Fullerene and cold fusion

Research activities on fullerenes were initiated by the discovery of this carbon allotrope by Kroto et al. (1985), which finally Iead to a whole new research area. On the contrary, the fusion of hydrogen atoms at room temperature allegedly observed by Fleischmann & Pons (1989), proved to be false within a few years. Today the research on this phenomena, sometimes referred to as cold fusion, is generally considered as a prototypical example of pathological science. This contribution presents a comprehensive comparison of these two scientific themes from a bibliometric point of view. We aim to Iook for patterns, which might allow to distinguish between normal and pathological science by means of bibliometric observables.