On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote: > hohlr...@gmail.com <hohlr...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Was he instrumental in releasing F&P finding to the Press? > > > In the chapter I uploaded, he said no: > > "Fleischmann reportedly said (for reasons never clear) that the University > of Utah had required the two investigators to go public when they did. When > I subsequently asked for clarification from the relevant university office, > people there clearly stated that their policy was to honor all faculty > requests with respect to publication and announcement, not initiate them."
It meant a lot to the university to be the first to announce. From: http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/6.11/coldfusion_pr.html "In their defense, Pons and Fleischmann explained that they couldn't reveal all the details because the University of Utah's patent had not yet been approved. They admitted that the press conference had been premature, but claimed the University had urged them to go public when another scientist - a physicist named Steve Jones - turned out to be pursuing similar work." Jones later became one of F&P's greatest antagonists. The whole bloody fiasco probably set back CF 30 years. Sour grapes indeed.
