{"id":317710,"date":"2024-04-15T14:20:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T12:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317710"},"modified":"2024-04-15T14:20:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T12:20:28","slug":"science-proves-isaac-newton-doesnt-even-break-into-top-8000-all-time-greatest-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317710","title":{"rendered":"Science Proves Isaac Newton Doesn\u2019t Even Break Into Top 8,000 All Time Greatest Scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Science Is Not The Answer Substack<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

William M Briggs<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Issac Newton was the greatest scientist. The calculus, mechanics, gravity, thermodynamics, astronomy, optics, the binomial theorem, even theology! You name it, Newton was there, looming over all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo way, Briggs. I checked. Newton only has an h-index of 70, whereas the great Richard Dawkins has an index of 83, and 83 is greater than 70, even without calculus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H-index?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes. It\u2019s a quantification of the amazingness of scientists. It\u2019s a hard number, a solid metric, beloved of scientists and hiring committees, that quantifies their worth. Think of it like IQ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\u2019s it calculated?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor any scientist, count the number of his papers that have been cited by other papers at least h times. An h-index of 10 means a scientist has at least 10 papers that have been cited at least 10 times each.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Dawkins has 83 papers that have been cited at least 83 times, whereas Newton has 13 fewer. And that makes Dakwins the superior scientist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does. Numbers do not lie, as they say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anybody better than Dawkins?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, many. I only picked him because everybody knows him and he\u2019s been in the news recently. Dawkins is ackshually pretty low. There\u2019s an Official List, you know. Or you should have known before you went spouting off about who was the Best Evah. It\u2019s called the AD Scientific Index<\/a>, and ranks all scientists by their h-index.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, I\u2019m curious, and of course always willing to be corrected. Who do they say is the top scientist, if not Newton?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlberto Ruiz Jimeno. Has an h-index of a whopping 348, putting your Newton to shame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I\u2019m ashamed to say I had never heard of Jimeno, God bless him, who, I take at your word, must be a great scientist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis most famous paper, cited by over 14,000 other papers, is \u2018The CMS experiment at the CERN LHC<\/a>\u2018.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That I remember. That CMS is the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN. Those CERN guys are always churning out papers. Many have dozens, even hundreds, of authors. Makes you wonder who\u2019s doing the actual writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\u2014hang on\u2014I notice at the top of the Index site you tout there is a button to \u201cList without CERN\u2026\u201d Maybe they know about CERN\u2019s paper factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter. Ignore CERN. There are still an enormous number of scientists better than your Newton. Take Ronald C Kessler<\/a>, who has an h-index of 336. He\u2019s a psychiatrist, has nothing to do with CERN. His top paper is \u2018Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication\u2019, cited by over 36,000 other papers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, the National Comorbidity Survey, another paper generator, maybe even more efficient than AI. How about more ordinary brilliance. Not just paper count, but the work itself. Who else has h-index values around Newton\u2019s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have to admit I don\u2019t know. That AD Index lists 1,604,605 scientists, but they stop displaying the database at an h-index of 100. Those below don\u2019t show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hundred? That\u2019s still higher than Newton, even Dawkins. Who\u2019s the last in the list that does show?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHorace Loh, from the University of Minnesota. He has an h-index of 100. His most cited paper, which only has three authors, is \u2018Molecular mechanisms and regulation of opioid receptor signaling\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds like it could be of interest. To somebody, anyway. Yet would you say it ranked right up there with the invention of The Calculus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, maybe not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to that AD Index there\u2019s something like 8,250 or so scientists with h-indexes of 100 or greater, all better or more worthy to be called The Best than Newton. If we decide h-index is a useful metric of worthiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the criterion of goodness is money, which is not a bad argument to make, given science is now an enterprise, then h-index is the way to go. The h-index still has low correlation with real value about knowledge of the world, though. But even if we accept money, the h-index doesn\u2019t account for the number of working scientists, which only seems to increase, thus boosting everybody\u2019s index through time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The small, independent man who publishes little but with each work being a gem would score low. Ignoring the absolute bottom tier of scientists, the h-index functions more like an inversion of real value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it does account for this curious paper Anon suggested to me. \u201cGoogle Scholar is manipulatable<\/a>\u201c, by Hazem Ibrahim and others. Some unscrupulous scientists are now buying citations to boost their h-indexes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Abstract:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Citations are widely considered in scientists\u2019 evaluation. As such, scientists
may be incentivized to inflate their citation counts. While previous literature
has examined self-citations and citation cartels, it remains unclear whether
scientists can purchase citations\u2026Intrigued by a citation boosting service that we unravelled during our investigation, we contacted the
service while undercover as a fictional author, and managed to purchase 50
citations. These findings provide conclusive evidence that citations can be
bought in bulk, and highlight the need to look beyond citation counts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You have to laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscribe or donate to support this site and its wholly independent host using credit card click here<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Or use the paid subscription at Substack. Cash App: $WilliamMBriggs. For Zelle, use my email: matt@wmbriggs.com, and please include yours so I know who to thank.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issac Newton was the greatest scientist. The calculus, mechanics, gravity, thermodynamics, astronomy, optics, the binomial theorem, even theology! You name it, Newton was there, looming over all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":317714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691828144,691828143,691828145],"class_list":{"0":"post-317710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-google-scholar","9":"tag-isaac-newton","10":"tag-williammbriggs","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0-Issac-Newton.webp?fit=1856%2C1102&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1kEm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":263452,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263452","url_meta":{"origin":317710,"position":0},"title":"How Do COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Harm the Body and What\u2019s the Treatment?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"His autopsy slides show damaged blood vessels, both the cells that form the inner lining (the epithelium) and the fibrous \u2018tube\u2019 of the vessels, as well as the disintegrated heart muscle fibres suspected to lie behind sudden adult (or arrhythmic) death syndrome (SADS). His team\u2019s test has found spike proteins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Contamination\"","block_context":{"text":"Contamination","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=contamination"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0covid-19-vaccine-mrna-dna-1204201.webp?fit=1200%2C810&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0covid-19-vaccine-mrna-dna-1204201.webp?fit=1200%2C810&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0covid-19-vaccine-mrna-dna-1204201.webp?fit=1200%2C810&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0covid-19-vaccine-mrna-dna-1204201.webp?fit=1200%2C810&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0covid-19-vaccine-mrna-dna-1204201.webp?fit=1200%2C810&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":408154,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=408154","url_meta":{"origin":317710,"position":1},"title":"Newton Rigg Revisited \u2013 Why not deleted? The next FOI that cannot be ruled \u201cVexatious.\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Met Office subsequently and covertly deleted the \u201cvisibility\u201d of data post site closure at\u00a0Lowestoft,\u00a0Nairn, and\u00a0Paisley\u00a0thus starting the collapsing of the house of cards. Newton Rigg\u2019s data, however, still remains and is continuing to be fabricated with temperatures, rainfall, frost days and precipitation being recently added for September 2025. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Disinformation\"","block_context":{"text":"Disinformation","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=disinformation"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNpXvcnNxizhuIQdTy4hmUX43mNEZxBYn5x1nVeUP9ytPBttvg66Go4gGB01t6U5vZmDgrAw5Gm88fUPyShaOoFVBYju0iq_pw2f62s3C2s1wKZ5iG7qu8-fLD7N9Dv-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C669&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNpXvcnNxizhuIQdTy4hmUX43mNEZxBYn5x1nVeUP9ytPBttvg66Go4gGB01t6U5vZmDgrAw5Gm88fUPyShaOoFVBYju0iq_pw2f62s3C2s1wKZ5iG7qu8-fLD7N9Dv-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C669&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNpXvcnNxizhuIQdTy4hmUX43mNEZxBYn5x1nVeUP9ytPBttvg66Go4gGB01t6U5vZmDgrAw5Gm88fUPyShaOoFVBYju0iq_pw2f62s3C2s1wKZ5iG7qu8-fLD7N9Dv-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C669&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNpXvcnNxizhuIQdTy4hmUX43mNEZxBYn5x1nVeUP9ytPBttvg66Go4gGB01t6U5vZmDgrAw5Gm88fUPyShaOoFVBYju0iq_pw2f62s3C2s1wKZ5iG7qu8-fLD7N9Dv-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C669&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNpXvcnNxizhuIQdTy4hmUX43mNEZxBYn5x1nVeUP9ytPBttvg66Go4gGB01t6U5vZmDgrAw5Gm88fUPyShaOoFVBYju0iq_pw2f62s3C2s1wKZ5iG7qu8-fLD7N9Dv-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C669&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":374558,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374558","url_meta":{"origin":317710,"position":2},"title":"Met Office Shock: More Non-Existent UK Weather Stations Discovered Reporting Invented Data","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month the average maximum temperature at Newton Rigg was 11.5\u00b0C, the lowest was 3\u00b0C, while 23mm of rain fell. Newton Rigg is near Penrith in Cumbria and in its\u00a0historic database\u00a0the UK Met Office claims it is an open site and is one of its 380 UK wide temperature measuring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"climate alarmism\"","block_context":{"text":"climate alarmism","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarmism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-08-201058.jpeg?fit=1200%2C567&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-08-201058.jpeg?fit=1200%2C567&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-08-201058.jpeg?fit=1200%2C567&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-08-201058.jpeg?fit=1200%2C567&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-08-201058.jpeg?fit=1200%2C567&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":349243,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349243","url_meta":{"origin":317710,"position":3},"title":"Blade-Runners Busted: State Sues Fake \u2018Recycler\u2019 For Dumping Wind Turbine\u00a0Blades","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/10\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Millions of toxic wind turbine blades have already been dumped in landfill, with millions more to follow. The wind industry is filled with shysters of all shapes and sizes, and has managed to spawn a peculiar a sub-species that spends their days telling everyone about their wonderful plans to recycle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"recycle the blades\"","block_context":{"text":"recycle the blades","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=recycle-the-blades"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":203993,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=203993","url_meta":{"origin":317710,"position":4},"title":"A conservative calculation of specific impulse for CO2","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Richard Feynman frequently reminded us,\u00a0\u201cIf it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0Screenshot-2022-06-12-112922.png?fit=915%2C706&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0Screenshot-2022-06-12-112922.png?fit=915%2C706&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0Screenshot-2022-06-12-112922.png?fit=915%2C706&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0Screenshot-2022-06-12-112922.png?fit=915%2C706&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":236733,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=236733","url_meta":{"origin":317710,"position":5},"title":"Decolonizing Attack on Science","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Short form: Science does not wear badges.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0Screenshot-2022-12-29-185159.png?fit=833%2C555&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0Screenshot-2022-12-29-185159.png?fit=833%2C555&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0Screenshot-2022-12-29-185159.png?fit=833%2C555&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0Screenshot-2022-12-29-185159.png?fit=833%2C555&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317716,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317710\/revisions\/317716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/317714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}