Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <[email protected]> wrote: One of the common pseudoskeptical arguments is that cold fusion "believers" > believe that cold fusion was "suppressed." The picture conveyed is that of > wild-eyed conspiracy theorists. > > However, with *very little conspiracy,* cold fusion *was* suppressed, and > the story is out in the open, in the historical record, readily accessible > if you know where to look, and analyzed in the academic press . . .
Exactly. Only it isn't a conspiracy. A conspiracy is surreptitious and organized. This is done openly and the opponents are not organized. I don't mind so much that people on Wikipedia ridicule the idea that cold fusion is suppressed, but it irks me when reporters do that. I tell them they should talk to Bockris or Prelas, or any other researcher. They never do. Heck, you don't even need to talk to the researchers. Talk to Park! He used to brag about how effectively he suppressed cold fusion, and how he and others "rooted out and fired" federal scientists who talked about cold fusion. He was as open and proud of it as a biologist who campaigns to prevent teaching creationism in biology classes would be. He thinks cold fusion is as bad as that. > What Jed describes happened. The effect was massively chilling. Why it > happened is less clear. It seems clear to me. > Most players, I assume, believed that they were simply serving science, > protecting it from bogus claims, or perhaps protecting valuable programs, > crucial -- they thought -- to the future of major institutions -- from > suffering loss of funding to a wild-goose chase. > That's it. That is what they said. I assume they are sincere. As I said, ask Robert Park. I expect he will repeat that the researchers are lunatics, frauds and criminals. Google will turn up thousands of people who agree with him. We have the naysayer scientists who just know it isn't possible, and >> dismiss anything without such inspection . . . > > > They cause little harm. >> > > The rejection of cold fusion, as it came down, was so unjust that it > created contrary reactions. Cold fusion researchers circled the wagons, > defending each other, even defending poor research and premature > conclusions. > No, they did not. Cold fusion researchers often say things about other researchers almost as bad as what the extreme skeptics say. I see no unity in the field. I wish they would unify a little. Anyway, the professors who dismissed it or ignored it did no harm. People ignore many developments in science. It only hurts when you stop other people from doing the research. That happens just about every damn time someone tries to do a cold fusion experiment! Park and his friends in Washington and in the Jasons hear about it, pull strings, make threats, and Boom! -- the funding disappears. Here's how it works -- Imagine a 30-year-old junior professor hoping to get tenure. He suggests they do a cold fusion experiment. A week later the Dean calls him in and says we've had a call from Washington, and if you don't shut up about cold fusion, our department will lose its funding, you will be fired, your name will be published in the local newspaper with claims that you are engaged in fraud. Oh and by the way, a Congressman says he might want to call you in, grill you in a Congressional Investigation of academic fraud, and demand your back taxes and personal correspondence. That has what you might call a chilling effect. Granted, that is a composite picture. It does not usually go that far. It does not have to go far, because there are not many 30-year-olds willing to sacrifice their careers and give up their dreams just to do an experiment that probably will not work. My parents worked in Russia during WWII, as U.S. embassy employees coordinating lend-lease. In the 1950s, they and many other people with knowledge of the Soviet Union were attacked by Sen. McCarthy as traitors. Fortunately, they were not harmed, but many of their friends had their careers, their lives, marriages and friendships cut to ribbons -- for the crime of speaking Russian and knowing something about the situation in Russia. I assure you, no one was more anti-communist than my parents, since they actually lived and worked in Stalinist Russia. McCarthy did not care; he attacked anyone, just because he could, just because these people knew about the subject and were vulnerable. You see the same pattern today in attacks on cold fusion. People such as McCarthy and Park are professional bullies. They accumulate political power by destroying other people, and by terrorizing people who cannot fight back, such as the imaginary 30-year-old I described. They do not give a damn what the facts are. Taubes told Storms that he did not care at all whether cold fusion is real or not. His goal was to sell books. This is about power, politics, money and influence. Science has nothing to do with it. - Jed
