Martin Fleischmann leaves brilliant legacy of courage in pursuit of truth

Martin was probably the greatest scientist that I have ever known… I believe that eventually truth will win out. I don’t know how long it might take, but eventually Martin will be honored by many for his great scientific work in the cold fusion field.” —Dr. Melvin Miles

The world is slowly, but inexorably, moving toward a better place because of Martin Fleischmann’s transit through it.” —Dr. Mitchell Swartz

He was chosen to pay the price for success. Now he has peace and the rest of us have the responsibility not to let his sacrifice be in vain.” —Dr. Edmund Storms

Martin Flesichmann was one of the greatest scientists that ever lived.” —Dr. George H. Miley


Martin Fleischmann has left the planet, on his way to better beyonds where knowledge is total and awareness a mere triviality in a larger existence.

New Energy Times has reported here that he passed away in his home in the United Kingdom Friday, August 3, 2012 with his family in attendance.

Born March 29, 1927, Dr. Martin Fleischmann was lauded as one of the greatest electrochemists that ever lived. Co-discoverer of cold fusion with his partner Stanley Pons, the pair embarked on an epic scientific journey that adds their names to the list of greatest scientific figures in history.

Enduring decades of ostrasization from their conventionally-thinking peers, both Drs. Fleischmann and Pons have been vindicated for their claims as cold fusion, also called lattice-assisted nuclear reactions (LANR), and low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), has been reproduced hundreds of times by multiple types of systems.

Cold fusion offers a viable alternative to the continued use of dirty fossil fuels and nuclear power that uses radioactive materials leaving waste so dangerous, it threatens biological systems worldwide. Cold fusion presented an ultra-clean energy-dense source of power using as fuel hydrogen from water. The development of both the science and technology of cold fusion was almost extinguished by a coordinated effort from hot fusioneers and conventional energy physicists in 1989 who sought to discredit their results, and succeeded in delaying the development of clean energy technology for two decades.

It has been a small group of intrepid researchers from around the globe that have continued the work, bolstering the data with over-two decades of experimental confirmation that cannot be refuted. Commercial development of cold fusion technology in the form of hot water heaters and steam generators is currently ongoing by a new generation of scientists that were inspired by initial announcements of Drs. Fleischmann and Pons.

Andrea Rossi, inventor of the Energy Catalyzer, has said in an interview with James Martinez that ‘it was the announcement of their discovery in 1989 that was the “spark that ignited the fire”’. [read]

In an interview with Ruby Carat, hot- and cold-fusion pioneer Dr. George H. Miley remarked that “Martin Flesichmann was one of the greatest scientists that ever lived.”

Referring to the wild emotional backlash from physicists who felt their research threatened by the discovery, Dr. Miley said, “Any personal ramifications of individuals is so unfortunate. But you know that’s happened to many people in the field. The field has had a series of tragic events occur where workers in it have been maligned. Emotions grew so high. It should have been done in a scientific fashion, it would’ve been so much better. But I have nothing but the highest respect for Pons and Fleischmann, such great scientists, anyone would be privileged to follow their lead in science.” [read]

Cold fusion researcher and author Dr. Edmund Storms responded to the news of Martin Fleischmann’s passing with, “I was not part of his major field of interest, so my role in the LENR field was not important to him. Nevertheless, I’m sad that he paid such a high and unreasonable price and is now gone. His efforts to make the CF effect work could just as well have been as unsuccessful as experienced by most attempts at replication. But he was chosen to pay the price for success. Now he has peace and the rest of us have the responsibility not to let his sacrifice be in vain.”

He was further quoted here:
Martin demonstrated that Nature has a diabolical plan. He and Stan were
not the first to cause the LENR process but they were the first to attract
attention. For that, they paid the price Nature always extracts when a
great discovery is made. They attempted the “impossible” based on a flawed
model, using lucky material that most people could not duplicate, and
stirred up a firestorm of antagonism from people who were their colleagues
and friends. They were rejected for reasons both ignorant and self-serving
by people who we all thought should know better. Sadly, Martin did not
live long enough to say he told them so, and have the last laugh.
Hopefully, the rest of us can complete the process and gain acceptance for
what he and Stan paid such a dear price to make known. We will all miss
the man who led us into this crazy field.
” —Edmund Storms

Scientist and designer of the NANOR device currently on public display at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Mitchell Swartz of JET Energy has written:
The world is slowly, but inexorably, moving toward a better place because of Martin Fleischmann’s transit through it.

He was involved in two of the most important things in life: learning and teaching. He taught at King’s College, Durham University (later, University of Newcastle upon Tyne) and University of Southampton. He discovered and taught surface enhanced Raman scattering effect and the achievement of high energy Cold Fusion in a palladium lattice

Martin and his two partners were the first to achieve the purposeful attainment of cold fusion (fusion of deuterons to helium 4) using applied electric fields and a lattice in salty heavy-water.

As the cat whisker junction is to the Internet, Dr. Martin Fleischmann’s contribution in cold fusion will be to space travel, fully powered artificial internal organs, and much more.” —Mitchell Swartz

In a recent interview with Ruby Carat, former-Navy researcher and Professor of Chemistry Dr. Melvin Miles remarked that the data analysis Martin Fleischmann did on their collaborations that confirmed his own calculations was like none other in the world in it’s detailed meticulousness. “Only Martin could have done an analysis like this”, he said, calling him “one of the greatest scientists ever”. [read]

Dr. Miles responded to the news today re-iterating his assessment:
I have had many communications from Martin starting in about 1994 and have these here at home. Martin was probably the greatest scientist that I have ever known. I hope that this will someday be recognized by many others. I have spent many hours, days, and weeks studying his calorimetric equations and methods. He was far ahead of any other group in his calorimetric designs, modeling, and data analysis. This will be the topic of one of my ICCF-17 presentations and what led to my recent question for him. One of the main inspirations for me to continue with the difficult cold fusion research and calorimetry was my recognition of Martin Fleischmann’s brilliance that shown so far brighter than that for any Caltech, MIT, or Harwell scientist who worked with calorimetry.

Martin Fleischmann visited me here in California in October of 2000, and we took him to see again his favorite spot in Yosemite National Park. It was always a pleasure to spend time with Martin and to learn from him. I will greatly miss him. I believe that eventually truth will win out. I don’t know how long it might take, but eventually Martin will be honored by many for his great scientific work in the cold fusion field.Melvin Miles

The courage and character of Martin Fleischmann, along with his pal Stanley Pons, and including Eugene Mallove and all the scientists who continued their bold and honest inquiry into the workings of nature for the benefit of humankind, are the inspiration for Cold Fusion Now, and remain the heart of our existence.

With respect to his family, the cold fusion/LANR/LENR community, and all peoples of the globe who long for freedom, we dedicate ourselves to the same tenacious quest for the clean energy to power a green and peaceful human future.

Martin Fleischmann will emerge again when the new documentary by 137 Films called “The Believers” is finally released later this year. Until then, here is Martin Fleischmann speaking in 1999 at the American Chemical Society meeting on the 10-year anniversary of the announcement of cold fusion. He is introduced by Dr. Melvin Miles, a long-time researcher who collaborated with Dr. Fleischmann on many investigations.

Thank you to the New Energy Foundation for archiving this historical sequence.

With Love and Peace to You Martin. Thank You.

More wishes from around the world:
The Deep Reach of Martin Fleischmann

Related Links

New Energy Times posted this obituary here.

Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in their own words by Ruby Carat March 23, 2012

Thank you Martin Fleischmann; Thank you Stanley Pons by Ruby Carat March 23, 2011

1994 BBC doc Too Close to the Sun profiles early history of cold fusion underground by Ruby Carat June 7, 2012



The Telegraph on Martin Fleischmann August 9, 2012


Hot, clean water from cold fusion means worldwide health revolution

In Potential Advantages and Impacts of LENR Generators of Thermal and Electrical Power and Energy published in May/June 2012 Infinite Energy #103 [.pdf version], Professor David J. Nagel describes the impact that clean drinking water produced by cold fusion, also called low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) would have on human health:

Production of Clean Water
Humans need water on a frequent basis to sustain life. Roughly one billion people on earth do not have good drinking water now. The possibility of being able to produce drinkable water from dirty rivers and the seas by using the heat from LENR would be momentous.” –David J. Nagel

Cleaning dirty water and de-salinization of ocean water on small and large scales both become possible with cold fusion technology, and hot, clean water produced from small, portable generators could affect the health of a billion people world-wide.

Nagel is a Professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a founder of NuCat, a company that holds workshops and seminars on cold fusion for scientists, researchers, and potential investors. [visit] Making the case to businesses that they can profit with affordable LENR-based hot-water boilers, he goes on to say:

Favorable pricing of LENR generators for such countries could conceivably contribute significantly to world peace. The situation might be similar to the current sales of medicines for AIDS to poor countries at reduced prices. Rich countries will not soon give poor countries a large fraction of their wealth. However, they could provide some of the energy needed for development and local wealth production at discounted prices, while still making money from manufacturing LENR energy generators. This is an historic opportunity. –David J. Nagel

But the real winners are those suffering with conditions caused by dirty water:

Global Medical Impacts
The availability of water free of pathogens and parasites to a very large number of people should lead to dramatic reductions of the incidence of many diseases. The savings of lives, human suffering and costs of medical assistance, where it is available, might greatly outweigh the costs of buying and using LENR generators. The better availability of electricity would improve both the diagnostic and therapeutic sides of clinical medicine.” –David J. Nagel

Coal-mining company Massey Energy leaves behind dirty legacy for people and wildlife in the U.S.
That may be a policy of enlightened self-interest on the part of “rich countries”, but just who needs clean water? Just about everybody.

In the U.S., there are people whose water is combustible because of pollutants from nearby hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for gas. Suzy Williams wrote a song about it in response to Gasland which documents this atrocity.

But what kind of difference can clean water make in the lives of poor people around the world? The hardship that lack of access to clean water brings to one in seven around the globe forfeits a tremendous human capital. According to Water.org [visit],

Women around the world spend 200 million hours every day collecting water and every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-born pathogen.

Cold fusion commercial products for domestic use now in research and development phase are small and portable. A 10 kilowatt steam-heat generator has a core the size of a tin of mints, requiring only a few grams of nickel powder and pico-grams of hydrogen gas to operate. These relatively simple devices can be made affordably for communities in need.

The benefits of clean water from cold fusion was highlighted in another article published in the December 1996/January 1997 Infinite Energy magazine issue #11 [visit], this one written by researcher and author Jed Rothwell. In it, he commented on Everyday Killers, a series of articles in the New York Times about the myriad of problems created by lack of access to clean water and mosquito nets. [download .pdf]

Here are some excerpts from that article showing cold fusion researchers have been thinking about the revolutionary benefits of this newly emerging technology for a long time:

It is good to be reminded why cold fusion is so important. The New York Times recently published a two-part series on third world health problems titled “Everyday Killers,” by Nicholas D. Kristof:

Malaria Makes a Comeback. And is More Deadly Than Ever, January 8, 1997
For Third World, Water Is Still Deadly Drink, January 9, 1997

… Almost all of water borne diseases could be eliminated by boiling the water used for cooking and drinking and by cooking foods more thoroughly. Better hygiene would also eliminate them, but boiling will work. Unfortunately for a family of four in India, the kerosene required to boil the water costs about $4 per month. Many poor families earn less than $20 per month, so this is much more than they can afford.

The waters of the Niger River Delta are used for defecating, bathing, fishing and garbage. Oil companies have removed more than $400 billion of wealth out of the wetland, but local residents have little to show for it.
Oil companies have removed more than $400 billion of wealth out of the Niger River Delta, and the waters are still used for defecating, bathing, fishing and garbage.
Cold fusion might ameliorate this problem by giving people cheap energy to boil drinking water and cook food. If a high-temperature cold fusion device could be made as cheaply as a kerosene burner or electric stove, it could save millions of lives every year. Boiling water is a workaround. It is not as effective as proper sanitation. As the article explains, “billions of people in the third world don’t have access even to a decent pit latrine.” In other words, in many parts of the world shovels would do more good than either kerosene or cold fusion. Latrines or septic systems would be a great benefit on land with good drainage and percolation. Concrete lined cesspools can be effective. The next step — to water pipes, sewers, and waste treatment plants — costs far more than poor communities can afford.

The Times listed some statistics for the most common water borne diseases in the 1997 article:

Deaths per Year
Diarrhea 3,100,000
Schistosmiasis 200,000
Trypanosomiasis 130,000
Intestinal Helminth Infection 1001000
TOTAL 3,530.000

Sources: World Health Organization. American Medical Association, and the Encyclopedia of Medicine.

Whether you use kerosene or cold fusion, boiling drinking water is a stopgap solution to the problem. It depends on the initiative of individuals. A mother might conscientiously boil drinking water, but when she is not around the children may not bother. It is far better and more efficient to secure a source of pure water for the whole neighborhood or village, and to drain off sewage.

On the other hand, the ad-hoc one-at-a-time method of boiling water is good because it allows individuals to solve the problem on their own, immediately, without depending on community action. It fits in well with the “micro-loan” model third world assistance programs, which were pioneered by organizations like Oxfam.

Ignorance Is Often the Real Problem
Ignorance causes much of the suffering. Children have no idea that filth causes disease. The Times article opens with a scene familiar to anyone who has traveled in the third world, although it is unthinkable to Americans and Europeans
:

Children like the Bhagwani boys scamper about barefoot on the
narrow muddy paths that wind through the labyrinth of a slum here,
squatting and relieving themselves as the need arises, as casual about
the filth as the bedraggled rats that nose about in the raw sewage
trickling beside the paths.

Adults realize that this causes disease, but they are not convinced of the fact enough to discipline their children, or to dig proper latrines. In some urban slums there is not enough room, but that is not a problem in rural villages, yet in many of them water-born diseases are endemic. Many crowded Japanese towns and villages today have no running water or sewer systems. (At least, they still do not in rural Yamaguchi, where I often spend my summer vacation.) Houses are equipped with concrete cesspools only, which were emptied by hand until the 1950s. Yet there has been no water-born disease in these villages in modern times.

Cold Fusion No Panacea, but Better than Alternatives
…Technology does not help people automatically, just by existing.

..The biggest advantage would be that individual people will decide for themselves to buy the reactor. People will not have to wait for corrupt governments or power companies to serve their needs. They will be able to solve their own problems, just as they do today with micro-loans. –Jed Rothwell excerpts from Everyday Killers

Recently, I met with veteran cold fusion researcher Dr. Melvin Miles [visit] and his colleague Dr. Iraj Parchamazad, Chairman of the Chemistry Department at University of LaVerne in LaVerne, California [visit].

An electrochemist who worked for the Navy, as well as a professor of chemistry at University of LaVerne, the now “retired” Dr. Miles continues to work on palladium-deuterium (Pd-D) electrolytic cells as he has for twenty-three years. He was the first to correlate excess heat with the production of helium, confirming the nuclear origin of the reaction. He is an expert in measuring heat, called calorimetry, as well as measuring the tiny amounts of helium produced by these cells.

I wanted to ask Dr. Miles about what he’s learned about calorimetry over the past two decades and I was lucky enough to interview Dr. Parchamazad about his latest work using palladium nano-particles baked into zeolites and exposed to deuterium gas D2O, with which he’s had a 10 out of 10 success rate in generating excess heat.

And a slide from Miles’ presentation at the American Chemical Society Meeting in 2007, a calculation showing that if we took all the deuterium atoms in the ocean and fused them into helium, creating energy according to Albert Einstein’s E= mc2, the fuel would burn 13 billion years:

Slide from Miles' presentation at National Meeting American Chemical Society 2010

Remove institutional blocks at MIT and CalTech; fund cold fusion programs now

First published by Infinite Energy IE24 in 1999, the MIT and Cold Fusion Special Report [.pdf] by Eugene Mallove featured a detailed history of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) investigation into the claims made of cold fusion technology. The brief episode of research was undertaken by the MIT Plasma Fusion Center (PFC) in 1989 while Mallove was the school’s News Office Chief Science Writer. Mallove’s report on the hot-fusion scientist’s findings is fully documented with an analysis that shows a discrepancy between the original lab data and the data published in their final evaluation.

Drs. Pons and Fleischmann with cold fusion energy cells in 1989.
In that year 1989, two scientists Drs. Fleischmann and Pons working out of the University of Utah Salt Lake City Chemistry department announced the discovery of what was called cold fusion, a clean and powerful form of energy generated in a small test-tube of heavy water. The cell made excess heat, which means more heat comes out of the cell than goes in. And it was alot of heat, the kind of heat that could be developed into an energy-dense technology to provide clean, abundant power for the entire world. It was an astounding declaration.

Upon learning of this breakthrough discovery, scientists around the world dropped what they were doing and attempted to reproduce the Fleischmann-Pons Effect (FPE). Brilliant individuals and talented researchers from a variety of disciplines, including hot fusion and plasma scientists, threw electro-chemical cells together using materials on hand, and attached a battery.

Unfortunately, for all the groups that attempted the experiment, there was only about a 15% success rate.

Most of the attempts to reproduce the effect failed, and many of the researchers saw nothing out of the ordinary happen.

Within months after the announcement, two of the top science institutes in the United States, with the power to shape policy at the highest levels, had declared cold fusion a ridiculous hoax.

More than any other factor, it was the negative reports by MIT on the east coast, and CalTech on the west, that influenced the U.S. federal policy of excluding cold fusion from the energy portfolio.

Federal agencies cited the recommendations from MIT and CalTech as a basis for their policy.

PFC Director Ronald Parker and professor Dr. Richard Petrasso wrote the MIT final report, making the claim that the Utah scientists had “misinterpreted” their results.

Quoting Mallove’s account, scientists at MIT claimed that “tritium detection in cold fusion experiments at Los Alamos National Laboratory should be ignored because it had been done by ‘third-rate scientists'”. They were of course talking about Dr. Edmund Storms and Dr. Carol Talcott, specialists on tritium and metal-hydrides who were measuring “significant amounts of tritium” along with others teams at the national lab.

MIT and CalTech expert opinions were broadcast through the TV/satellite peak of power, just as the Internet was first emerging in the civilian sphere. The message was total. In a story to the press, Parker characterized the work of Fleischmann and Pons as “scientific schlock” and “possible fraud”.

Though he first denied saying anything of the kind, an audio tape made by the reporter confirmed his particular language. The same vocabulary was unleashed on May 1, 1989 at the Baltimore meeting of the American Physical Society with an emotional vehemence uncharacteristic of scientific objectivity.

While Director Parker was meeting with Boston Herald reporter Nick Tate, he took a phone call from NBC-TV news Science Reporter Robert Bazell during the interview. The press eventually ran the message that cold fusion was a big mistake. Since then, virtually no coverage of cold fusion breakthroughs have been broadcast, with the exception the 2009 CBS 60mins report Cold Fusion More Than Junk Science.

During the Herald interview, Parker also took a phone call from Richard Garwin, Chief Science Researcher at IBM Corporation and a member of the Energy Research Advisory Board tasked by then-Secretary of Energy James Watkins with determining the federal response to cold fusion. The ERAB ultimately decided there was no need to investigate the phenomenon further.

In the years that followed, then-President of MIT Charles M. Vest was also on a federal panel that advised President Bill Clinton’s administration to increase funding for hot fusion. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has refused to even acknowledge the existence of cold fusion, resulting in no research funding for over twenty-years, including their $29 billion 2012 budget.

These reports were cited by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to justify diverting cold fusion patents out of the normal processing stream. Mallove stated that the MIT report effectively “killed the Pons and Fleischmann patent, which happened in the Fall of 1997”.

The meme created by MIT and CalTech in 1989 remains in scientific and political circles to this day: that cold fusion is a phenomenon imagined in the minds of lesser scientists.

Dr. Vesco Noninski was first to be curious about the MIT cold fusion experimental data. A subsequent analysis performed by MIT alumnus Dr. Mitchell Swartz, now of JET Energy, confirmed discrepancies between the original lab data and the reported data. The MIT reported data appears to be shifted downward, indicating that excess heat may have been measured, as represented by the higher-temperature lab data.

Swartz detailed his findings in three papers which can be found in the Proceedings of ICCF-4 prepared by the Electric Power Research Institute in 1993: “Re-Examination of a Key Cold Fusion Experiment: ‘Phase-II’ Calorimetry by the MIT Plasma Fusion Center“, “A Method to Improve Algorithms Used to Detect Steady State Excess Enthalpy” and “Some Lessons from Optical Examination of the PFC Phase-II Calorimetric Curves“. [download .pdf]

But the damage had been done. Administrators were not interested in re-visiting an already dismissed claim.

If it were not for that lucky 15%, we would not have known anything different, and prospects for a clean energy future would indeed be gloomy.

It is now known that for the types of palladium-deuterium electrolytic cells that they were experimenting with, significantly long times are needed to “load” the deuterium into the palladium. Weeks, or even months, could go by before excess heat would be produced. Turning on the cell in the morning, and expecting the effect to occur by dinner, was unreasonable.

In addition, scientists who were experts in their own field were not necessarily skilled in the complex art of electro-chemical cells. Measuring heat, a science in itself called calorimetry, is difficult for an experienced electro-chemist, let alone a novice. Experiments done by both MIT and CalTech were plagued with poor calorimetry.

Swartz’ examinations of MIT data twenty-years ago were recently appended when Melvin Miles and Peter Hagelstein re-visited the PFC’s experimental procedures of calorimetry. Miles and Hagelstein published their analysis in the Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science Volume 8 2012 pages 132-138 [download .pdf]

Miles is a retired Professor and Navy researcher who is an expert in measuring heat. Hagelstein is MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering who has theorized on the nature of the cold fusion reaction. Hagelstein has collaborated with Mitchell Swartz over the years on several IAP short courses and public demonstrations of active cells on the MIT campus without the official support of MIT. The most recent cold fusion cell continues to produce excess heat for six months now.

The summary of the Miles and Hagelstein calorimetry analysis is reproduced here:

 
The 1989 report from MIT remains flawed with unjustified shifts of temperature plots and poor calorimetry procedures. Yet this report, along with the CalTech conclusions, established the baseline for all academic and federal policy over two decades.

Twenty-years ago, Dr. Charles McCutchen of the National Institute of Health (NIH) responding to Eugene Mallove’s request to examine the MIT PFC data, asked MIT President Vest:

For its own good, and to restore some civility to a contentious field, MIT should look into (1) how its scientists came to perform and publish such a poor experiment, (2) why they either misdescribed their results, making them seem more meaningful than they were or used a subtle correcting procedure without describing exactly what it was, (3) how it came about that data from calorimeters with a claimed sensitivity of 40 mw converged, between drafts, after completion of the experiments, to within perhaps 5 mw of the result that hot fusion people would prefer to see. It might have been chance, but it might not.” –Charles McCutchen NIH 1992

In light of the problems that characterized the Plasma Fusion Center’s experiments over those few months in 1989, and in light of the twenty-three years of research confirming without a doubt the existence of a form of energy that is dense, safe and ultra-clean, both MIT and CalTech have two choices: implement Dr. McCutchen’s recommendations, or, remove any long-standing institutional blocks that have kept research on cold fusion out of the most prestigious science schools in the U.S., and begin again by instituting a serious program to understand and develop what is now called condensed matter nuclear science (CMNS).

Both MIT and CalTech have refused donor money for cold fusion research. Most recently, an “MIT physicist” denied a group’s ability to fund Hagelstein’s research by actually returning the dollars. Meanwhile, the University of Missouri increases its support for new-energy company Energetics Technologies with private donations over $5 million. For elite science schools like MIT and CalTech to ignore the reality of cold fusion is not only a threat to the integrity of our institutions of science, but a threat to our planet.

There is alot of catching up to do in order to develop the myriad of technologies that will allow humankind a second chance at living a technological future, in peace, on a green planet Earth, and we need our most talented and creative minds to do it.

New-Energy Program begins tomorrow!

Opening party starts at 4PM.

Related Links

How Nature refused to re-examine the 1989 CalTech experiment by Jed Rothwell [.pdf]

JET Energy NANOR device at MIT continues to operate months later by Ruby Carat May 22, 2012

1994 BBC doc profiles early history of cold fusion underground by Ruby Carat June 7, 2012

International Society of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science Publications

Top