On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 6:51 PM, Terry Blanton <hohlr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'll start with Dr. Mallove's conclusion: > > "What it boils down to is this: By studying the history MIT and cold > fusion, one learns that paradigm-paralyzed and unethical scientists > have the motive and means to wreck massive damage against an emerging > science and technology, especially when an aging and well-financed > program is threatened. An MIT President who has access to the highest > power levels of the Federal government should not be contributing to > the distortion of government spending by feathering MIT’s nest and > ignoring facts. MIT alumni/ae, students, staff, and President Charles > M. Vest need to consider this—E. Mallove" > This would only make sense if the research had been stopped by MIT. But as advocates like to crow, hundreds of scientists continued to work on it, and about 200M has been spent on it. MIT does not have power over other countries, and they're not the only ones who can do research. It's very unlikely that support from MIT would have attracted much more interest in cold fusion. And no one knows if another hundred scientists, or another 100M would have made a difference. After all, if Rossi has found the holy grail, he did it on a tiny budget, and without the MIT minds. > LENR threatened the millions of dollars that were fed into MIT for hot > fusion research. Sure. So what? The notion that MIT hot fusion people could convince the government to abandon a field with such enormous strategic, economic, and environmental benefits *to itself* is more implausible than cold fusion itself. And it's not just benefit of the field, but strategic risk in ignoring it if other countries develop it. And all for the interest in keeping grants? You're saying that someone supported by the government can use the government's money to talk the government into something against its own interest to preserve the support of themselves? There has been billions spent in fission research too. Since fusion threatens fission, how is it that they didn't shut down the fusion research. Or vice versa. It's crazy. It's all just paranoia and excuses for having so much invested in something that has led nowhere. Funding agencies like the DOE understand conflicts of interest, and avoid them, and their 2 panels of experts have found no merit in the field. > Had MIT committed to faithfully examine the works of > Fleischmann and Pons and their own results, the world would be a > better one today. > That's a wild guess. It's possible it could be worse, if it had wasted the time of a scientist who has made life-saving discoveries. As it is, cold fusion wasted the career of Pons, who was a respectable scientist at the time.
