a paltry four lines and does not describe much of the good work that MSA does; International Federation of Societies for Microscopy ( IFSM) has no entry at all; Electron microscope has a rather uneven entry; EDS has an entry which is (in my view) unclear and out of date; the entry for Secondary electrons is two short, unhelpful paragraphs. And so on.
As microscopists we need to show a better face to the world. We need to get the Wikipedia entries in our fi eld to be accurate, up-to-the-minute, attractive, and helpful. So my challenge to each of you is this: contribute to making the entries related to microscopy in Wikipedia much, much better. For those of you who have not done so, it is very easy to make contributions and changes to Wikipedia. Anyone can do it. If someone as inept at things computational as I am can do it (and I have made contributions to Wikipedia), be assured that you can.
I have a strong view about Wikipedia entries in technical fields. The information should be presented at multiple levels. There should be an initial part that explains the topic in terms that the layperson can understand. Think of explaining it to a middle-school child, for example. Then technical details at increasing levels of sophistication may follow. An entry that jumps in at the state of the art is not helpful (see, for example, the entry on Abbe sine condition ). Articles in mainstream physics seem to try to follow the “begin simple then elaborate” model, with varying levels of success. See for example: Gravity , Force, or Acceleration .
There are two ways the microscopy community could approach this. MSA could form a group of people (a sub-committee of the Educational Outreach Committee, for example) who would take on the job of making
58 doi: 10.1017/S1551929515000620
microscopy-related Wikipedia pages better. However, that seems to go somewhat against the spirit of Wikipedia, which is that individuals contribute, both in setting up pages and in improving pages that already exist. Thus it is a dynamic and evolving process. So my challenge to each of you is this: please go to Wikipedia and look up the pages for several topics related to microscopy. If a page does not exist for a topic that interests you, create that page. If existing pages can be improved, set to work and improve them. Let’s do a better job of showing off our achievements.
[1] I plan to add this limerick to the Wikipedia page on limericks. So if you have suggestions for improvement or a better limerick in praise of Wikipedia that is quite diff erent, please send it to me at
jae5@lehigh.edu . T e editor tells me that he will off er a prize for the best submission.
Expand your Knowledge of Microscopy with MSA Membership!
Whether your primary focus is in the biological or the physical sciences, MSA takes your knowledge to the next level!
Members Receive: Microscopy and Microanalysis Microscopy Today.
Join MSA Today!
www.microscopy.org
1-800-538-3672
www.microscopy-today.com • 2015 July
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84