Cold Fusion

mr. wonder · #1 (**permalink**) 10-15-2012, 02:15 PM

It's a very strange story, was it real, is it real yet?

Were Pons and Fleischmann frauds in 1989?

Experiments have been yes and no for 20 years now and there's no good theory for the reaction.

Quote:

In one of the claims made by Pons and Fleischmann in 1989 there was an error with their gamma spectrum.

At the current time (Jan. 2012) my best understanding is that data was either changed and/or reported incorrectly. I do not know who was specifically responsible - Pons, Fleischmann or a third person. I do not know what the motive was.

Critics at MIT at the time decided that the motive was to provide fraudulent results for a fake experiment. They decided that the gamma data was the "smoking gun" that disproved Fleischmann and Pons, but they completely ignored Pons and Fleischmann's primary claim of excess heat, which turned out to be the most important signature of their discovery.

After MIT's allegations of fraud published, the MIT professors, apparently realizing both the gravity of their accusation and their lack of evidence, denied that they had accused Pons and Fleischmann of fraud. But the tape recording shows that their denials were lies. The MIT professors did accuse Pons and Fleischmann of fraud.

MIT Alleges Fraud Against Pons and Fleischmann
by Eugene Mallove, excerpted from "MIT and Cold Fusion- A Special Report"

Historically, it is evident that this Herald story helped unleash the tidal wave of negativity against Fleischmann and Pons and others who continue to work in the field. Ironically, Parker et al. accomplished what they really set out to do with that story, but at the time Parker attacked reporter Tate for allegedly mis-reporting what he had said during his interview. Tate came very close to being fired on the spot by his editor; he would have been fired had he not had an audio tape of the interview to confirm what he had been told by Parker. After all, it was an MIT professor’s word against that of a young reporter.

A frantic Ronald Parker, perhaps fearing that he would be sued by Pons and Fleischmann for the harsh words that were quoted a bit too explicitly for his taste, called me late on the night of April 30, 1989. He had me dispatch a press release to the wire services denying the impending Boston Herald story, the exact
nature of which he had learned from a call from CBS television...

I had been up into the wee hours of the night of April 30-May 1, 1989, sending a press release dictated to me over the telephone at my home in Bow, New Hampshire by Professor Parker. I telephoned it to UPI, Reuters, and the Associated Press, and it denied what Parker had said in the interview with the Boston Herald’s Nick Tate. When I arrived at the MIT News Office early that morning after a sleepless night, we hastily put together a printed form of the press release to handle the approaching storm...

Of course, I had at that time no reason to doubt what he was telling me: that the story was a distortion. I would learn the stark truth about this deception only over a year later when Tate allowed me to listen to the actual tape...

On June 7, 1991 I resigned from the MIT News Office, to protest the outrageous behavior of the PFC and others at MIT against cold fusion... On the day of my resignation from my MIT News Office position, June 7, 1991, I publically disavowed this Press Release—an unintended falsification of the truth in which I was used as a dupe in part of an orchestrated campaign against cold fusion.

Mallove was the Chief Science Writer at the MIT News Office at the time of this controversy. He was one of the few people who spoke out, and recognized early on that something was wrong with the official "cold fusion" story that was being told by the scientists at his institution to the public.

New Energy Times - MIT Allegations of Fleischmann/Pons Fraud in 1989

weird and interesting video
cover it in favor of cold fusion

UFOTV: War on Cold Fusion - The Hidden Truth Exposed - YouTube

If it's real i just wish they'd get it on the market already if not stop talking about it.

jabbo · #2 (**permalink**) 10-16-2012, 07:22 AM

I doubt that it was concious fraud on their part - after having worked on it for so long they probably just got sloppy in analyzing their results (to include double checking their equipment) due to their excitement of having possibly made it happen.

Oftencold · #3 (**permalink**) 10-16-2012, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jabbo

I doubt that it was concious fraud on their part - after having worked on it for so long they probably just got sloppy in analyzing their results (to include double checking their equipment) due to their excitement of having possibly made it happen.

Plus they were woozy from gamma ray exposure.

faithful_servant · #4 (**permalink**) 10-16-2012, 09:24 AM

All of these idiotic conspiracy theories about miraculous sources of energy being buried are so incredibly stupid that I am amazed that anyone could ever buy into them. If someone at MIT did develop "cold fusion", the school would be the FIRST ones promoting it. It would make them BILLIONS and put them at the top of the heap for a huge number of fields of research just by association. But if it turns out to be a bust, then MIT would be the first ones to show that it was a bust and make sure that thier reputation didn't take a hit.

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