Philip Ball: It was meant to bring rigour to the tricky question of who deserves a grant or a post, but is the h-index's numerical score simplistic?

Philip Ball: Science has its silly in-jokes, just like any other profession, but more and more it informs 'proper' comedy now, too

Philip Ball: Instead of heeding impressive-sounding statistics, we should ask what scientists themselves actually believe

Philip Ball: We enjoy the whiff of scandal, and we love seeing giants knocked off their pedestals. But we shouldn't rush to judgments of scientists' motivations

Philip Ball: It's a good job Einstein didn't need a grant

Philip Ball: There are all sorts of questions to ask about science, beyond whether it's correct or not