The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge – Can a splash of water reinvigorate a field?

Figures & data

Figure 1. Increased volume of Google search traffic for the search terms ‘ALS’, ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’, and ‘MND’. Values are relative, scaled 0–100 from the highest volume of search terms; ‘ALS’ was entered as a search term around 100 times more than ‘MND’. Data source: https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q = ALS%2C%20MND%2C%20Ice%20bucket%20 challenge&date = today%203-m&cmpt = q.

Table I. Additional funding reported by the major ALS charities as a result of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge.

Organization	Additional Funding Reported
ALS Association	$100m
Motor Neurone Disease Association	£7m
ALS Therapy Development Institute	$4m
Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association	€1.4m
ALS Foundation Netherlands	€1m
Project ALS	$500k

Figure 2. Dramatic but transient increase in Wikipedia traffic to the ALS page in the summer of 2014. Data source: http://stats.grok.se/en/latest90/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis#, missing data on August 28^th.