Is that attractive force what drives H1gas to become H2gas? And by adsorbing into a lattice, does the hydrogen gas in this experiment USE that force to hook up with the lattice atoms? That would point to a separate attractive force.
Something like that, yes. Peter Hegelstein thinks it has something to do with phonon interactions within the lattice. He operates at a level of insight beyond what I have, but I am aware of the concepts and it sounds reasonable to me.
There is no question that nuclear reactions have been observed, on the basis of elemental transmutation, neutron generation, and tritium generation. The only questions are (a) how to understand what's going on, and (b) how to scale up what's going on.
If they can do the theory, there will be a pathway between the nuclear world and the chemical world, which had long been thought to be separated by an enormous energy difference. Such a pathway will have very far-reaching consequences. LENR will only be the beginning.