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comprehensive collection of papers on low-energy nuclear reactions. "One would have thought that after all that had been done, comprehensive collection of papers on low-energy nuclear everything would be settled now. This was not the attitude of reactions. many of Bockris' colleagues. The motivating force for the antipa- thy may be the subconscious fear that the discoveries of the DOUBTS ABOUT VALIDITY OF RELATIVITY THEORY Bockris group might eventually be proved and recognized. Then Einstein's theory of special relativity (SR), published in 1905, is his original contributions would be rated as discoveries of great one of the foundational theories of modern physics. It states that magnitude. There were at least two professors in the Chemistry the vacuum speed of light is the same in every direction for all Department who had made it known that they expected to receive observers in initial (non-accelerated) reference frames, and that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry some day. The possibility that it time and space coordinates combine in a peculiar way when might go instead to a colleague whose work they so much deni- measured from different inertial systems. Exactly how this grated must have been an unwelcome thought. happens is described by a set of equations called the Lorentz "(They did not have the attitude of physicist Richard Feynman, transformation. who was displeased by the artificial focus on one person's accom- Strictly speaking, special relativity theory does not apply to plishment that the Nobel Prize system encouraged.) anything in the physical universe, since gravitational fields, how- "Having failed in the three official investigations that had been ever minute, are always present. It took Einstein about 10 years carried out against Bockris, they decided that all they could do to incorporate gravity and acceleration into his theory, and the would be to persuade the head of the department to have Bockris result is known as general relativity (GR). It describes gravity not shunned—as in an excommunication for religious heresy. No one as a force, but as curvature of space-time caused by mass. was supposed to speak with the errant Bockris. For a long time, According to general relativity, there can be no such thing as a absorbed in his work as ever, he didn't understand that shunning gravity shield. was underway. Most of the colleagues had been ignoring him Despite the consensus of a majority of physicists that special anyway since the inquiries had begun in 1993. relativity is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, there is a well- "He did notice, however, that whenever he wanted to talk tothe reasoned experimental and theoretical case against its validity. Head of the Department, perhaps once every few months, he [the But relativity dissidents are routinely censored from presenting Head] came to his office and did not their ideas at conferences or having invite Bockris to come to his. Of them published in the scientific course, he was more than twenty literature. years younger than Bockris, but later John E. Chappell, Jr, the late Bockris realized that this was an . ayes Director of the Natural Philosophy example of the shunning. The Head Even to begin to criticise Alliance (an organisation of relativity did not want anyone to see that he Einstein's theory of special critics), relates the following suppres- was talking collegially with Bockris! sion experience:” "Bockris' colleagues in the physical relativity has become a "There has been a particularly chemistry division took no notice of i ifi vicious attitude towards critics of the shunning order, which might have scientific heresy of the Einsteinian relativity at UC gone around unofficially. In practice, highest order. Berkeley... I ran into it in 1985, when the shunning made no effective differ- ence to how Bockris carried out his work, though it was a very consider- able act of spite. It proved once again of Science. After I finished, the that at least in the Chemistry Danish chairman made some courte- Department at Texas A&M University, research results which do ous remarks about dissidents he had learned about in Scandinavia, not agree with existing theory are not tolerated." and then turned to the audience for questions. The first speaker The Wired article* suspects financial motives behind the scien- was one of a group of about four young physics students in the tific establishment's anti-scientific witch hunt: back. He launched immediately into a horrible tirade of verbal "Financial factors may have played a part in the fierce abuse, accusing me of being entirely wrong in my analysis, a sim- animosity exhibited toward cold fusion experiments. When a plification of the Melbourne Evans analysis—'Evans is wrong; congressional subcommittee suggested that $25 million could be you are wrong,' he shouted. He accused me of being way out of diverted from hot fusion research to cold fusion, naturally the hot line to present my 'faulty' arguments on his prestigious campus. I read a paper arguing for absolute simultaneity at that year's International Congress on the History fusion scientists were outraged." When I started to ask him 'Then how would you explain...', he Today, the evidence that transmutation of heavy elements can loudly interrupted me with 'I don't have to explain anything.’ The occur in electrochemical systems has become fairly strong. rest of the audience felt so disturbed by all this that the question Yasuhiro Iwamura, Mitsuru Sakano and Takehiko Itoh of the session was essentially destroyed." Mitsubishi Advanced Technology Research Center in Japan have Such reactions are not uncommon. Even to begin to criticise shown reproducible transmutation of caesium (Z=55) into Einstein's theory of special relativity has become a scientific praseodymium (Z=59) and strontium (Z=38) into molybdenum heresy of the highest order. (Z=42) in a deuterium-palladium system. Their results were The prevailing attitude of the physics establishment is that any- published in 2002 in the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics.* one who doubts the validity of this "bedrock of modern physi These results were recently independently replicated by T. is insane, and that trying to refute it is a symptom of "psychosis".” Higashiyama et al. at Osaka University and presented at the Tenth Caltech Professor David L. Goodstein states in a videotaped International Conference on Cold Fusion in Cambridge, lecture titled "Atoms to Quarks":* Massachusetts, on August 24-29, 2003.” "There are theories in science, which are so well verified by At http://www.lenr-canr.org, the interested reader can find a experience that they become promoted to the status of fact. One Even to begin to criticise Einstein's theory of special relativity has become a scientific heresy of the highest order. NEXUS = 53 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com