Technologist-Historian: Data Visualization Meets the Archive
Name
Shell_Technologist-historian.pdf
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358.09 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Shell, Hanna Rose
Wellerstein, Alex
Date Issued
January 2015
Journal
Technology and Culture
Publisher
Muse - Johns Hopkins University Press
Citation
Shell, Hanna Rose, and Alex Wellerstein. “Technologist-Historian: Data Visualization Meets the Archive.” Technology and Culture 56.1 (2015): 204–208. © 2015 Society for the History of Technology
Version
Final published version
Abstract
NukeMap is an interactive data-visualization website that allows visitors to
detonate virtual nuclear bombs on global targets of their choice.1 It is the creation of Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science and technology who
launched the site in early 2012. In NukeMap, the visitor selects a type of
nuclear device, defining its size, or chooses from a menu of predefined options that model the effects that an actual historical bomb would have on a
present-day target. Interactive-display options allow visitors to explore map
layers and datasets such as blast radius, fallout pattern, and number of casualties. Hyperlinks connect to additional historical resources. He or she may, for example, see how much damage “Little Boy,” the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945, would do if dropped on modern Mumbai, or “Gadget,” the bomb detonated over the New Mexican desert in the Trinity test, would do if dropped on Manhattan today.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2015.0015
