The point I am getting at here is that the early stages of basic research into things like cold fusion are seldom profitable. Corporations seldom do basic research for this reason. There was a time when AT&T supported a lot of fundamental research at Bell Labs, and IBM used to do a lot of fundamental research, but this seldom paid off. Of course the transistor was a huge exception, and I am sure you can think of others. However, most devices such as the laser were not profitable at first. There is little chance that anyone will make a profit from cold fusion research as it is now conducted. One of the reasons is that "a force of nature" cannot be patented.
So corporations are pretty much ruled out. They cannot do cold fusion research even if they want to, because it will not lead to immediate profits. Also because the stockholders and Wall Street speculators would be outraged to learn that a corporation is doing cold fusion. Private individuals are also ruled out. There is little chance that you can contribute unless you happen to be a multimillionaire. You will not have the money to conduct useful experiments in something like cold fusion. It requires expensive instruments and safe lab space. That leaves only government labs, national labs, and university labs, which do not have to show a profit. Their main goals, in descending order, are: 1. To get U.S. government research funding. 2. To contribute to weapons development. 3. To establish scientific priority. 4. To discover new scientific knowledge. Goals 1 and 2 far outweigh the others. If anything such as cold fusion threatens #1 it will be ruthlessly suppressed, even if it would contribute to new scientific knowledge. You cannot blame people for making research funding the number one priority. They have to make a living after all. Most scientists do not have lavish lifestyles. Fortunately (I guess it is fortunate), cold fusion has numerous weapons-related potential applications, so it has been kept on life-support by organizations such as DARPA. You must understand that DARPA's fundamental purpose is to find better ways to blow people up. That is the purpose of most of the R&D money spent by the U.S. government. - Jed
