Good day to all. I am posting this on behalf of Abd Lomax. Hopefully all of you, the distinguished and well-informed Vortex-L community, can get involved in some small way to help move this worthwhile initiative forward. Abd's message speaks for itself. You are encouraged to post any suggestions, questions, etc. Thank you for taking the time to read and all the best: ** *"I've been talking for some time about starting an organization to identify needed cold fusion research, develop suggested protocols, obtain bids or budgets from qualified researchers, and arrange for funding from governmental, corporate, or other sources.
This is for *basic research,* not commercial research aimed at a product. There is some possible overlap between this initiative, which I'm tentatively calling Infusion Institute, Inc, or III, and other efforts. From my point of view, however, these other initiatives don't address the fundamental science. If successful, they will have an impact; for example, the availability of a relatively simple and inexpensive demonstration kit, as proposed and being investigated by the New Fire people, will transform perceptions about cold fusion and will itself lead to breakthroughs, to a breakdown of the cascade that rejected cold fusion because it "could not be reproduced." However, cold fusion is potentially far too important to the future of humanity to rely upon only one approach. We know that the Fleischmann-Pons Heat Effect was confirmed, but the lack of coherent coordination among research groups clouded the atmosphere and muddied the waters. There are very few exact replications. Given the apparent chaotic nature of the FPHE, we could only expect statistical replication, which requires a larger data set than has been compiled, in order to clearly constitute the "extraordinary evidence" that has been expected. Extraodinary evidence for cold fusion -- broadly defined -- does already exist, but has been buried and hidden in a flood of other data and reports. The steps forward: 1. I have started a mailing list to be used to develop coherent proposals for basic research, up to and including specification of protocols. This list will hopefully engage not only researchers and those greatly interested in the field, but also genuine skeptics, those willing to encourage research to *answer* basic questions, by pointing out deficiencies in existing research, so that research protocols may be designed to address whatever might be unclear. The subscription address is **coldfusioncomm...@**yahoogroups.com* <javascript:>*. Subscriptions must be approved by a moderator, and we will be encouraging real name identification; anonymous subscriptions may be allowed, but only through private discussion with a moderator. To request an anonymous subscription, write **coldfusionco...@**yahoogroups.com* <javascript:>*, or write me. 2. Infusion Institute, Inc., III, is proposed. This will be a nonprofit corporation, with a Board of Trustees that will make decisions about activty. I am facilitating this and may be hired by the board to support this work, but will not wear two hats. That is, I will be on the board, or will be employed by III, or will voluntarily support it. This field is far too important for it to be controlled by any single individual, including me. III and the Cold Fusion Community will be independent, though likely inter-related through common membership, and III will be advised by the Cold Fusion Community, as well as through its own internal process. 3. III will review the "work product" of the mailing list and other public structures, such as the CMNS mailing list and resources developed on Wikiversity, and will identify proposals to be supported. It will solicit bids to actually perform the work, and thus will create budgets. It will then identify funding sources and will make grant requests. While III would accept unrestricted grants, particularly for seed money to develop its own operations, the major funding may bypass III and go directly to organizations for specific activities deemed worthy by the funding agency. III's mission is to facilitate and coordinate research, not to control it. Some research may be done through multiple research groups, particularly where there are existing research reports of high interest, needing confirmation. At this point, III will likely not be funding primary research, because there is a backlog of fundamental research that remains unconfirmed or inadequately confirmed. III is not intended to establish a new research facility, at least not initially. Such are arising, and III will generally support and assist these efforts. Credible new facilities may, of course, choose to bid on research proposals, along with established groups."* Show trimmed content