[extropy-chat] Elvis Sightings (was: cold fusion warms up)

[John K Clark]

"Damien Broderick" <thespike at satx.rr.com>

 > Are you sure it's not 87.3%?

Yes I am sure. Science journals are like tabloid newspapers in one respect,
they both love controversy. If an astonishingly huge minority like 12.7%
of the scientific community thought there was something to cold fusion
(I'm not talking about Muon-catalyzed cold fusion) I'm certain, absolutely
positively 100% certain, I'd see lots and lots of articles about it in
Nature or Science in the last decade. Where the hell are they? Yea yea
I know, there is this big  conspiracy by the big oil companies to...
yawn.

> Even if it were accurate, how many of those who ridicule such alleged
> effects have done the relevant experiments (<0.1%?)

And how many of those who praise cold fusion have done relevant and
COMPETENT experiments? The answer is a bit less than .1%, ZERO
would be a better answer.

> I'll respond by citing again support for the effect from the only Nobel
> laureate physicist I'm in regular communication with.

You don't mention the name but I'll bet you dollars to doenuts you're
talking about Brian Josephson. He wrote an absolutely brilliant paper in the
late 50's, but very soon after that he abandoned the scientific method and
for the last half century has accomplished precisely nothing. There seems to
be no idea so screwy he can't manage to believe in it. The poor man has lost
his mind.

Come on Damien be honest, is there really any reason to think cold fusion is
true other than the fact you wish it were true? Well I wish it were true
too, but it's not. The new year is coming so I'll make you a little bet,
I'll bet you that an article favorable to cold fusion (not counting Muon
fusion) will not be published in Nature or Science in the next year. If the
article appears I will publicly admit that I was wrong and you were right.
But if the article does not appear will you do the same? I mean, if the
phenomenon is real it can't remain hidden forever from the scientific
method forever. I intend to remember this bet one year from today.

 John k Clark