Stigler’s Law of Eponymy

Education Science

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan
4
Share via

A comment on this morning’s cometarium post reminded me of this famous axiom in the history of science:

“No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.”

Stigler’s Law is named for University of Chicago statistician Stephen Stigler, who attributes it to sociologist Robert K. Merton. [Thanks, Rahere!]

4 thoughts on “Stigler’s Law of Eponymy”

  1. Alan says:

    I’m pretty certain that Ed Southern really invented the Southern blot. On the other hand, I understand that he was never particularly keen on naming the procedure after himself – others simply tacked his name to it, and it stuck.

  2. jason says:

    Things aren’t named after the first person to discover them, they are named after the last person to discover them.

Comments are closed.

Tagged

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan
Send this to a friend
FEEDBACK