American Scientist

Each American Scientist issue is filled with popular and timely scientific and engineering content ranging from news and features, Q&A's, book reviews, and even multimedia. But there tends to be a few articles in each issue that draw a vast crowd resulting in above-average number of views and interactions.

Based on our hosting platform’s analytics and Google Analytics, here is a list of each issue’s most viewed article in 2014 along with the top book review and multimedia piece. It concludes with the overall 'winner' of the American Scientist digital sphere:

Standing in a quiet, burned-out homesite overlooking the coastal town of Santa Barbara, California, six years after flames tore through this community in 2009, the sense of both terror and loss were still palpable.

	January–February 2014: "How to Fight Back Against Antibiotic Resistance" by Gautam Dantas and Morten O. A. Sommer Mapping the exchange of genes between pathogens and nonpathogens offers new ways to understand and manage the spread of drug-resistant strains.
	March–April 2014: "Twisted Math and Beautiful Geometry" by Eli Maor and Eugen Jost Four families of equations expose the hidden aesthetic of bicycle wheels, falling bodies, rhythmic planets, and mathematics itself.
	May–June 2014: "Quest for Randomness" by Scott Aaronson Determining whether numbers truly can have no pattern has implications for quantum mechanics, not to mention the stock market and data security.
	July–August 2014: "Quantum Randomness" by Scott Aaronson (part two) If there’s no predeterminism in quantum mechanics, can it output numbers that truly have no pattern?
	September–October 2014: "The Superorganism Revolution" by Robert L. Dorit The bacteria living on and in us are challenging paradigms in community ecology.
	November–December 2014: "The Statistical Crisis in Science" by Andrew Gelman and Eric Loken Data-dependent analysis—a "garden of forking paths"—explains why many statistically significant comparisons don't hold up.
	Top Book Review in Scientists’ Nightstand: "A Troubling Tome" by Greg Laden A review of A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History, by Nicholas Wade

Top 2014 Multimedia Item: "Ultrafast Animals: The Powerful Punch of the Mantis Shrimp" by Katie-Leigh Corder and Katie L. BurkeWhen people think of the fastest animals, most consider running cheetahs, flitting hummingbirds, or jumping kangaroos. But there's a level above what we think of as "fast": Ultrafast organisms conserve energy and move in nano- or even micro-seconds.Sheila Patek, PhD, an associate professor in the biology department at Duke University, discusses her research on ultrafast creatures, including the powerful punch of the mantis shrimp and the force behind trap-jaw ants. By using high-speed digital cameras, Dr. Patek and her colleagues are among the first in their field to successfully analyze in slow motion the biology and intention behind these movements.

Drumroll, and the winner is…

Scott Aaronson’s "Quest for Randomness" published in the Technologue section of the May–June 2014 issue! This article took off on social media platforms, especially reddit, and created a lively discussion in the Disqus comments below the article. This column’s success is a testament to social media’s ability to increase engagement and promote a sense of community.

DISCUSS: What is your all-time favorite piece of content from American Scientist?