news & views DATA VISUALIZATION Hall of fame Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Historian Michael Faraday, Alessandro Volta, Religious Figure Politician Writer Max Planck, Wilhelm Röntgen, Stephen Hawking, Christiaan Huygens, James Clerk Maxwell, Enrico Fermi. This may, or may not, match your own top ten list of physicists, but it is what most people around the world seem to agree on, according to Pantheon 1.0 — a manually 12.66% 6.33% curated dataset of globally famous people. Amy Zhao Yu and colleagues created Philosopher 5.06% this dataset from over 11,000 biographies Mathematician Inventor appearing in more than 25 language editions of Wikipedia (Sci. Data 2.53% 1.27% 1.27% 3, 150075; 2016). Physician Astronomer Yu et al. checked the demographic 48.10% 17.72% 2.53% 1.27% 1.27% information manually, and created Military Personnel Composer a detailed taxonomy of professions, Politician Writer including domain (for example, science and technology), industry (natural sciences) and occupation (physicist). A visualization tool allows one to track the 1.44% data through time, geographic region 6.64% 5.03% Musician or specific domain. This provides a 0.54% 0.9% Religious fascinating perspective on who mattered Figure 14.00% 0.36% 0.72% 0.18% Painter most at different moments in history. 27.29% 0.18% 1.62% In the first century ad (pictured, Astronomer Chemist Mathematician Economist Philosopher Physicist 3.05% top panel), politicians and religious 1.26% Artist figures dominate Pantheon, whereas Geographer 1.80% 3.41% 3.59% 0.54% 5.92% 0.9% 0.36% 0.18% over the following thousand years, Physician Biologist Inventor Companion Social Explorer writers, philosophers and historians 2.69% 2.15% Activist start to appear on the scene. With the 3.05% 0.72% 0.18% 3.05% 1.08% 2.15% 1.97% 2.15% Renaissance, artists and explorers gain importance, and the Enlightenment Actor Singer Soccer Player Politician (middle panel) brings scientists to the public attention. The latter half of the twentieth century (bottom panel) sees the rise of other professions such as 1.61% actors, musicians and athletes. These changes are likely correlated to the 9.32% evolution of the means of communication 8.27% 0.71% Model Writer from oral and the written word to mass Musician 0.31% 1.49% 0.84% print, radio and television. 0.31% 25.61% 0.31% 0.34% Another way to look at this wealth of Athlete Racecar 0.31% 2.07% Tennis 0.25% data is by rankings. Yu et al. included two 0.46% 0.25% Player Driver 0.43% 0.4% popularity measures in their dataset: the 0.15% 23.69% 2.17% 1.21% 0.34% 0.22% Film Director number of language editions in Wikipedia Cyclist 0.25% 0.12% 0.65% 6.47% 0.12% 1.73% Wrestler 0.09% 3.41% 1.24% 0.68% 0.43% 0.12% 0.19% and the historical popularity index, which NPG also takes into account the age of the individual and the distribution of page chess players — the two metrics used by this is a very complex question. But it views among different languages. For Yu and colleagues agree well with other does offer an abundance of information physicists, the two metrics provide the measures of accomplishment, such as the to be used in future studies on the social same top ten personalities. But how good number of championship titles won or dynamics of popularity. And it also may are these measures? This is a difficult points scored. provide hints as to how our collective question to answer in general, but for some Pantheon 1.0 does not give a definite memory has changed throughout history. specific occupations — such as Formula 1 answer as to whether fame is well drivers, tennis players, swimmers and deserved, nor is it intended to, after all, IULIA GEORGESCU NATURE PHYSICS | VOL 12 | FEBRUARY 2016 | www.nature.com/naturephysics 115 © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.