Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignitionnet
The guy's secrecy is the rub. A single paper, refusal to allow independent 3rd party testing beyond this, and then results from a test where he allowed the end products to be analysed which were dubious to say the least.
Notable that in the academic paper published the end products were not analysed. Wonder why. |
Yes, I certainly agree there. That's the main complaint.
Perfectly understandable, but then I think so is the secrecy to a point. If you'd spent many many years and a lot of money developing something as an investment, you'd probably want to keep it secret too. Well, I think I might anyway. If the secrecy went too far, and was irrational then I'd become suspicious.
Rossi has a dilemma. On one hand (assuming he's genuine for a moment) he has some gimmick, a twist on the original cold fusion that he's developed.
How does he prove it to gain recognition (and increased its value to investors or potential buyers) without giving it away and rendering it useless as a product to control and sell? If you can't control it, then someone else can come along, perhaps change a little thing or two, or even improve it and then have control over the intellectual property rights. It depends on the nature of the E-Cat, which we don't (yet) know.
The way to do that, is not give away the design, but allow independent scientists to measure the energy coming in, and the energy leaving.
If the energy being released is higher than what can be accountable from the chemicals (namely hydrogen) being added, then he's proved there's something new going on there as that should be technically impossible. This appears to be what he's attempted to do. Whether it's a hoax or not is uncertain, but it appears he's managed to convince a number of physicists that there is a nuclear process occurring here. If its a hoax, then its an impressive one.
The US energy firm that's purchased the intellectual property rights I'm sure wouldn't have done so unless he convinced their best technical experts that he had the goods.
Personally, I don't see why the fuss has lasted so long. Its really not that difficult to measure the energy coming in and leaving in order to establish thermodynamic overunity (implying nuclear or other process). Back when I worked in nuclear fusion research (hot fusion) we used custom built calorimeters for measuring the tiniest of temperature fluctuations. The units we had were very large, like large heavily insulated coolers, used peltier junctions to cool the sample to near absolute zero, and to completely regulate the internal temperature and it was so sensitive it could measure the heat released from tritium (3H) disintegration(s) to Helium-3 and an electron (per disintegration). The heat is so miniscule there is no other way to measure it, but it was measurable.
Mass flow meters can extremely accurately measure the hydrogen mass flow , and the water boiled into steam is an easy and cheap indicator. Any electrical power being fed/consumed is easily measured.
The science blog link was an interesting read. What Ethan has posted there, is deliver conventional fusion science; repulsive forces between atomic nuclei, temperatures involved in nuclear fusion, no sign of hydrogen isotopes adding to nickel in the stars, etc etc. This is conventional thinking, however what's claimed (though not yet proven) is that there is something *new* going on. The fact that we don't have deuterium and tritium fusing at 120,000,000 deg C shouldn't be a surprise as this is not what's claimed. I think he's going a little far by saying "Right here, this very site claimed that these results were probably faked, and now we’re going to show you the physics of why these claims are definitely untrue."
Yes, as applies for conventional hot fusion, but its not and we don't really know whats supposed to be going on here because we haven't been told. All I can say is that something very clever would have to be going on to fool physicists who've tested the machine.
As an analogy, there is the example of rogue waves. Reported by sailors for centuries, denied by science up until the mid 1990's when the Draupner platform in the North Sea *measured* the
Draupner Wave a massive 84 ft wave of sorts. Scientists described such waves as "1 in 10,000 year events", of course they were working on the linear model. What was claimed was *new*, a different phenomenon. Since the 1990's satellites have measured wave heights and its been found that rogue waves are everywhere. Dozens around the world at any given time. So the sailors have been right all along. Just now and again, a ship is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
If this hadn't been shown and now been known to be true, I or any of us no doubt, could go on a science blog and regurgitate the linear wave model after stating "Right here, this very site claimed that these results were probably faked, and now we’re going to show you the physics of why these claims are definitely untrue.". So I take such statements with a pinch of salt, whenever dealing with potentially new science.
I can't say I'm a believer in cold fusion, I can't be as I haven't examined this machine myself. But I'm still cautiously sitting on the bench. Though, I haven't seen anything that disproves it either.