Replies

There is no new information here. Since Pons & Fleischman threw away the scientific method and peer review process in 1989, follow up experiments in cold fusion show one consistent result: no reproducibility.

When someone can reproducibly show excess neutrons, energy, He, gammas, or whatever, outside systematic and experimental error, then I'll get optimistic.

I'd say the conclusions of the DoE review are consistent with the state of cold fusion research at this time, which is to say people shouldn't be getting too excited about cold fusion reactors powering their houses.

Peer review and the scientific method should not be discounted simply because we would like a certain result to be true. If there is an anomalous effect in these systems, it needs to be shown conclusively.

I agree Completely! All the wishful thinking in the world will not make it so if you cannot reproduce the results consistently and predictable with proven nuclear physics theory. A lot of these cold fusion fanatics tend to ignore TANSTAAFL just like the solar/wind/renewable boosters.

xedude wrote:

"There is no new information here. Since Pons & Fleischman threw away the scientific method and peer review process in 1989 . . ."

I would say they did, since their paper was published in a peer-reviewed journal, after all. (J. Electroanal. Chem., vol. 261, 1989, pp. 301 - 308.) However, they are not the only ones making the claim. Hundreds of other researchers have published over 3,000 papers on cold fusion. So if you do not care for Pons and Fleischmann, I suggest you read other authors instead.

". . . follow up experiments in cold fusion show one consistent result: no reproducibility."

That is incorrect. Los Alamos, the U.S. Navy, Mitsubishi and others have developed 100% reproducible techniques. Mitsubishi's experiment has been repeated dozens of times since 1995; it always works; and it is particularly impressive. The Nikkei voted Mitsubishi's cold fusion experiment the third most important advanced research development of 2004. (See the News section.)

"When someone can reproducibly show excess neutrons, energy, He, gammas, or whatever, outside systematic and experimental error, then I'll get optimistic."

Neutrons are rare. Excess energy, helium, gammas and transmutations have been reported by hundreds of researchers. See the LENR-CANR.org library for a small sample of the published papers.

- Jed