Charles Thomson Rees Wilson

Physicist 1869 – 1959
Forgotten
#766
Historical Importance
16K
2025 Wikipedia Views
-47.7%
Year-over-Year
-13%
2025 Momentum

📈 2025 Monthly Wikipedia Views

About Charles Thomson Rees Wilson

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959) was a distinguished Scottish physicist whose place at HPI Rank #766 is secured by a singular, foundational contribution to experimental physics. He is credited with inventing the cloud chamber, a device that allows the paths of ionizing radiation particles to be visualized. This innovation was critical for studying subatomic physics and verifying the existence of particles like positrons, leading directly to his shared Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927.

Despite this profound historical importance, Wilson’s modern internet presence is notably thin. In 2025, his Wikipedia page accumulated only 16K annualized views. To place this in context, contemporary physicist Louis de Broglie, ranked slightly lower at #888, received over nine times that traffic with 150K views. Wilson's attention ratio relative to his importance stands at a significant underattention of -21x.

Furthermore, interest in the inventor of the cloud chamber appears to be actively receding; his views have dropped by 47.7% year-over-year, and his momentum from Q1 to Q3 of 2025 also shows a concerning decline of -13%.