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22 years of smoke and no fire, is what kills cold fusion...ahem...research.

Well, that, and charlatans like Rossi carrying the flag.

I certainly have doubts about Rossi, but MIT lead a very concerted FAX and internet campaign to discredit Pons and Fleischmann starting just a few days after their announcement back in 1989. I was a full-time student back then, and I remember. Physics professors at my school were being "lobbied" to "oppose" the results of Pons and Fleischmann. I thought it was very strange behavior at the time, and in hindsight it only seems more shameful.

I certainly have doubts about Rossi, but MIT lead a very concerted FAX and internet campaign to discredit Pons and Fleischmann starting just a few days after their announcement back in 1989. I was a full-time student back then, and I remember. Physics professors at my school were being "lobbied" to "oppose" the results of Pons and Fleischmann. I thought it was very strange behavior at the time, and in hindsight it only seems more shameful.

I had a very different experience. I was working at a major University at the time cold fusion hit the big time. I actually attended a lecture by Pons and Fleischmann there. Most scientists I knew were skeptical of course, but P & F were given the benefit of the doubt to make their claim and back it up.

Also, right after the cold fusion hullabaloo, every chemistry research group in this University were conducting their own cold fusion experiments in one variety or another, although, if you were to ask them about it now, they would deny it.

I was a full-time student back then, and I remember. Physics professors at my school were being "lobbied" to "oppose" the results of Pons and Fleischmann. I thought it was very strange behavior at the time, and in hindsight it only seems more shameful.

Hot fusion research is a major cash cow of the physics research community. Credible cold fusion results would kill that immediately.

I'm still waiting for Rossi to produce one customer (with reputation and credibility) willing to make a public statement to the effect of "We have been running our e-cat at our facility for over a week, and have recorded large net energy output". Rossi says he's got customers. His big customer from October has had the device for close to two months. It's time we see customer reviews.

20+ years ago I was a regular visitor at many of the labs of DOE, USAF, USN, etc. Almost all had small, quiet research projects into “cold fusion”.

They were getting anomalous results, but they had difficulty repeating them.

There are things in the interface between physics and chemistry that we do not understand. Dogma has no place in science. Anomalies lead to deeper understanding and new technologies.

It is a travesty that some physicists and administrators are trying to suppress research that could lead to incredible breakthroughs.

"I certainly have doubts about Rossi, but MIT lead a very concerted FAX and internet campaign to discredit Pons and Fleischmann starting just a few days after their announcement back in 1989.I was a full-time student back then, and I remember. Physics professors at my school were being "lobbied" to "oppose" the results of Pons and Fleischmann."

Oh, they did a lot more than just lobby. Gene Mallove discovered that the MIT cold fusion experiments (which were used to deny that cold fusion existed),had, in actual fact, FOUND THE SAME ANOMALOUS HEAT that Pons and Fleischmann had. "Someone" ALTERED THE DATA in the report from what had actually been found in the experiment.

So, the only DOCUMENTED case of fraud known in the whole field of cold fusion was committed NOT by the folks who were "touting" cold fusion, but by those who were "denying" it.