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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 112: Jul-Aug 1997 |
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Cold-Fusion Pro-Fusion
It has been three years since we last reported on cold fusion. (SF#95) Cold fusion is an anomaly if there even was one, because mainstream science vigorously excludes the phenomenon from its journals, such as Science. It is even characterized as "pseudoscience."
Nevertheless, in a 1996 issue of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, E. Storms required 59 pages to review properly recent work on cold fusion. Based on more than 190 studies (his bibliography runs for 12 pages), Storms reveals just how seriously some "rogue" scientists view cold fusion as a real phenomenon and future energy source. Reflecting the antagonism of the "hotfusion" community, the U.S. expenditures on cold fusion probably do not exceed $1 million/year; Japan, in contrast, spends about $100 million/year. Cold fusion was not interred elsewhere around the planet and is quite healthy. In Storms' own words:
"Evidence for large and reproducible energy generation as well as various nuclear reactions, in addition to fusion, from a variety of environments and methods is accumulating. The field can no longer be dismissed by invoking obvious error or prosaic explanations."
(Storms, Edmund; "Review of the 'Cold Fusion' Effect," Journal of Scientific Exploration, 10:185, 1996.)
More recently, the Wall Street Journal commented derogatorily about cold fusion. (February 28, 1997) E.F. Mallove, editor of Infinite Energy, reproached the newspaper by pointing out that hundreds of scientists were working on the phenomenon. He asked:
"What are you going to tell your fossil-fuel industry readers when they learn that their obituary has already been written by carefully documented, meticulous experiments that show there is something, indeed, very new under the sun?"
(Mallove, Eugene F.; "Fusion Confusion Runs Hot and Cold," Wall Street Journal, March 31, 1997. Cr. E. Fegert.)
Even more recently, A.C. Clarke, no slouch when it somes to accurate prophecy, declined to talk about space travel in an interview with Discover. He wanted instead to talk about the "new energy revolution." "What energy revolution?" was the query. "Cold fusion," was the response. He added:
"Very few Americans seem to know what is happening, which is incredible. It's all over the world, except in the United States. There are hundreds of laboratories doing it, they've got patents all over the place. The prototypes are on sale now. There are 7,000 units operating in Russia right now and no one in the United States seems to know about it."
(Clarke, Arthur C.; "An Odyssey of Sorts," Discover, 18:68, May 1997.)
Comment. Perhaps there is some overstatement above, but the suppression of the subject in the U.S. science media cannot be denied.
