Cold Fusion Research

A copy of the ERAB report has been prepared by the National Capital Area Skeptics (NCAS) organization (www.ncas.org). It is available here in HTML format: This organization has not posted any other papers about cold fusion. Cold fusion researchers consider the ERAB report highly prejudiced for many reasons. It was concluded in a rush long before there was time to perform and publish serious replications. The authors dismissed experimental evidence by pointing to theory, which is a violation of the scientific method. And they selectively ignored positive data. For example, ERAB report authors visited Dr. Melvin Miles at the China Lake Naval Weapons Laboratory when he had just begun experiments in cold fusion. He told them he had not observed excess heat or other evidence of fusion. Months later, he did observe significant heat. He contacted the authors. He informed them of his results and invited them to return. They ignored him and reported only his initial, negative results. [1] [2] The ERAB report begins: " The recent interest in cold fusion was stimulated by reports from Utah scientists in March 1989 that fusion had occurred in experiments on the electrolysis of heavy water (D2O). Dr. Stanley Pons and Dr. Martin Fleischmann at the University of Utah claimed to measure a production of heat that could only be explained by a nuclear process. Dr. Steven Jones at Brigham Young University did not observe heat but claimed to observe neutron emission that would also indicate a nuclear process. The claims were particularly astounding given the simplicity of the equipment, just a pair of electrodes connected to a battery and immersed in a jar of D2O-equipment easily available in many laboratories. ". .. and goes downhill from there. This is a mischaracterization of the findings and the nature of the experiment. There is nothing " simple " about a cold fusion experiment. Most experiments take weeks or months to prepare. Cathodes must be carefully selected and prepared. Many things can go wrong. For example, heavy water found is sometimes so contaminated it will prevent a reaction from occurring. Common contaminants include light water, surfactants, [3] heavy metals and a species of bacteria that has been discovered living in most heavy water supplies in Europe and North America. [4] No published paper describes the use of a " jar. " Laboratory grade Teflon glassware or steel cells must be used, after careful preparation. …