Real Clear Science: Cold Fusion #2 Biggest Junk Science Story of 2013

In a year-end retrospective of the biggest ‘junk science’ stories of the year, Real Clear Science has awarded ‘the return of cold fusion’ the silver medal. Behind terrible documentaries from Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, and ahead of the sequencing of bigfoot DNA, Real Clear Science takes aim specifically at the Levi et al. report of their testing of Andrea Rossi’s high temperature E-Cat reactors (hot cats)

Where fusion is concerned, the most commonly known hoax is the E-Cat, a device that supposedly fuses nickel and hydrogen at room temperature. (Fusion is supposed to require massive temperatures and pressures.)

That’s why a great many people were surprised this spring when an independent test seemed to show that the E-Cat works!

But the cautious excitement was short-lived. Physicists Ethan Siegel and Peter Thieberger thoroughly trounced the paper (which had not been peer-reviewed).

I’m not sure who RCS is speaking for here, but I have not experienced this ‘short-lived cautious excitement’ about this report — and I don’t think I’m alone. In my estimation, the report stands as strong evidence of the reality of Andrea Rossi’s discovery, and of the E-Cat’s potential to be a very viable source of energy. I’m optimistic that this first report will be backed up with new testing reports in 2014. I won’t be surprised if there will be attempts to dismiss those, too, but I hope that the testers will have taken the necessary steps this time to eliminate the only argument that critics have — that Andrea Rossi rigged the testing somehow with secret wires or by some other means to make it appear that the E-Cat worked. That’s an accusation I don’t take seriously at all.