Quantifying hot topics in physics

David Pescovitz 8:26 am Fri May 12, 2006

A PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Solid-State Physics has developed a method to infer the "hottest" topics in physics research by scouring the abstracts of scientific publications in a massive database. According to graduate student Michael Banks's ranking system, carbon nanotubes are the top research topic of the day, followed by nanowires, quantum dots, fullerenes, giant magnetoresistance, M-theory, and quantum computation. Banks's index builds on the Hirsch index, a technique developed last year for "quantifying the performance of individual scientists." From PhysicsWeb:

The new index might help potential PhD students to choose their future area of research, suggests Banks. It could also provide a useful yardstick to compare different fields when awarding funds and grants. However, he warns that his index should not become the only way to assess the importance of a particular subject.

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