The ICCF18 conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (cold fusion) was held July 21 – 27, 2013 at the University of Missouri, Columbia MO. Here is the conference website. The University is uploading presentation slides and posters to MOSpace, the University of Missouri’s digital repository. You can search for specific authors or titles at MOSpace.

A proceedings will be published later.

There were 215 attendees from 21 countries. Here are some statistics from the conference.

 

Here is an overview of the conference by David Nagel.

Videos of most of the presentations are available from ColdFusionNow.org. Here are videos from:

Monday, July 22

Tuesday, July 23

Wednesday, July 24

Thursday and Friday, July 25 and 26

 

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Cold fusion researcher John O’M Bockis died on July 7, 2013 after a brief illness. He was hospitalized last week. He stayed alert and in good spirits, and was able to say goodbye to his friends and relatives. He was 90 years old.

See:

http://www.infinite-energy.com/images/pdfs/BockrisObit.pdf

A group of seven professors has published a definitive test of Andrea Rossi’s high temperature reactor:

Levi, G., et al., Indication of anomalous heat energy production in a reactor device containing hydrogen loaded nickel powder. 2013, Bologna University.

The paper was uploaded to Cornell’s arxiv.org library, here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3913v1 

Mats Lewan described the paper here:

https://matslew.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/two-100-hour-scientific-tests-confirm-anomalous-heat-production-in-rossis-e-cat/

Mark Gibbs of Forbes magazine described the paper here.

Financial support for the test was provided by the Alba Langenskiöld Foundation and ELFORSK AB. ELFORSK is an energy industry consortium. They issued a statement on their web site (in Swedish):

http://www.elforsk.se/Aktuellt/Svenska-forskare-har-testat-Rossis-energikatalysator–E-cat/

Google translate renders this:

Swedish researchers have tested Rossi energy catalyst – E-cat

Researchers from Uppsala University and KTH Stockholm has conducted measurements of the produced heat energy from a device called the E-cat. It is known as an energy catalyst invented by the Italian scientist Andrea Rossi.

The measurements show that the catalyst gives substantially more energy than can be explained by ordinary chemical reactions. The results are very remarkable. What lies behind the extraordinary heat production can not be explained today. There has been speculation over whether there can be any form of nuclear transformation. However, this is highly questionable. To learn more about what is going on you have to learn what is happening with the fuel and the waste it produces. The measurements have been funded by such Elforsk.

 

Here is the abstract from this paper:

An experimental investigation of possible anomalous heat production in a special type of reactor tube named E-Cat HT is carried out. The reactor tube is charged with a small amount of hydrogen loaded nickel powder plus some additives. The reaction is primarily initiated by heat from resistor coils inside the reactor tube. Measurement of the produced heat was performed with high-resolution thermal imaging cameras, recording data every second from the hot reactor tube. The measurements of electrical power input were performed with a large bandwidth three phase power analyzer. Data were collected in two experimental runs lasting 96 and 116 hours, respectively. An anomalous heat production was indicated in both experiments.

COLUMBIA, Mo. ­— University of Missouri Vice Chancellor for Research Rob Duncan has announced that Graham K. Hubler, a nuclear physicist who worked for the Naval Research Laboratory for 40 years, has been named director of the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance (SKINR) at Missouri University.

See article here.

The Institute and the projects now underway there are described here.

The Scientific American published another attack on cold fusion, Ouellette, J., Genie in a Bottle: The Case Against Cold Fusion, in Scientific American. 2012. The author ignores the scientific literature and looks instead at movies, popular culture and mythology surrounding the 1989 announcement. She concludes that cold fusion does not exist.

In the on-line discussion of this article, the author allowed only skeptical arguments against cold fusion. She erased all rebuttals, and all messages supporting it, including: proof that many scientists support the research; that the effect has been widely replicated; and that over a thousand peer-reviewed papers on the subject have been published in mainstream journals. Finally, she erased messages quoting the editors of the Scientific American, and a message saying that peer-reviewed replicated experiments are the standard of truth in experimental science, which cited the Chairman of the Indian AEC and other distinguished scientists.

To paraphrase Marx, the opposition to cold fusion began as a tragedy and it is ending as a farce.

Edmund Storms wrote this response to this column:

The scientific proof supporting the claims made by Fleischmann and Pons is now overwhelming. This is not the opinion of a “handful of diehard supporters” but of several major universities and corporations. The information is easily obtained at LENR.org and in many books written about the history and the science. We are no longer in 1990 when the claims were in doubt and many people attempted to replicate them, some with success. Many of the reasons for success and failure are now known. An explanation for the phenomenon is being developed and claims are being demonstrated for commercial-level power. Surely a writer for a magazine as important as Scientific American would know these facts and not continue using the myth that was created before the facts were known.

The author first erased it, but later restored it, adding, “With all due respect to Dr. Storms, I stand by my post.” She erased several messages from many different contributors. Here are two by Jed Rothwell:

If you are going to quote Robert Park, it seems to me you owe it to your audience to quote him when he brags publicly that he has never read a single paper. That is what he has said, repeatedly. He said it to a large crowd of people at the APS. If you do not believe me, ask him yourself. It is misleading to quote him as some sort of expert when he brags about the fact that he knows nothing.

The editors of the Scientific American also told me that they have read no papers on this subject, because ‘reading papers is not our job.’ Their assertions about cold fusion are also technically wrong. I published their comments here: http://lenr-canr.org/wordpress/?p=294

[Quoting a skeptical attack] Cude wrote: “I’m not aware of a single major university that has expressed the opinion that evidence for the claims of P&F is overwhelming.”

Professors at universities and at other institutions express that opinion. For example, the Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission said that, as did the world’s top expert in tritium at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (NSF p. 13-3). In 1991, The Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry in Berlin wrote: “. . . there is now undoubtedly overwhelming indications that nuclear processes take place in the metal alloys.”

Hundreds of other distinguished experts in nuclear physics and other related disciplines have said they are certain cold fusion is real. They know this because they have conducted experiments and detected the reaction at high signal to noise ratios, and their experiments have survived rigorous peer-review. That is the only way anyone ever knows anything for sure in science. Replicated, high sigma experiments are the only standard of truth.

Cold fusion is attracting some attention in the mass media. Recently, several articles about it have been published, including:

Anderson, M., Big Idea: Bring Back the “Cold Fusion” Dream, in Discover Magazine. 2012. This is about the Widom-Larsen theory.

Featherstone, S., Can Andrea Rossi’s Infinite-Energy Black Box Power The World–Or Just Scam It?, in Popular Science. 2012. This describes a visit with Rossi, and another with Celani.

Gibbs, M., Cold Fusion Gets a Little More Real [Updated], in Forbes. 2012. A report on the visit to Defkalion by M. Nelson of NASA. Nelson’s visit was supposed to be confidential, but it was revealed in leaked documents discussed in this article, and also by eCat News, “Defkalion Self-Leaks Catalyst.”

Hambling, D., Cold fusion: smoke and mirrors, or raising a head of steam?, in wired.co.uk. 2012, which covers Rossi’s recent claims, ICCF17, Celani’s recent claims and so on.

Ouellette, J., Genie in a Bottle: The Case Against Cold Fusion, in Scientific American. 2012. A renewed attack on the research. See the latest news item.

 

On August 6 – 9 National Instrument held its annual global conference on graphical system design, NIWeek 2012.

NI’s cofounder, President, and CEO, Dr. James Truchard kicked off the week with a 19-minute presentation, available on YouTube. Starting at minute 15, he described NI’s projects relating to cold fusion. He was strongly supportive of cold fusion. He pointed out that several leading cold fusion researchers are attending the conference.

These researchers gave presentations during the conference, which were reportedly well received.  Francesco Celani, of Frascati Lab. ENEA, brought a demonstration cell to the conference which was left running the entire time, apparently producing excess heat. Celani will bring the demonstration to ICCF17 next week. He has written a new paper about it for ICCF17.

Here is an NIWeek lecture on cold fusion by Duncan and Morrow, “Anomalous Heat Effects.”

The cold fusion presentations at NIWeek were described in the New Energy Times, “LENR Gets Major Boost From National Instruments.” They were mentioned in a US News report, “New Burst of Energy Could Bring Cold Fusion to Front Burner.”

Martin Fleischmann died on August 3, 2012 at age 85. Fleischmann and his colleague Stanley Pons discovered cold fusion in the 1980s.

Infinite Energy published an obituary with comments from many leading researchers.

Here is an obituary written by Brian Josephson in The Guardian.

The 17th International Conference on Cold Fusion was held August 12 – 17, 2012, in Daejeon, Korea. See: http://iccf17.org