By the way if you want to explore network science but don't really know where to start, consider Gephi (currently being refactored, and just updated a few days ago) or Cytoscape (if you're more drawn to bioinformatics).
Both make it easy to load/generate standard datasets, import tabular data, and have a good selection of plugins. It's easy to kick stuff out to either from NetworkX using /gefx or graphml, and you'll be able to experiment with a wide variety of layout algorithms and metrics. If you don't find the toy/benchmark networks intuitive, considering hitting the HN API for your source material; it's a lot easier to grasp the topic by studying relationships that are already familiar.
Both make it easy to load/generate standard datasets, import tabular data, and have a good selection of plugins. It's easy to kick stuff out to either from NetworkX using /gefx or graphml, and you'll be able to experiment with a wide variety of layout algorithms and metrics. If you don't find the toy/benchmark networks intuitive, considering hitting the HN API for your source material; it's a lot easier to grasp the topic by studying relationships that are already familiar.