Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <a...@lomaxdesign.com> wrote: Well, Mr. Gibbs, while I appreciate your reporting on Defkalion, you > continue to confuse and conflate two separate issues. > > 1. The reality of cold fusion as a physical phenomenon. > 2. The existence of practical applications. >
Exactly. "Reliably reproducible" is not a requirement for scientific validation of a > phenomenon. That is true. It is important. It is often overlooked by skeptics, who should know better. Beaudette pointed to the example of cloning mammals which used to work 0.1% of the time, yet no one doubted that mammals can be cloned. > However, the reality of cold fusion does not equal practical application. > The effect has been extremely difficult to control. > Exactly. And as I keep saying, *if* the problem of control is solved, everything else will soon follow. Granted, that's a big if. There is no telling whether it will be solved, or when. That mainly depends on funding, and there has not been any funding for 15 years. There is a little now. Without sustained funding, the problem of control may never be solved. Cold fusion might remain a laboratory curiosity for hundreds of years. It might well be forgotten. Failure is always an option. I think that with control, commercialization is a sure thing, because we know for sure the reaction can produce enough heat and power density to melt ceramic proton conductors (for example). I think Abd disagrees with me about that. I think that Rossi did actually demonstrate 16 kW reactions in January 2011. I think fraud is so unlikely it is not worth worrying about. However, he did not seem to have the reaction under control. It seems the reactor came close to catastrophic overheating, with a surge from 16 kW to some much higher value. I have no idea whether he now has better control or not. It must be emphasized that a reactor which produces 16 kW for a while and then suddenly begins producing over 100 kW has absolutely NO COMMERCIAL VALUE. It is terribly dangerous! It could easily kill someone. As a demonstration, it has no more value than a 100 W reactor would have. You would have to be crazy to begin mass producing 16 kW reactors that sometimes go out of control and begin producing 100 kW or more. - Jed
