I am sorry to report that the authorities have finally closed down cold fusion research at SAPWAR. After Frank Gordon left, the project was on life support. Recent reports on Fox News and elsewhere mentioned it, bringing about the inevitable coup de grace.
Like most cold fusion projects, this was a shoestring or "bootlegged" operation. It was done by retired researchers such as Szpak, and others working nights and weekends. The equipment was scavenged or bought by private individuals. But, as we all know, people opposed to cold fusion will not tolerate any project, even if it costs essentially nothing. Academic freedom means nothing to them. It never occurs to them they might be wrong, because -- Like Park and Yugo -- they have read nothing and they know nothing. They make no distinction between cold fusion and a perpetual motion machines or water memory. Any research they disagree with *must not be allowed*, period. Whenever cold fusion appears in the mass media I shudder, because I know it will trigger a backlash. Cold fusion researchers keep a low profile for a good reason. They know perfectly well that when some nitwit such as Krivit reveals there may be a source of funding, or a project being organized, that will trigger opposition. Robert Park will pull strings. Others will organize letter-writing campaigns. Mary Yugo will publish unfounded accusations of fraud and guilt by association. You can see the dynamic at work in this article, where someone is trying to shut down NASA interest in cold fusion: "Why is NASA Langley Wasting Time on Cold Fusion Research?" http://nasawatch.com/archives/2011/12/why-is-nasa-lan.html The people in charge of the Navy and the DoE know nothing about cold fusion, and they do not care about it. When they get letters from scientists or members of the public saying "someone in your organization is committing fraud" they do not ask questions. They close it down, whatever it is. Their main concern is their public image with the taxpayers. The last thing they need is to be accused of countenancing academic fraud or crazy research. This has been happening for 22 years. Given this environment, it is surprising that cold fusion survived at all. Dozens of projects such as this one and the one at MIT were crushed, mostly without ever being allowed to publish anything, and without any knowledge by the public. I knew about the MIT project described by Stolper because Gene Mallove was involved, and he was reporting to me. I was helping to fund things like this. No one else ever learned about it because it worked. Any time positive results are achieved, the opposition will pull out the stops to have the researchers fired or pushed into final retirement. That's how it works. That is why I and others gave up even trying to establish projects at major institutions years ago. We know how it will end. That is why I think there no hope of funding Miley et al., and no point. Sure it would be important work. But it is not worth getting some poor grad student in trouble, or ruining her career prospects. The results will be bottled up, the grad student's reputation torn to shreds by nitwits, and the mass media will report only lies and distortions. Yeah, I may get another informal positive result I can upload to LENR-CANR.org, but that is not worth destroying someone's career. It won't change anything. Fortunately, Rossi and Defkalion are privately funded and immune to interference. Rossi is well aware of how academic politics work in the U.S. That is one of the reasons he has not made much of an effort to work with universities and national labs. Even if they get positive results, it will be reported as a failure and fraud. That is what happened to the National Cold Fusion Institute, and the Japanese NEDO project. When Miles demonstrated heat at the NEDO over a few weeks, the scientifically trained bureaucrats in charge, who were in the same building, *refused to get up, walk down the hall, and look*. Talk about willful ignorance! Mary Yugo has nothing on them. They were busy writing a report saying that no positive results were achieved. They published that in Japanese soon after Miles left and the project was shut down. Perhaps they hoped Miles would not read it. Miles, being no fool, sent it to me, and I translated it. He was pretty upset but not surprised. As someone remarked "the fix was in from the start." It could not be more blatant. Their job was to lie, stick the knife into the project, and prevent any other research. In his book, Huizenga bragged that was his assignment, and he was proud of how well he did it. The 2004 DoE review was also a charade. It was clear beforehand it would be a joke, or parlor trick, not a serious review. That is why Storms refused to participate, and why I told the participants beforehand, "beware of what you wish for." - Jed
