The Searching for Science project explores the key scientific topics and questions that Europe has been searching for the past 19 years.
This data visualisation examines a sample of over +120 topics, divided into scientific breakthroughs and everyday subjects, that were the most searched for in the continent under the umbrella of science from 2004 to 2023.
We looked into the most searched themes under key science verticals, namely Astronomy, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics, to select the topics portrayed here. These verticals were chosen due to their high level of search interest in the continent.
The selection of topics for this project was based on two metrics:
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Scientific breakthroughs: these were selected based on the most significant discoveries over the last 25 years.
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Everyday science topics: The everyday science topics were the top searches under the key science verticals mentioned above.
This project investigates the relationships between seemingly unrelated subjects in different nations and invites people to explore the patterns around the search for new discoveries and scientific knowledge over time.
To create these connections, we analysed the most searched topics related to these scientific breakthroughs and popular scientific subjects in each European country* in the month when search interest for each topic peaked in that country.
Where available, the top 5 results for each country are shown in the constellation, excluding repetitions and general searches such as search engines and news and social media sites.
Each country has a constellation that represents its most searched scientific topics. The placement of each star in the constellation is guided by the Fruchterman-Reingold algorithm, which is a physics-based simulation. The algorithm imagines stars as being linked by springs, and it draws related stars together while pushing unrelated ones apart. This results in a harmonious and balanced constellation. As a result, scientific topics with common links tend to naturally cluster together in the sky.
The project also lets users explore the most searched questions for each topic, based on search interest for these questions across the whole of Europe, between 2004 and 2023.
A timeline allows users to compare their country’s interest in each topic to the average search interest across Europe. These are shown as indexed values from 0 to 100, with 100 assigned to the month and year when search interest was highest across both the selected country and the European average.
The other values in this scale are proportional to the max number, which means a value of 50 indicates half as much search interest as there was at that peak level, while a value of 10 indicates the time when a topic has had a tenth of search interest from its peak.
Team
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Project Management
- Keila Guimarães, Simon Rogers, Oriane Pannelier-Tarieul, François Gilson
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Data
- Pallavi Singhal
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Art Direction
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Alberto Cairo
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Storytelling
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Rodrigo Menegat
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Design
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Vinicius Sueiro,
Flavio Pessoa,
Vallery Nascimento
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Development
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Vinicius Sueiro,
Flavio Pessoa,
Mariana Cunha
