At 01:48 AM 8/4/2011, Rich Murray wrote:
Thanks, Abd, for being so forthright
My sense is that most cold fusion researchers have become quite skeptical about Rossi. A few are "supportive," but mostly this boils down to them thinking that Rossi's claim confirms their own understanding of Ni-H. Even they are realizing that Rossi has probably faked some demonstrations.
By the way, the 18-hour test, on its own, certainly seems convincing, but the problem is that we can't trust it. Cold fusion researchers in general have been burned by years of rejection, so they are very reluctant to, themselves, reject. Rossi is a challenge to these, for, if they really look at the Rossi claims, they might gain more sympathy for the skeptics as to cold fusion. Skepticism was a rational response in 1989, and the politics of the situation effectively suppressed the wide dissemination of contrary evidence.
Pseudoskepticism is an entirely different phenomenon. It's not genuine skepticism, because genuine skepticism remembers to be skeptical of self.
