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Cold fusion researchers put a rosier spin on the report. "The greatest vindication for the cold fusion community was that, instead of being treated like cripples, lepers, and idiots, we were treated like normal scientists in the handling of this review," says Michael McKubre, an electrochemist at SRI International in Menlo Park, California. "Just the fact of the review has heightened the level of discussion. There's been a huge upswing in interest in funding cold fusion research." Adds MIT theorist Peter Hagelstein, "A door has been opened by the reviewers. Whether anybody actually manages to go through it remains to be seen."
The DOE report does not recommend setting aside government money for research into cold fusion. Rather, it identifies areas of research that "could be helpful in resolving some of the controversies in the field"—specifically, characterization of deuterated metals and the search for fusion in thin deuterated films—and recommends that agencies consider funding individual proposals in those areas. Considering individual proposals is nothing new, says Jim Decker, principal deputy director of DOE's Office of Science. "We have always been receptive to research proposals. We make decisions on funding research proposals on the basis of peer review and relevance."
DOE's summary of the reviews can be downloaded from the Web at http://www.science.doe.gov/Sub/Newsroom/ News_Releases/DOE-SC/2004/low_energy; the reviewers' individual reports are available at http://newenergytimes.com/DOE/DOE.htm.
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