Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion MDC & gifted hostility

I wasn't referring to impact factor of journals: I meant that it's applied to individual scientists.

That said, though, I'm not convinced that impact factors are as straightforward as they seem to be on the surface. For example, publication in a certain journal or lots of citations can be a reflection of trendiness as much as anything else. I can cite one example of groundbreaking work in theoretical physics in a low-circulation journal. Ernest Stu(e)ckelberg did Nobel-worthy work but published in French in relatively obscure journals (eg Helvetica Physica Acta). His choice of venue may have been unfortunate, but it didn't make his work any less meaningful

Val

Wow. Comets as a major player in the origin of life! Coo-ol! Thanks for posting that. Wait'll I tell my kids...

Val

That is interesting. I recall having read once the there was a hypothesis that some of the major epidemics of illness (such as the black plague) were brought about by bacteria or viruses carried to earth through meteor showers.