Sam Wormley wrote:

Ref: http://physicsweb.org/article/news/8/2/3

The world of science is a small one, according to a new statistical
analysis by a US physicist. Mark Newman at the University of Michigan
studied the collaboration patterns between researchers and found that
most scientists are separated from each other by only about 4 to 7
links. He believes this and other results that he has unearthed could
have implications for the way science is practised in the future (Proc.
Nat. Acad. Sci to be published)

See: http://physicsweb.org/article/news/8/2/3

Math also has the "Erdos number," the distance you are from having
directly collaborated with genius and mildy crazy fellah Paul Erdos.
Direct interface is a 1. Collaborating with a "1" gets you a "2," and
so on.

http://www.paulerdos.com/

He died in 1996, so low numbers become increasingly scarce overall.
One of the heavy ends in the parity Eotvos experiment was lifted by an
Erdos-1. You have no idea how we scrambled to put chocks underneath
it to shore it up.

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" The Net!

Uncle Al wrote:

Math also has the "Erdos number," the distance you are from having
directly collaborated with genius and mildy crazy fellah Paul Erdos.
Direct interface is a 1. Collaborating with a "1" gets you a "2," and
so on.

http://www.paulerdos.com/

There's also the Bacon number, which is the degree of separation of
an actor from the actor Kevin Bacon.

I believe at least one mathematician with an Erdos number also has
a Bacon number. So the two 'domains' are linked!


Cheers

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John R Ramsden )
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"Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end."
Woody Allen