At 01:48 AM 8/4/2011, Rich Murray wrote:
I'm paying very little attention to any of the cold
fusion stuff now, assessing that nothing yet is independently
reproducible to refute the null hypothesis of "no anomalies"...
There is a large body of data showing independent reproducibility for
cold fusion phenomena. CF has been plagued by the erratic nature of
the phenomenon, due to its apparent sensitivity to unadequately
understood conditions. However, there is a single reproducible
experiment, that's been done by many groups, and that actually covers
many of the early "negative replications," which form a body of controls.
It's just that it doesn't match the usual -- and obviously defective
-- concept of "reproducible" that's been held up.
This would be heat/helium. Basically, run a series of
Pons-Fleischmann type cells, designed to make the collection of
helium possible. Miles was the original researcher to do this, in
depth. Measure the heat, and collect and measure helium. Use the
state of the art, as to achieving the PF heat effect.
The null hypothesis is that heat and helium are not correlated.
This has been done by many groups, in fact. No heat, no helium. Heat,
helium proportional to the heat within experimental error of 24 MeV.
There is practically no contrary data.
Like a lot of experiments, it's not easy to perform, and there is no
longer much need to perform it. It's been done enough, my sense, but
there could be room to determine that ratio more exactly.
Not all LENR will produce helium, but PdD in a Pons-Fleischmann
experiment apparently does, and the fuel, from the ratio found, is
apparently deuterium, which is only a surprise because d-d fusion was
so unexpected. In fact, the reaction is probably not d-d, though that
possibility is not *entirely* ruled out, and, my sense is that nobody
really knows. No theory is sufficiently well elaborated to claim the
prize, not yet. That's really a job for the quantum physicists,
though some additional skills or knowledge sets are probably needed.
But helium is being produced, regardless of theory. There is
practically no radiation. There are quite low levels of other
transmutations, and that, if you want to doubt it, isn't as well
established, and data is all over the map. But the main reaction, as
we can tell from the heat, produces helium.
