More Fun with Google NGram

I know it's not perfect, but I get a real kick out of searching Google NGram Viewer for scientific terms. While discussing the difference between "analogue" and "analog" as they relate to drugs, Chemjobber sent over the NGram comparing their usage.

Once more, I found myself falling down the NGram rabbit hole...

Derek Lowe's played with this a bit over at Pipeline. One thing his commenters wanted to highlight? Carbene. Turns out, when the first neutral lone pair appeared on carbon (around 1910), not many people wrote it down as such. When v.Eggers-Doering and Simmons / Smith began incorporating carbenes into organic synthesis in the mid-'50s, BOOM! They exploded onto the scene:

Vitamins, which were virtually unknown as food additives impacting human heath in the 1800s, were rapidly identified by the early 1900s. In just 20 short years, they went from nonexistent to appearing three out of a hundred thousand published words:

When van Leeuwenhoek first peered through his first microscopes, he called the protozoa, bacteria, amoebae, and various other biology "animalcules." This persisted for a few centuries, until Pasteur and Koch began to advance the germ theory. The result? In just a few short years, microorganisms - both literal and literary - took over:

Readers - Play around, and tell me if you can find some more fun trends! 
I'll update accordingly...

Update (6/8/13) - Thanks Andrew, 0.001% is NOT 1 our of a thousand (D'oh!)

#Chemjobs: Fellowship Freefall

Back in graduate school (*cough* ages ago), I distinctly recall looking forward to the annual announcement of the Division of Organic Chemistry (DOC) Graduate Fellowships. The competitive awards, which require advisor recommendations, essays, and a pretty slick research record, granted the lucky few a full year's stipend along with travel funds to attend the National Organic Symposium.

When I clicked for the 2012-2013 crew, I felt something was missing...where's all the fellowships? I counted only eight grantees. Not to condemn them; their research certainly merits the award, but didn't the DOC used to give out a whole pile more?

In a word: yes. Here's the historical data for the grantees, taken from this website. 

Talking points:

1. Lines, lines: It's not an accident that the trend mirrors the overall economy generally, and employment in Big Pharma specifically. Note the huge uptick in awards between 1997 and 2001, when the average was ~18 per year. Boom times. It's since settled down to just about 8 annually, around the average of the recession-era '80s.

2. Visits: Those last seven years (2006-2012) match the corresponding decline in corporate recruiting (see MIT, Harvard graphs via Chemjobber).

3. Strange birds: Since graduate school enrollment has dramatically increased, at the same time as fellowships have decreased, these awards become even more prestigious, if only by dint of rarity.

4. Peak Perfection: Let's look at the top year: 1997, when 19 fellows were named. Who sponsored the awards? Take a trip down memory lane...

Wyeth-Ayerst

Abbott

Pfizer

DuPont Merck

Hoescht-Marion Roussel

Org Syn (x 3)

Organic Reactions

Boehringer Ingelheim

Zeneca

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Procter and Gamble

Pharmacia-Upjohn

Eli Lilly

Smithkline Beecham

Merck Research

Rohm and Haas

Schering-Plough

Wow, how many of those guys even exist anymore? Contrast this list with the 2012 crop:

Merck / Division of Organic Chemistry

Org Reactions / Org Syn

Genentech

Boehringer Ingelheim

Org Syn (x 2)

Amgen

Troyansky (family endowment)

Pretty slim pickins.

5. Winners? Losers? Some auspicious names have been missing from the DOC Fellows' list in recent years: Harvard, MIT, Scripps? Actually, the trend improves for state schools, with 5/8 in 2012 going to the public universities. Compare this to 1995 ("boom times"), when the list included Harvard (x 2), Stanford (x 2), Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, MIT, Yale, USC, Chicago, and the publics represented by Berkeley (x 2), Wisconsin (x 2) and Utah.

Note: Thanks to Chemjobber for the inspiration.
Update (11/8/12) - Fixed USC, not a public uni! Thanks, Anon commenter...also Chicago..