On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 6:43 PM, Akira Shirakawa <shirakawa.ak...@gmail.com>wrote:
> From NextBigFuture: > > http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/**12/brian-ahern-will-not-be-** > presenting-on.html<http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/12/brian-ahern-will-not-be-presenting-on.html> > > This is unexpected. Does anybody know why Dr. Brian Ahern won't be > presenting his findings on LENR tomorrow as originally planned? > > Looking at the slides, it's not surprising he bailed. The talk doesn't look finished. Like he never got past the introduction. There is absolutely no substance there at all. Just one loose idea than that dissimilar (or non-linear) bond potentials at a certain size scale can cause energy localization. He shows a macroscopic example of BBs from the cover of nature, but the degree of localization certainly doesn't make the sort of million-fold concentration that's needed plausible. When he starts to talk about cold fusion experiments, it is without any detail, without any data. Just bullet lists. The only thing in the way of evidence for his idea is that Takahashi's experiment didn't work with 20-100 nm powder, but did with the smaller powder. Sounds a little anecdotal, and appears to disagree with Rossi's results that use much larger grains (allegedly). There is a 2-line reference to recent (?) Piantelli and Miley self-sustained operation, but no details at all. And what's with the slide on Arata, calling him Japan's most decorated scientist? I don't pretend to know anything about noted Japanese, but the Wikipedia page on "list of japanese people" ... "who are notable" doesn't list him at all. They have a section just on scientists, which lists 20 names, many of them nobel prize winners, which Arata is not. The "order of cultural merit" (or actually the "order of culture") that he has is not that exclusive; there were 7 awards in 2010, and most nobel prize winners seem to get the order. It's not that big a deal, but it would be nice if you knew you could trust the accuracy of these presentations.
