Florence Nightingale, Data Scientist
Florence Nightingale is well-known as the founder of modern nursing. She was also a statistician. Nightingale has been called The Godmother of Infographics. One of her designs is a pie chart for time-travel. It’s now known as a Coxcomb Chart; the name comes from its resemblance to a rose or cockscomb, a garden plant.
Nightingale created this Coxcomb to tell a story about the relationship between deaths from complications and during battle. You read it like a clock. Below, at right, 12 o’clock is April 1854. Nightingale was serving in the Crimea War.
Time marches on clockwise. Deaths from post-battle disease (“Zymotic diseases”) are shown in blue; deaths during battle are in pink and black. The dominant blue ink tells her story: more soldiers died from preventable causes than from the battle itself.
Great data science tells a story. The greatest of all time change minds. This chart helped change policy and save lives.
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Why not help Nightingale’s legacy live on?
In 2021, we’ll hold a series of hackathons to extend Spotfire with innovative visualizations. The Coxcomb is a great candidate. To learn more, here's an article about the Mods Mission and low-code analytics applications. Here are more details about the Coxcomb and an implementation from Visually.
Or, consider helping the Florence Nightingale Museum with a donation. Like many museums, they’ve been hit hard by the pandemic and need help.
And, if you contribute a Nightingale-inspired Mod, let me know on LinkedIn. Help keep the legacy of the Godmother of Infographics alive!