Undead science: Making sense of cold fusion after the (arti)fact

Social Studies of Science

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 61-85

  Simon, Bart ^a  

^a QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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EID: 0033479950     PISSN: 03063127     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030631299029001003     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. There are many accounts in print of the 'cold fusion' controversy: see, for example, Frank Close, Too Hot to Handle: The Race for Cold Fusion (London: W.H. Allen; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991); John Huizenga, Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century, revised and updated edition (Oxford, New York & Tokyo: Oxford University Press, 1993); Eugene Mallove, Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor (NewYork: John Wiley, 1991); and Gary Taubes, Bad Science: The Short Life and Very Hard Times of Cold Fusion (New York: Random House, 1993). For further discussion and references, see Bruce V. Lewenstein, 'From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (August 1995), 403-36.
2. There are many accounts in print of the 'cold fusion' controversy: see, for example, Frank Close, Too Hot to Handle: The Race for Cold Fusion (London: W.H. Allen; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991); John Huizenga, Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century, revised and updated edition (Oxford, New York & Tokyo: Oxford University Press, 1993); Eugene Mallove, Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor (NewYork: John Wiley, 1991); and Gary Taubes, Bad Science: The Short Life and Very Hard Times of Cold Fusion (New York: Random House, 1993). For further discussion and references, see Bruce V. Lewenstein, 'From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (August 1995), 403-36.
3. There are many accounts in print of the 'cold fusion' controversy: see, for example, Frank Close, Too Hot to Handle: The Race for Cold Fusion (London: W.H. Allen; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991); John Huizenga, Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century, revised and updated edition (Oxford, New York & Tokyo: Oxford University Press, 1993); Eugene Mallove, Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor (NewYork: John Wiley, 1991); and Gary Taubes, Bad Science: The Short Life and Very Hard Times of Cold Fusion (New York: Random House, 1993). For further discussion and references, see Bruce V. Lewenstein, 'From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (August 1995), 403-36.
4. There are many accounts in print of the 'cold fusion' controversy: see, for example, Frank Close, Too Hot to Handle: The Race for Cold Fusion (London: W.H. Allen; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991); John Huizenga, Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century, revised and updated edition (Oxford, New York & Tokyo: Oxford University Press, 1993); Eugene Mallove, Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor (NewYork: John Wiley, 1991); and Gary Taubes, Bad Science: The Short Life and Very Hard Times of Cold Fusion (New York: Random House, 1993). For further discussion and references, see Bruce V. Lewenstein, 'From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (August 1995), 403-36.
5. There are many accounts in print of the 'cold fusion' controversy: see, for example, Frank Close, Too Hot to Handle: The Race for Cold Fusion (London: W.H. Allen; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991); John Huizenga, Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century, revised and updated edition (Oxford, New York & Tokyo: Oxford University Press, 1993); Eugene Mallove, Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor (NewYork: John Wiley, 1991); and Gary Taubes, Bad Science: The Short Life and Very Hard Times of Cold Fusion (New York: Random House, 1993). For further discussion and references, see Bruce V. Lewenstein, 'From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (August 1995), 403-36.
6. 2O System: From Simplicity via Complications to Simplicity', Physics Letters A, Vol. 176 (1993), 118-29.
7. 2O System: From Simplicity via Complications to Simplicity', Physics Letters A, Vol. 176 (1993), 118-29.
8. See M. Fleischmann and S. Pons, 'Reply to the Critique of Morrison', Physics Letters A, Vol. 187 (1994), 276-80.
9. David Goodstein, 'Pariah Science: What Happened to Cold Fusion', American Scholar, Vol. 63 (Autumn 1994), 527-41, at 527.
10. Edward Storms, 'A Critical Review of the "Cold Fusion" Effect', Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer 1996), 185-243, at 185.
11. While the device, known as the Patterson Power Cell, was independently 'tested' and 'demonstrated' a number of times in 1995 and 1996, it remains, nevertheless, controversial. Some basic information about the device can be found in Jed Rothwell, 'CETI's 1-Kilowatt Cold Fusion Device Demonstration', Infinite Energy, Vol. 1, No. 6 (February 1996), 18-24. Also see CETI's web site (http://www.onramp.net/~ceti/).
12. Final report of the DOE/ERAB Panel, Cold Fusion Research (Washington, DC: DOE/S-0073, November 1989), 1.
13. University of Illinois materials scientist Howard Birnbaum, quoted in Jerry Bishop, 'A Bottle Rekindles Scientific Debate about the Possibility of Cold Fusion', Wall Street Journal (29 January 1996), A9.
14. I would also maintain that there are ethical and political dimensions to this problem.
15. See, for example, Barry Barnes, 'On the Conventional Character of Knowledge and Cognition', in Karin Knorr-Cetina and Michael Mulkay (eds), Science Observed (London: Sage, 1983), 19-51.
16. Bruno Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), esp. Chapter 3.
17. H.M. Collins, 'The Seven Sexes: A Study in the Sociology of a Phenomenon, or the Replication of Experiments in Physics', Sociology, Vol. 9 (1975), 205-24.
18. The strongest formulation of this kind of 'convergence' theory of knowledge can be found in actor-network approaches to the study of science, especially Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). A critique of the notion of convergence can be found in Bart Simon, 'The Other Modern Dimension: Negative Translations and their Effects', paper delivered at the IPHST Colloquium (University of Toronto, 15 April 1996).
19. The strongest formulation of this kind of 'convergence' theory of knowledge can be found in actor-network approaches to the study of science, especially Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). A critique of the notion of convergence can be found in Bart Simon, 'The Other Modern Dimension: Negative Translations and their Effects', paper delivered at the IPHST Colloquium (University of Toronto, 15 April 1996).
20. I would argue that this is true across a broad spectrum of approaches to the study of controversy in SSK, but I am primarily concerned here with actor-network, strong programme and empirical relativist conceptions of controversy and closure.
21. Latour, op. cit. note 11, 141-44.
22. Here I mean that we should abide by the principles of impartiality and symmetry already canonized by David Bloor in his Knowledge and Social Imagery (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1991), 7, 175-69. See also H.M. Collins, 'What is TRASP? The Radical Programme as a Methodological Imperative', Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 11 (1981), 215-24.
23. Here I mean that we should abide by the principles of impartiality and symmetry already canonized by David Bloor in his Knowledge and Social Imagery (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1991), 7, 175-69. See also H.M. Collins, 'What is TRASP? The Radical Programme as a Methodological Imperative', Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 11 (1981), 215-24.
24. Which is to say that we should be as impartial with respect to truth and falsity as the majority of scientists seem to be at any given moment.
25. Latour, op. cit. note 11, 4.
26. My pocket dictionary usefully defines a 'double-take' as 'a second look given to a person, event, etc., whose significance had not been completely grasped at first'.
27. Donna Haraway, Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_ OncoMouse™: Feminism and Technoscience (New York: Routledge, 1997), esp. Chapter 7, 273.
28. It is interesting to note that those who see ghosts are said to be gifted (or cursed) with the ability of 'second sight'. Here, the perceptual metaphor of the double-take comes full circle. We need the double-take so that we can see the ghosts.
29. On alternative metaphysics for science studies and the notion of variable ontologies see, for example, Bruno Latour, 'Do Scientific Objects Have a History? Pasteur and Whitehead in a Bath of Lactic Acid', Common Knowledge, Vol. 5 (1996), 76-91. Also see Charis Cussins, 'Ontological Choreography: Agency through Objectification in Infertility Clinics', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 3 (August 1996), 575-610.
30. On alternative metaphysics for science studies and the notion of variable ontologies see, for example, Bruno Latour, 'Do Scientific Objects Have a History? Pasteur and Whitehead in a Bath of Lactic Acid', Common Knowledge, Vol. 5 (1996), 76-91. Also see Charis Cussins, 'Ontological Choreography: Agency through Objectification in Infertility Clinics', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 3 (August 1996), 575-610.
31. I want to thank Jill Didur for the idea of using the concept of 'hauntology' here. The term is borrowed, with some sympathetic alteration, from Jacques Derrida, The Specters of Marx (New York: Routledge, 1994). A more extensive discussion of this term and its application to the study of scientific practice can be found in my PhD dissertation: Bart Simon, Post-Closure Cold Fusion and the Survival of a Research Community. A Hauntology for the Technoscientific Afterlife (La Jolla, CA: Science Studies Program, University of California, San Diego, 1998).
32. I want to thank Jill Didur for the idea of using the concept of 'hauntology' here. The term is borrowed, with some sympathetic alteration, from Jacques Derrida, The Specters of Marx (New York: Routledge, 1994). A more extensive discussion of this term and its application to the study of scientific practice can be found in my PhD dissertation: Bart Simon, Post-Closure Cold Fusion and the Survival of a Research Community. A Hauntology for the Technoscientific Afterlife (La Jolla, CA: Science Studies Program, University of California, San Diego, 1998).
33. This is a consistent trope, for instance, in gothic horror literature; ghosts are frequently tied to houses or people, vampires depend on blood, and so on. For some discussion of this topic, see Fred Botting, Gothic (New York: Routledge, 1996), Chapter 6. See also Maggie Mort and Mike Michael, 'Human and Technological "Redundancy": Phantom Intermediaries in a Nuclear Submarine Industry', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 3 (June 1998), 355-400.
34. This is a consistent trope, for instance, in gothic horror literature; ghosts are frequently tied to houses or people, vampires depend on blood, and so on. For some discussion of this topic, see Fred Botting, Gothic (New York: Routledge, 1996), Chapter 6. See also Maggie Mort and Mike Michael, 'Human and Technological "Redundancy": Phantom Intermediaries in a Nuclear Submarine Industry', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 3 (June 1998), 355-400.
35. Fans of this popular television show will see the connection here. Mysteries which are inexplicable given the normal methods of the FBI are easily resolved by drawing on the seemingly irrational methods of the heroes, Agents Mulder and Scully, and their neglected collection of case studies', the 'X-Files'.
36. This paper is based on my doctoral research: see Simon, op. cit. note 23. Data are drawn from ethnographic research and interviews with scientists working on cold fusion, as well as material housed in the Cornell Cold Fusion Archive, Carl A. Kroch Library (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY).
37. M. Fleischmann and S. Pons, 'Electrochemically Induced Nuclear Fusion of Deuterium', Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry and Interfacial Electrochemistry, Vol. 261 (1989), 301-08.
38. 3 of the electrode, which, depending on how the calculations are made, results in the widely publicized value of four watts of power produced for every one watt used. These are energy levels that cannot be accounted for in terms of conventional chemical or mechanical reactions.
39. Their argument was that under the right experimental conditions the palladium cathode might absorb enough deuterium, holding it for long enough to propagate a phase change in the metal, thus altering the physical properties of the entire metaldeuterium system in a way that might facilitate nuclear reaction.
40. For accounts for a popular science audience, see the books cited in note 1. A number of scholarly works examine different aspects of the controversy: see, for example, Bruce Lewenstein, 'Cold Fusion and Hot History', Osiris, Vol. 7 (1992), 135-63; Thomas F. Gieryn, 'The Ballad of Pons and Fleischmann: Experiment and Narrative in the (Un)making of Cold Fusion', in Ernan McMullin (ed.), The Social Dimensions of Science (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 217-43; James McAllister, 'Competition Among Scientific Disciplines in Cold Nuclear Fusion Research', Science in Context, Vol. 5 (1993), 17-50; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What Everybody Should Know about Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 57-78; Charles Alan Taylor, Defining Science: A Rhetoric of Demarcation (Madison, WI: University ofWisconsin Press, 1996), 175-221; Christopher P. Tourney, 'Conjuring Science in the Case of Cold Fusion', Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 5, No. 2 (April 1996), 121-33.
41. For accounts for a popular science audience, see the books cited in note 1. A number of scholarly works examine different aspects of the controversy: see, for example, Bruce Lewenstein, 'Cold Fusion and Hot History', Osiris, Vol. 7 (1992), 135-63; Thomas F. Gieryn, 'The Ballad of Pons and Fleischmann: Experiment and Narrative in the (Un)making of Cold Fusion', in Ernan McMullin (ed.), The Social Dimensions of Science (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 217-43; James McAllister, 'Competition Among Scientific Disciplines in Cold Nuclear Fusion Research', Science in Context, Vol. 5 (1993), 17-50; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What Everybody Should Know about Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 57-78; Charles Alan Taylor, Defining Science: A Rhetoric of Demarcation (Madison, WI: University ofWisconsin Press, 1996), 175-221; Christopher P. Tourney, 'Conjuring Science in the Case of Cold Fusion', Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 5, No. 2 (April 1996), 121-33.
42. For accounts for a popular science audience, see the books cited in note 1. A number of scholarly works examine different aspects of the controversy: see, for example, Bruce Lewenstein, 'Cold Fusion and Hot History', Osiris, Vol. 7 (1992), 135-63; Thomas F. Gieryn, 'The Ballad of Pons and Fleischmann: Experiment and Narrative in the (Un)making of Cold Fusion', in Ernan McMullin (ed.), The Social Dimensions of Science (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 217-43; James McAllister, 'Competition Among Scientific Disciplines in Cold Nuclear Fusion Research', Science in Context, Vol. 5 (1993), 17-50; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What Everybody Should Know about Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 57-78; Charles Alan Taylor, Defining Science: A Rhetoric of Demarcation (Madison, WI: University ofWisconsin Press, 1996), 175-221; Christopher P. Tourney, 'Conjuring Science in the Case of Cold Fusion', Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 5, No. 2 (April 1996), 121-33.
43. For accounts for a popular science audience, see the books cited in note 1. A number of scholarly works examine different aspects of the controversy: see, for example, Bruce Lewenstein, 'Cold Fusion and Hot History', Osiris, Vol. 7 (1992), 135-63; Thomas F. Gieryn, 'The Ballad of Pons and Fleischmann: Experiment and Narrative in the (Un)making of Cold Fusion', in Ernan McMullin (ed.), The Social Dimensions of Science (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 217-43; James McAllister, 'Competition Among Scientific Disciplines in Cold Nuclear Fusion Research', Science in Context, Vol. 5 (1993), 17-50; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What Everybody Should Know about Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 57-78; Charles Alan Taylor, Defining Science: A Rhetoric of Demarcation (Madison, WI: University ofWisconsin Press, 1996), 175-221; Christopher P. Tourney, 'Conjuring Science in the Case of Cold Fusion', Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 5, No. 2 (April 1996), 121-33.
44. For accounts for a popular science audience, see the books cited in note 1. A number of scholarly works examine different aspects of the controversy: see, for example, Bruce Lewenstein, 'Cold Fusion and Hot History', Osiris, Vol. 7 (1992), 135-63; Thomas F. Gieryn, 'The Ballad of Pons and Fleischmann: Experiment and Narrative in the (Un)making of Cold Fusion', in Ernan McMullin (ed.), The Social Dimensions of Science (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 217-43; James McAllister, 'Competition Among Scientific Disciplines in Cold Nuclear Fusion Research', Science in Context, Vol. 5 (1993), 17-50; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What Everybody Should Know about Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 57-78; Charles Alan Taylor, Defining Science: A Rhetoric of Demarcation (Madison, WI: University ofWisconsin Press, 1996), 175-221; Christopher P. Tourney, 'Conjuring Science in the Case of Cold Fusion', Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 5, No. 2 (April 1996), 121-33.
45. For accounts for a popular science audience, see the books cited in note 1. A number of scholarly works examine different aspects of the controversy: see, for example, Bruce Lewenstein, 'Cold Fusion and Hot History', Osiris, Vol. 7 (1992), 135-63; Thomas F. Gieryn, 'The Ballad of Pons and Fleischmann: Experiment and Narrative in the (Un)making of Cold Fusion', in Ernan McMullin (ed.), The Social Dimensions of Science (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 217-43; James McAllister, 'Competition Among Scientific Disciplines in Cold Nuclear Fusion Research', Science in Context, Vol. 5 (1993), 17-50; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What Everybody Should Know about Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 57-78; Charles Alan Taylor, Defining Science: A Rhetoric of Demarcation (Madison, WI: University ofWisconsin Press, 1996), 175-221; Christopher P. Tourney, 'Conjuring Science in the Case of Cold Fusion', Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 5, No. 2 (April 1996), 121-33.
46. Martin Moscovits, 'Polywater, Fusion and the Popular Press' (unpublished manuscript, 28 March 1989).
47. See, for instance, S.E. Koonin and M. Nauenberg, 'Calculated Fusion Rates in Isotopic Hydrogen Molecules', Nature, Vol. 339 (29 June 1989), 690-91.
48. See Trevor Pinch, 'Cold Fusion and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge', Technical Communication Quarterly, Vol. 3 (1994), 85-102. However, this argument is still in need of much belabouring elsewhere, as the 'Science Wars' and recent misunderstandings of work in SSK suggest. For a case in point, see the skirmish between Allan Franklin, 'How to Avoid the Experimenter's Regress', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Fall 1994), 463-91, and H.M. Collins, 'A Strong Confirmation of the Experimenter's Regress', ibid., 493-503.
49. See Trevor Pinch, 'Cold Fusion and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge', Technical Communication Quarterly, Vol. 3 (1994), 85-102. However, this argument is still in need of much belabouring elsewhere, as the 'Science Wars' and recent misunderstandings of work in SSK suggest. For a case in point, see the skirmish between Allan Franklin, 'How to Avoid the Experimenter's Regress', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Fall 1994), 463-91, and H.M. Collins, 'A Strong Confirmation of the Experimenter's Regress', ibid., 493-503.
50. See Trevor Pinch, 'Cold Fusion and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge', Technical Communication Quarterly, Vol. 3 (1994), 85-102. However, this argument is still in need of much belabouring elsewhere, as the 'Science Wars' and recent misunderstandings of work in SSK suggest. For a case in point, see the skirmish between Allan Franklin, 'How to Avoid the Experimenter's Regress', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Fall 1994), 463-91, and H.M. Collins, 'A Strong Confirmation of the Experimenter's Regress', ibid., 493-503.
51. This, by the way, is as true for the actors as it is for science-studies analysts. In 1995, at a CF conference (ICCF-5) held in Monte Carlo, Martin Fleischmann gave a talk entitled 'The Experimenter's Regress'.
52. Peter Bond, quoted in David Stipp, 'Groups of Physicists, Releasing Reams of Data, Dispute Claims of Cold Fusion', Wall Street Journal (2 May 1989), B3.
53. Michael H. Salamon et al., 'Limits on the Emission of Neutrons, γ-rays, Electrons and Protons from Pons/Fleischmann Electrolytic Cells', Nature, Vol. 344 (29 March 1990), 401-05.
54. 'Farewell (not Fond) to Cold Fusion' (Editorial), Nature, Vol. 344 (29 March 1990), 365; David Lindley, 'The Embarrassment of Cold Fusion', ibid., 375-76.
55. 'Farewell (not Fond) to Cold Fusion' (Editorial), Nature, Vol. 344 (29 March 1990), 365; David Lindley, 'The Embarrassment of Cold Fusion', ibid., 375-76.
56. For his part, Salamon replied that even if the cells were not producing heat at the time, there would still be traces of radiation left over from when they had been producing heat. Pons' reply came in a letter from his lawyer, Gary Triggs, along with a threat to sue Salamon for libel. The text of Triggs' letter, along with Salamon's rejoinder, was subsequently posted (with Salamon's permission) to the Usenet newsgroup sci.physics.fusion (6 June 1990). Salamon did not retract his claims and Pons never followed through on his threat to sue, but Pons' extreme reaction is indicative of the perception of Salamon's measurements as a persuasive negative replication.
57. H.M. Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1992), 83-89.
58. H.M. Collins, 'Son of Seven Sexes: The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1981), 33-62, at 44.
59. DOE/ERAB, op. cit. note 7, 3.
60. On 'interpretive charity' in the study of controversies, see Collins, op. cit. note 40, 52-54.
61. Interview with a chemist at a large university (Toronto, 29 March 1996).
62. Quoted in Taubes, op. cit. note 1, 298.
63. See Mallove, op. cit. note 1, 198.
64. W. Hansen and M. Melich, 'The Key to the F/P Effect and a Challenge to Science', Fusion Technology, Vol. 26, No. 4T (December 1994), 355-64.
65. By way of comparison, consider Gerald Holton's account of the Millikan-Ehrenhaft controversy, as discussed by Barry Barnes, David Bloor and John Henry, Scientific Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1996), esp. 35-40.
66. Douglas Morrison, 'Comments on Claims of Excess Enthalpy by Fleischmann and Pons using Simple Cells made to Boil', Physics Letters A, Vol. 185 (1994), 498-502.
67. John Maddox, in 'Confusion in a Jar', a documentary made for the BBC TV's Horizon series, and first broadcast on 26 March 1990.
68. By comparison, a scientist making similar comments about CF in March 1989 (see note 31) in an article written for a popular news magazine, was not published because the author's views were thought to be too extreme.
69. See Dieter Britz, 'Britz's Cold Nuclear Fusion Bibliography', online, http:/ /kemi.aau.dk/~db/fusion/index.html (10 November 1997). See also Lewenstein, op. cit. note 1, 420; and Lewenstein, op. cit. note 30, 158.
70. See Robert Pool, 'In Hot Water Over Cold Fusion', Science, Vol. 246 (15 December 1989), 1384.
71. One student who had worked on CF at Texas A&M was told by a committee member to remove all chapters relating to CF before he would approve the student's PhD (Cornell Cold Fusion Archive, Folder 9-31).
72. In the language of actor-network theory, we could say that it became more difficult for CF researchers to enroll allies, and to attack and defend in trials of strength: see Latour, op. cit. note 11, 74-79.
73. Douglas Morrison, 'The Rise and Decline of Cold Fusion', Physics World, Vol. 3, No. 2 (February 1990), 35-38.
74. Irving Langmuir, 'Pathological Science', transcribed & ed. Robert N. Hall, reprinted in Physics Today, Vol. 42, No. 10 (October 1989), 36-48. (This journal is published by the American Institute of Physics.)
75. The concept of 'marking' is presented and discussed in David Hess, 'Disciplining Heterodoxy, Circumventing Discipline: Parapsychology, Anthropologically', Knowledge and Society, Vol. 9 (1992), 223-52.
76. Some details of the court case can be found in Alison Abbott, 'Scientists Lose Cold Fusion Libel Case', Nature, Vol. 380 (4 April 1996), 369. Also see Jed Rothwell, 'Italy - Cold Fusion and Judge's Verdict', New Energy News, Vol. 4, No. 1 (May 1996), 9-11.
77. Some details of the court case can be found in Alison Abbott, 'Scientists Lose Cold Fusion Libel Case', Nature, Vol. 380 (4 April 1996), 369. Also see Jed Rothwell, 'Italy -Cold Fusion and Judge's Verdict', New Energy News, Vol. 4, No. 1 (May 1996), 9-11.
78. See Trevor J. Pinch, 'Normal Explanations of the Paranormal: The Demarcation Problem and Fraud in Parapsychology', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 9, No. 3 (August 1979), 329-48.
79. See note 1.
80. In the 1994 film I.Q., Albert Einstein develops the notion of CF as a ruse to help a garage mechanic impress his niece. In the 1997 film The Saint, an eccentric scientist (Elizabeth Shue) figures out how to make CF work, and the resulting public demonstration topples a corrupt Russian government and sparks an energy revolution. Both of these films portray CF as an improbable fiction suitable for Hollywood, but not science.
81. Gina Kolata, 'Viruses or Prions: An Old Debate Still Rages', New York Times (4 October 1994), C1. It is interesting to note in this context that in 1997, Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine for his work on prions.
82. Interview, loc. cit note 43.
83. It is important to note that a significant proportion of the scientific community in Japan is just as sceptical of CF as most American and European scientists are. Consequently, we might look to the organization of practice instead of the organization of belief to account for the differences between Japanese and American CF research. Despite this, my point is that any argument based on cultural difference is ultimately a 'red herring' for science studies - cultural difference and closures are produced at the same time.
84. Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken and Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World (New York: Harper & Row, 1956).
85. See Alan Sokal, 'A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies', Lingua Franca, Vol. 6 (May/June 1996), 62-64. Here, I am pointing to the more than deconstructable rhetorical effects of table-thumping bottom-line arguments: see Malcolm Ashmore, Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter, 'The Bottom Line: The Rhetoric of Reality Demonstrations', Configurations, Vol. 1 (1996), 1-14.
86. See Alan Sokal, 'A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies', Lingua Franca, Vol. 6 (May/June 1996), 62-64. Here, I am pointing to the more than deconstructable rhetorical effects of table-thumping bottom-line arguments: see Malcolm Ashmore, Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter, 'The Bottom Line: The Rhetoric of Reality Demonstrations', Configurations, Vol. 1 (1996), 1-14.
87. This is one issue at the heart of discussions about the politics of symmetry. The methodology of alternation is advocated by Harry Collins, and has been subject to criticism in Pam Scott, Evelleen Richards and Brian Martin, 'Captives of Controversy: The Myth of the Neutral Social Researcher in Contemporary Scientific Controversies', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn 1990), 474-94. Also see H.M. Collins, 'Captives and Victims: Response to Scott, Richards and Martin', ibid., Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring 1991), 249-51; and Malcolm Ashmore and Evelleen Richards (eds), 'The Politics of SSK', Special Issue of Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May 1996), 219-468.
88. This is one issue at the heart of discussions about the politics of symmetry. The methodology of alternation is advocated by Harry Collins, and has been subject to criticism in Pam Scott, Evelleen Richards and Brian Martin, 'Captives of Controversy: The Myth of the Neutral Social Researcher in Contemporary Scientific Controversies', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn 1990), 474-94. Also see H.M. Collins, 'Captives and Victims: Response to Scott, Richards and Martin', ibid., Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring 1991), 249-51; and Malcolm Ashmore and Evelleen Richards (eds), 'The Politics of SSK', Special Issue of Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May 1996), 219-468.
89. This is one issue at the heart of discussions about the politics of symmetry. The methodology of alternation is advocated by Harry Collins, and has been subject to criticism in Pam Scott, Evelleen Richards and Brian Martin, 'Captives of Controversy: The Myth of the Neutral Social Researcher in Contemporary Scientific Controversies', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn 1990), 474-94. Also see H.M. Collins, 'Captives and Victims: Response to Scott, Richards and Martin', ibid., Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring 1991), 249-51; and Malcolm Ashmore and Evelleen Richards (eds), 'The Politics of SSK', Special Issue of Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May 1996), 219-468.
90. This argument follows from feminist analyses of the role of women and ethnic minorities in Western scientific practice. The literature here is vast, but see especially Sandra Harding, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women's Lives (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).
91. See H.M. Collins and Trevor J. Pinch, Frames of Meaning: The Social Construction of Extraordinary Science (London: Routledge, 1982).
92. See Britz, op. cit. note 51.
93. Interview with a science writer and publisher of a CF magazine (2 March 1996). The reference to 'Mills (Spring 1991)' is to Randall Mills and Steven Kneizys, 'Excess Heat Production by the Electrolysis of an Aqueous Potassium Carbonate Electrolyte and the Implications for Cold Fusion', Fusion Technology, Vol. 20 (1991), 65-81. Mills was the first of several researchers to measure excess heat using normal light water instead of heavy water. More recently, some researchers have detected evidence of nuclear transmutations occurring in their CF cells. See, for example, John O'M. Bockris, G.H. Lin and R. Bush, 'Do Nuclear Reactions Take Place under Chemical Stimulation?', Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 10 (1996), 245-62.
94. Interview with a science writer and publisher of a CF magazine (2 March 1996). The reference to 'Mills (Spring 1991)' is to Randall Mills and Steven Kneizys, 'Excess Heat Production by the Electrolysis of an Aqueous Potassium Carbonate Electrolyte and the Implications for Cold Fusion', Fusion Technology, Vol. 20 (1991), 65-81. Mills was the first of several researchers to measure excess heat using normal light water instead of heavy water. More recently, some researchers have detected evidence of nuclear transmutations occurring in their CF cells. See, for example, John O'M. Bockris, G.H. Lin and R. Bush, 'Do Nuclear Reactions Take Place under Chemical Stimulation?', Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 10 (1996), 245-62.
95. Interview with an electrochemist (Stanford, CA, 1 July 1994).
96. Private email from a CF researcher (10 July 1996).
97. Those not actually doing CF research in 1990 still must live with the consequences of the past. These new researchers have inherited a kind of collective memory of the events of 1989 which must be dealt with, as well as a new set of social and material conditions for doing their work.
98. There is a strong similarity here between the experiences of many CF researchers in universities and the experiences of some of the parapsychologists interviewed by David Hess (op. cit. note 57): see also D. Hess, Science in the New Age (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993).
99. This is a basic strategy for CF researchers seeking grants and patents for their work. In the US, the strategy seems to have met with little success. In the case of patenting, the very claims which make the research patentable in the first place are the ones which identify it as being related to CF. For instance, for legal reasons, most of these patents must mention Fleischmann and Pons' 1989 paper, and this serves to 'tip off' the patent examiner.
100. On Benveniste's current research, see Alain Kaufmann and Pauline Ridel, 'The Affair of the Memory of Water: Towards a Sociology of Scientific Communication', Reseaux: The French Journal of Communication, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn 1994), 183-204. On the relationship between New Age consumer culture and science, see Andrew Ross, Strange Weather: Culture, Science and Technology in the Age of Limits (New York: Verso, 1991), Chapter 1, 'New Age - A Kinder, Gentler Science?', 15-74.
101. On Benveniste's current research, see Alain Kaufmann and Pauline Ridel, 'The Affair of the Memory of Water: Towards a Sociology of Scientific Communication', Reseaux: The French Journal of Communication, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn 1994), 183-204. On the relationship between New Age consumer culture and science, see Andrew Ross, Strange Weather: Culture, Science and Technology in the Age of Limits (New York: Verso, 1991), Chapter 1, 'New Age - A Kinder, Gentler Science?', 15-74.
102. In this event, accounting for the time CF spent as 'dead' will be crucial in explaining how it managed to be resurrected, especially since from an asymmetrical historical perspective it will appear as if CF had always been alive.
103. x', Modern Physics Letters B, Vol. 3 (1989), 795-803.
104. Which is to say that truth and not-truth (falsity) are the twin productions of the same social and material processes.