Mauro Lacy wrote:
As I'm actually living near the city of Bariloche, which is on the
shore of the Nahuel Huapi lake in which Huemul island(Richter's
laboratory site) is, and as this can at least in a potential way be
related to cold fusion, I feel compelled to tell a little story here. . . .
That is a fascinating account. Thanks.
I have always wondered about Richter. Not much information is
available about his work, I suppose that is because people try to
forget a fiasco. I have met a few researchers who tried to replicate
cold fusion who have forgotten all about the details of their work. I
assume they put it out of their minds because they considered it a
failure and an embarrassment.
Here is an interesting quote about that subject from the book "Being
Wrong" by K. Schulz:
"[Here is] an experience recounted by Sigmund Freud in The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (itself a book about erring). Once,
while settling his monthly accounts, Freud came upon the name of a
patient whose case history he couldn't recall, even though he could
see that he had visited her every day for many weeks, scarcely six
months previously. He tried for a long time to bring the patient to
mind, but for the life of him was unable to do so. When the memory
finally came back to him, Freud was astonished by his 'almost
incredible instance of forgetting.' The patient in question was a
young woman whose parents brought her in because she complained
incessantly of stomach pains. Freud diagnosed her with hysteria. A
few months later, she died of abdominal cancer.
It's hard to say which is stranger: the complete amnesia for a
massive error, or the perfect recall for a trivial one. On the whole,
though, our ability to forget our mistakes seems keener than our
ability to remember them . . ."
- Jed
