While I cannot claim to have predicted it, the DOE report is not surprising. I am guessing that some politician was pressured by constituents and leaned on DOE to investigate.

Typical politician/bureaucratic response. You might think they would preform some well controlled experiments. Instead they had a committee of about 18 review existing research and write reports.

From what I read in Scientific American and from articles on the internet, they have not really come to any conclusion. Trust a politician/bureaucrat to not go out on the limb and voice a definite opinion.

If you do a search, you can find the DOE reviews. In many pages you can find a little bit of useful commentary. Nothing to really satisfy either the believers or the skeptics.

While they did not condemn cold fusion, they made some derogatory remarks, but left the door open for further research. DOE will not fund any further research, but implies that it will judge individual research requests on their merits when submitted (a copout really). Some of the reviewers suggested that there was merit to cold fusion. I think one of them gave a favorable review.

I had hoped that DOE would do a real job and put the axe to this turkey once and for all. As suggested by comments in other threads, I am a convinced skeptic who considers cold fusion utter nonsense. I do not intend to argue on this issue anymore. Read the DOE report and other articles, apply some principles of nuclear physics, and make your own decision.

do you have a reference to the DOE report i.e. the www. . . .com?

Geistkiesel

This link: DOE Report (http://www.ncas.org/erab/) seems to be the report. Interesting; not much new.

am a convinced skeptic who considers cold fusion utter nonsense.
That's not skepticism, that's plain old closed-mindedness.

A skeptic is a doubter. As in "I doubt that claims of gaining energy from cold fusion are true."

Pete: If you think my opinion of cold fusion is flawed, show me some evidence to the contrary.

The repulsive force between two protons is equivalent to the gravitational force between one proton and 2.0671E9 (2 billion) kilograms of matter. That repulsive force is incredible at atomic distances, and must be overcome for two protons to fuse. Show me some reason to believe that the electrostatic repulsive force is overcome or ineffective in the cold fusion expriments.

If you think my opinion of cold fusion is flawed...

I don't think it's necessarily flawed. Closed-minded, certainly. But probably not factually wrong.

sonofusion:
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20040202192718data_trunc_sys.shtml
http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/15/4/8
(its not really cold though)

There are limits to having an open mind. If it is too open, trash gets in and interferes with your ability to think rationally.

The trick is to find a hapy medium. That's what skepticism is all about.

Being completely closed-minded on a subject seems stupid to me.

The repulsive force between two protons is equivalent to the gravitational force between one proton and 2.0671E9 (2 billion) kilograms of matter. That repulsive force is incredible at atomic distances, and must be overcome for two protons to fuse. Show me some reason to believe that the electrostatic repulsive force is overcome or ineffective in the cold fusion expriments.

Ever hear of something called a short circuit? Or the possibility of uncertainity. I mean this not in the quantum notion but in that radioactive decay functions on uncertainity and the breakdown of the strong nuclear force intermittently.

You view does not allow for unique conditions which may either take advantage of or creates conditions for random, occasional breakdown of such forces. The consequence of which could be some limited nuclear reactions.

The last I read some of these experiments are supported by neutron detection and fusion by-products. A likely requirement for anything nuclear to be going on.

ADDENDUM: I just read the report and see these issues are covered and based on their detection or lack of it are inadequate to account for the claimed heat measurements.

I mean this not in the quantum notion but in that radioactive decay functions on uncertainity and the breakdown of the strong nuclear force intermittently.

ummm... that is quantum mechanics. And there's no "breakdown" of the strong nuclear force.

[b]Pete: [b]I suppose you advocate being open minded about alien abductions, perpetural motion, clairvoyance, OBE, Santa claus, the tooth fairy, et cetera. If somewhere there is somebody who believes in it, you will keep an open mind on any subject.

If somewhere there is somebody who believes in it

Why would that be a necessary condition?

Certainly, those things seem highly implausible to me. That doesn't mean that if someone demonstrates (or just argues) them to my satisfaction I'll deny the possibility.

I am inclined to agree that your original post doesn't imply that if cold fusion were demonstrated you would deny its existence, though.

ummm... that is quantum mechanics. And there's no "breakdown" of the strong nuclear force.

That was my point of differentiating the useage of the term. I was suggesting that there may be a random breakdown of such forces.

a random breakdown of such forces.

Whatever you say.

Ever hear of something called a short circuit? Or the possibility of uncertainity. I mean this not in the quantum notion but in that radioactive decay functions on uncertainity and the breakdown of the strong nuclear force intermittently.
You view does not allow for unique conditions which may either take advantage of or creates conditions for random, occasional breakdown of such forces. The consequence of which could be some limited nuclear reactions.
MacM is absolutely right: this is an exact representation of the nuclear reactions by the man, having the education of ... a 1st category plumber for the nuclear reactors.

Dinosaur,
What do you think that "open-minded" means?
What do you think that "skeptical" means?

To me, the terms are actually quite similar.

MacM is absolutely right: this is an exact representation of the nuclear reactions by the man, having the education of ... a 1st category plumber for the nuclear reactors.

Yuriy's comments may be assessed by reviewing this Thread

There are limits to having an open mind. If it is too open, trash gets in and interferes with your ability to think rationally.The process of an open mind must include a system of rejecting erroneous data. If you do not have such a filtering process, then you have no way to separate woo-woos from creative thinkers.