Cold fusion/History

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Books

• Gary Taubes, Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion. Random House, 1993.

The book is meticulously sourced. Taubes lists 257 people whom he interviewed. Generally, the book has a reputation for being excellent as to the history, not necessarily as to the agenda he had in creating it (to tell a story of scientific delusion). Even though the heat/helium evidence was known long before he closed out his story, he did not mention it (unlike Huizenga). --Abd (discuss • contribs) 23:26, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

• John R. Huizenga, Cold fusion: the scientific fiasco of the century, (second edition) Oxford University Press, 1993.

Covers a great deal of the early history. Huizenga was the co-chair of the U.S. Department of Energy ERAB panel that reviewed cold fusion (quite prematurely, in a rush) in 1989. Huizenga's arguments are standard physics, obtusely applied. I.e., again and again Huizenga assumes that what cold fusion would be, if it is real, ordinary deuterium fusion, which is probably impossible. So not only can one derive from this book much of the history, one can also see the thought process of a major cold fusion skeptic. Look for the second edition, because it includes crucial material on heat/helium. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 23:26, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

• Bart Simon, Science Studies and the Afterlife of Cold Fusion, Rutgers University Press, 2002.

Simon is a sociologist of science, and examines cold fusion as an example of the formation of "scientific consensus" that may not be a genuine "scientific consensus," i.e., based on the scientific method, but a social phenomenon. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 23:26, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

• Charles G. Beaudette, Excess Heat: Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed, Oak Grove Press, 2002.

Self published by a retired electrical engineer who observed the quality of work being done by cold fusion researchers, and who then collected historical and other material. With a foreword by Arthur C. Clarke, the book is accurate and reasonably thorough. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 23:26, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

/Cincinnati Group

The subpage will study the history of the Cincinatti Group, which in 1997 announced the availability of a Low Energy Nuclear Transmutation Kit, designed and reported to transmute thorium into lighter elements. There was enthusiastic reception in some circles. What happened? They seem to have disappeared, the principals died, with some suspicion that it was from radiation poisoning. Was there artifact, fraud, or does this remain a mystery?