Stephen A. Lawrence <sa...@pobox.com> wrote: > > Blind testing is done in the social sciences and in medicine but not in > physics. It's nutty to even suggest it. >
Actually, <ahem> Miles, Boss, Mizuno and some others did do blind testing. Single blind. That is to say, they knew the history of the sample, but the labs they sent samples to for evaluation did not. Miles sent flasks collected from cells to be tested for helium to three different labs. In some cases he sent dummy samples, such as room air. In all cases he did not tell the people conducting the tests whether the cells produced excess heat or not. This eliminates the possibility that wishful thinking biased the measurements. In one case, my guess is that the person he sent the samples to dearly wanted cold fusion not be real, so the wishful thinking might have worked in the other direction. - Jed
