The Dynamics of Scientific Knowledge - Mapping Scientific Frontiers: The Quest for Knowledge Visualization - page 43

and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. While CJD is often found among
people over 55, vCJD patients have an average of 27. In the middle of UK's BSE
crisis, the public concerns about whether it is safe to eat beef products at all. This
concern has led to the question whether eating contaminated food can cause vCJD.

1.4 The Organization of the Topic

This topic is written with an interdisciplinary audience in mind, especially for
information scientists who are interested in visualizing the growth of scien-
tific knowledge, for computer scientists who are interested in characterizing the
dynamics of scientific paradigms through the use of visualization and animation
techniques, for philosophers and researchers in social studies of science who are
interested various case studies and possible explanations based on visual explo-
ration. The topic also provides the foundations for people who want to start their
own quests into scientific frontiers and deal with invisible colleges and competing
paradigms.
Chapter 1 , “ The Dynamics of Scientific Knowledge ”, introduces a wide range of
examples to illustrate fundamental issues concerning visual communications and
visual analytic reasoning in general and mapping scientific frontiers in particular.
We emphasize the profound connections between perception and cognition. We use
the metaphor of message in a bottle to highlight the role of visual representations
in communication as well as in everyday life. We also use the story of the blind
men and the elephant to analogy the challenges that science mapping must face.
Several examples in this chapter identify the key requirements for unambiguous
and effective communication based on our perceptual abilities. The power of visual
languages is traced from the ancient cave painting to the messages carried by
the modern spacecraft Pioneer and Voyager. The messages sent to the deep space
also raise the question of what prior knowledge is required for understanding
visualization. Limitations of visual language are explained in terms of Gestalt
psychology. The holistic nature of Gestalt switch at the macroscopic level of
paradigm shift and the mechanisms of replacing a conceptual structure with a new
structure with higher explanation cohesiveness at a more detailed level has set the
stage for topics that we will elaborate and discuss further in the topic.
Chapter 2 , “ Mapping the Universe ”, explores the origin of cartography and its
role in mapping phenomena in the physical world, from terrestrial maps, celestial
maps, to biological maps. We highlight the influential role of thematic maps in sub
sequent visualizations of more abstract phenomena. The idea of a geographic base
map and a thematic overlay is such a simple yet powerful model that we repeatedly
refer to this method throughout the topic. We also emphasize the role of a holistic
metaphor, or an intact image. Stories associated with constellation figures are good
examples of this type of metaphor. The second edition includes new examples of
global science maps and interactive overlays.