Nexus - 1102 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

of the human mind, in ways for which our preceding 20th century established theories. When that happens, and significant interests scientific paradigm has no rational explanations... are at stake, the scientific establishment will turn nasty, resorting "Thus, at the dawn of the 21st century, we again find an elite, to misrepresentation or outright falsification of evidence and even smugly contented scientific establishment, but one now endowed character a sination. with far more public authority and respect than that of the prior It will be shown below that all these methods of suppression version. A veritable priesthood of high science controls major have been deployed against paradigm-shattering discoveries in segments of public and private policy and expenditure for physics. research, development, construction, production, education and publication throughout the world, and enjoys a cultural trust and ©THE COLD FUSION SCANDAL reverence that extends far beyond its true merit. It is an establish- In March 1989, Drs Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann* ment that is largely consumed with refinements and deployments announced that they had achieved fusion by electrochemical of mid—20th century science, rather than with creative advance- means. Their discovery not only threatened to deprive the multi- ment of fundamental understanding of the most profound and bilion-dollar "hot" fusion program of prestige and funding, it also seminal aspects of its trade. called into question everything nuclear physics knew, or thought "Even more seriously, it is an establishment that persists in it knew. The physics establishment decided that the discovery frenetically sweeping legitimate genres of new anomalous was "pathological science", thereby changing the subject from phenomena under its intellectual carpet, thereby denying its own whether a new discovery had been made to whether Pons and well-documented heritage that anomalies are the most precious Fleischmann were con artists or just incompetent. raw material from which future science is formed." Several influential US laboratories (Caltech,® MIT,’ In his debut editorial as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Yale/Brookhaven’) reported negative results on "cold fusion" that Scientific Exploration, Henry H. Bauer‘ gives a similarly bleak were based on shoddy experimental work and a misunderstanding assessment of the state of modern science: of the Pons—Fleischmann claims.’ They gave a hostile "hot "Mainstream orthodoxy routinely resists novelties that later fusion" establishment the excuse it needed to conclude that the become accepted. Throughout the claims made by Pons and Fleischmann 20th century there are examples: were bogus. In November 1989, a Rew oaks ond MeCTnck® |___The physics establishment | J Prem fey pcos Mitchell's insights into biological decided that the discovery was investigation of only seven months." energy mechanisms, Woese's Archaea, "pathological science", thereby Dr Eugene F. Mallove, who was and McCully's homocysteine. Only h . h . fi heth the Chief Science Writer at the MIT late in the 20th century did science changing the subject rom whether News Office at the time and now reluctantly grant that acupuncture can | @ N@W discovery had been made to publishes Infinite Energy, a journal have some analgesic effect, that ball whether Pons and Fleischmann dedicated to covering potential new lightning exists, that the kraken is not . . energy sources ignored by myth but the real giant squid, that it is were con artists or just mainstream science, played a part in not foolish to look for intelligent life incompetent exposing the MIT report as mistaken, outside the Earth, that 5,000-year-old megaliths incorporate substantial resigned in protest over it. He writes knowledge of astronomy, that human in "Ten Years That Shook Physics": beings inhabited the Americas long before the days of the Clovis "The 1989 reports of MIT, Caltech, and Harwell have each culture, and that living systems can sense not only electrical but been analyzed by other scientists and these analyses have been also magnetic fields. Indeed, it may well be that the suppression _ published (see references, page 34, in JE issue no. 24). Each of of unorthodox views in science is on the increase rather than in the widely cited 1989 'null' experiments has been found to be decline. deeply flawed in experimental protocols, data evaluation, and pre- "In Prometheus Bound (1994), John Ziman has outlined how sentation. Each, in fact, contained some evidence of excess heat science changed during the 20th century: traditionally (since as claimed by Fleischmann and Pons. There is evidence that the possibly fraudulent,'' and in 1991 perhaps the 17th century) a relatively disinterested knowledge- MIT data was deliberately altered to erase an indication of excess seeking activity, science progressively became handmaiden to heat. The altered data was published officially by MIT, and it was industry and government, and its direction of research is included in reports to a government agency under the official seal increasingly influenced by vested interests and self-interested of MIT. The experiment was paid for out of federal government bureaucracies, including bureaucracies supposedly established to funds. This report had a dramatic impact on the perception of promote good science such as the National Academies, the many scientists and journalists. National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of "It is ironic that each of these negative results [was] the product Health. Parkinson's Law, it may be, applies to science as to other —_ of the kind of low-quality work of which Fleischmann and Pons human activities: no sooner has an organization become were accused. The difference was that the reports said what the successfully established than it is by that token already an hot fusion community wanted to hear. This was the legacy of the obsolescent nuisance." 1989 ERAB report, but that legacy must now be reversed—and it Anomalous evidence that inconveniences establishment science will be, however long that takes. is usually disposed of by denying publication or simply ignoring "Almost two years after they were concocted, Prof. Ronald R. the evidence after it has been published and moving on as if Parker of MIT's Plasma Fusion Laboratory publicly stated that the nothing had happened. But some renegade scientists manage to MIT PFC cold fusion calorimetry data were 'worthless' (June 7, capture the attention of the general public, pleading their case to a 1991). In the same period after I had challenged this data, Parker larger audience that has no vested interest in the validity of the stated that 'MIT scientists stand by their conclusions’ (August 30, established theories. When that happens, and significant interests are at stake, the scientific establishment will turn nasty, resorting to misrepresentation or outright falsification of evidence and even character sination. It will be shown below that all these methods of suppression have been deployed against paradigm-shattering discoveries in physics. were con artists or just incompetent. 50 + NEXUS whether Pons and Fleischmann www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2004