At 08:32 PM 10/29/2009, Jed Rothwell wrote:
The other day I mentioned to Shanahan that it seems unlikely this
positional artifact would occur only with Pd and deuterium, and not
Pt and hydrogen or Pd and hydrogen. He said that is not unlikely and
his theory can account for it. I cannot imagine how changing the
hydrogen isotope would produce positional problems, but that's what he said.
Shanahan said a lot of things in our conversations. He was big on
asserting vastly superior knowledge that somehow, to me, looked like
a head stuck in some fixed concepts that weren't going to yield to
new facts no matter what. He's been hoeing that row for a long time, you know.
Absolutely. Heat is a signature, a crucial one. So how do we know we
have excess heat? Calorimetry? Fine. Problem for my purposes is that
is cumbersome.
Yes, well, nature did not deign to make this experiment easy or
convenient. That's rather like thinking about airplanes circa 1900
and saying "the problem for my purposes is that trying to fly is
dangerous." It sure is! You should stay on the ground.
Jed, really? You are defining and designing the "necessary"
experiment to make it difficult. Nature didn't do that, you did, by
fixing in your mind what is most important. But we'll see, eh?
