Why don’t you start here.

So, why not sell pills containing trace amounts of palladium that will cause fusion reactions in the body and kill harmful bacteria.

For the record, there have been double-blind studies confirming the efficacy of some forms of TCM acupuncture.

There have been a whole lot more showing that it doesn’t. Generally the studies which show an effect are small and poorly run. As sample sizes get larger and experiment design improves, the signal goes away. The only conditions which repeatably show a positive effect from acupuncture are highly suggestable conditons such as pain and nausea, which suggests a placebo mechanism.

(asking more than that is unreasonable; saying ‘prove acupuncture works!’ is like saying ‘prove surgery works!’)

Nonsense. The hypothesis underlying the practice of acupuncture is a vitalistic in nature and does not acknowledge modern medical knowledge such as, say, germ theory. It makes very specific testable claims, none of which have panned out. No meridians have been found; no life force has been detected.

Surgery, on the other hand, relies on the easily confirmed theory that there are bones and organs inside the human body which are somtimes indicated for a physical change.

And there’s also the Westernized version practiced in virtually every physiotherapy clinic on the continent.

Define Westernized version. And what of it?

And there’s also the Westernized version practiced in virtually every physiotherapy clinic on the continent.

One professor I know was asked to be a “scientific advisor” for a similar venture during the initial excitement about cold fusion. “But cold fusion doesn’t work,” he told them. Their response was, “we don’t care,” and they offered him quite a bit of money. He declined.

Dr. Fleischmann could have received a similar offer, and Dr. Fleischmann might be in a little more need of the money that my professor friend. Note that Dr. Fleischmann isn’t even quoted in the press release, and is only claimed to have agreed to be an advisor; he isn’t actually signed up yet. This could simply mean that he said, “I’ll advise you alright. You guys are FoS, and I should know! Now let me tell you where to send that check.”

The people who are actually participating in the project (which may include Dr. Fleischmann, I just don’t know) deserve every bit of scorn you heaped on them.

Gavin

1. You’re not supposed to (as in: good scientific practise) talk to the press before a journal has refereed your paper describing your discovery. But with really big results people tend to get the press in at earliest possible moment.

2. There is a very interesting study into the cold fusion debacle in a book called “the Golem; what everyone should know about science” by Collins and Pinch. Despite its title, this is actually a proper scholarly work, and if you don’t like a sociological approach to scientific practise, this might not be for you. In particular, it bursts the bubble that scientists approach their work and that of their rivals open-minded and with complete scientific honesty.

3. I saw an interview with Stanley Pons in a BBC documentary last year (probably a Horizon episode on fusion): The guy is completely destroyed by the affair.

4. There is nothing wrong with being wrong, as long as you are wrong in an interesting way.

As for scientists actively promoting fraud/decieving the public, I don’t think there is any way you can stop that until you have a well enough educated and discerning public which doesn’t believe anything “the experts” say.

neither can we fully explain the workings of aspirin, acupuncture or high temperature superconductivity.

oh good grief. Aspirin works via prostaglandin inhibition, there was a Nobel prize given for the work. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to visit the Nobel website and find out who and what year because, frankly, I am tired of having to explain this. It’s a sure sign that someone is a crank when they trot out the tired old “We don’t know how aspirin works” argument. Funny, acupuncturists use it a lot. We high Tc superconductor physicists have no need to make such rediculous statements b/c our phenomenon can be reliably observed by anyone with a Nitrogen dewar, anywhere, at anytime.