Peter Heckert wrote:
Yes, Rossi can look inside, but we cannot, so we cannot accept it.
Even if the pope himself swears it on the holy bible I would not
finally believe this before I have seen it myself.
Do you mean: 1. Until you see an actual machine in operation? Or 2.
Until you have seen the nuclear-active material itself?
If you mean 1: I do not understand why you will not take the word of
NASA researchers, or Prof. Levi for that matter.
2. I have seen several cold fusion cathodes. You can't tell anything by
looking at them. Even if you could see the powder and the inside of the
cell, it would tell you nothing and give you no reason to believe the
thing is actually a nuclear reactor. You have to spend weeks examining
it with SEM and other clever gadgets. You have to be an expert in using
these gadgets.
So Rossi requests more faith and believe from me than the pope would
ever request.
You seem to be rejecting Rossi, NASA and Defkalion. How long are you
going to continue with this policy? How many scientists must observe
this thing before you will take their word that it is real?
I cannot understand this extreme skepticism. Other researchers have
reported heat from nickel hydrides. many others have reported heat from
palladium deuterides. Why is it such a stretch to believe Rossi? just
because the power density and absolute power is higher that is no reason
to doubt these results, or to classify them as being more difficult to
believe. On the contrary, higher power and higher temperatures are
easier to measure and therefore easier to believe.
It seems some people find this difficult to believe because it means the
Rossi device is suitable for practical applications. Why should this
make it harder to believe?!? Did you suppose that cold fusion would
remain a laboratory curiosity forever? This makes no sense to me.
Nothing about cold fusion ever indicated that it would necessarily
remain a small-scale laboratory curiosity, like muon catalyzed fusion.
On the contrary, since the early 90s there have been many reports of
large heat releases and high temperatures. It was clear that if the
reaction could be controlled it could become a practical source of energy.
There are some cold fusion researchers who disagree with this. Mizuno,
McKubre and a few others agree with me, saying it was clear all along
that cold fusion could be practical, and making it practical was the
entire purpose of the research.
- Jed
