If "60 Minutes" has a major effect on public opinion, and helps free
up funding for the field, that will not surprise me. But it will be
ironic. It will demonstrate that scientists and decision makers in
government tend to be more influenced by the mass media than by
scientific publications.
The tide does seem to be turning. Press coverage is more friendly
than it used to be. More facts and fewer rumors are reported. But
funding is still dreadfully restricted and I still fear that the
researchers will not live long enough to make significant progress.
Based on previous press reports favorable toward cold fusion, such as
a report of the Arata experiment last year, I predict this event it
will increase Internet chatter and traffic to LENR-CANR for a few
weeks, and then fade away. But the effect may linger long enough to
jog a few decision-makers to allocate a few more dollars, or perhaps
a few million more! And that is all we need.
We require an end to the beginning, if not the beginning of the end.
We do not need Nature and Scientific American to wave a white flag
and admit they were wrong. I predict that the present editors and
writers at these journals will never do that, unless commercial
products are rolled out, which I regard as highly unlikely under the
present circumstances. But I could be wrong about them. I never
imaged that Robert Park would give an inch. Of course he needs to
give a mile, which he will never do.
The other day I told Mizuno that Maddox died, and I related the
famous quote about "cold fusion will remain dead for a long time"
which is surely an enigmatic thing to say. Did he mean that he hoped
it would revive only after he was gone? Mizuno responded: "perhaps I
should be angry at the man but honestly I pity him. Here was the most
important and interesting discovery in his lifetime and he never even
looked at it. What a wasted opportunity." That is how I feel about
the whole history of cold fusion. So much talent wasted; so many
years. So many energy problems could have been solved by now, and so
many lives saved, if only scientists had done their job.
I do not blame the mass media for this sad history. I blame
scientists and scientific administrators at places like the DOE and
the APS. The ones who never looked at the experiments. They never did
their jobs. Huizenga and the DoE review panels. Of course there is
plenty of blame to go around. Even the cold fusion researchers share
a small tiny fraction of the blame for this fiasco, but they are more
sinned against than sinning.
- Jed
- [Vo]:It will be ironic if "60 Minutes" has a major... Jed Rothwell
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