[extropy-chat] Elvis Sightings (2)

[Damien Broderick]

At 06:30 PM 2/7/2007 -0500, Ben wrote:

>I think there are many theories, but not enough experiments to
>validate or refute them.
>
>Nobelist Julian Schwinger posed one sketch of a theory in this lecture
>
>http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue1/colfusthe.html

Here's a telling quote:

< Critics should learn to operate within the bounds of sanity.

My first attempt at publication, for the record, 
was a total disaster. "Cold Fusion: A Hypothesis" 
was written to suggest several critical 
experiments, which is the function of hypothesis. 
The masked reviewers, to a person, ignored that, 
and complained that I had not proved the 
underlying assumptions. Has the knowledge that 
physics is an experimental science been totally lost?

The paper was submitted, in August 1989, to 
Physical Review Letters. I anticipated that PRL 
would have some difficulty with what had become a 
very controversial subject, but I felt an 
obligation to give them the first chance. What I 
had not expected–as I wrote in my subsequent 
letter of resignation from the American Physical Society–was contempt.>

Everyone should bear in mind that Schwinger is 
right up there with Feynman. It's not too hard to 
suspect that something *sociological* is at work here.

Damien Broderick