(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 Sponsored by Vangard Sciences PO BOX 1031 Mesquite, TX 75150 There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS on duplicating, publishing or distributing the files on KeelyNet! June 28, 1991 DEADCOLD.ASC -------------------------------------------------------------------- VANGARD NOTE... This is an article that was in The Dallas Times Herald Sunday, June 23, 1991. This article speaks for itself, by showing that some of our scientists, who don't care to understand new technology or research it, would rather just call it foo foo and pack their bags and run. It is a shame, that we of the U. S. can start new projects and then give them up to other countries to continue with the development. SOME DAY WE WILL LEARN! Ron Barker -------------------------------------------------------------------- COLD FUSION NO LONGER HOT TOPIC UTAH SHUTTING DOWN RESEARCH FACILITY By Steve Wiegand from McClatahy News Service SALT LAKE CITY - Some day this month, workers will take down the impressive lettering on the signs outside the building. The last microscope will be packed and the last guy out the door will turn off the lights. America will no longer have a National Cold Fusion Institute. And Utah will have erased the last visible reminder of a 27 month roller-coaster ride that took the state from the top of the scientific world to the bottom and stunted the growth of an entire area of research. "It was more than a little embarrassing for all of us," said Allan Witt, executive director of the Utah Foundation, a privately funded think tank that studies social and economic issues. "It's one of those things we'd like to put behind us." They were singing a different tune in these parts on March 23, 1989, when two scientists at the University of Utah announced they had achieved nuclear fusion in the scientific equivalent of a teacup. The researchers, chemistry department chairman Stanley Pons and Page 1 chemistry professor Martin Fleischmann, claimed they filled a beaker with hydrogen-rich "heavy" water, stuck in an electrode made of the metal palladium and wrapped in platinum wire, shot some electric current through it and produced nuclear fusion - the energy process the sun uses - at room temperatures. It was tantamount to finding a virtually inexhaustible and clean energy source, and it set off a paroxysm of pie-in-the-sky rhetoric and test-tube rattling from Tokyo to Texas. Scientists in Japan, Switzerland, Texas, Brazil and the Soviet Union rushed to replicate the research. Pons and Fleischmann appeared before Congress to seek funding for further research. World palladium prices soared. The Utah Legislature agreed to spend $4.5 million to finance a cold fusion institute in a sleek new research park near the university. State attorneys spent another $500,000 scrambling to protect patent rights. "Fusion Buster" sweat shirts, coffee mugs and key rings went on sale at the university book store. A Mexican restaurant put together a rum-and-tequila drink, called it the Cold Fusion and despite Utah's arcane liquor laws sold five dozen of them in two hours. "If this thing is what they think it is," Gov. Norman Bangerter said at the time, "It's better than the gold rush." JOKES AND RIDICULE Only it wasn't. Almost simultaneous with the rush of enthusiasm came a wave of doubt from much of the world's scientific community, which tried in vain to validate the experiment. "It was never a science story," said Robert Park, director of the American Physical Society. "It was voodoo." As evidence mounted that there were problems with the two scientists' research, the pair became more reclusive, refusing to discuss their work or share specifics with other scientists. Pons eventually declined to speak publicly, communicating through his lawyer or via a fax machine. And as the "gee-whiz" aspects of the issue wore off, they were replaced by jokes and ridicule. "Cold fusion in Utah?" observed comedian Mark Russell. "You can't even get cold beer in Utah." Utahans, stung by the criticisms, said the sniping was just so much scientific sour grapes from "the Eastern establishment." Within a few months, however, the bloom was off the cold fusion rose nearly everywhere. Anticipated financial help from the federal government and from private companies that expressed early enthusiasm never materialized, and a spokesman for the institute said there are no prospects of a last-minute bailout to keep the place going when state funds run out June 30. Page 2 "I don't think there would be any more grants from anywhere even if they came up with a way to turn tap water into gold dust." said university news director Larry Weist. "It's over." Which explains why there were plenty of parking places at the institute last week, and why the last entry in the visitor log was dated March 23. "No one comes up here unless they're from the university and looking to get some equipment," said a staff member who declined to give his name. A review released last month of the institute's work by a panel of independent scientists praised the institute's work ethic but concluded it had failed to prove the existence of a cold fusion process. "We could have accomplished something with more support and more time and less controversy," the staff member said, walking past the lobby's pictorial display of a then-triumphant Pons and Fleischmann and an announcement of the staff's farewell banquet featuring crab legs and prime rib. "It's a damned shame," he said as he loaded boxes into a car truck. "Sometimes I think the whole thing may have done more harm then good." A CRIMP IN RESEARCH He's not alone in that assessment. Scientists and energy industry officials say that in the wake of the controversy, funding sources for cold fusion research have dried up in this country, even though work is continuing on a relatively large scale in Japan and the Soviet Union. "I think it's fair to say that the Utah experience has really put a crimp in the image of cold fusion research." said David Worledge of the Palo Alto, Calif. based Electric Power Research Institute, a group financed by the nation's electric power industry. "Utah generated a lot of skepticism, and that's difficult to overcome, especially in tough economic times." Worledge said EPRI will spend about $3 million to finance cold fusion research this year. But the Department of Energy, according to a spokesman, has no plans to spend anything in the area. "Until there is a convincing argument made by someone that such research is a valid endeavor," said department spokesman Jeff Sherwood, "it's doubtful there will be much [financial] support from here." But researchers aren't alone in bearing scars from the cold fusion fallout. Dominated by the Mormon church's theology and saddled with a sagging economy, cold fusion was viewed as a means of serving both church and state. "The church believes that it has a mission to save the world in Page 3 practical as well as religious terms," said Thane Robson, an economics professor at the University of Utah. "This [cold fusion] held out the hope of an energy supply that would benefit the entire world." Robson and others said there was also the hope that out of the research would come a "Fusion Valley" that would invigorate the economy and put Utah on the map as something other than the West's most out-of-step state. "Utah for a long time has had an insecurity complex," said political scientist J.D. Williams. "To be a world leader in something as important as this would have gone a long way toward dealing with that. It's too bad it didn't work out." Submitted by: Ronald Barker Vangard Sciences -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet -------------------------------------------------------------------- If we can be of service, you may contact Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 4