A last word on this. It is true as was pointed out to me that correct original definition and dictionaries and textbooks are one thing, and usage is another thing. So it seemed to me only fair to check current usage as well.
To Ed's discharge, a quick Google search shows that several other CF researchers e.g. J. Dash also write "electrolysis of palladium", although the vast majority of them, especially the professional electrochemists among them e.g. M. Fleischmann, write "electrolysis of heavy water" for P&F type experiments. Outside of CF Ed's use is much rarer (a handful of hits for "electrolysis of platinum", hundreds of thousands for "electrolysis of water") Anyway I would be happy if I could have modestly contributed to a better use of electrochemical terms in CF, since such better use and more rigorous scientific practises in general could only help recognition of CF research in mainstream science, which we would all welcome heartily. Michel P.S. Interestingly this discussion has shown that rightness or wrongness is not absolute but largely depends on who says, and on who hears. If a Dr Tempests had said "I have analyzed a blood tester using blood" everybody would have agreed he was wrong. Here Dr Storms said "I have electrolyzed palladium using D2O" and hardly anybody here even considered that he might be wrong. Even more interestingly maybe, Ed himself still doesn't seem to admit he could have been wrong or even a little inaccurate in his use of the terms, in spite of what Faraday and all present day dictionaries and textbooks may say. This is unfortunate for a scientist who in my view should always doubt. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michel Jullian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 2:43 AM Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: Ed Storm's confusion (was Re: [Vo]: Cold Fusion skeptic Dr. Michael Shermer) Yo Jed, it's not a matter of telling someone how to speak his native language. The vocabulary of science is meant to allow accurate communication between scientists, so that e.g. when one says "electrolyzed" or "excess heat" it means the same thing to everybody. Now Faraday lived a long time ago, that's true. Words do change over time, but when they do, traces of such changes usually can be found in recent dictionaries. Let's pick one at random: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/electrolyze e·lec·tro·lyze (-lktr-lz) tr.v. e·lec·tro·lyzed, e·lec·tro·lyz·ing, e·lec·tro·lyz·es To cause to decompose by electrolysis. Short of writing one up yourself, can you find a dictionary where the definition of 'electrolyze' is so different from the above that it could even remotely apply to the electrode rather than to the electrolyte? When you electrolyzed water at school, did you in fact electrolyze platinum? Does your car drive you? Someone has attacked me, virulently, not on the merits of my contribution, but on the way I communicated it with the drama and all. I will reply that all Ed had to do, instead of replying he didn't see what my problem was, was reach for a dictionary to see what the hell I could mean, realize his error, and reply gruffly but honestly "right, my mistake, it's the D2O which is electrolyzed" and there would have been no drama. That's what I expected him to do, like I would have expected any scientist, because that's what I would have done in his place. Now should scientists criticize each other over scientific communications? I think so, and I think CF in particular would be in better health if there had been less leniency towards each other's mistakes. Michel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jed Rothwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com>; <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 9:15 PM Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: Ed Storm's confusion (was Re: [Vo]: Cold Fusion skeptic Dr. Michael Shermer) > Michel Jullian wrote: > >>How can you persist in this attempt to reivent the terms of >>electrochemistry? Whatever happens to the palladium, it is not >>'electro-chemically decomposed' (the meaning of 'electrolyzed'), cf >>the Faraday quote. > > Yo, Michel: Don't tell a native speaker how to speak his own > language. Words mean whatever we say they mean, and they are used > however we use them. Words change over time. Faraday lived a long time ago. > > - Jed >
