Profiles in Science (review)

According to the OED a profile is, among other things, "a short biographical sketch or character study, esp. of a public figure." The National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Web site Profiles in Science is more than a series of profiles, however. It is also a potentially useful and searchable online collection of documents and iconographic material relating to "several prominent twentieth-century American biomedical scientists."

Unfortunately, Profiles in Science is not that easy to find through NLM's main Web site (http://www.nlm.nih.gov). It takes some navigational and operative mouse skills to discover it. First, click "History of Medicine" among the many options in the left column, then "Digital Collections," and—if you are dexterous in the use of a mouse—eventually you may be able to open Profiles in Science (only to discover there is also a clickable banner for illiterate navigators.)

Better use a search engine. The fact that Profiles in Science comes up first among around 30,000 hits on Google—right before Wes Kim's celebrated short video about the fictive time-lapse photographer "Dr. Albert Chung"—is a good measure of its popularity and a rare example of how a history of science site can triumph over YouTube.

Profiles in Science first launched in 1998 and as of February 2008 contained short biographical narratives and digitized documents from nineteen biomedical scientists plus a handful of important U.S. medical doctors and health officials. Parts of the online collection (like the Anfinsen documents) are physically available for inspection at the NLM; in other cases, the repositories are placed elsewhere. For example, the Linus Pauling papers are in the archives of the Oregon State University Libraries.

There are some good reasons for the site's popularity. Donald S. Frederickson or Martin Rodbell may not be that well known to the general public or historians of science, but Barbara McClintock and Linus Pauling of course are, and Joshua Lederberg and Marshall Nirenberg are still household names among biomedical scientists. Furthermore, once you have found it, the site is reasonably easy to navigate and search.

It is also regularly updated. Since last summer, five new scientist profiles have been added, including that of immunologist Michael Heidelberger, former NIH Director Harold Varmus, molecular biologists Maxine Singer and Sol Spiegelman, and chemist Rosalind Franklin. (For some reason, Google describes the Web site's focus as "American biomedical scientists," even though Profiles features Franklin and Francis Crick [Great Britain], Albert Szent-Gyorgyi [Hungarian born], Salvador E. Luria [Italian born], etc.) Health activist and medical philanthropist Mary Lasker, co-founder of the Lasker Award program, is also profiled (a significant inclusion in a site sponsored by a major U.S. medical funding agency).

Each person's profile contains a short biography and a sometimes fairly detailed description of his or her professional work. This material is definitely the best part of the site—competently written by a group of NLM staff members, and as far as I can judge, authoritative and trustworthy. To this should be added the digitized documents—PDF files of published papers, manuscripts, diaries, letters, photographs, audiotapes, video clips, for example—all nicely reproduced; the visual side is particularly strong and reflects NLM's high standards.

The Profiles in Science site is not without its problems, however. Its usefulness for research is restricted. The NLM staff has selected documents for inclusion that "provide insight into both the development of modern biomedical science as well as the character and life of the individual scientists," but the criteria for selection are not explained, and therefore the site is probably best used for educational and public learning purposes.

But even for these purposes, Profiles in Science is problematic. Internet users are rapidly getting used to Web 2.0 products and will find the site quite outmoded. The project's creators claim to have used "modern digital technology," but there are no hyperlinks! They would be well advised to take a tour around the Web, for example on Wikipedia, to learn some basic tricks of...