What I found to be interesting when reading “Demystifying Networks”, was how Scott Weingart argues that it is necessary to know all of the ways to study sciences. As he mentions this includes the studies of culture, philosophy, history and even sociology. He then discusses how science tends to have certain periods of innovation and prominence, while other times where it was taken back.
After continuing to read his research plans and the goals he had for conducting it, I became curious to know at what times were methods of sciences (ex. Astrology, Sociology, etc.) found to be especially useful or followed and whether there are any patterns. For example, when we think of philosophy there are certain periods throughout human life that come to mind. We often associate this method of study with figures such as Plato, Socrates, John Locke and even more contemporary individuals. They are each known for their individual views.
Then there are studies of sciences such as Sociology that did not “exist” until far later, where it became accepted as a means of specific study. A timeline could possibly indicate it’s time origin and display where it was most active and the periods where innovation seemed to decrease.
Though I could not find any sort of data visualization that seemed to correlate with this interest of mine, I think it would be a possible task and possibly an interesting one at that. We would be able to see the amount of influence each study of science has had and when in time did it have the most influence. Additionally, there may be other ones that no longer exist now. Either way, I find that the lack of this gathered data to be peculiar and hope that it does find its existence sometime in the near future.
Source: http://www.scottbot.net/HIAL/?page_id=22226