Vol. 3, Issue 1, Jan 2013

Trends in Condensed Matter Physics: Is Research Going Faster and Faster?

Scientific articles, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Jan 2013 Comments Off

Nov 052012

C. Attaccalite^a and S. Barland^b

^aInstitut Néel, CNRS/UJF, 25 rue des Martyrs BP 166, Bâtiment D 38042 Grenoble cedex 9 France

^bUniversité de Nice – CNRS UMR 7335, Institut Non Linéaire de Nice, 1361 route des lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France

JUnQ, 3, 1, Articles, 1–5, 2013 (Received 30.08.2012, accepted 04.11.2012, published online 06.11.2012)

In this paper we study research trends in condensed matter physics. Trends are analyzed by means of the number of publications in the different sub-fields as function of the years. We found that many research topics have a similar behavior with an initial fast growth and a next slower exponential decay. We derived a simple model to describe this behavior and built up some predictions for future trends.

Who Was the Sexologist ‘Carl van Bolen’?

Essays, news, and open questions, Open Questions, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Jan 2013 Comments Off

Aug 232012

Wolter Seuntjens

Dutch Academy of ’Pataphysics, Amsterdam

JUnQ, 3, 1,Open Questions, 1-4, 2013 (Received 06.06.2012, accepted 27.06.2012, published online 23.08.2012)

In the 1950s five books on sexology — in a broad sense — were published in German under the name of ‘Carl van Bolen’. However, the man and the author ‘Carl van Bolen’ never existed. Who then wrote the books? My preliminary investigation did not yield an answer. In fact, during my research the mystery only deepened.