Here is the latest column from Gibbs: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2013/05/30/rossis-a-fraud-no-hes-not-yes-he-is-no-he-isnt/
This is pretty good, but it includes a profound misunderstanding of the scientific method. Gibbs quoted someone and wrote: Cold fusion has no definitive theory – as yet, but the experimental evidence is overwhelming: anomalous heat and transmutations can occur within metallic-hydrides systems contained in small cells that sit on a table-top Unfortunately that’s not a sound argument … in fact, it’s not really an argument at all; it merely hand waves away the science. That is completely wrong. In experimental science you never need to explain how something works in order to confirm it is real. You just need to replicate it and show there is no error in the instruments or techniques. This is *not* hand waving. If it were, no one would accept that high temperature superconductivity exists. Before 1952, no one would have believed that cells reproduce, and before 1939, no one would have believed that the sun is undergoing a nuclear reaction. In science, nearly all discoveries begin when researchers first detect and then confirm an anomaly. That is, something that cannot be explained by theory. A theory is then developed or modified to explain the anomaly. You can never reject an anomaly because it seems to violate theory. When theory and replicated experiments conflict, the experiments always win, theory always loses. If we abandon this rule, or if we call it "hand waving" as Gibbs does here, progress in science will come to a halt. - Jed
