Yes, and both Lewis and Koonin went on to high office and were well
rewarded for not rocking the boat on any subject. There was and is no
reward in advocating for cold fusion. Until this fact changes, the
subject will not make much progress. So, enjoy the discussion because
that is the only reward you will get.
Ed Storms
On Dec 29, 2013, at 12:42 PM, Foks0904 . wrote:
Both Koonin and Lewis took a hatchet to F&P for the same
psychologicl and professional reasons as other "skeptics". Koonin's
denialism was based on the standard nuclear physicist arguments
drawn from experience in d+d, 2-body interactions in vacua (i.e.
nothing to do with LENR in condensed matter). Lewis took an
absolutist stand on the stirring issue early on even in the face of
obvious evidence to the contrary. He quickly quieted down, and has
remained quiet for years, but the damage was done and he has never
backed off of his claims. He and Koonin leveraged the APS pulpit to
slander cold fusion science only after a couple months of
exploration. This is antithetical to science in many ways.
On Sat, Dec 28, 2013 at 5:43 PM, Alain Sepeda
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
I'm continuing to read Excess heat and I fall on the story of the
first caltech conference. Chapter6 (4 press conference)
Beaudette present it as a big manipulation of press, with Lewis
behaving in a very unscientific way, pretending his failure was an
evidence, claiming lack of stirring, without the least doubt
expressed... finally joking nastily on F&P...
F&P argued on the stirring with evidence (colorant mixing shown) but
it was too late, and Lewis even caused a nearly lynching in a
conference with F&P...
It seems that since then, media, journals and officials followed
that vision. LENR was forbidden in USA, but surviving abroad...
(until US influence won in most place)...
of course all was supported by a deep desire not to admit cold
fusion, lose dominance, and endanger funding, but the key event was
that few press conference were Lewis say he was sure, sure, and sure
it was nothing.
Beaudette explain that Lewis and his colleague were not important
scientist, except by that claim...
I imagine you know that position.
Is is a vision that you share here?
as you know, based on Taleb vision, history should be soon rewritten
to hide that academic tragedy.
One way could be to blame a scapegoat, and Lewis could be a good
candidate ...
who is he today ?
would he be the useful idiot needed to save the community ?
