Chapter 9: Revealing Data in Science: Using and Teaching About Data-Based Graphics for Analysis and Display

Flip through any scientific journal or textbook, and you will notice that the text is interspersed with graphics. In some journals, as much as 30% of space is taken up by two-variable graphs and data maps alone (Cleveland, 1984). Some have argued that the use of graphics distinguishes science from non-science (Latour, 1990). What makes graphics so essential to the process of science? Graphics provide a means to display large amounts of data efficiently; in addition, they make large amounts of data mobile, presentable, and easily combinable with other data (Latour, 1990). Numerical data are thus often displayed in graphic form to help scientists visualize and interpret the variation, patterns, and trends within the data, as well as to present their results to others. Such “data-based graphics” can be powerful and persuasive tools that can bring about conceptual change in the reader or creator; in the words of Edward Tufte, these “graphics reveal data” (Tufte, 2001). Others have taken advantage of this power: Hans Rosling claims that accessible statistical graphics can be used to change perceptions of the developing world (Rosling, 2007), and some have suggested that Al Gore’s effective use of data-based graphics in the film “An Inconvenient Truth” led to his Nobel Peace Prize (Zambrano & Engelhardt, 2008).