Viewport Size Code:
Login | Create New Account
picture

  MENU

About | Classical Genetics | Timelines | What's New | What's Hot

About | Classical Genetics | Timelines | What's New | What's Hot

icon

The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project: Providing world-wide, free access to classic scientific papers and other scholarly materials, since 1993.

More About:  ESP | OUR CONTENT | THIS WEBSITE | WHAT'S NEW | WHAT'S HOT

ESP Timelines

Comparative Timelines

The ESP Timeline has long been one of the site's most popular features. Now the Timeline feature has been completely updated to provide much more content (many different subject timelines are now available over a longer time period) and to give the user more control over the timeline display.

Timeline contents: 2862 total timeline entries; updated 05 Mar 2019

The original ESP Timeline provided a decade-at-a-time, side-by-side comparison of events in the history of genetics with historical events. The total period spanned in the original timeline was 1750 to the present. Now the ESP timeline feature spans 1540 to the present and holds data for a number of different categories, such as the history of genetics, the history of biology, world history, photography, arts and literature, milestones in technological innovation, and others. Users may create their own side-by-side timeline displays by selecting the decade and the categories for the left and right sides of the timeline.

Users may also choose to see ALL ESP timeline data in a single side-by-side comparison of all science on the left and all other categories on the right, for the entire 1540–NOW timeframe.

Science in Context: 1540 – Present

It is now possible to see all of the timeline data on a single page:

Genetics in Context

The original ESP Timeline displayed Genetics in Context, starting in the 1860s — the decade in which modern genetics was born with the work of Gregor Mendel:
The 1910s were a transformative decade: WW-I ruins Europe, the Sykes-Picot Agreement enshrines divisiveness and strife as the driving principle in the Middle East, Communism takes over in Russia, a world-wide influenza epidemic kills 50–100 million people (more than died in WW-I), 146 immigrant garment workers burn to death inside the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, the unsinkable Titantic sinks on its maiden voyage, the modern science of genetics is created by TH Morgan's team at Columbia, Wegener proposes continental drift, Geiger invents the counter, Leica prototypes the 35mm still camera, Jack Johnson defeats Jim Jeffries to become the first African-American world heavyweight champion, Lucy Diggs Slowe wins the first national tennis tournament sponsored by the American Tennis Association to become the first African-American woman to win a major sports title, Stieglitz establishes photography as a visual art, Picasso and Braque develop analytic cubism, while Marcel Duchamp challenges the conceptual foundations of art with his painting Nude Descending a Staircase, his sculpture Fountain, and his readymade L.H.O.O.Q.:

Other Comparative Timelines

Here are some examples of other timelines that are available. On any page, the Timeline Controls (blue bar on timeline pages) can be used to change the time period and the subject matter of the left and right columns.

ESP Quick Facts

ESP Origins

In the early 1990's, Robert Robbins was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins, where he directed the informatics core of GDB — the human gene-mapping database of the international human genome project. To share papers with colleagues around the world, he set up a small paper-sharing section on his personal web page. This small project evolved into The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.

ESP Support

In 1995, Robbins became the VP/IT of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. Soon after arriving in Seattle, Robbins secured funding, through the ELSI component of the US Human Genome Project, to create the original ESP.ORG web site, with the formal goal of providing free, world-wide access to the literature of classical genetics.

ESP Rationale

Although the methods of molecular biology can seem almost magical to the uninitiated, the original techniques of classical genetics are readily appreciated by one and all: cross individuals that differ in some inherited trait, collect all of the progeny, score their attributes, and propose mechanisms to explain the patterns of inheritance observed.

ESP Goal

In reading the early works of classical genetics, one is drawn, almost inexorably, into ever more complex models, until molecular explanations begin to seem both necessary and natural. At that point, the tools for understanding genome research are at hand. Assisting readers reach this point was the original goal of The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.

ESP Usage

Usage of the site grew rapidly and has remained high. Faculty began to use the site for their assigned readings. Other on-line publishers, ranging from The New York Times to Nature referenced ESP materials in their own publications. Nobel laureates (e.g., Joshua Lederberg) regularly used the site and even wrote to suggest changes and improvements.

ESP Content

When the site began, no journals were making their early content available in digital format. As a result, ESP was obliged to digitize classic literature before it could be made available. For many important papers — such as Mendel's original paper or the first genetic map — ESP had to produce entirely new typeset versions of the works, if they were to be available in a high-quality format.

ESP Help

Early support from the DOE component of the Human Genome Project was critically important for getting the ESP project on a firm foundation. Since that funding ended (nearly 20 years ago), the project has been operated as a purely volunteer effort. Anyone wishing to assist in these efforts should send an email to Robbins.

ESP Plans

With the development of methods for adding typeset side notes to PDF files, the ESP project now plans to add annotated versions of some classical papers to its holdings. We also plan to add new reference and pedagogical material. We have already started providing regularly updated, comprehensive bibliographies to the ESP.ORG site.

Timeline

The new, dynamic Timeline from the Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project gives users more control over the timeline display.

We seek your suggestions for timeline content, both for individual events and for entire subjects.

To submit a correction or a recommendation or to propose new Timeline content (or to volunteer as a Timeline Editor), click HERE.

The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project needs help: with acquiring content, with writing, with editing, with graphic production, and with financial support.

CLICK HERE to see what ESP needs most.

ESP Picks from Around the Web (updated 07 JUL 2018 )