Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century

`An authoritative, frank, hard-hitting account of the cold fusion fiasco.' GLENN T. SEABORG`As a distinguished nuclear chemist he is uniquely qualified to evaluate the field. Cool, dispassionate scientists and policymakers will receive hisbook, I trust, with the respect it deserves.' FRANK CLOSE, NATURE`Members of the scientific community and lay readers interested in the history of the cold fusion episode and its broader implication for the scientific process will find much to consider in John Huizenga's thoughtful account of this astonishing chapter in the history of science.' STANLEY C. LUCKHARDT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. NATURE`This book belongs in all college and university libraries.' CHOICEIn the spring of 1989 two electrochemists, B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, working at the University of Utah, claimed to have duplicated the high-temperature process powering the sun at room temperature in a small jar on a laboratory tabletop. Scientists worldwide rushed to verify cold fusion, but analyses showed that most of the positive reports were plagued by experimental uncertainties, inadequate controls and improper assessment of errors; a definitive experiment still does not exist. Huizenga tells the story of the cold fusion claim in this book, presenting his own analysis of the reports, exploring the damaging consequences of the claim, and affirming his view that test tube fusion with watts of power remains a chimera. JOHN R. HUIZENGA, former Tracy H. Harris Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Rochester, was co-chairman of the Cold Fusion Panel of the Energy Research Advisory board.