It’s very interesting. The post with the most hits on this blog is for one I wrote May 15, 2008, titled Neutron Lethargy: This Weeks Obscure Dimensionless Quantity. It receives hits nearly every day. Is it revealing atomic secrets? No, it does not. Here is part of it-

“Neutron lethargy, or logarithmic energy decrement, u, is a dimensionless logarithm of the ratio of the energy of source neutrons to the energy of neutrons after a collision:  u = ln(Eo/E), or, u2-u1 = ln(E1/E2).  So, if you plot a curve of E vs u (E = Eo*exp(-u)), you see an exponential decay of energy per unit collision showing that the greatest delta E’s of energy result from the early collisions.

Basically, it shows that in order to obtain thermal neutrons from fission decay neutrons, you have to contain them so that they can rattle around and dump energy before they fly out of the area of interest. As to the number of collisions that are needed? Well, that is a different issue.

Source- Glasstone & Edlund, The Elements of Nuclear Reactor Theory, Van Nostrand, 1952, p 146.”

Now mind you, this does not necessarily mean it was a glistening contribution to the nuclear zeitgeist of 2008. It’s more like the title attracted clicks. Excellence and clicks don’t overlap much. It shows that my intuition on what a popular post looks like is completely off.