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The shortest papers ever published (2016)

by archielc on 10/20/23, 11:35 PM with 75 comments

by MBlume on 10/21/23, 4:33 AM
This neglects the classic paper published in The Annals of Improbable Research, The Effects of Peanut Butter on the Rotation of the Earth: https://improbable.com/airchives/classical/articles/peanut_b...
by aquafox on 10/21/23, 5:48 AM
Not a paper, but
2×3×5×7×11×13 + 1 = 59×509
is a short counter example to the widespread misconception that adding one to the product of the first n consecutive prime numbers always yields a prime number.
The reason you get away with this in the infinitely-many-prime-numbers proof is that the new number may not be prime, but can be written as a product of primes that are distinct from the first n primes. Thus you still generate new prime numbers with this technique.
by dragon96 on 10/21/23, 3:57 AM
Though not quite as short, the Watson and Crick paper is another famously short paper:
https://dosequis.colorado.edu/Courses/MethodsLogic/papers/Wa...
by noncovalence on 10/21/23, 6:41 AM
Missing my favourite zero-word paper:
"Can a good philosophical contribution be made just by asking a question?" https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12599
by ramraj07 on 10/21/23, 2:34 AM
When I saw this paper about “Royalactin” in Nature [1], it was fascinating subject matter for one but I was impressed that it was a single author non theoretical original research article in a high impact journal. I thought it was baller. Have been trying to search for anything similar published in recent times and have come across empty. I feel it’s emblematic how impossible it is to make any great biology breakthrough nowadays as a lone wolf. But one can aspire!
The guy who published it seems kooky as well. Would love to interview him some day!
1. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10093
by FireBeyond on 10/21/23, 2:44 AM
Vaguely related but I remember the tale of an author on vacation after publication of his latest novel. He telegramed his publisher to enquire about reception:
“?”
Publisher replied:
“!”
by analog31 on 10/21/23, 3:11 AM
Along with short papers, there are short titles. I. I. Rabi tried to get a paper published in a German journal with a one-word title:
"Molekularstrahlenablenkungsmethode"
The journal turned it down.
https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral...
by HighFreqAsuka on 10/21/23, 11:32 AM
In computational geometry, Raimund Seidel wrote a paper that proves an upper bound theorem for polytopes in two sentences in the abstract. The rest of the paper just comments on the result.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0925772195...
by wodenokoto on 10/21/23, 4:34 AM
My high school math teacher told as about how students at his university competed for the shortest bachelor paper.
Not getting a paper published is par for the course, but having to retake your bachelor examination is quite the hassle. The risk and associated bragging rights seemed quite big.
by quickthrower2 on 10/21/23, 12:15 AM
Can someone explain the n^2 + 2 triangles paper?
by doomrobo on 10/21/23, 2:06 AM
A recent 5-page cryptography paper ended up winning a best paper award (albeit for an extended version)
https://eprint.iacr.org/archive/2020/945/1596227165.pdf
by ar-jan on 10/21/23, 2:00 PM
It's missing the shortest meaningful paper:
Fiengo, Robert, and Howard Lasnik. 1972. “On Nonrecoverable Deletion in Syntax.” Linguistic Inquiry 3 (4): 528. https://i.imgur.com/vLntfCp.jpg
by dang on 10/21/23, 1:09 AM
Related:
The Shortest Papers Ever Published (2016) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15737611 - Nov 2017 (93 comments)
by hanche on 10/21/23, 10:43 PM
Obliquely related, the shortest paper title I am aware of: H=W. By Norman G. Meyers and James Serrin, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 51 (1964), 1055–1056.
by baby on 10/21/23, 8:00 AM
UDP RFC is like 3 pages
by eynsham on 10/21/23, 6:07 PM
Short abstracts such as ‘yes’, ‘no’, &c of papers whose titles are questions are amusing but not as helpful as those whose titles straightforwardly state the answer (e.g., ‘X is Y’ is preferable to ‘Is X Y?’ with abstract ‘yes’).
by aghilmort on 10/21/23, 12:06 AM
the writer’s block paper is art!
by ThePhysicist on 10/21/23, 8:39 AM
Brian Josephsons' paper on the superconducting tunneling effect that's now named after him was one of the first (and last) papers he ever published and netted him a Nobel prize. It's just 2 pages long I think [1]. Can't be sure as I cannot get the full text since it's paywalled, pretty sure it's only 2-3 pages though.
1: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/003191...
by schoen on 10/20/23, 11:42 PM
(2016)
by fghorow on 10/21/23, 12:11 AM
Hmm. I'm wondering how the short lengths of these papers might cause them to have lower information-theoretic entropy than the (in)famous "chicken" talk[1]?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk
by monero-xmr on 10/21/23, 1:46 AM
As a rule, when trying to convey information, I try to write and speak plainly. I try to avoid jargon.
I have found many academic papers in the faux sciences to be extremely dense and full of terms that are only known to the priests of that arcane subject (still subsidized by taxes as if the result is a common good).
If you have a point, say it. There is no need to write in legalese. When I see supposed research written like this, I assume it’s a grift written just for the tiny group of academics tenured in that subject, who review each others’ papers every year, buy each others’ books, and keep the perpetual motion machine of funding running until they hit retirement.
by behnamoh on 10/21/23, 2:16 AM
I was hoping that LLMs would help with "writer's block", but their limited context window has been a PITA. Has anyone have had any success with ROPE scaled models or claude 100k?