Impact factors and citation indices are a somewhat gold standard to measure quality and productivity of a scientist. But critics question the validity of these measures. Now, Jürgen Kaube writes in FAZ (24.7.2008) about a statistical report on impact factors commissioned by the International Mathematical Union (among others). The conclusion is, the significance of these citation measures like the impact factor or the Hirsch index is poor, if not nil.

Lisa Margonelli reviews in the NY Times (15. June 2008) the book "Bottlemania" by Elizabeth Royte. The message: "So why did Americans spend nearly $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, when we could have guzzled tap water at up to about one ten-thousandth the cost? The facile answer is marketing, marketing and more marketing." We know, tapped water is as good as bottled water, or even better. Royte gives now a broader picture, including political, economic and cultural background. I guess, all speaks for the tap.

William Broad investigates for the NY Times (15.4.2008) whether the Titanic sank in 1912 because the ship's builder used not the best available material for the thousands of rivets but second choice.

The hotspots for the risks that new infectious diseases emerge are located in India, China, tropical Africa and Central America, states a report in the journal Nature and a related Nature News story (20.2.2008) by Michael Hopkin. But also the western part of Germany, NL, BE, and the UK are at risk, according to deep red spots on the map. High population density is a main risk factor, explains Kate Jones of the Zoological Society of London. In the supplementary information of the paper there's a list of all 335 new infections diseases emerged since 1940, and a lot came first on the stage in western Europe.

Now, when the Space Shuttle Atlantis is visiting the International Space Station (ISS), swapping crew members and extending hardware by attaching the space lab Columbus, it's time to tell your kids about human space flight, what this people are doing on-board, and what all this fuzz is about.
Thus, cock your head and watch the sky. The space station is visible very good just after sunset as a bright straight moving spot (it takes 91 minutes for one orbit, its altitude is around 340 kilometers).
ESA provides a nice mash-up of ISS's present position on a Google map, although no future advice for a sighting at your home town is available. That's done by a website of NASA, showing the possible sightings for the next days. Click on "Sighting Opportunities" and go ahead for your country and nearest town.

Some 50 years ago physicists unraveled the makings of superconductivity -- at least in a first stage for the so-called superconductors of type 1, say the ordinary superconductors. John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer outlined the later dubbed B.C.S. theory (after their initials) in a Physical Review paper, which says, that electric current without resistance in established by the coupling of two electrons (a so-called Cooper pair) via lattice vibrations. Kenneth Chang remembers in a NY Times (8.1.2008) piece the making of. However, in 1986 a second type of superconductors were discovered, the so-called high-temperature superconductors that are still awaiting a concise explanation.