[From Associated Press]
By WENDY BENJAMINSON, Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON (AP) - Allegations that that investigations into the charges
be dropped. It said the researchers whose work was questioned may
have acted hastily but did not do severely substandard work.
The report was written by three Texas A&M professors assigned to
investigate the research at Texas that followed the March 1989
claim by scientists in Utah that they had achieved cold fusion in a
beaker of room-temperature water.
Such a discovery would create a cheap, clean and virtually
inexhaustible supply of energy.
Scientists all over the world rushed to confirm the discovery by
B. Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and his British
colleague, Martin Fleischmann.
But the journal Science suggested in its June 15, 1989, issue
that some A&M experiments had been tainted.
One such experiment, conducted by A&M electrochemist John
O'Malley Bockris, involved running a series of electrolytic cells
modeled after those in Utah. Some cells sporadically produced
tritium, a standard byproduct of nuclear fusion. The experiment was
the strongest evidence anywhere for cold fusion.
But critics questioned the results, saying the tritium was not
accompanied by other fusion byproducts, and suggested the
experiment had been spiked with tritium.
The report issued Sunday concluded that spiking was unlikely, in
part because scientists got different results when they tested the
spiking theory by intentionally putting tritium in water.
``While it is not possible for us to categorically exclude
spiking as a possibility, it is our opinion that possibility is
much less probable than that of inadvertent contamination or other
unexplained factors in the measurements,'' the report said.
The report said that in general, the furor over the alleged
discovery of cold fusion caused scientists at Texas A&M to rush
their research and lose scientific objectivity, but concluded that
none of the experiments was conducted fraudulently.
``The earliest attempts to reproduce those experiments were done
hastily, using available material and improvised setups where
necessary,'' the report said. ``This, coupled with the perceived
pressures of racing against other groups, certainly led to some
less than perfect experimental design.''
But the report added that even in their haste, researchers
maintained generally normal standards. It also said that with the
decreasing amount of attention, continuing research is being
conducted properly.
The A&M report noted that researchers are still trying to
confirm Pons and Fleischmann's discovery, but so far have failed,
leaving the general scientific community skeptical that the two
actually achieved cold fusion.
The internal report was written by John Poston, a nuclear
engineer; Edward S. Fry, a physicist; and Joseph B. Natowitz, a
chemist.
AP-NY-11-19-90 1011EST-
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