4 ms·

There's an active community of companies and individuals still working on what gets called LENR (cold fusion being a bit of a tainted term). However it seems t

There's an active community of companies and individuals still working on what gets called LENR (cold fusion being a bit of a tainted term). However it seems to be an area that's rife with the potentials for scams, with some participants claiming to be "almost at the point of commercial LENR setups" for many years now (e.g. Andrea Rossi and his E-Cat work) Sites like https://www.lenr-forum.com/ https://www.lenr-forum.com/ and https://e-catworld.com/ https://e-catworld.com/ have more info. on it. I'd like to see one or more of the companies get there, but having followed it on and off for some years, I'm not holding out a lot of hope...

hannob 7y ago
It's not an area with the potential for scams. It's just scam. When someone tries to sell you a product that goes against the accepted laws of physics, because some flawed experiment decades ago indicated that they might be wrong, you can be certain that it's a scam.
- mrfusion 7y ago
  When did we finalize physics? From my point of view, if they show the evidence then I’ll believe them.
  - vonmoltke 7y ago
    Physics isn't finalized, but changing its accepted laws takes consistent experiments violating the existing ones.
  - hannob 7y ago
    Sure, there's always the potential for new physics. But honestly... I wouldn't look for it in some crackpot internet forums. I mean click on the link. The first thing I saw there was people speculating that the latest nature paper is part of some military plot, because they all know LENR works, yet they want to hide the fact from the public as long as possible.
- snarfy 7y ago
  Superconductivity was against the accepted laws of physics, until it wasn't. It all may very well be a scam and should be watched with healthy dose of skepticism, but I wouldn't throw the idea out completely.
  - woodandsteel 7y ago
    Superconductivity had replicatable experiments, cold fusion doesn't.
- TheCraiggers 7y ago
  From the article: >'Some assertions at the time, along the lines of “I knew it was nonsense,” scarcely exhibited the openness to surprise on which science depends.' I felt this was a very important message in the article that could be useful in many more areas of life than cold fusion research or even application of the scientific method. I do agree that people shouldn't be selling half-baked ideas, but I also know that often, funding is a necessary requirement for scientific breakthroughs. So while I agree my mother shouldn't be investing her savings in such things, I don't want to dissuade other types of informed investors from pitching in.

hannob 7y ago

It's not an area with the potential for scams. It's just scam. When someone tries to sell you a product that goes against the accepted laws of physics, because some flawed experiment decades ago indicated that they might be wrong, you can be certain that it's a scam.

mrfusion 7y ago
When did we finalize physics? From my point of view, if they show the evidence then I’ll believe them.
- vonmoltke 7y ago
  Physics isn't finalized, but changing its accepted laws takes consistent experiments violating the existing ones.
- hannob 7y ago
  Sure, there's always the potential for new physics. But honestly... I wouldn't look for it in some crackpot internet forums. I mean click on the link. The first thing I saw there was people speculating that the latest nature paper is part of some military plot, because they all know LENR works, yet they want to hide the fact from the public as long as possible.
snarfy 7y ago
Superconductivity was against the accepted laws of physics, until it wasn't. It all may very well be a scam and should be watched with healthy dose of skepticism, but I wouldn't throw the idea out completely.
- woodandsteel 7y ago
  Superconductivity had replicatable experiments, cold fusion doesn't.
TheCraiggers 7y ago
From the article: >'Some assertions at the time, along the lines of “I knew it was nonsense,” scarcely exhibited the openness to surprise on which science depends.' I felt this was a very important message in the article that could be useful in many more areas of life than cold fusion research or even application of the scientific method. I do agree that people shouldn't be selling half-baked ideas, but I also know that often, funding is a necessary requirement for scientific breakthroughs. So while I agree my mother shouldn't be investing her savings in such things, I don't want to dissuade other types of informed investors from pitching in.