Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: I think this article deserves a closer look. It relies heavily on Simon, a > very good source.
I *loath* Simon's book. Hate it, hate it, hate it! He looks at people's opinions and counts papers instead of evaluating calorimetry. Meta-analyses are mostly bunk, and they are complete bunk when the experimental evidence itself is clear cut, and in some cases a single experiment produces definitive, stand alone proof. Simon reminds me of Lord Dorwin in Foundation: . . . Why not go to Arcturus and study the remains for yourself?’ Lord Dorwin raised his eyebrows and took a pinch of snuff hurriedly. ‘Why, whatevah foah, my deah fellow?’ ‘To get the information firsthand, of course.’ ‘But wheah's the necessity? It seems an uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs. Look heah now, I’ve got the wuhks of the mastahs -- the gweat ahchaeologists of the past. I weigh them against each othah -- balance of the disagweements -- analyze the conflicting statements -- decide which is pwobably cowwect -- and come to a conclusion. That is the scientific method.. . . > Certainly it was true, then, and possibly now -- though far less clear -- > that CF was considered a "stumble." In fact, don't we agree on that? No me. I agree with Fleischmann's view expressed on the day of the press conference: they were doomed. They would surely be driven out of the university. Their enemies had it in for them from day one, and they were determined to destroy reputations, derail and suppress the research. Even if some small portion of the blame was Fleischmann and Pons', and they stumbled for not revealing more early on, they were more sinned against than sinning. Nobody currently thinks that that first press conference was a great idea. I see nothing wrong with it. Look at the video. They made no unreasonable or unsupported assertions. It was sober and level headed. Everything they claimed was proved to be true within a year. The discovery was important, and not to hold a press conference for something of this magnitude would be absurd. Scientists in any other field would have held a press conference. The plasma fusion scientists hold them for trivial accomplishments that everyone knew they would accomplish months earlier, and they hold these press conferences long before they publish a paper -- not on the day the paper comes out. The people who criticize the press conference are hypocritical or ignorant. - Jed
