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Background information provided by New Energy Times
(Source: New Energy Times)
After he retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Edmund Storms became one of the most outspoken proponents of "cold fusion." Years later, Storms began working as a consultant for Lewis Larsen's company, Lattice Energy LLC, in 2003. Storms became an employee of the company in 2004.
On May 2, 2005, Larsen and his first theoretical collaborator, Allan Widom, released a preprint of their theory which provided an explanation for LENRs based on conventional physics. Their theory also stated that LENRs were not based on any kind of "cold fusion." The response by most "cold fusion" believers was unfriendly, to say the least.
On July 21, 2005, Charles Platt, published an article in Make magazine that featured an interview with Storms. The interview, and visit to Storms' lab, took place without Larsen's knowledge.
In Larsen's letter to Make, Larsen explains the now-former business relationship between Lattice Energy LLC and Storms. Larsen presents a different representation of the LENR field, his company, and the physics of LENRs than that portrayed by Storms in the Make article.
At a later date, Larsen terminated Storms' employment with Lattice. Storms then became Larsen's most vocal critic, primarily expressing his views and opinions in Internet discussion lists.
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Larsen's Letter to the Editors of Make Magazine:
We have read Charles Platt's published work for a number of years and consider him to be an excellent writer and thoughtful reporter of the leading edge of science, including the controversial subject of cold fusion. That having been said, we read his July 21, 2005, article, "The Fascination of Extreme Science" and his Make - Volume 03 article titled "A Fusion Reactor for the Rest of Us " which referenced the ongoing work of Dr. Edmund Storms in the field of "cold fusion" (a.k.a. low-energy nuclear reactions) and would like to clarify the following:
1. Dr. Storms is not currently engaged in research in this field as a "solitary endeavor" nor is he a "lone garage scientist" nor is he a "lone scientist" working on his own. Quite to the contrary, he conducts LENR research as an employee, senior scientist, and minority owner of a privately held company named Lattice Energy, LLC which received its initial funding in 2001. Dr. Storms' affiliation with Lattice was not disclosed in the articles other than stating that, "His latest acquisition, the electron microscope, is on loan from a small Chicago company of speculative investors who hope that Storms may make a crucial breakthrough in his one-man research initiative."
We do not agree with the characterization that Lattice is a "company of speculative investors." Since its formation, it has conducted R&D activities with a variety of scientists at several institutions, developed a portfolio of intellectual property, and entered into discussions with potential strategic partners. Lattice's business goal is to commercialize the company's proprietary LENR-related technologies. Lattice plans to establish corporate research facilities in the Chicago area in the near future. Dr. Storms was a consultant to the company in 2003, became a senior scientist to the company in 2004, and continues to conduct laboratory experiments for the company on a full-time, exclusive basis.
2. There is only one (not two as stated in the article) major piece of analytical equipment in Dr. Storms' home laboratory. It is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an integrated energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) used to perform elemental analysis of surface structures seen with the SEM. The SEM/EDX equipment is owned by Lattice and was installed at Dr. Storms' home laboratory in mid-2004 (not in 2005 as stated in the article).
3. Dr. Storms did not devise Lattice's commercialization plan nor was he involved in identifying initial market applications for LENR-based technologies, such as nuclear battery-like devices, or possible manufacturing techniques. Lattice plans to develop actual commercial prototypes at other facilities, not at Dr. Storm's home laboratory.
4. We do not agree with the statement that low-energy nuclear reactions "… violate our understanding of physics." To the contrary, Professor Allan Widom of Northeastern University (Boston, MA), Department of Physics, and I have published a technical paper on the arXiv preprint server that offers an alternative explanation for many anomalous phenomena that have been aggregated under the label of "cold fusion." This paper, "Ultra Low Momentum Neutron Catalyzed Nuclear Reactions on Metallic Hydride Surfaces" can be found at http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0505026. Our theory, if verified experimentally by other laboratories: (a) falls solidly within the established laws of physics; and (b) does not involve any D-D or D-D-like fusion.
Sincerely,
Lewis G. Larsen
President and CEO
Lattice Energy, LLC
Chicago, IL
(312) 861-0115
lewisglarsen@cs.com
Posted by lewisglarsen
on August 11, 2005 at 13:35:36 Pacific Time
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