Cold Fusion is Hot, says Michael McKubre

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
They didn't fool the scientific or medical community except for a fairly small number of people they have on their pay roll. Cold fusion is questioned by physicists because it violates the "no free lunch" rule and is so horribly inconsistent as to come off as imaginary. If there were real solid evidence that cold fusion works the scientific community would be all over it, and in fact when they first heard about it they were.

I see the problem as wide spread scientific illiteracy and the simple complexity of things involved. The most ridiculous theories can be gives pages worth of equations that no one will ever be able to understand without multiple doctorates. Combined with people knowing fairly little about physics (to the point that quantum physics gets pretty much equated with magic) and the utopian sort of promises that come from cold fusion that's the perfect recipe for getting lay people on board.

Also, your entire post would be a pretty much perfect criticism of the cold fusion movement.

True. Although the "getting lay people on board" is specifically "getting funding by exploiting ignorance"

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
They didn't fool the scientific or medical community except for a fairly small number of people they have on their pay roll. Cold fusion is questioned by physicists because it violates the "no free lunch" rule and is so horribly inconsistent as to come off as imaginary. If there were real solid evidence that cold fusion works the scientific community would be all over it, and in fact when they first heard about it they were.

Even when embraced by the scientific community, sometimes I go "H'mm." Eg, dark energy. Part of me is still waiting for the other shoe to drop: that the accelerating expansion of the universe is only apparent, due to mismeasurement.

That would really screw up one of my short stories, if that were the case. 😕

Originally posted by Mindship
Even when embraced by the scientific community, sometimes I go "H'mm."

True and if they make it sustainable that'll be great and I'll be happy to admit I was wrong, but this isn't necessarily a great direction to be sending money.

Of course, I'm still pretty much a lay person (if a handsome well informed one) and I really don't know what a good direction for funding is. By way of example the LHC is pretty much universally lauded as a step forward in particle physics but I bet if you polled a few hundred people the vast majority of them wouldn't have a clue what we can learn from it and even fewer know how we would benefit from that knowledge.

Actually, that might be more to the point. Cold fusion is popular because if it works the pay off is obvious and immediate unlike just about everything else in science.

Originally posted by Mindship
Eg, dark energy. Part of me is still waiting for the other shoe to drop: that the accelerating expansion of the universe is only apparent, due to mismeasurement.

That would really screw up one of my short stories, if that were the case. 😕

Those must be quite the short stories.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Of course, I'm still pretty much a lay person (if a handsome well informed one) and I really don't know what a good direction for funding is. By way of example the LHC is pretty much universally lauded as a step forward in particle physics but I bet if you polled a few hundred people the vast majority of them wouldn't have a clue what we can learn from it and even fewer know how we would benefit from that knowledge.

Those must be quite the short stories.

Originally posted by Mindship
Wait'll the movie comes out. 😎

"Egads, Doctor, they're firing lasers at us."

"Quickly we must calculate the ships Delta-V and acceleration and then plot of course that will accelerate us up to full speed quickly but without harming us or burning too much fuel."

"But, Doc, won't we have to compensate the for the gravity wells of nearby planets and adjust for pull on us according to the inverse-square law?"

"Damnit, boy there's no time for that. We'll have to head away from the star system perpendicular to the equator and just pray they don't have pseudo-velocity drives!"

Am I close?

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
"Egads, Doctor, they're firing lasers at us."

"Quickly we must calculate the ships Delta-V and acceleration and then plot of course that will accelerate us up to full speed quickly but without harming us or burning too much fuel."

"But, Doc, won't we have to compensate the for the gravity wells of nearby planets and adjust for pull on us according to the inverse-square law?"

"Damnit, boy there's no time for that. We'll have to head away from the star system perpendicular to the equator and just pray they don't have pseudo-velocity drives!"

Am I close?

Aw . . .