Maintaining the Historical Record

Maintaining the integrity of the scientific record.

We editors of medical journals worry that we sometimes publish studies where the declared authors have not participated in the design of the study, had no access to the raw data, and had little to do with the interpretation of the data. Instead the sponsors of the study—often pharmaceutical companies—have designed the study and analysed and interpreted the data. Readers and editors are thus bei...

Updating the Historical Sunspot Record

We review the evidence for the argument that Rudolf Wolf’s calibration of the Sunspot Number is likely to be correct and that Max Waldmeier introduced an upwards jump in the sunspot number in 1945. The combined effect of these adjustments suggests that there has been no secular change in the sunspot number since coming out of the Maunder Minimum ∼1715. 1 The Sunspot Record(s!) The Sunspot Recor...

Sedimentary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: the historical record.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in three sections of a dated sediment core from Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, have been analyzed by gas chromatographic spectrometry. This historical information suggests that sedimentary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, at least at this location, result primarily from the anthropogenic combustion of fossil fuels.

Global Ozone Minima in the Historical Record

The magnitude and structure of the global total ozone minimum between 1958 and 1962 is similar to that observed between 1979 and 1983. Analysis of the single station data that exhibit the most pronounced minima suggest that the spatial structure of the global minimum is different from the currently observed reduction. Very low north polar values were observed, but there is no indication of anom...

The Left Book Club: An Historical Record