Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
> If they [China] were moving ahead rapidly in cold fusion I would
be thrilled.
> Actually, they may be, since they are paying for Arata's work, and
> reportedly replicating it back in China.
Yow! That's wild! Can you provide more info on that -- particularly on
the replications?
There isn't much to tell. When I visited the lab during Arata's
birthday lecture and presentation, I saw that the lab was staffed
with people from Yue-Chang Zhang's home university, Shanghai Jiao
Tong U., Shanghai. That is a National University, run by the Chinese
Min. of Education. Arata complained during the lecture that the
Japanese government will not give him 1 yen to do the work. Someone
is paying for it, so that leaves only the Chinese.
The lab was staffed by 2 or 3 hotshot Chinese guys in their 30s
running the experiments. (I think two that day and the mentioned a
third.) They spoke excellent Japanese which is how I communicated
with them, in person and later by e-mail. Anyway, as readers here
know from the paper by Rothwell and Storms reviewing the Arata
experiment, I didn't think much of the experiment itself. One of my
exchanges with the Chinese guy was:
Me: This looks like a half-assed [ii-kagen na] arrangement to me. Are
you guys doing a better job of this back in Shanghai?
Guy: Of course we are.
It stands to reason that they are. It is costing the Chinese
government a pretty penny to send 2 or 3 hotshots to Osaka full time.
I cannot imagine they would do that without some independent
verification of the claims using proper equipment instead of Arata's
gorblimey calorimetry.
- Jed
