Born 1834 in Yorkshire, John Venn was the 8th Venn to have a college education, mostly because his family held a pretty high status in the Christian church. As you probably know, until relatively recently, higher education was mostly a function of the church. As such, he probably enjoyed quite a few privileges and opportunities that the common man didn’t have access to at the time. One can only wonder what Venn would have thought of the way the world is today, where the stereotypical liberal college professor is agnostic, at best. Would he be thrilled at the trend towards opening access and democratizing research, or would be be horrified at the secular “barbarians at the gates”?

Whatever the case, we’re thrilled he formulated his theory of symbolic logic, as we can now use the concept of a Venn diagram to explain concepts such as:

Does the world need a Venn diagram maker to show the world “Stuff in my Mendeley Library” ∧ “Stuff I’ve read”? Tell us by adding it to our Scientific App Ideas form and we’ll do our best to make it happen.