MIT Physicist Nixes Cold Fusion Funding

E = Ni + H eCat Site ^ | May 7, 2012 | Admin

[Kevmo]

Of all the interesting tidbits to come out of The Atom Unexplored conference in Turin, Italy in May 4, perhaps the account by Dr. Peter Hagelstein of MIT on how a prominent physicist actively worked to cut cold fusion funding was the most eye-opening. In the question and answer session held after the morning LENR portion of the proceedings, a member of the audience asked a rather poignant question regarding why scientists often fail to develop clear “road maps”  from the laboratory to the “real world.”  In responding to this question, Dr. Hagelstein gave a quite detailed and thoughtful answer regarding this problem as it relates to cold fusion/LENR. As the final part of his answer, he stated the following regarding his own recent personal experience regarding this issue: “The other issue is how to get support for such work. In the United States at the moment, outside of a program under Dennis Bushnell at NASA, there is no currently, as far as I’m aware, there is no other government support for any work in this area for such experiments. I recently had the experience of working with a large company in the U.S. who was interested in pursuing experiments in this area and helping out. So we put in, we discussed with the technical people at this company of the possibility that they might put in some money for the support of the replication of the Piantelli experiment. So they got the agreement, they got the money, they got it to MIT, and we thought “good, now we can make some progress.” However, a very famous physicist at MIT, who is involved in the energy program, found out what we were trying to do, and he cancelled the program. And he called up the vice president of the company and said some things that weren’t very polite about the research. And not only did the funding not come and the experiments didn’t happen, but my colleagues at the company were very worried about where they’re going to work next. As you know, there are unemployment issues currently in our bad economy, so there’s a fundamental difficulty with respect to getting support for the experiments, and what that means is that the science can be expected to go very slowly for these reasons, until a solution is found to this problem.

”As many know, MIT was at the forefront in the effort to discredit cold fusion in 1989, and the report issued by that institution detailing a failed replication attempt carried an enormous amount of weight in forming the public perception that cold fusion was a hoax and “junk science.” The MIT report was the first document listed in the Department of Energy’s negative assessment of the technology in 1989.  A story that appeared in the Boston Herald, with the headline MIT Bombshell Knocks Cold Fusion “Breakthrough” Cold is felt by many to have set off the feeding frenzy in the media that cold fusion was a hoax.  However, in a report published by the late Dr. Eugene Mallove in 1999, he extensively detailed the efforts of some high-ranking individuals at MIT to falsify positive replication results in order to ensure that MIT continued to receive tens of millions of dollars in US government funding for its plasma fusion (“hot fusion”) program.  You can read the detailed accounting here.  This article is a first-hand account of what took place at MIT, since Dr. Mallove was the head of MIT’s Science Information Office at the time of these events. He subsequently resigned in protest over the alleged fraud of his colleagues.

Yet, over the many years since the alleged fraud perpetuated by the staff and administration at MIT, that institution has come a long way in distancing itself from this stain on its otherwise stellar reputation.  MIT now holds regular cold fusion colloquium’s and just this year held a class detailing cold fusion history and current research.  The class included a demonstration of the NANOR cold fusion device built by MIT graduate Dr. Mitchell Swartz.  As Dr. Hagelstein pointed out in his lecture (see link below) at The Atom Unexplored, this device has run since January and demonstrated energy gains up to 14 times that of the input power.  Most of Dr. Hagelstein’s presentation on May 4 covered the NANOR and included detailed technical data about the device.  He even offered an open invitation to the public to visit MIT to witness the device function. If any readers want to see a functioning cold fusion device first-hand, I would highly suggest you make a pilgrimage to MIT to see the NANOR sooner rather than later. I cannot imagine that the experimental NANOR device will run indefinitely, nor that its opponents in the physics department, who continue to receive generous grants from the US Government for competing energy research, will allow this demonstration to continue that much longer regardless. Honestly, I really regret that the bulk of this article is about the efforts of some in the physics department at MIT to squash cold fusion research once again.  I say this because The Atom Unexplored conference was really quite informative and the presentations quite good.  If you have not taken the time to view the videos from the conference, I would highly recommend that you do so.  All the presentations may be viewed here. I have also taken the liberty of posting the presentations of Dr. Hagelstein and Prof. Piantelli (given by his associate and Nichenergy executive Valerio Ciampoli)  to You Tube.  I have also posted the question and answer session that followed the LENR portion of the proceedings.  It is also quite interesting. The last 2 minutes of the Q&A is Dr. Hagelstein’s account of the funding cancellation noted above.

Just a note about the Piantelli presentation. While the tone of the presentation emphasizes the research aspect of the work being done at Nichenergy, Mr. Ciampoli, speaking on behalf on PIantelli, seems to suggest industrial products “in a couple of months.” That statement is in the first couple of minutes of the presentation. Make of it what you will.

The Atom Unexplored: Hagelstein Part 1

The Atom Unexplored: Hagelstein Part 2

The Atom Unexplored: Hagelstein Part 3 (funding cut at MIT)

The Atom Unexplored: Ciampoli/Piantelli Part 1

The Atom Unexplored: Ciampoli/Piantelli Part 2

The Atom Unexplored: Question and Answer Session

A special thanks to the organizers of The Atom Unexplored, not only for holding the conference but also for streaming it live and making the videos available to view. Also thanks to inventor/scientist/blogger Pekka Janhunen for transcribing from the video of Dr. Hagelstein’s account of his recent experience with funding cancellation at MIT.

__________________________________________

For the latest news and updates see Headlines/Chatterings.

__________________________________________

e-mail Admin

Short URL for this page:  http://wp.me/p1SDhJ-1fE

Reply

• Ben says:

  May 9, 2012 at 12:46

  ExxonMobil’s Sinister Kingdom and ‘Private Empire’

  The Daily Beast

  The only public demonstration of a cold fusion cell is now going on at MIT. I don’t think a long-running, public demonstration of this sort has ever been carried out in the history of the technology. It is being conducted by a tenured MIT professor and the device was built by an MIT grad. No doubt this demo is being carried out with the permission of the MIT administration. MIT has held regular colloquiums on cold fusion, as I pointed out in the article. MIT grad Dr. Brian Ahern was doing some fine LENR work before he went underground. Last I heard he was giving more low-key demonstrations at various locations around the country. I was very critical of Ahern for making unfounded calls of fraud against Rossi, but that does not mean he has not made and will continue to make important contributions to the field.

  I understand you want to extract your pound of flesh from MIT Mr. Arnold, but give credit where credit is due. MIT is not a monolithic institution in any sense of the word and I am sure that debate is being carried out there about what course to take in regards to both allowing this demo to continue, how much credence and publicity to give it etc. There are obviously people there that support the research and those who want to see it go away, like the “very famous” physicist Hagelstein spoke about. Even back in 1989 when the alleged fraud and conspiracy to discredit cold fusion, not every member of that institution was aware of the misdeeds of a few, even those these deeds had far-reaching consequences. There is no need to throw everyone at MIT, who has attended MIT or has supported MIT under the bus. Not all are guilty.

  As an institution, whether MIT can pay enough penance to pay for past sins in regards to discrediting the technology remains to be seen. The powers that be at that institution can either support the work of Hagelstein and Swartz or they can once again give in to the tantrums of its physics department and energy labs who continue to receive tens of millions of dollars in federal funding. The final chapter has not been written. Time will tell. I hope all associated with MIT who read this will raise their voices and protest those at that institution what wish to sweep cold fusion under the rug once again. I applaud all those at MIT who continue to support this technology in the face of fierce opposition.

  Reply
  • Brad Arnold says:

    May 8, 2012 at 16:04

    No, not a pound of flesh, but several million pounds of flesh. Again, you simply understate the damage MIT did – and I fully understand that MIT is composed on of individuals, and is not a monolithic thing. I want a mia culpa, not apologists trying to gloss over the past so they can seamlessly go into the future. Damn, I’m talking about millions of lives that live in desperate poverty thanks to people who under the MIT flag discredited “cold fusion” so their jobs in “hot fusion” were safe.
    Reply
    • Ben says:

      May 8, 2012 at 23:56

      I would surmise not an ounce of flesh will be extracted from those who perpetrated scientific fraud 2 decades ago, not by any one of us anyway. They will get their comeuppance in due time. There may be a mia culpa of some sort in another two decades, maybe not. As for me, I just want my cup of tea, and if I have to go to MIT to get it I can live with that. If you chose to be consumed by thoughts of retribution and assigning blame and punishment for deeds committed 20 years ago, that is your business, but it is not your place to make it mine. History will be the judge.

      However, I have no problem highlighting current misdeeds and attempts at obscuration…and worse. I cannot change history but I can take steps to ensure that history does not repeat itself. We all can.
      Reply

[muawiyah]

When it’s that far away it’s not like we, on Earth, have it under control.

[Moonman62]

How is that relevant? Hot fusion is demonstrably real and we use the energy.

[muawiyah]

We have no control over the source of the fusion you are referring to. Best we’ve got are nuclear bombs ~ not terribly controlled, and not something you’d want heating your home ~ (I assume you wouldn’t want to be nuked)

[Moonman62]

Your point still isn’t relevant. Hot fusion is demonstrably real and useful, something which isn’t applicable to cold fusion.

[muawiyah]

You haven't been following the discussions very closely ~ hot fusion is down deep inside the Sun where you can't see it. Widom and Larsen tell us that a different sort of fusion takes place the corona (absent the immense pressures inside the Sun). I can go outside with suitible eye protection and watch that other fusion take place any time ~ but in neither case can it be said that I am in control of it.

Now, where is this local fusion power plant you think is up and running?

[Moonman62]

Widom and Larsen tell us that a different sort of fusion takes place the corona (absent the immense pressures inside the Sun). I can go outside with suitible eye protection and watch that other fusion take place any time

Really. What's your evidence for that?

[muawiyah]

My eyeballs, and physicists and astronomers ~ I tend to believe some of them know some stuff.

How about you? Do you trust some physicists and some astronomers?

[Moonman62]

I think I’ll go with the number of quality citations, which once again leaves you out in the cold.

[muawiyah]

Quality citations?

[muawiyah]

Kind of slow it seems ~ but with respect to this piece: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/25/iranian-team-collaborate-us-nuclear ~ does anyone have any idea how many of the LENR critics have an involvement with this company or with Iran?

[muawiyah]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/25/iranian-team-collaborate-us-nuclear ~ are you involved in this in a professional capacity?