Dear William,
Depends what you want to include. Stable isotopes are applied in a large
range of disciplines nowadays. Two major type of applications can be
considered: ratios of isotope pairs and isotope tracers (single or more
isotopes, depending on method).
Actually I have a reference database covering any discipline that applies
stable isotopes over the complete periodic system of elements (I only
excluded the noble gases up to now) that counts over 24,200 references just
on stable isotopes or strongly related matters. It also includes tracer
studies, where especially in clinical field is a large number of
publications. Moreover, quite some fields are very restricted to a specific
analytical device or specialized topic/method that is 'unique' for just that
field.
If using a reference search engine on internet, e.g. using the keyword
'stable isotope', it may give larger numbers of refs, but my experience is
that a good percentage (can be well over 50 percent) is noisy hits, that for
some reasons found a combination in the text that relates to the keyword,
but is not useful as reference on stable isotopes.
It is very hard to give a proper estimate of the total.
What can be said is that the number of publications on stable isotopes
increases in time, with a strong grow in last years, for a number of reasons
I will not discuss here now.
My database starts around the 30's of last century (exceptions for earlier
years are mostly related to general analytical methods that were later used
for isotopic analytical purpose or related to discovery of new isotopes)
where maybe 50 to 100 hits/year can be found, with a decline in the 40's,
and growing again aroun 1950, with some periodic increases related to some
succesful introductions of new tools or methods (such as we have now the
EA-CF-IRMS devices for light isotopes, or the MC-ICP-MS for non-traditional
isotopes; when the machines become more common the output in literature
increases accordingly). Again, also depends what you like to include...
I hope this gives some answer to your question. Maybe otherws have a better
count than me?
Best,
Pier.
****************************************************************
Delta Isotopes Consultancy
Dr. Pier A. de Groot
Pastoor Moorkensstraat 16
2400 Mol - Achterbos
Belgium
Tel. +32 (0)14 326 205
e-mail: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Associate editor for stable isotopes of eEarth on-line magazine
http://www.electronic-earth.net
Head of Isotopes in Geosciences.
Next meeting:
EGU2007 General Assemblee (Vienna, Austria, 15-20 April)
The programme can be found at:
http://www.cosis.net/members/meetings/programme/overview_db.php?m_id=40
Isotopes in Geosciences: Instrumentation and Applications [IG]
A Short Course on HR-ICP-MS is also arranged (subscription will still be
possible during the meeting a list will be placed on a board in the hall
of the Austria Conference Centre)
(Use same URL as above; look at SC1 in Short Courses):
High-Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)
Presented by: Isaac (Joe) B. Brenner and Meike Hamester
At Friday, 20 April, 2007; room 7 (blue level)
Visit my WEB-site about my ³Handbook of Stable Isotope Analytical
Techniques², with a link to the Elsevier web site on the handbook (marked:
ŒOrder Now¹):
http://users.pandora.be/handbook/index.html
last update: August 15, 2005
Volume I is now available. Volume II is expected to be available in 2007.
****************************************************************
Why we are searching for extraterrestrial intelligence
While we lack it so much on Earth?
****************************************************************
> From: William Patterson <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Stable Isotope Geochemistry <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:58:24 -0600
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [ISOGEOCHEM] a very general question
>
> Hello all,
> I was sitting here today writing up an assignment for my stable
> isotope course and got to wondering how many peer-reviewed papers
> related to stable isotope chemistry have been published to date. Does
> anyone have any vaguely accurate idea as to how many publications are
> out there?
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
> --
> Dr. William P. Patterson
> Professor and Director of the Saskatchewan Isotope Laboratory
> Department of Geological Sciences
> University of Saskatchewan
> 114 Science Place
> Saskatoon SK S7N 5E2
> Canada
> Phone: 306-966-5691(office); 306-966-5712(lab)
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Web: http://geochemistry.usask.ca/bill.html
>
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