Thanks to Dr. Bob for sharing a link to an article on the UK organization Nesta’s web sit. Nesta was formed as a government agency (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts), but in 2010 was reorganized as a public charity which specializes in funding innovation projects.
In a blog posting, Technology Futures intern Chrysostomos Meli covers the field of LENR/Cold fusion and focuses more on the sociological, rather than the scientific aspects of the field. He begins:
“My first assignment at Nesta was to find an interesting subject for a Hot Topic Event. Going through a few suggestions I came across a grant request to fund research into cold fusion reactors. Little did I know it would expose me to a side of science I didn’t think existed.”
A Nesta Hot Topic event is a meeting where informed persons from media, business, academia, etc., are brought together to discuss innovative technological developments that may have an impact on society going forward. Meli describes his surprise at the responses he received in trying to get people to participate in a Hot Topic event surrounding LENR.
When inviting physicists, I found that they were more inclined to fill their responses with data and evidence that disproves LENR claims. LENR supporters were extremely pleased as they considered the fact that we wanted to hold this event a sign of LENR breaking into the mainstream. Both of these responses ignore the fact that all we wanted to talk about was the emotional effects of the technology and not get caught up on the debate of whether it’s good research or not.
He explains that a number of people who he contacted inviting them to participate in an event were reluctant to get involved — as if just talking about cold fusion would taint them with a stigma that could affect their careers. So apparently there will be no Hot Topic about LENR at Nesta for the time being.
This is not a new phenomenon to many people who have become involved in LENR over the years, and I think it is still an ongoing issue that prevents many of the developments that we discuss here at length from being mentioned in polite society. Many of us hope that things will change — perhaps after the E-Cat report is published, and the 1 MW plant is publicly unveiled — and the taboo surrounding this topic will finally be lifted and we can get on with normal discussion.
