  Following a recent idea, to measure fame by the number of \Google hits found
in a search on the WWW, we study the relation between fame (\Google hits) and
merit (number of papers posted on an electronic archive) for a random group of
scientists in condensed matter and statistical physics. Our findings show that
fame and merit in science are linearly related, and that the probability
distribution for a certain level of fame falls off exponentially. This is in
sharp contrast with the original findings about WW II ace pilots, for which
fame is exponentially related to merit (number of downed planes), and the
probability of fame decays in power-law fashion. Other groups in our study show
similar patterns of fame as for ace pilots.
