On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 12:42 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]>wrote:
> John Berry (he who signs not his name) wrote: > >> >> Cold Fusion is somewhat fringe, but as much respect as I have for Jed's >> dedication I can not imagine either in a technological nor >> political-business-economic way in which cold fusion would be what powers >> our houses or cars . . . > > > Piece of cake. The only thing preventing it is politics and lack of > knowledge. > I guess we have different opinions on how plausible a change of politics is, or for that matter getting the right knowledge to the right places. > Besides, even if some technical glitch prevented small scale use, it would > still lower primary energy costs effectively to zero (but not distribution > or equipment costs). > > > >> even if the science were totally sorted, further the experimentation is * >> generally* beyond that which can be achieved outside of a good lab or >> without good expertise. > > > Far beyond. No point in discussing it. If you don't have a roomfull of > gadgets such as SEM and mass spectrometers, forget it. > > The academic political opposition that has held back cold fusion is -- > finally! -- starting to crumble. I can see signs of it every week. Venture > capitalists and the like are coming out of the woodwork in unprecedented > numbers. Agencies that have not funded research since 1989 are funding it, > and others are seriously considering it. New experiments are underway. A lot > of this stuff is just starting up and I cannot talk about it, but in the > next few months I hope I can. There will be some discussion of new work at > the MIT seminar this Saturday. > Well that gives a rosier picture that I would have expected. I don't know if your dedicated contribution to Vortex has anything to do with this change though. Just making a point that there should be more interest in subjects that can lead to experimentation by the averagely skilled amateur experimentalist (of which I am not, sadly) and can in theory lead to a grass roots FE (or AG) revolution.
