Steven Krivit wrote:
On 23 March 1989, electrochemists M. Fleischmann and S. Pons claimed in a press conference at the University of Utah that they had achieved nuclear fusion . . . Their hypothesis that a novel form of thermonuclear fusion was responsible for their experimental results is still unproved.
I don't get this. I don't think Fleischmann and Pons ever claimed this is fusion caused by heat (thermo-nuclear fusion). Or anything remotely like plasma fusion. The only people who said that were the skeptics.
The suggestion that LENR research represented a new form of thermonuclear fusion has caused significant confusion.
This suggestion was a strawman argument by the skeptics intended to cause confusion. No cold fusion researcher has made this suggestion as far as I know. I hope the rest of the article makes this clear.
In 1989 I knew a little about plasma fusion, mainly because I had observed plasma fusion experiments back in college, conducted by my roommate (a grad student). When I read the Wall Street Journal article about cold fusion, based on this rudimentary knowledge it took me about 5 seconds to conclude that whatever Fleischmann and Pons had discovered, it could not be anything like plasma fusion. (Of course I assumed it might be an experimental error or misunderstanding. I did not learn any details until Gene's book came out.) I am sure Fleischmann and Pons reached that some conclusion. Although Pons was upset with researchers in 1989 who said there were no neutrons, so in a sense he still had one foot stuck back in the plasma fusion model.
- Jed
