Someone wrote to me saying he intends to try to replicate Mizuno's experiment, but at a much higher temperature. I responded:
"PLEASE do not make any changes until you have tested the same materials in the same conditions as the original!! Please follow the instructions as closely as you can, and stay at the recommended temperatures. If you successfully produce excess heat, then you can go to higher temperatures, or make any other changes you like. If it stops working you can return to the original design. Dr. Mizuno spent many years developing this experiment. He tried many different materials, techniques and variations. Most of them did not work. It is impossible for him, or me, or anyone to say what aspects of this experiment are essential, and what can be changed. But I think that temperatures and pressures are among the critical parameters. So, please do not change them in the first round of experiments." It seems perverse to me that anyone would begin a replication by deliberately changing what may be a critical parameter -- or any parameter. Others have told me, "I intend to try a replication BUT I will change the pressure / materials / configuration." Apparently they think they know better than Mizuno. This is arrogant. I wouldn't worry about it, but I fear they will fail to replicate and then tell the world this experiment does not work. If people are not going to do a close replication, and if they are unwilling to follow directions, I wish they would not try at all.
