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Cold fusion

Fleischmann denied due credit

Nature volume 490, page 37 (2012) Cite this article

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Philip Ball's obituary of Martin Fleischmann (Nature 489, 34; 2012), like many others, ignores the experimental evidence contradicting the view that cold fusion is 'pathological science' (see www.lenr.org). I gave an alternative perspective in my obituary of Fleischmann in The Guardian (see go.nature.com/rzukfz), describing what I believe to be the true nature of what Ball calls a “Shakespearean tragedy”.

The situation at the time of the announcement of cold fusion was confused because of errors in the nuclear measurements (neither Fleischmann nor his co-worker Stanley Pons had expertise in this area) and because of the difficulty researchers had with replication. Such problems are not unusual in materials science. Some were able, I contend, to get the experiment to work (for example, M. C. H. McKubre et al. J. Electroanal. Chem. 368, 55–56; 1994; E. Storms and C. L. Talcott Fusion Technol. 17, 680; 1990) and, in my view, to confirm both excess heat and nuclear products.

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  1. University of Cambridge, UK

    Brian D. Josephson

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  1. Brian D. Josephson
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Correspondence to Brian D. Josephson.

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Josephson, B. Fleischmann denied due credit. Nature 490, 37 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/490037c

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