At 08:59 AM 4/5/2012, Jones Beene wrote:
This is hot, so to speak. Cough, cough ... that can be understood in a
slightly derogatory way.
Well, it is a slick presentation, glossy and well-prepared - and very
convincing for LENR in a most superficial way. Cheerleaders for W-L, like
Steve Krivit will be quick to heap on the praise. Put on your waders.
However, there is little or no indication that this information has the
least bit of relevance for anything other than exploding wires and lightning
- where everyone has known for a long time that nuclear reactions do occur.
These are not LENR reactions, but are hot. Very hot.
Too bad, with all Larsen's funding, that he cannot muster a decent
experiment of his own with real data - but instead must depend on slick
side-shows and shills to promote a theory that is almost absurd for its
intended purpose.
Yeah, I've been looking for evidence that W-L theory is more than a
castle in the air, with no foundation. I've been looking in vain.
It's all post-hoc analysis, with ad hoc explanations presented as if
it were established fact.
I read with interest widom and Larsen's paper on "Absorption of
Nuclear Gamma Radiation by Heavy Electrons
on Metallic Hydride Surfaces." That's the rabbit that they pull out
of the hat to explain lack of gamma radiation from metal hydride
LENR. This should actually be relatively easy to validate
experimentally, and they know that it would have some value on its
own, hence they have patented the idea of using these "heavy electron
patches" to absorb gamma radiation. Fine. Demonstrate it. Once upon a
time Larsen was asked by Garwin -- Krivit reported this conversation
-- about experimental evidence for the gamma absorption. "That's
proprietary information," Larsen replied.
Great. But now that it's patented?
The slide show is well produced, except it's all gee-whiz,
*explanations* of stuff with no grounding.
And I still have seen no expanation, anywhere, of the basic problems
with W-L theory.
W and L essentially notice what is fairly obvious: if neutrons can be
formed, LENR will take place. But what kind of LENR?
So they make up a way that neutrons might be formed, then treat this
as if it were established fact. Okay, that's part of how we form
imaginative hypotheses. But then real science starts, in the effort
to falsify this lovely construct. And I see very little of this.
W and L do address one obvious problem, the lack of observed gammas,
though they understate it. They say that the expected copious gammas
are not seen. They understate the problem drastically. If neutrons
are formed on the surface of metal hydrides, they will produce
predictable specific frequencies of gamma radiation, and, yes,
copiously. In order to explain away the lack of observation of these
gammas, they have to imagine a really prefect gamma-capture device.
So they make one up. So we now have two rooms built in our castle in the air.
This is little or no improvement over open ignorance. At least "I
don't know" is intellectually honest. "I can imagine" is great, as
long as we don't believe what we imagine. Ever. Imagination is useful
when it leads to real creation and real understanding, as
demonstrated by an ability to predict what would otherwise be a
mystery or miracle. Simply creating more "miracles" that aren't
grounded is not what the field of LENR needs. We need far more basic
science, far more real data, far more establishment of controlled
experimental conditions. Theories? We have *way too many.* Storms is
right about that.
So I'll be posting something here about a very specific piece of
equipment that is needed to do some of this work. I hope that those
with some hands-on experience with lasers will assist us. There is
some very exciting stuff going on.
So, the third miracle that Widom and Larsen theory involves.
Intermediate products vanish. We obviously have, with LENR, a process
that results in a neutron only rarely. If copious neutrons were
produced, reaction rates would be much higher. The only known ash
that is found in substantial quantity, adequate to explain the heat,
is helium. To get to helium requires, if neutrons are the agent,
multiple reactions, and the intermediates must all be converted to
the final product, helium. That requires a very high reaction rate
for the second transmutation. Yet the second transmutation simply
requires that another neutron encounter the intermediate product. If
the probability of the first reaction is 1/N for any given initial
target, the probability of the second reaction would be on the order
of 1/N itself, so the final product would only appear as 1/N of the
intermediate product. Yet the final product, helium, completely
dominates, the intermediates aren't found (at all, as far as I know,
but there might be traces).
Widom-Larsen theory completely fails to explain the actual
experimental results of cold fusion experiments, particularly the PdD
reactions of the Pons-Fleischmann Heat Effect. It can only appeal to
those who are satisfied with a speculation that doesn't involve
"fusion," and who are not thinking about the whole body of evidence.
