Scions are fermions, a law of socio‐physics?

In a previous article* the writer drew attention to the fact that some of the models, mathematical formalism, and language used in describing nuclear phenomena can be applied to a particular sociological problem: the remuneration of scientists. In particular, the independent‐particle model and its associated formalism which have been used so successfully in accounting for bound‐state and scattering phenomena in nuclei, seem also to provide a basis for correlating scientific salaries. In the case of nuclear phenomena, the basic interactions between nucleons are two‐body interactions. Nevertheless, it appears to a good approximation that the interaction of a particular proton or neutron with all the other particles in a complex nucleus can be characterized by a family of potentialversus‐radius functions which represents the average interaction of this particular particle with all the particles in the nucleus. In the sociological problem, again scientists are people, and people essentially interact in pairs. Yet it would appear that somehow in the course of the many two‐body interactions (scientist and personnel man, scientist and manager, scientist and scientist, scientist and contract monitor) some sort of overall interaction of scientist with society results which seems describable by a percentile distribution function versus rate of pay.

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