On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Mary Yugo <[email protected]> wrote:
> If Rossi prevails, Krivit will certainly look bad, and so will the entire >> scientific establishment. >> > > I disagree. With the present evidence, there is every reason to be > skeptical of Rossi. > That's true. The skepticism of Rossi is justified. But if Rossi were to prevail, then the scientific establishment will have clearly failed to exploit a dramatically important effect identified 20 years ago -- an effect that is pretty straightforward to set up, and that should be trivial to demonstrate unequivocally. (Don't get me wrong; I don't expect this to happen. But if cold fusion is real, then the advocates are right in that science will have something to answer for.) > The same criteria apply to any theory Krivit favors as they do to > Rossi's. If Krivit doesn't have the goods, there will be skeptical > comments about his claims as well. This should be about evidence and not > "beliefs". > > Sure, I completely agree. But "beliefs" are a big part of what keeps this controversy alive. And with a successful Rossi debunking under his belt, Krivit will have some credibility to throw around. I actually think that Krivit is pretty scrupulous, and believes in what he is doing. And I think if he were to apply the same critical thinking to the entire field that he has to Rossi, he might become a skeptic yet.
