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May 10, 2005 -- Issue #10
Copyright 2005 New Energy Times (tm)
Published six times per year.
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Senior Editor: Steven B. Krivit
Copy Editor: Cindy Goldstein
Contributors to this issue: Haiko Lietz
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EDITORIALS AND OPINION
1. From the Editor
2. To the Editor
NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
3. The 2005 Cold Fusion Colloquium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4. The 12th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES)
5. The 12th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ICCF-12)
6. The 13th Russian Conference on Cold Nuclear Transmutation of Chemical Elements and Ball-Lightning (RCCNT&BL-13)
ANALYSIS AND PERSPECTIVES
7. Highlights From the March 24, 2005 American Physical Society Conference
8. American Physical Society Journal Editors Speak on Scientific Publishing Issues
9. Mitsubishi's Answer to Nuclear Waste: Low Energy Transmutations Are Gaining Scientific Ground
BITS AND PIECES
10. Cold Fusion in the News
11. Speakers Available - Experts on the Subject of Cold Fusion
12. Updates to the New Energy Times (tm) Web site
13. Support New Energy Times (tm)
14. Appreciation
15. Administrative
EDITORIALS AND OPINION
1. From the Editor
The small news that got big press last month is the hot fusion neutron generator created by a team of scientists led by Dr. Seth L. Putterman, a physicist at UCLA.
News stories around the world began by saying, "For years, scientists have tried to harness nuclear fusion to power the world." And then, typically, the sobering fact appeared in the next line: "The device produces no excess energy and is not considered to be an energy source by anyone, including by the inventors." According to physicist Scott Chubb with Research Systems Inc., the UCLA experiment produced one-tenth of a nanowatt. However, the team saw other valuable applications, including medical diagnosis and bomb detection.
For fans of cold fusion, the attention to the UCLA discovery is bittersweet. How many cold fusion researchers can produce excess energy from their tabletop devices? More than I can count using all my fingers!
Yet, the news of cold fusion is still unreported in the mainstream media, and probably wont be until a courageous and prominent scientist and journal endorse it. Dont expect mainstream media to take a chance on cold fusion without such backing. Hell will freeze over first.
Perhaps I'm overly pessimistic. I would be overjoyed if I am wrong about the mainstream news medias lack of courage.
Who knows? Perhaps, a Woodward and Bernstein team may decide to take a serious look at cold fusion research. The news that a real source of clean, plentiful energy is at our fingertips, and has been ignored for 16 years, will be far more newsworthy than Watergate. As Gene Mallove, founder of Infinite Energy magazine penned, this is Heavy Watergate.
However, until this story is scooped, readers can count on New Energy Times for the most accurate and complete reporting on the field of cold fusion.
In a way, insiders who follow cold fusion research cannot help but sense a mysterious twilight zone. All around us, the world is clamoring for energy solutions. Yet here, in the matrix between the palladium and deuterium, the power of the sun is available on earth.
Despite the lack of mainstream media attention toward the field, the cold fusion gold rush is definitely on. While pessimistic disbelievers rally behind the half of the Department of Energy reviewers who chose to reject the claims of a new source of energy, others see a glass half full.
Recent calls from venture capitalists and attorneys to New Energy Times as well as prominent cold fusion researchers are the most noticeable sign that public awareness is starting to grow.
Money is quietly starting to flow into cold fusion research. Edmund Storms spent many years performing cold fusion research, writing and teaching in his "retirement." He spent a fair amount of his retirement funds on palladium and heavy water. Now, in his early seventies, he is fully employed by a company named Lattice Energy LLC.
Russ George, with D2Fusion Inc., announced at the APS March conference that he is now privately funded to perform cold fusion research. Two other researchers in the United States who asked to remain anonymous mentioned that other well-funded private initiatives are on the way, too.
Quiet, high-level conversations in India concerning the renewal of cold fusion research are also in the works.
As cold fusion moves along on its historic route, and clearly starts to emerge from philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's second stage, "violent opposition," into the third stage, "regarded as self-evident," new conflicts emerge. The previous "all-for-one and one-for-all" camaraderie that dominated the culture of these neglected science underdogs for the last 16 years is showing cracks.
A few researchers are speculating that startup companies are stealing their work; others are declining to reveal their research for fear of losing their intellectual-property rights. Although this may not be the first time some cold fusioneers have perceived that they were on the verge of commercialization, the pre-competitive research and development phase is starting to fade.
Not all cold fusion researchers are hoarding their alchemical secrets, and a few are notably open with their findings. Stan Szpak of the U.S. Navy's SPAWAR facility in San Diego doesn't think cold fusion research is ready for commercialization.
However, he and his colleagues Pamela Boss, Charlie Young, and Frank Gordon have achieved a major publishing accomplishment. After many years of rejecting cold fusion papers, the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry has accepted one of the SPAWAR groups' cold fusion papers. The SPAWAR team used an external electric field to create phenomenal results. A pre-print, with photographs, is available at the New Energy Times Web site under the American Physical Society page in the "Conferences" section.
On the East Coast, spring brings another thaw to the previous chilly reception of cold fusion. Mitchell Swartz has pulled together an "educational scientific cornucopia" and has succeeded in bringing cold fusion back to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a jam-packed daylong colloquium on the subject.
What will today's venture capitalists find in cold fusion? The next big thing? Future energy technology monopolies? Or a bottomless pit in which to dump endless amounts of wasted cash? One thing is certain: If cold fusion research continues as it has, with slow, incremental breakthroughs, the current cadre of cold fusion innovators will be the future stars of this industry. Newcomers will face a steep learning curve in their attempts to catch up with the knowledge and skills of those who have been toiling in the cold fusion mine for the last 16 years.
2. To the Editor
(Letters may be sent to "letters" at the New Energy Times domain name. Please include your name, city, and state or province.)
To the editor:
There's definitely something at work holding back public acceptance of cold fusion. There's nothing worse than ridicule to prevent grown men, many of them eminent, highly respectable scientists, from having second thoughts about voicing their educated opinions and experiences.
But it looks as if everyone around the cold fusion bonfire is still intent on following the conventional paradigm when it comes to making cold fusion practicable. What's this paradigm? Government.
My life experience has shown me that, if you want to completely ruin anything, particularly new, perhaps revolutionary ideas, just let government handle it. What's the alternative? Well, a few months ago, some enterprising individuals got together and financed the manufacture of a non-NASA spacecraft. And it actually worked! Was it perfect? Of course not. But it's amazing what a few people with foresight and dedication can do without the "help" of government.
How should we approach cold fusion and its long-overdue use as a practical, in fact desperately needed, source of energy? Do as I do: Forget totally about government. I'm an engineer, and after working in industry for many years, including a number of years in renewable energy and energy conservation, I have seen what havoc government can wreak, havoc that costs the taxpayer so much in administrative waste and destroys individual initiative.
This is particularly true of the energy sector, which is rife with political venom. I also happen to be a fairly accomplished artist and photographer and have occasionally tried to avail myself of government grants. It's like touching a red-hot iron. Once you've experienced it, you'll know not to try it again. So I've adopted a mindset wherein I totally ignore government. In fact, my attitude is that, in all matters, including art, I am dedicatedly anti-government. That way, I can feel comfortable by having no delusions that government might "rescue me" financially.
So as I indicated, the cold fusion sector has to, from the outset, make it clear to itself that government will only do harm to its potential for fulfillment. Once this sector is comfortable in this discomfort, as it may be, it will be able to proceed using native intelligence plus private funding. Just like the anti-NASA people.
The alternative is to wait until hell freezes over.
Philip Winestone, P.Eng.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(The following letter and response is reprinted with permission from www.zpenergy.com.)
To the editor:
I will probably attend the Cold Fusion Colloquium on May 21 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The big question I have is, Why has there been no substantial progress in proving cold fusion to the wider science community since the International Conference on Cold Fusion, 21 months prior, in Cambridge, in August 2003?
It seems to me that it's time for cold fusion researchers to come together and produce a 100 percent reproducible cold fusion experiment to finally put the controversy to rest. Unlike years past, when cold fusion was utterly ignored and ridiculed by mainstream science, now they are starting to take it a bit more seriously. At least seriously enough that if a 100 percent reproducible cold fusion experiment was put forward, they couldn't just ignore it. They would have to evaluate it and acknowledge it.
It's time for the cold fusioneers to step up to the plate.
Rock_nj:
Dear Rock_nj,
I wish it were that simple. But as I understand, the Wright brothers flew their plane in broad daylight for five years before people took them seriously. And all one needed back then to observe the discovery was a pair of eyes!
With cold fusion, you need special materials, precision calorimetry and highly specialized skills. The Iwamura experiment at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a good example. Also, no experienced electrochemist will tell you that calorimetry is easy to learn and perform. So a simple pair of eyes from onlookers won't convince anyone, even if the researcher claims 100 percent reproducibility.
Consider this: You don't get neutrons with the excess-heat-producing type of cold fusion. So you can't readily use that "simple and straightforward" test. You get helium, but you have to have a very sophisticated lab to capture and analyze the helium. You get heat from cold fusion, but you must be an expert in calorimetry: It is a meticulous and fine art. There is, however, a new "macro" version of a calorimeter which has been pioneered by Dennis Cravens. This may make it easier to measure the excess heat.
So creating a 100 percent reproducible experiment won't make much difference in convincing anyone. However, it may accelerate the process of acceptance because more people will have the patience to try it. And that's when things will start to cook. It's a matter of first-hand experience, trust, courage, and greed that will get cold fusion accepted. What on earth do I mean by all that?
I talk to skeptics all day long, and I hear a million and one reasons why the claims of cold fusion require "extraordinary evidence," to be considered scientifically acceptable. Yet, if I ask them to provide specific parameters for their "extraordinary evidence", one of two things happens: Either they can't do it, because they realize that the whole concept is subjective, or they make their list of rules and then change them once they see that the cold fusion researchers not only have come up to the plate but also scored.
The concept is called "moving the goalposts," and it's happened time and again with cold fusion and other new sciences. You can find good references for it on this Web site www.suppressedscience.net.
Pathological skeptics are good at finding new reasons to deny, delay and deflect that which they are unwilling to accept. As Ed Storms said, "Many people see only what they want to see. At some point in the history of any new idea, the problem no longer involves logic but is psychological."
I think the best hope for the field is that more researchers will perform cold fusion experiments and see the results for themselves. This will build their confidence in the veracity of the field. After that, when other scientists, in addition to the "cold fusion insiders," start working with it again, more people will trust the scientific legitimacy of the subject.
The problem, to the chagrin of people who think that science is objective, is that nobody trusts data. People trust other people. Marketing and advertising agencies have known this since eternity.
Next, greed will become a driving force. When more people realize that there is indeed a real source of energy with cold fusion, and the world continues the way it is, it won't be long before more scientists find that people want to pay them to work on cold fusion. At that point, many of them no longer will find the claims of cold fusion to be so, how shall we say, extraordinary."
Oh, by the way, Iwamura was able to obtain 100 percent reproducibility with his experiment at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. And guess what? Researchers at Osaka University attempted to replicate his work the following year. Care to guess again? Yep. They, too, achieved the expected result in all of their runs. Storms, Miles, De Ninno, Chicea, Stringham and Karabut also claim 100 percent reproducibility.
The thing is that major science discoveries are not like an apple falling off a tree and hitting you in the head anymore. The required instrumentation and methods of observation are increasingly in the nanometer scale.
Bystanders who wait for today's opinion leaders in classical nuclear physics to give cold fusion their blessing may wait a long, long time. They will not be a part of the team that eventually solves this puzzle. They will be among the last to learn about this field.
Only those who read the published papers, attend the conferences, and think for themselves will enter a vast new arena of scientific research that will be both personally and monetarily rewarding.
- Steven B. Krivit, Editor
NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
3. The 2005 Cold Fusion Colloquium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The 2005 Cold Fusion Colloquium will take place on Saturday, May 21 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The colloquium is scheduled from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
A very moderate fee schedule, from $10 to $25, grants entrance to this event. MIT students attend free and even get a free lunch!
To register for the program, send an e-mail to Richard Shyduroff at rdshydur@MIT.EDU. To contribute to the developing technical program or volunteer to assist with the event, please e-mail Dr. Mitchell Swartz at mica@world.std.com.
Updates to the following announcement will appear at http://world.std.com/~mica/colloq.html .
2005 Cold Fusion Colloquium Program Announcement
"Cold Fusion and Other Clean Energy Investigations From the Edge of the Envelope"
with Special Tribute to Dr. Eugene Mallove, Cold Fusioneer, Investigator and MIT Graduate '69
General Topics
Science and Engineering Discussions of Cold Fusion
Material Science, Review of Present Literature Concerning Cold Fusion
Theoretical Understandings of Cold Fusion
Cold Fusion Device Engineering
Cold Fusion Patents and Intellectual Property
Tentative Program
Experiment Reports of Cold Fusion Systems
Acoustic-induced Cold Fusion Experiments
Experimental Cold Fusion Results
Experimental Evidence of Optimal Operating Points
Palladium Catalysis of Deuterium
Chemistry/Economics of Palladium Catalysis of Deuterium
Alternative Energy using Latent Energy of Water
Theoretical Strides in Understanding of Cold Fusion Systems
Theory - Continuum Electromechanical Control of Loading
Theory - Phonons and Cold Fusion
Theory - Explanations for the Absence of Neutrons and Bremsstrahlung
Theory - Deuteron and Charge Transfer in Loaded Palladium
Theory - Ion Band States and Cold Fusion
Theory - Micro/Nano Scale High-Density Plasmas and Cold Fusion/Acoustic-Induced Cold Fusion
Theory - Anomalous Superconducting Properties of the PdHx/PdDx System and their relation to Cold Fusion
Theory - Bloch Nuclei and Phonon De-excitation
Panel Discussion
Cold Fusion Patents and Intellectual Property
Future Developments in Cold Fusion
Tribute to Dr. Eugene Mallove
==== Cold Fusion Panel and Lecture Participants =========
Scientific Coordinator: Dr. Mitchell Swartz, '70, JET Thermal Products
General Coordinator Richard Shyduroff, MIT
Prof. Peter Hagelstein, MIT
Prof. Keith Johnson, MIT
Prof Robert Rines, MIT
Dr. Scott Chubb
Dr. Talbot Chubb
Prof. John Dash
Prof. David Nagel
Prof. Yeong Kim
Dr. Robert Bass
Dr. Russ George
Prof. Peter Graneau
Dr. Les Case
The colloquium is hosted by the following groups:
The MIT E-Club
MIT Seminar 089
MIT Seminar 095
Cold Fusion Times
JET Thermal Products
ZeroPoint
[Editor's note: The press release sent by New Energy Times on April 20, 2005 incorrectly stated that the event was hosted by MIT. The event is being held at MIT, not hosted by MIT. New Energy Times thanks Dr. Mitchell Swartz for bringing this error to our attention and regrets any inconvenience this may have caused.]
4. The 12th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES)
The 12th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems will take place Aug. 21-26, 2005, in Bruxelles, Belgium. The conference is hosted by the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie - Centre D'tude de l'Energie Nucl aire, an organization of 600 dedicated people who advance the peaceful, medical and industrial applications of nuclear energy.
Topics include magnetic confinement systems (tokamaks, stellarators, other advanced configurations), inertial confinement systems (laser and heavy ions driven, z-pinch, electrostatic confinement devices, other advanced configurations), cold fusion and other types of advanced systems.
See the Conferences page at the New Energy Times Web site for more information.
5. The 12th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ICCF-12)
The 12th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science will take place Nov. 27 - Dec. 2, 2005, at the New-Fujiya Hotel, Atami, Shizuoka, Japan.
The conference is sponsored by the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ISCMNS,) and co-sponsored by the Japan CF-Research Society (JCF).
- First Announcement -
Scope of the Conference
The study of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science has continued to advance through 11 previous conferences (ICCF1 at Utah, USA, in 1989 to ICCF11 at Marseilles, France, in 2004.) Many new compelling scientific findings have been shown. The historic 1989 claim of cold fusion brought renewed hope of a portable clean nuclear reactor.
The subsequent great wave of denial and hostility forced the claim and further research efforts out of mainstream science. Nevertheless, because of misconceptions and misinformation, very few people know that several hundred researchers from around the world have continued this research over the past 16 years.
The efforts by this quiet stream of research have revealed that new kinds of nuclear effects exist that directly relate to the nature of condensed matter. The nuclear effects in condensed matter are much more than real cold fusion.
They include important nuclear effects such as transmutations and resulting release of energy as significant heat with minimal and safe radiation. Low levels of radiation are found in at least some reactions but are usually absorbed within the cell itself, so the system is categorically safe. Through discussions at international conferences, a majority of researchers agreed that the name cold fusion was misleading. A new name, closer to the exact phenomenon, Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, is most appropriate.
The new field, Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (CMNS), treats nuclear effects in and/or on condensed matter, targeting its application for portable clean nuclear sources. This is an inter- and multidisciplinary academic field, including nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, surface physics, chemistry and electrochemistry. CMNS applications involve many other fields of science and technology (nuclear engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, laser science and engineering, material science, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy politics). To promote the development of CMNS and establish the academic field of CMNS, the field needs highly efficient, cooperative efforts of researchers and related people working in different fields. International cooperation and collaboration are needed.
The International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ISCMNS) made a start in 2004 to promote the understanding, development and application of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science and has become a main supporting body of the ICCF series conferences since ICCF11. ICCF12 is sponsored by the Japan-CF Research Society as well as by non-ISCMNS members. ICCF12 will provide an international scientific forum for direct interaction and stimulation among many scientists working in the CMNS field.
Participation and presentations from newcomers are welcome.
The following topics will be discussed at the conference:
* Excess Heat and Related Nuclear Products
* Nuclear Processes and Transmutations
* Materials and Condensed Matter Conditions
* Analyses and Diagnoses Techniques
* Innovative Approaches
* Theories on Condensed Matter Nuclear Effects
* Engineering, Industrial, Political and Philosophical Issues
Tutorial Class
Before the conference, a tutorial class on Sunday, Nov. 27 will teach basic information about Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. A separate fee, about 10,000 yen, ($95) will be charged to participants for the class.
See the Conferences page at the New Energy Times Web site for more information.
6. The 13th Russian Conference on Cold Nuclear Transmutation of Chemical Elements and Ball-Lightning (RCCNT&BL-13)
The 13th Russian Conference on Cold Nuclear Transmutation of Chemical Elements and Ball-Lightning will take place on Sept. 15-22, 2005. The location of the conference is in Dagomys, near the city of Sochi, Russia.
The conference is hosted by:
Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Physical Society
Nuclear Society of Russia
Mendeleev Chemical Society of Russia
Moscow Lomonosov State University
Russian Peoples Friendship State University
Conference program:
- Experimental research in cold nuclear transmutation (fusion) and ball lightning
- Theoretical models with respect to old nuclear transmutation (fusion) and ball-lightning effects;
- Applications to these problems, technologies and devices.
The full cost for the program is $900, which includes registration fee, visa, hotel accommodations, three daily buffet meals, conference proceedings, transportation from the Sochi airport and back, social dinner and special excursion or entertainment.
The languages of the conference are Russian and English.
The cost can be reduced to $800 if paid before July 30 to the account of the organizing committee. The account information will be sent to you after you confirm your intention to attend.
If you decide to take part in the conference, please let us know the title and abstract of your report before July 1.
Contact telephone: (7)(095) 196-9476 (ask for Mr. Igor Goryachev) Fax: (7)(095) 196-6108
E-mail: gnedenko @ kiae.ru, bazhutov @ izmiran.rssi.ru, bychvl @ orc.ru
Postal address: I. Goryachev, Russia, 123182 Moscow, 1 Kurchatov Sq., Research Institute of High Technologies at RRC Kurchatov Institute
Yu. Bazhutov, Chairman of the RCCNT&BL-13 Organizing Committee
V. Bychkov, Vice-Chairman
I. Goryachev, Scientific Secretary
ANALYSIS AND PERSPECTIVES
7. Highlights From the March 24, 2005 American Physical Society Conference
By Steven B. Krivit
8:00 a.m. is not the easiest time to start absorbing facts of a poorly understood, new science. Regardless, attendees of the March 2005 APS conference showed up to listen and learn, and by midmorning they gradually filled the room. Presenters included Scott Chubb of Research Systems Inc., Russ George of D2Fusion Inc., Melvin Miles of the University of La Verne, and Steven Krivit of New Energy Times.
For various reasons, many of the other presenters were unable to make it to Los Angeles, and Scott Chubb heroically presented their papers on their behalf.
Roger Stringham presented via a stunning DVD displaying his sonofusion cold fusion research. All gazes were fixed to the screen as attendees, most for the first time, saw a genuine, working cold fusion experiment; a sealed, solid-state cold fusion cell that fit in the palm of Stringham's hand. Viewers also were treated to scenes of Stringham's data acquisition tools and witnessed the excess heat spikes. As reported in New Energy Times issue #8, Stringham reports 40 watts of excess heat.
A rumor circulated that Stringham connected four of his mini reactors together and scaled up his experiment to an input of 200 watts with an output of 400 watts. However, Stringham denied such spectacular results. "Those are the plans for my next project. I have not started on it yet," he said.
Side view of Roger Stringham's Single Unit 1.6 Mhz Piezo Driven Cold Fusion Reactor.
Russ George presented an excellent overview of solid-state fusion, as he prefers to call the subject of cold fusion. "It's nuclear fusion with a difference, George said. The primary difference is that we don't see the expected high-energy nuclear emissions, neutrons, gamma rays." He brings a unique perspective to the field. He has worked with numerous researchers and experimented with a broad array of modalities. George did an excellent job of presenting the scientific facts behind cold fusion.
What's next for Russ George? "I've formed a company with a group of investors," he said, and we are beginning to fund projects both in North America and in Europe to develop functional devices that we think will lead to practical applications in the very near future."
Shortly after the APS conference, Dennis Cravens reported that he had scaled up the power levels of his experiments. His APS paper, written before his latest laboratory achievements, describes many of the details of this experiment. To manage the higher levels of heat, he is working with a 35-gallon tank, filled with 125 liters of water for his calorimeter. The jumbo-size calorimeter houses a 200 ml cold fusion cell. With a 500-watt input, he is claiming 800 watts output. "It takes about a day to heat up," Cravens said. He works at an elevation of 9,000 feet in northern New Mexico and is using his new cold fusion reactor to help heat his laboratory. He expects to serve hot tea very soon.
Dennis Craven's Jumbo Size Calorimeter
"Right now the morning outside temperature is around 35F and it gets up to 50s during the days," Cravens said. "The 800-watt output is the only heat in the lab workroom right now." Cravens doesn't expect that the reactor is practical for a commercial heater yet. "I figure the market is just not ready for a 1000-watt room heater the size of a foot locker that has parts costing over $1,000, but hey, it is a start," he said.
8. American Physical Society Journal Editors Speak on Scientific Publishing Issues
By Steven B. Krivit
Honestly, I expected the Journal Editors' Panel Session at the March 2005 American Physical Society meeting in Los Angeles, Calif., to be rather dry and boring. I was mistaken.
Six editors from the APS journals The Physical Review, Physical Review Letters, and Reviews of Modern Physics responded to spirited questions from the 150 members of the audience. Marty Blume, APS editor-in-chief, led the session.
One of the hot questions on members' minds was, How are the referees refereed? A few members expressed the concern that some referees appeared to take a less-than-rigorous approach to their voluntary duties.
"We do have a system," Peter Adams, editor of Physical Review B, said. "It may not be as effective as you would like, but it's there."
"The bottom line is, we do grade referees' reports," Anthony Begley, senior assistant to Adams, said. "We want the best-quality referees. If we find a referee that's not giving us the quality that we think, then we will grade them harshly, and the editors will usually not use them."
A member of the audience raised a complaint about reviewers who rejected papers with sparse, one-sentence rejections. "Authors deserve a more thoughtful response," he said.
Panel members agreed and added that papers which are accepted also should be held to the same standard: Reviewers who recommend the publication of papers should provide more than a one-sentence letter of acceptance. They should explicitly state why the paper is meritorious.
"We're very much like a credit bureau," Blume said. "And there is a grade [for reviewers]. It is very much like a credit report. In this case, if we get a report which is thoughtful, that contains significant content to it, or instead, if it is just 'publish' or 'don't publish,' all of those things are considered."
Blume discussed the challenges the editors face in finding quality reviewers who have sufficient time for the volunteer task.
"Of course, the reviewers are not going to understand your subtleties. They're just not spending enough time reviewing the papers," Blume said. "Too many papers, not enough referees, not enough time."
Blume ran through the yearly statistics of the thousands of papers that are submitted to the APS journals each year and compared that with the number of available reviewers.
Not only did the statistics display a severe bottleneck, but they also revealed the steep competition that authors face when journal editors confront the daily decision of which papers to send out for review and which papers are less significant to their readership, or not as good and must be rejected.
Adams asked the audience for opinions on how high to set the bar for quality. "Should we be more or less restrictive?" he asked. Most people responded that the current standard was optimal. Blume conducted a straw poll of the audience and found that half were also reviewers for various journals.
"Subjectivity is a problem we face," Jack Sandweiss, editor of Physical Review Letters, said. The bottom line, he explained, was that the decision to publish should be based on the question, "Is this a paper that, in this or a related field, is one that readers should not miss?"
Returning to the challenge of "too many papers and not enough reviewers," Blume made a strong plea for new volunteers.
Audience member Scott Chubb, a reviewer for Physical Review Letters and several other journals, asked the editors whether they would accept suggestions for referees. Yes, he was told, one could submit a list of up to 10 names.
One astute comment I heard from the floor was the point that, "in situations involving new fields, suggestions for new referees who have familiarity with the subject matter are urgently needed."
The session came to a close when another member of the audience proposed what he thought was a "wacky" idea: use short excerpts from reviewers' comments on accepted papers and posting those comments with the reviewers' names removed.
The idea, he said, was to provide a means for readers to get a quick sense of whether the paper might catch their interest, much like a "blurb" for a book review.
Blume responded kindly, with interest. "It's not really that wacky," he said. "We should think about that, perhaps put a link somewhere on a Web page for new papers."
9. Mitsubishi's Answer to Nuclear Waste: Low Energy Transmutations are Gaining Scientific Ground
By Haiko Lietz
This story first aired on German National Radio on March 23, 2005, the 16th anniversary of the announcement of cold fusion. The German article and on-demand audio are here: http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/forschak/359485/
When Yasuhiro Iwamura presented his lecture (http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/IwamuraYobservatiob.pdf) at the last International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (http://newenergytimes.com/conferences/2004/ICCF11/ICCF11.shtml) in Marseille, France, you could have heard a pin drop. The Japanese researcher presented results from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The corporation does much more than build cars.
If their results are right, the Japanese also have developed a technology within the last 10 years that, under certain conditions, will physically transmute chemical elements into new elements. According to established theory, this should be impossible. Iwamura explains the method, which involves a special heavy metal sandwich:
It is composed of pure palladium and a calcium oxide complex layer. On one side of the palladium complex, we have deuterium gas at about 1 atmospheric pressure. On the other side, we keep a vacuum condition. If we put an element on the palladium complex, that is specifically targeted to be transmuted, and we make deuterium gas permeate through the palladium complex. After about a week or 10 days, we observe the transmutation of this element.
If there are, for example, caesium atoms on the palladium sandwich, those gradually disappear, and atoms of the element praseodymium appear during the experiment. After about four days, there are more praseodymium atoms than caesium atoms. The praseodymium nucleus is heavier than the caesium nucleus by four protons and neutrons each. It seems as if caesium nuclei somehow reacted with ions of the deuterium gas and formed praseodymium nuclei.
Iwamura and his colleagues published their results in the renowned Japanese Journal of Applied Physics in 2002 (http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/IwamuraYelementalaa.pdf). Since then, they have successfully repeated the experiment over 50 times. In the same way, they were able to transmute strontium into molybdenum. Also, in recent experiments, one element disappears, and another appears.
Currently, we involve a barium transmutation experiment," Iwamura said. "We observe the transmutation of barium into samarium. And this samarium has a non-natural isotopic ratio. At first, we performed a natural barium experiment, and after that, we used enriched barium-137. If we use barium-138, we get samarium-150. And if we use barium-137, then we will have samarium-149. In other words, we observe different mass distributions by controlling the initial mass distribution.
The yielded element is determined by the initial element that is used. In the barium experiment, a non-natural samarium isotope is formed. In the caesium experiment, it is not just the isotope, but even the element that is rare in nature. That is why the researchers are confident the new-found elements are not the result of contamination of the system. It is noticeable that caesium and strontium are products of nuclear fission, which are radioactive, depending on the isotope. Is Mitsubishi conducting these experiments to try to remediate nuclear waste?
At the moment, it is very difficult to say, but it might be possible," Iwamura said. "Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has a very wide range of
products, including nuclear power plants. Our research into this field may yield commercial applications.
The Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei-Shinbun recently rated the Mitsubishi research the third-most-important technology trend. The effect has been confirmed by the universities of Osaka and Shizuoka, the Japanese SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility, and the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics.
The head of the Italian transmutation study group, Francesco Celani, with the Instituto Nazionale de Fisica Nucleare, gives high grades to the Japanese experiment:
This is a very, very clean experiment," Celani said. "Iwamura makes several cross checks for his results. Not just one, but four different kinds of analyses. Contamination, the weak point in any kind of transmutation experiment, is almost ruled out. I think this is a model that all of us should follow.
Celani now wants to start a joint Italian/Japanese basic research program into transmutations. In a second phase, program members also plan to transmute radioactive caesium and strontium. The project is set at 25 million Euro over a five-year period. According to Celani, high-ranking political circles in Italy are very positive about it.
At the Marseille conference, eight additional transmutation experiments involving researchers from Canada, Italy, Romania, Russia and the US Navy were presented. Scott Chubb from the Naval Research Laboratory said, The materials control and measurements in the Mitsubishi work are so well done it is hard to believe that it could be wrong."
BITS AND PIECES
10. Cold Fusion in the News
Fusion, La Science, Passionnment: Fusion Froide, "ICCF 11: Le Feu Sous la Banquise," by David Fabrice (Feb.- Mar., 2005)
http://www.revuefusion.com/ (Subscription may be required)
A brief review of the ICCF-11 conference, a response to Huizenga's three miracles, and some of the work by Russian and French scientists.
[Editors note: No cold fusion news here, but the subject is related]
CNN Money: "Goldman Sees Oil Price 'Super Spike' to $105 a Barrel," (March 31, 2005)
http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/31/news/international/goldman_oil.reut/
"LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices could touch $105 a barrel in the next few years, the influential investment bank Goldman Sachs said Thursday.
The bank's analysts said in a research report that the world energy market is in the early stages of a 'super-spike' period that could see 1970s-style price surges. The bank called its forecast 'conservative.'"
Nigeria World: "Cold Fusion, The Unlimited Energy Source: A Myth Or Reality?" by Sam Ejike Okoye (March 27, 2005)
http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2005/mar/271.html
"...Cold fusion, on the other hand, attempts to achieve the same result, but by using solid materials ... various metals, including palladium... Because the process causing this to happen is not well understood, the possibility is rejected by many conventional scientists. Difficulty in producing the process on command has intensified the rejection. While this difficulty is real, it has not, as many sceptics have claimed, prevented the process from being reproduced hundreds of times in laboratories all over the world for the past 13 years. Indeed, the process continues to be reproduced with increasing ease using a variety of methods and materials."
[Editor's note: Okoye has a few minor technical errors in his article.]
The Guardian Unlimited: "In From the Cold," by David Adam, (March 24, 2005)
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,1444306,00.html
Adam quotes Mike McKubre, of SRI International in California: "The ability to wield the power of nuclear physics on a tabletop has enormous technological importance. When the smoke clears, it will be obvious to all, and our current critics will claim it was obvious to them all along."
Nature; "Physicists Look to Crystal Device for Future of Fusion," by Mark Peplow (April 28, 2005)
(Subscription only)
"Tabletop fusion has been a touchy subject since Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann said in 1989 that they had achieved cold fusion at room temperature. [Seth] Putterman helped to discredit this claim, as well as more recent reports of bubble fusion. Now Putterman, a physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has turned a tiny crystal into a particle accelerator. When its electric field is focused by a tungsten needle, it fires deuterium ions into a target so fast that the colliding nuclei fuse to create a stream of neutrons."
AP: "UCLA Researchers Produce Nuclear Fusion," by Alicia Chang, (April 27, 2005)
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=753&e=1&u=/ap/20050427/ap_on_sc/tabletop_fusion&sid=84439559
" LOS ANGELES - A tabletop experiment created nuclear fusion, long seen as a possible clean energy solution, under lab conditions, scientists reported. But the amount of energy produced was too little to be seen as a breakthrough in solving the world's energy needs...This latest experiment relied on a tiny crystal to generate a strong electric field. While falling short as a way to produce energy, the method could have potential uses in the oil-drilling industry and homeland security, said Seth Putterman, one of the physicists who did the experiment at the University of California, Los Angeles."
New York Times: "Itty-Bitty and Shrinking, Fusion Device Has Big Ideas," by Kenneth Chang (April 28, 2005)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/science/28fusion.html?
"While the device is probably too inefficient to produce electricity or other forms of energy, the scientists say, egg-size fusion generators could someday find uses in spacecraft thrusters, medical treatments and scanners that search for bombs."
[Editors note: No cold fusion news here, but the subject is related]
The Guardian Unlimited: "Huge Radioactive Leak Closes Thorp Nuclear Plant," by Paul Brown (May 9, 2005)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,2763,1479527,00.html
"A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in concentrated nitric acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, has forced the closure of Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant....Recovering the liquids and fixing the pipes will take months and may require special robots to be built and sophisticated engineering techniques devised to repair the 2.1bn plant... The leak is not a danger to the public but is likely to be a financial disaster for the taxpayer since income from the Thorp plant, calculated to be more than 1m a day, is supposed to pay for the cleanup of redundant nuclear facilities."
11. Speakers Available - Experts on the Subject of Cold Fusion
Steven B. Krivit - General audiences (Co-author of The Rebirth of Cold Fusion)
Charles G. Beaudette - Academic audiences (Author of Excess Heat and Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed, 2nd Ed.)
David J. Nagel - Government and military audiences (Participant in the 2004 DOE Cold Fusion Review)
12. Updates to the New Energy Times(tm) Web Site
New Energy Times(tm) Newsletter Issue #9
http://newenergytimes.com/news/2005/NET9.shtml
Archive Freedom Story Updated
The story regarding the Archive Freedom Web site in New Energy Times issue #9 has been revised since it was distributed on March 10. The revised story is included in Issue #9 here http://newenergytimes.com/news/2005/NET9.shtml.
"Why Cold Fusion is Important" has been updated.
http://newenergytimes.com/reports/WhyisColdFusionImportant.shtml
"Cold Fusion Frequently Asked Questions" has been added.
http://newenergytimes.com/PR/ColdFusionFAQ.shtml
"Author Charles Beaudette Responds to the 2004 DoE Cold Fusion Reviewers," report added.
http://newenergytimes.com/Library/2005BeaudetteC-ResponseToDOE2004Review.pdf
"Second Chance for Cold Fusion: U.S. Department of Energy Recognizes Research and Funding Demand," article added.
http://newenergytimes.com/news/2005/2005LietzH-SecondChanceForColdFusion.shtml
"Mitsubishi's Answer to Nuclear Waste: Low Energy Transmutations are Gaining Scientific Ground," article added.
http://www.newenergytimes.com/news/2005/2005LietzH-MitsubishiAnswerToWaste.shtml
"Students" page: Four papers added.
http://newenergytimes.com/education/education.shtml
Dr. Edmund Storms:
"A Students' Guide"
"How to Produce the Pons-Fleischmann Effect"
"How To Make a Cheap and Effective Seebeck Calorimeter"
Giuliano Mengoli:
"Calorimetry Close to the Boiling Temperature."
"Conversations" page: Three new pages added.
http://newenergytimes.com/views/views.shtml
A Few Questions and Answers with Roger Stringham by Steven Krivit, July 21, 2004
Interview of K.P. Sinha by Steven Krivit, August 25, 2003
Interview of Akito Takahashi by Steven Krivit, August 25, 2003
Errata to The Rebirth of Cold Fusion, by Krivit and Winocur
http://newenergytimes.com/books/RebirthofColdFusion/Errata.shtml
ICCF-10 page: Link to LENR-CANR.org proceedings added.
http://newenergytimes.com/conferences/2003/ICCF10/iccf10.shtml
A link to some of the ICCF-10 proceedings, compiled and published by Jed Rothwell, has been added on the ICCF-10 page. The published proceedings are under way, according to Peter Hagelstein. Numerous complications have caused unexpected delays.
The 12th Russian Conference on Cold Nuclei Transmutation of Chemical Elements and Ball Lightning.
http://newenergytimes.com/conferences/2004/RCCNTBL12/RCCNTBL-12.shtml
Program and abstracts have been added.
American Physical Society March 2005 Meeting, Los Angeles, Calif.
http://newenergytimes.com/conferences/2005/APS2005/2005.shtml
Audio recordings and presentations added.
Pre-print of the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry paper by Szpak, Boss, Young, Gordon, "The Effect of an External Electric Field on Surface Morphology of CoDeposited Pd/D Films," added to this section.
Japan CF-Research Society JCF6 Conference
http://newenergytimes.com/conferences/2005/JCF6/JCF6-Program.shtml
Program and abstracts have been added.
Conferences and Cold Fusion Sessions
http://newenergytimes.com/conferences/conferences.shtml
Links to several other future programs added.
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15. Administrative
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