Is there an image of the popularity of various fields of physics over time?

[Simfish]

E.g. Is there a way to see overall trends for particle physics, condensed matter physics, astrophysics, cosmology, and string theory?

 

[fss]

No. Seems like a pointless exercise anyways. How would you quantify popularity in an attempt to view a trend? How would you take into account the obvious subjectivity in the question?

 

[DrummingAtom]

Could you look at the number of papers published in each field? I'm a bit confused by the OP question.

 

[Simfish]

Well, you know, some fields are rapidly expanding, and other fields are declining. Nuclear physics, for example, just doesn't seem as popular as it used to be (although fusion research might reignite interest in it). It's useful information for those of us who want to think about a field to specialize in for the future. Some fields are creating new positions, while other fields are simply getting rid of positions with each retirement.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Nuclear physics, for example, just doesn't seem as popular as it used to be

The cover (+Viewpoint) of this issue of PRL is a nuclear physics result. In fact, now that I think of it, I think you would be better served reading PRL regularly than trying to game the system.

It's useful information for those of us who want to think about a field to specialize in for the future. Some fields are creating new positions, while other fields are simply getting rid of positions with each retirement.

Ah, you want to chase ambulances!

I'm afraid this is not useful information. You don't care about what's trendy now, you care about what's going to be trendy 10-15 years from now when you'll be looking for a position - after you've finished grad school and a postdoc or two. There's no way to tell - in fact, if you could predict the future that far ahead, there are far more lucrative professions out there.

 

[Simfish]

Okay, those are good points. Anyways, I'm really just curious just for curiosity's sake (I'm obsessed with demographic data). Yeah, I know it's somewhat subjective. But there are various weights of metrics that you can still use. A degree of subjectivity in the metrics doesn't make it useless (similar thing with grad school rankings)