MIT and Cold Fusion: A Special Report Introduction by Dr. Eugene F. Mallove (MIT Class of 1969, Aero/Astro Engineering, SB 1969, SM 1970) Editor-in-Chief, Infinite Energy Magazine President, New Energy Foundation, Inc. It is March 2003 as we mount permanently on the web lions of DOE research dollars since then for their hot fusion this Special Report about MIT and Cold Fusion—almost the research. The cover-up of fraud, sad to say, reaches the high- 14th anniversary of the announcement by Drs. Fleischmann est levels at MIT and includes the current MIT President, and Pons at the University of Utah on March 23, 1989. We Charles M. Vest. Remarkably, President Vest has recently published this report in Infinite Energy Issue #24 in been named by U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham to March/April 1999, but now it is available as a free internet head the Task Force on the Future of Science Programs at the download for all the world to see. Every citizen who is con- Department of Energy. The high level task force will “exam- cerned about the future of clean energy generation and the ine science and technology programs across the department future of our environment should read this report. Every and consider future priorities for scientific research.” MIT MIT student, every MIT graduate, and every financial con- President Vest also serves on the President’s Committee of tributor to MIT should read it. Judge for yourself where the Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and is vice facts lead. chair of the Council on Competitiveness. It is hoped that When many people are asked today about cold fusion, if fair minded readers of the MIT and Cold Fusion Report will they recall the 1989 announcement at all, they may offer conclude that MIT’s Charles Vest, who represents what are remarks such as, “The experiment couldn’t be reproduced.” now provably unethical vested academic interests, is not a Or, “Cold fusion was quickly dismissed by other laboratories person whose scientific advice should be sought about as a mistake.” One of the most significant players in estab- DOE’s science and technology plans. lishing in the public mind that thoroughly erroneous view The top man who, for now, will be leading DOE’s panel of was a team of investigators at MIT at its lavishly funded hot the “future of science” will get to pass judgment on whether fusion laboratory, then called the MIT Plasma Fusion Center. hot fusion “science” should be funded at all, and if so to The MIT group rendered a highly negative assessment of the what extent, and at what institutions. One of those places Fleischmann and Pons claims, in part by performing its own just happens to be MIT, which receives tens-of-millions of attempt to reproduce the heavy-water/palladium excess heat dollars each year for its tokamak hot fusion research. Does experiment. The announced “failure to confirm” by the MIT this not seem to pose a slight conflict of interest—even had group became one of the three top negative reports weighing no scientific fraud been carried out against cold fusion at against cold fusion in those early days. The U.S. Department MIT in 1989, and even had Vest not participated in its cover- of Energy (DOE) cited the MIT PFC’s negative conclusion in up? Will Vest recuse himself on the matter of hot fusion rendering its rushed, condemning report in the fall of 1989; funding? Will there be any consideration of New Hydrogen alphabetically, the MIT group’s report is the first technical Physics Energy (which includes cold fusion) by a DOE panel reference cited in the DOE Cold Fusion Panel’s report. led by President Vest? We believe that under the circum- It is therefore of considerable interest to understand what stances it is not possible for cold fusion/LENR to receive any really happened at MIT in 1989, and the several years fol- re-assessment—let alone a fair one—for a role in DOE’s lowing, on the matter of cold fusion. The story is most cer- future science programs. If after reading this report con- tainly not what is regurgitated in numerous journalistic cerned citizens feel the same way, they should consider writ- accounts, which are most often unflattering to Drs. Fleis- ing to the White House to express their displeasure. Those chmann and Pons and those researchers who followed their who are more directly concerned about the integrity of pioneering path. In fact, the story of cold fusion’s reception MIT’s research and reputation should write to Charles Vest at MIT is a story of egregious scientific fraud and the cover- or to other academic officers at MIT. Perhaps this might up of scientific fraud and other misconduct—not by Fleis- prompt a long-overdue official investigation of events in chmann and Pons, as is occasionally alleged—but by 1989-1992, followed by an official withdrawal of the MIT researchers who in 1989 aimed to dismiss cold fusion as PFC’s fraudulent calorimetry paper from the scientific liter- quickly as possible and who have received hundreds of mil- ature. Subscribe to Infinite Energy Magazine! Six issues per year. $29.95 North America $49.95 Foreign 1 Infinite Energy • ISSUE 24, 1999 • MIT Special Report Why “MIT and Cold Fusion”? by Eugene F. Mallove, Sc.D. MIT Class of 1969 (Aero/Astro Engineering ‘69 SB; ‘70 SM) Chief Science Writer, MIT News Office 1987-1991 The Official MENS ET MANUS [MIT Motto—”Mind and Hand”] MIT Logo IT has played an extraordinary role in the history of cold for past misdeeds. Is the MIT of 1999 up to that? We shall see. fusion. By acts of commission and omission it continues One hopes that this true characterization of MIT’s institutional Mto do so. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the behavior in the early 1990s and beyond will be but a temporary startling announcement by Drs. Fleischmann and Pons on March aberration. Yet if the past is any guide, there is little cause for opti- 23, 1989, it is imperative that Infinite Energy explore the major role mism that a sudden awakening to the truth will occur at MIT. of MIT in shaping the history of the investigation of cold fusion. Perhaps the greatest hope lies in the youth—the students and Excess power evolution and unexpected (“impossible”) graduates of MIT who will examine the scientific literature objec- nuclear changes in hydrogen-metal systems come under the tively. Most MIT professors today are simply oblivious to the sub- rubric “cold fusion.” Whatever its complete microphysical ject. If they were to examine the research record of the past explanation turns out to be, cold fusion is of surpassing impor- decade, they would readily see the opportunities to enter what is tance from the perspective of both science and technology. clearly an area of enormous potential. MIT students and alum- MIT’s role in this affair bears close scrutiny by all who value ni/ae may need to become catalysts that move faculty members what they assume MIT stands for: the open-minded quest for and administration in the right direction, away from the present the truth about Nature and the application of new discoveries untenable position of denying well-established experimental in science toward the betterment of humanity. facts and the theoretical developments by Professors such as This report will be of special interest to all who are concerned Peter L. Hagelstein (Electrical Engineering and Computer Sci- about the well-being of MIT—its alumni/ae, students, faculty, ence) and Keith H. Johnson, formerly of the Department of Mate- and administration. What this brief history says about the rials Science and Engineering. actions and inactions in the area of cold fusion by one of the I defy any previously uninvolved MIT student or graduate to world’s great technical universities has far-reaching implica- examine the thirty-four references that are cataloged on pages tions for everyone interested in the heated cold fusion contro- 29-34 of this issue (“Key Experiments that Substantiate Cold versy. The history of MIT’s reaction to cold fusion will become Fusion Phenomena”) and conclude that the information is not a remarkable case study in how a major scientific revolution is strong enough to warrant further investigation and action. affected by the strong news media influence of MIT, by govern- These are only a small sample of many other papers and devel- ment funding of MIT, and by the scientific involvement of MIT opments that can be cited. In 1999, it is possible for MIT gradu- professors, administration, students, and staff. ates to visit laboratories in the U.S. and abroad where cold Extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinary action. It fusion investigation and development are moving forward. is our obligation—our moral imperative—to publish the And soon enough there will be a host of demonstration sets and detailed report that follows. Unfortunately for the world, many kits that research laboratories can purchase to observe the people still believe that the claims of a new, clean, abundant effects themselves. Some of these will be distributed by compa- energy source and nuclear reactions occurring near room tem- nies in which MIT graduates are involved. perature were quickly and definitively disposed of by the care- The events of 1989-1992 are past history, but one must learn ful work of scientists at MIT in the spring of 1989. Nothing from the past or be condemned to repeat it. I hope that MIT stu- could be further from the truth.