TR Forums

Martin Fleischmann, who reported discovering cold fusion with Stanley Pons, has died:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/08/07/sci-fleischmann-dead.html

Reporting something that didn't happen is his claim to science? Hmm.

He was a well-respected chemist as well. The Cold Fusion stuff came later.

He made cold fusion happen in a jar once. Neither he nor anyone else on the planet could reproduce his experiment. I'm going to call BS.

There's a good doco about this, looking at others claims of cold fusion as well. He's an interesting guy, wish I could remember the title of the doco. Did they ever recant their findings or did he stick to his guns?

Funny the obits that turn up on tech report...

Chrispy_ wrote:

He made cold fusion happen in a jar once. Neither he nor anyone else on the planet could reproduce his experiment. I'm going to call BS.

What a brave position for you to take up.

It's still real to me, darnit!

grantmeaname wrote:

Chrispy_ wrote:

He made cold fusion happen in a jar once. Neither he nor anyone else on the planet could reproduce his experiment. I'm going to call BS.

What a brave position for you to take up.

Not really, part of being a proper scientist is documenting your work.
He may have been a genius but if he'd been documenting it properly he may have been taken more seriously.

Nobody respects cold fusion, and nobody here was defending it or him. So why you decided to bring up that cold fusion is unlikely is totally beyond me. It's like walking into Congress and saying that America is good. It adds nothing to the discussion and it's hardly a controversial stance.

Man, I loved his Fleischmann's-brand spreads. Particularly those flavored with sea salt.

grantmeaname wrote:

Nobody respects cold fusion, and nobody here was defending it or him. So why you decided to bring up that cold fusion is unlikely is totally beyond me. It's like walking into Congress and saying that America is good. It adds nothing to the discussion and it's hardly a controversial stance.

Actually, it's more like somebody mentioning Stanley Kubrick and someone else replying "Oh, you mean that pervert who made a film version of Lolita?" when you preferred to talk about 2001.

Like it or not, people are sometimes remembered for their most infamous work(s). Also, the OP brought up the cold fusion.

derFunkenstein wrote:

Man, I loved his Fleischmann's-brand spreads. Particularly those flavored with sea salt.

It works great in 'fusion' cooking.

grantmeaname wrote:

why you decided to bring up that cold fusion is unlikely is totally beyond me

The OP's flavour text for this thread states only two things about him:

1. He reported discovering cold fusion
2. He has died

I am briging it up for very obvious reasons: It is both topical and my opinion that he did not, in fact, discover cold fusion.
If you can't handle that I suggest you find something else to do rather than being a douchebag in this thread. Did I hurt your feelings in some way with my earlier posts? You seem to be offended by them.

Well, yeah, but the other two posts before yours were to the same effect, that cold fusion didn't happen.

Sorry if it came off harsher than I intended, but I don't think it's fair to presume you knew exactly what I meant and my tone. I wasn't offended until you called me a douchebag. Whatever happened to family-friendly?

Now, there are deep scars on my psyche.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

ludi wrote:

grantmeaname wrote:

Nobody respects cold fusion, and nobody here was defending it or him. So why you decided to bring up that cold fusion is unlikely is totally beyond me. It's like walking into Congress and saying that America is good. It adds nothing to the discussion and it's hardly a controversial stance.

Actually, it's more like somebody mentioning Stanley Kubrick and someone else replying "Oh, you mean that pervert who made a film version of Lolita?" when you preferred to talk about 2001.

Like it or not, people are sometimes remembered for their most infamous work(s). Also, the OP brought up the cold fusion.

I did point out that he was a respected chemist. That's a defense of the man... but I was *not* defending cold fusion.

My take is that cold fusion doesn't exist, but that it wasn't an intentional hoax either; he *believed* his results, but they were ultimately due to some sort of experimental error.

@Chrispy - Please can the personal insults.

@grantmeaname - You started it, so you need to simmer down too. While some may consider it poor taste to criticize the work of someone who just died, your first reply to Chrispy_ was uncalled for.

Yeah, sorry, I'll be good now. It wasn't my aim to start a fight.

Sorry, immediately on the defensive for obvious reasons.

Is d-bag not an acceptable word? I'm not native to the US but I thought it was an exceptionally mild word to use; I hear it all the time on TV shows that go out of their way to censor profanity (How I Met Your Mother, Community, etc).

Chrispy_ wrote:

Is d-bag not an acceptable word?

It's a crude insult, for obvious reasons. When and how it was used would determine the kind of reaction you got, just like anything else. Lots of people here use the "eff" word casually, too, but it's not a recommended tactic for making friends in an unfamiliar room.

It's all about how the word is intended and to whom it's directed. I find it way more irritating/offensive than a lot of the words that can't be used on TV.

Right about the time he "discovered" cold fusion is about the same time a telephone tech knocked a microwave communications antenna askew while trying to have a chocolate snack. It just so happened to point at some person's house, heating up all manner of things that shouldn't be...

j/k, but hey, it could happen.