From: M21742@mwvm.mitre.org
Subject: Re: excess heat experiments reported by Dr. McKubre
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean VA 22102
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 11:37:22 GMT

In article <96900@bu.edu>
jstravis@bass.bu.edu (John Travis) writes:
 
>
>In article <1992Sep26.142803.1@fennel.cc.uwa.oz.au> tiq@fennel.cc.uwa.oz.au (Todd Green) writes:
>
>>This all seems a bit odd  - I thought McKubre advocated running a very
>>clean system so as to avoid poisoning of the cathode surface, and hence the
>>use of a teflon cell etc. If he were using a glass cell then the Si, Al
>>and B would be leached from the cell walls by the LiOD, but where are they
>>coming from in a teflon cell? Is he deliberately adding Si and Al once the
>>experiments are in progress?
>
>
>In a comment after the talk, Mckubre explained that he was doing just that.
>With detail i missed, he explained a complicated setup in which he
>was able to "hypodermically inject" (that's what i thought i heard)
>Si or Al into the cell with out compromising its closed nature. If I
>find time, I'll try to post a more detailed summary of the talk but
>I'm swamped at the moment.--so don't count on it. Sorry.
>
>Brief comment--excellent presentation but of little comfort to
>those who think a power source could emerge forom this research.
>He ran his cells for 1-3 months and got modest excess energy if
>you factor in all th energy he pumped into the system. Still, there's
>priobably some neat physics/chemistry going on. I still
>reserve judgement on the affair.
>
>john travis
>p.s. slight correction to dick forman: my thesis compared the press
>coverage of cf to that of high temp supreconductivity--not exactly
>a history of cf. i leave that to close, mallove, et al.
********************************************************
No John, we cannot leave that to close, mallove, etc. They are not disintereste
d parties.  Since you made the choice to give up physics, and to become a
science writer, you do not have any ego involvement with the physics.  This pas
t weekend there was a very nice piece on science journalism on the Op-Ed
page of the New York Times. The situation you are now in, attending graduate
school after attaining a good solid MIT education in science is ideal.  You
can get the facts straight.  In the town I live in, Washington, DC, the "nation
al newspaper" considered by some to be a newpaper of record has a group of
science writers who can't get the facts straight.  Unless I am mistaken, the ed
itor is a biology major that occassionally writes on physics.  That's why I
have had home delivery of the daily and Sunday New York Times for the past 23
years.  I gave yout thesis copy, a loan really not a true gift, to Michael
Skolar and Richard Harris at NPR to help them try to improve their reporting
on catalyzed nuclear reactions.  For your next internship I suggest that you
call Richard. You have always done your job of journalism very well.  If you do
 not want to see what live news is like, (very high deadline pressure), I would
 be happy to recommend you to one of my friends at the NY Times for a
permanent position there when you get your degree.  The reason this is again op
en mail is that I hope others will read and think about my comment. Colin Norma
n promised me the citation for the Op-Ed piece mentioned above. He and I are
on the same wavelength on science journalism.
GET SOMEONE WITH A SCIENCE BACKGROUND TO LEARN JOURNALISM. That is the only was
y.
 
E-MAIL TO: DICK@MITRE.ORG
RICHARD A. (DICK) FORMAN AT MITRE IN MCLEAN, VA  (703) 883-6198
DISCLAIMER: MY OPINIONS ARE MY OWN NOT MY EMPLOYER'S.
Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion