Secrets of the First Practical Artificial Leaf:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509123900.htm
Anthropologist Finds Explanation for Hominin Brain Evolution in Famous Fossils: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120507154025.htm
Best Websites Balance Self-Expression and Functionality: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120507164628.htm
Going Public: The Connective, Collective Power of The Social Web: http://bigthink.com/humanizing-technology/going-public-the-connective-collective-power-of-facebook
Significant Water Anomaly Explained: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509105210.htm
Friday Illusion: Ballerina spins in two ways at once:
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/05/friday-illusion-ballerina-spins-in-two-ways-at-once.html
ScienceShot: Has the Internet Turned Us Into Jerks?:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/scienceshot-has-the-internet.html?ref=em
What Pronouns Can Tell You About Your Sex Life:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/what-pronouns-can-tell-you-about-your-sex-life
Newly Discovered Bacterium Forms Intracellular Minerals:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120511101352.htm
Ranking Reveals World's Top Countries for Higher Education:
https://mail.google.com/mail/?tab=wm#inbox/137405c898ca9ff8
What Everyone Needs to Know About Genetics:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/what-everyone-needs-to-know-about-genetics
37 Data-ish Blogs You Should Know About: http://flowingdata.com/2009/05/06/37-data-ish-blogs-you-should-know-about/
Top 10 Highly-Desired Skills You Can Teach Yourself: http://lifehacker.com/5905835/top-10-highly+desired-skills-you-can-teach-yourself
Braingasm: How Porn "Shuts Down" Women's Brains:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/porn-shuts-down-womens-brains
Path Dependence and the Stupidity of LED Light Bulbs
Why are we cramming 21st century technology into a socket designed by Edison?:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27841/?nlid=nlenrg&nld=2012-05-14
How Neuroscience Is Shrinking Our Concept of Consciousness:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/how-neuroscience-is-shrinking-our-concept-of-consciousness
Why We Tend to Look on the Bright Side:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/why-we-tend-to-look-on-the-bright-side
Monday, May 14, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
QUI CITO 16
Find interesting content from all over the Web using a content aggregator:
http://websearch.about.com/b/2012/05/03/the-lazy-mans-or-womans-shortcut-to-finding-good-content-on-the-web-content-aggregators.htm?nl=1
The Single Theory That Could Explain Emergence, Organisation And The Origin of Life. Biochemists have long imagined that autocatalytic sets can explain the origin of life. Now a new mathematical approach to these sets has even broader implications:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27827/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-08
Reverse-engineering leadership: http://managingleadership.com/blog/2012/05/04/reverse-engineering-leadership/
Could Technology Tame the Internet Meme?
Jonathan Zittrain calls for a technological solution to the ethical questions raised by Internet culture: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27824/?nlid=nlweb&nld=2012-05-09
Why GM Crops Are a Moral Necessity: http://bigthink.com/ideas/are-gm-crops-needed-to-feed-the-world
Challenges in Genetically Engineered Crop Regulatory Process: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120508112703.htm
How the 'Free Market' Is Consuming Our Values:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/where-are-the-limits-of-the-free-market
I AM A STATISTICIAN AND I BUY LOTTERY TICKETS:
http://simplexify.net/blog/2012/5/6/i-am-a-statistician-and-i-buy-lottery-tickets.html
When to Give Up on Your Goals:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/02/when_to_give_up_on_your_goals.html
Poisonous and venomous, what’s the difference:
http://bittelmethis.com/poisonous-and-venomous-whats-the-difference/
A Light Bulb that Breathes. The perfect light bulb. But at $50?: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27831/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-09
New Material Class Developed: Pentamode Metamaterial:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120508103801.htm
Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History? Mobile computers are on track to saturate markets in the U.S. and the developing world in record time:
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/40321/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-10
A Phone You Can Hear in Your Bones
Kyocera teases a smartphone using bone-conducting sound technology:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27835/?nlid=nlmat&nld=2012-05-10
http://websearch.about.com/b/2012/05/03/the-lazy-mans-or-womans-shortcut-to-finding-good-content-on-the-web-content-aggregators.htm?nl=1
The Single Theory That Could Explain Emergence, Organisation And The Origin of Life. Biochemists have long imagined that autocatalytic sets can explain the origin of life. Now a new mathematical approach to these sets has even broader implications:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27827/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-08
Reverse-engineering leadership: http://managingleadership.com/blog/2012/05/04/reverse-engineering-leadership/
Could Technology Tame the Internet Meme?
Jonathan Zittrain calls for a technological solution to the ethical questions raised by Internet culture: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27824/?nlid=nlweb&nld=2012-05-09
Why GM Crops Are a Moral Necessity: http://bigthink.com/ideas/are-gm-crops-needed-to-feed-the-world
Challenges in Genetically Engineered Crop Regulatory Process: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120508112703.htm
How the 'Free Market' Is Consuming Our Values:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/where-are-the-limits-of-the-free-market
I AM A STATISTICIAN AND I BUY LOTTERY TICKETS:
http://simplexify.net/blog/2012/5/6/i-am-a-statistician-and-i-buy-lottery-tickets.html
When to Give Up on Your Goals:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/02/when_to_give_up_on_your_goals.html
Poisonous and venomous, what’s the difference:
http://bittelmethis.com/poisonous-and-venomous-whats-the-difference/
A Light Bulb that Breathes. The perfect light bulb. But at $50?: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27831/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-09
New Material Class Developed: Pentamode Metamaterial:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120508103801.htm
Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History? Mobile computers are on track to saturate markets in the U.S. and the developing world in record time:
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/40321/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-10
A Phone You Can Hear in Your Bones
Kyocera teases a smartphone using bone-conducting sound technology:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27835/?nlid=nlmat&nld=2012-05-10
Monday, May 7, 2012
QUI CITO 15
Is Being a Vegetarian a Genetic Condition?:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/is-being-a-vegetarian-a-genetic-condition
Coining Terminology for Life on the Web http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/technology/creating-a-language-for-the-web.html
Turning 60: The Twelve Most Important Lessons I've Learned So Far:
http://davidkanigan.com/2012/05/06/twelve-of-lifes-most-important-lessons/#more-6149
The real reason why intranets aren’t working:
http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress/2012/05/06/the-real-reason-why-intranets-aren%E2%80%99t-working/
A Liberal Decalogue: Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments of Teaching:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/05/02/a-liberal-decalogue-bertrand-russell/
Physicists Crack Fusion Mystery:
A new theory might help researchers double the power of fusion reactors:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/40332/?nlid=nlenrg&nld=2012-05-07
Why Believing in Superstitions Is Good for You: http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/why-believing-in-superstitions-is-good-for-you
How the Neuroscience of Violence Can Bring Peace: http://bigthink.com/ideas/how-the-neuroscience-of-violence-can-bring-peace
How Our Brains Cope with the Thought of Death: http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/how-our-brains-cope-with-the-thought-of-death
How to skip ads on YouTube:
http://savedelete.com/skip-ads-on-youtube.html
Ads and spam are dreadful waste of time, it is vital to get rid of them, everywhere! I would pay double price for an adless TV.
Different Recipes for Success in the World of Plants: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120504110119.htm
It is unavoidable to think about analogies with the world of people.
Using Electrons to Map Nanoparticle Atomic Structures:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120504110404.htm
http://bigthink.com/ideas/is-being-a-vegetarian-a-genetic-condition
Coining Terminology for Life on the Web http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/technology/creating-a-language-for-the-web.html
Turning 60: The Twelve Most Important Lessons I've Learned So Far:
http://davidkanigan.com/2012/05/06/twelve-of-lifes-most-important-lessons/#more-6149
The real reason why intranets aren’t working:
http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress/2012/05/06/the-real-reason-why-intranets-aren%E2%80%99t-working/
A Liberal Decalogue: Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments of Teaching:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/05/02/a-liberal-decalogue-bertrand-russell/
Physicists Crack Fusion Mystery:
A new theory might help researchers double the power of fusion reactors:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/40332/?nlid=nlenrg&nld=2012-05-07
Why Believing in Superstitions Is Good for You: http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/why-believing-in-superstitions-is-good-for-you
How the Neuroscience of Violence Can Bring Peace: http://bigthink.com/ideas/how-the-neuroscience-of-violence-can-bring-peace
How Our Brains Cope with the Thought of Death: http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/how-our-brains-cope-with-the-thought-of-death
How to skip ads on YouTube:
http://savedelete.com/skip-ads-on-youtube.html
Ads and spam are dreadful waste of time, it is vital to get rid of them, everywhere! I would pay double price for an adless TV.
Different Recipes for Success in the World of Plants: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120504110119.htm
It is unavoidable to think about analogies with the world of people.
Using Electrons to Map Nanoparticle Atomic Structures:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120504110404.htm
Saturday, May 5, 2012
THE CONCEPT OF “MISCOVERY” AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR LENR
New words are necessary in a world of ever increasing diversity, complexity and hostility; however it is quite difficult to generate
them. In English, I have succeeded only with ‘ego-out’ and ‘memecracy’. The main cause is that the most fantastic clumsy, sweet, hateful. creative, well sounding, obscene etc., words are all already used as names of rock bands, in the realm of modern music, anyway.
This was the case now too when I wanted to use ‘miscovery’ for a type of event that has happened during the life of LENR. See please http://miscovery.blogspot.com/ a blog dedicated as expected to music sharing and discovery,
A miscovery is a discovery plagued by bad circumstances, that has appeared in a bad place, at the wrong time- and this makes a lot of harm to its evolution.
It can be a discovery, so radical and disruptive that it even wounds itself. It can generate ideas and methods that are knocking down the society’s favorite dogmas (for example scientific dogmas) like bowling balls hitting the pins. And it is well known that dogmas are fierce vindictive enemies. Social hostility is not good for the development of a discovery or of an innovation.
Sometimes a discovery is metamorphosed in miscovery only due to some inborn weaknesses, or due to some destructive character straits of its discoverer. Many combinations of such causes are possible in practice.
Exactly as, according to Cipolla’s Second Law: “The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person” (surprising but true, ask please Koalemos!) the probability that a discovery will become an unhappy miscovery does not depend on the value or the extent of useful applications of it. Bad place, wrong timing, too surprising ideas or author(s)- all these can act synergistically, in the worst sense.
Now, it is important that a discovery converted in miscovery should be a discovery with problems- ergo working for solutions trying to change its fate and not a discovery with troubles, just whining and blaming others.
After this introduction we can discuss about the miscoveries in LENR, I am not very happy to do this but I have already accepted that our dear field of study, LENR also has had its miscoveries, from the very start. I am not waiting for much sympathy for this writing; my discovery that the wonderful great idea of Fleischmann and Pons was a miscovery- is miscovery per se. Many colleagues will consider that I am simply not smart enough to see that Cold Fusion was an innocent victim of the ill-will, envy, incurable dogmatism and long term oppression of the Big Bad Scientific Establishment.
Should I really risk and dare to call the discovery of Cold Fusion- later LENR per se by Fleischman and Pons a miscovery? Actually it was an epochal event but one that can show its formidable potential only many years later after going a long way of trials and errors and of high hopes and deep disappointments.
Could we really find a metal more disadvantageous than palladium with its huge solubility for the isotopes of hydrogen, thus making the inactive bulk to desperately fight for deuterium with the active surface?
Why was it discovered in liquid phase and not in gas phase, when even the purest water has myriads of impurity atoms?
Why it was electrolysis which is unable to protect the surface of cathodes from the adsorption of alien gases that compete with deuterium for the sites in which the “good” reactions take place?
Why this story does not started on Aug 16 1989 when Piantelli has discovered anomalous heat from a nickel-hydrogen system?
It is relatively easy to answer only for the last question; Piantelli knew well about the Fleischmann-Pons discovery and was inspired by it.
However, despite some creative approaches to work with other metals, the great majority of the (few) courageous and in a way heretic researchers who continued to work in LENR, were nad still are, generally palladium addicted and made thousands of experiments using this very platinic and expensive metal. Piantelli had no followers and get step by step the experience of the loneliness of the long distance runner.\
I am rational, secular and skeptic, therefore the words “curse, cursed’ are not in my vocabulary; however soon it became obvious that something like this exists for LENR, the experimental results in Pd-D are not well repeatable/reproducible. But this was only the most visible part of a general problem. Due to the understanding of science this made LERN vulnerable to attacks- if it cannot be reproduced then it is only pseudoscience- plus other nasty insults. People have a natural fixation for certainties and this is based on practice, is vital. An engine or a brake working, say, 70% of the time is DANGER! Despite some outstanding undeniable results, the reputation of LENR was eroded, down to the level as serving mainly as a bad example.
However it has to be recognized that a triad of troubles- low intensity, low reliability (reproducibility) and short duration was present in all experiments with very few exceptions that could not be understood or repeated.
If these weaknesses are inherent to the Pd-D system, if they are curable at all, has Pd-D LENR a future, scientific (will it be understood?) and/or technological (applications of any kind)- all these are very open questions. If somebody has answers, please…
MANY BRIGHT LENR THEORIES WERE MISCOVERED.
If there are problems with the experimental results, due to the necessity to use the scientific method, these are reflected in the functionality of the scientific theories worked out for the Pd-D variant of LENR.
First quality theories predict and it is not very difficult to understand why this category is missing.
Second quality theories prohibit, this includes explanations why sometimes the experiments don’t work. I know no other explanation (even qualitative) than my idea that LENR takes place in active sites and these active sites are occupied by the gases from the omnipresent air. It is a very unsuccessful idea
that was never taken seriously. Only experimental; reality uses it to make bad surprises. Thanks Piantelli the Ni-H systems do a very thorough cleaning by repeated deep degassing of the working surfaces.
Third quality theories explain what has happened and we have many of them, based on diverse ideas and principles and approaches. They explain how the nuclear reactions take place in conditions in which this is impossible according to older theories. Or, on the contrary, existing verified theories just were not well understood and actually they tell that LENR is natural and even unavoidable- so everything is fine. It is a noisy competition between these theories.
The first cause of why I say that these theories were miscovered is that they are not (completely) testable due to the situation in the experimental field.
The second is even more serious, LENR does not need such theories that explain usually only one step as particles valiantly go through the Coulomb barrier; actually LENR is more complex and needs a bunch of explanations and theories. The process cannot be understood with some miracle particles or associates of them and a tormented Hamiltonian is only a part of the solution. Even in my paper from 1992
http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/GluckPunderstand.pdf
I have asked theorists for something greater and more realistic i.e. including the topology, the nature and the mechanism(s) of the reaction. I have seen only one compound bunch of theories of this kind- Piantelli’s already known by many of you. See the scheme from Piantelli’s 2010 Pontignano Poster
Defkalion also says that their process is a dynamic stage of multi-stage set of reactions.
My young friend from Rio, Daniel Rocha, has found the best analogy – LENR is similar to photosynthesis. Multi-step, multi-stages, multi-phase, lot of dynamism.
NANOMETRIC POWDERS SOLVE 66% OF THE PROBLEM
It is an exaggeration; actually the high art of nanotechnology has solved 2 problems from 3 ones hitting Pd-D LENR systems and that clearly only in one case- Piantelli’s anomalous process. Good reproducibility, working in self-sustaining regime for almost 2 months continuously. However low intensity remains, despite a remarkable progress- 50-70 Watts. maximum. This would not be a disaster per se but it seems it is an inherent limit for preformed
nanostructures even in the most advanced cases-as Ahern for example.
The unavoidable conclusion is- nanopowders, pre-formed nanostructures are much better than any Pd-D system, can give a lot to Science but nothing or almost so to Technology. This implies that even the most developed systems will NOT be able to scale up. I already feel the accusations of fatal mental narrow- and short-sightedness for this statement. OK, I take the responsibility and promise to make intellectual sepukku in the very moment when a purely nanometric transition-metal-hydrogen system will be used commercially. And I will do this even post-mortem. It is researcher’s bushido.
ANDREA ROSSI TURNS A DISCOVERY IN A MISCOVERY.
I have defined the problem/mission of Cold Fusion, later LENR from the very start as becoming a very important source of energy. I have tried very hard to understand what happens, why, and especially, why not,
It is strange, kind of joke of Fatum that the Solution came from outside the LENR community, from a really unusual individual.
Andrea Rossi has succeeded to do what was very difficult to be imagined after say his first two experiments he has converted his discovery in a miscovery.
He brought in an entire army of little green credibility eaters.
It is a great enigma why he was not able to get a patent for his discovery. I wrote a lot about his art to doing and not doing things in the same time. His phobia of competition has forced him to irrational things. As long as he really accepts a COP=6 for his E-cat (2, financially thinking) there are obvious troubles with his engineering and development.
However, all these things are of secondary importance. Rossi will go as we all are going, but the E-cat and its descendants will remain and generate energy.
And Rossi’s miscovery was and is a very important one. It has to be understood in the context of LENR, its history of more than 23 years, of its being a mixture of victories and failures, failures being the more continuous phase. Rossi has found a solution. Perhaps he has lost parts of this solution but in long range this is not essential. A torch was ignited and the flame is going on.
The great problem is what has Rossi found, discovered, created?
Philosophically speaking not technically. I tell you how I see the things: LENR is a very difficult, insoluble problem- there is no solution for commercialization inside the simple Ni, nanometric at its best plus hydrogen, system. You can do what you wish; it will not work at a commercial level. This is a ‘be or not be’ problem.
I believe in the efficiency of my problem solving rules: http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com/2012/02/problem-solving-quasi-desperate-appeal.html
Rossi whose strength is that he has passed many times through desperate situations in his life (a great advantage, I know this!) surely knows, at least instinctively, these rules.
For creating a commercial LENR system- using the Piantelli know-how plus increased energy density- he has applied first Rule No. 5: “NOT what we know, but what we don’t know, is more important for solving the problem.” This means Rossi was aware that the solution is not hidden somewhere in the already published many LENR papers, patents and reports; it is also not in the brain of some great authority from the field. Instead, he has made many probably hundreds, of experiments (here I believe him!) Edisonian style and step-by-step and/or luck-by-luck has found something of value. In the realm of the unknown.
He has used well Rule 18: “Do NOT accept the premises of the problem, change them as necessary and possible”
Rule 18- is essential in showing the difference between mathematical problems with rigid unchangeable premises and real life problems - for these the premises have to be changed in the favor of the problem solver, of the Solution.
I have used this old story: http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/62.html
as the best example for this Rule.
It seems the problem is insoluble, Father and Son cannot please
everybody. Actually the Donkey was not drowned.
I have created a continuation to the story in the very spirit of Rule 18.
“In the evening, tired and angry, Father and Son go to the pub. They tell the story to the keeper (owner)- a wise man.
The keeper says: 'Something is missing here. buy or build a cart and put that Donkey to pull it. You can both sit on the cart and nobody will scorn or offend you."
This is the direct way to apply Rule 18- ADD something to the premises. Rossi has added some chemical compounds, he calls them the Catalyst, I prefer “functional additives.”
Ergo, Rossi has found, discovered LENR+ and we have to thank him for that.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
If we continue to mix the story of the cart and that of Rossi; suppose Father and Son have bought or built a faulty cart, too fragile and uncomfortable, with the wheels not well lubricated so the poor Donkey had to make great efforts to pull it.
A smart and skilled neighbor has fixed the cart, oiled the wheels
so now everybody was happy. For slow thinkers like me and for those not fond of allegories here I want to tell that Defkalion has found a better + than Rossi’s +. Possibly, but not probably like Broccoli.nitrate vs. Cabbage sulphate.
Too many analogies and metaphors seriously harm your mental health and intelligence and patience- therefore this is the END.
This is he end of the writing not of LENR+, because very hot LENR+ Greek style is just starting, preparing to conquer the commercial markets.
Peter
them. In English, I have succeeded only with ‘ego-out’ and ‘memecracy’. The main cause is that the most fantastic clumsy, sweet, hateful. creative, well sounding, obscene etc., words are all already used as names of rock bands, in the realm of modern music, anyway.
This was the case now too when I wanted to use ‘miscovery’ for a type of event that has happened during the life of LENR. See please http://miscovery.blogspot.com/ a blog dedicated as expected to music sharing and discovery,
A miscovery is a discovery plagued by bad circumstances, that has appeared in a bad place, at the wrong time- and this makes a lot of harm to its evolution.
It can be a discovery, so radical and disruptive that it even wounds itself. It can generate ideas and methods that are knocking down the society’s favorite dogmas (for example scientific dogmas) like bowling balls hitting the pins. And it is well known that dogmas are fierce vindictive enemies. Social hostility is not good for the development of a discovery or of an innovation.
Sometimes a discovery is metamorphosed in miscovery only due to some inborn weaknesses, or due to some destructive character straits of its discoverer. Many combinations of such causes are possible in practice.
Exactly as, according to Cipolla’s Second Law: “The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person” (surprising but true, ask please Koalemos!) the probability that a discovery will become an unhappy miscovery does not depend on the value or the extent of useful applications of it. Bad place, wrong timing, too surprising ideas or author(s)- all these can act synergistically, in the worst sense.
Now, it is important that a discovery converted in miscovery should be a discovery with problems- ergo working for solutions trying to change its fate and not a discovery with troubles, just whining and blaming others.
After this introduction we can discuss about the miscoveries in LENR, I am not very happy to do this but I have already accepted that our dear field of study, LENR also has had its miscoveries, from the very start. I am not waiting for much sympathy for this writing; my discovery that the wonderful great idea of Fleischmann and Pons was a miscovery- is miscovery per se. Many colleagues will consider that I am simply not smart enough to see that Cold Fusion was an innocent victim of the ill-will, envy, incurable dogmatism and long term oppression of the Big Bad Scientific Establishment.
Should I really risk and dare to call the discovery of Cold Fusion- later LENR per se by Fleischman and Pons a miscovery? Actually it was an epochal event but one that can show its formidable potential only many years later after going a long way of trials and errors and of high hopes and deep disappointments.
Could we really find a metal more disadvantageous than palladium with its huge solubility for the isotopes of hydrogen, thus making the inactive bulk to desperately fight for deuterium with the active surface?
Why was it discovered in liquid phase and not in gas phase, when even the purest water has myriads of impurity atoms?
Why it was electrolysis which is unable to protect the surface of cathodes from the adsorption of alien gases that compete with deuterium for the sites in which the “good” reactions take place?
Why this story does not started on Aug 16 1989 when Piantelli has discovered anomalous heat from a nickel-hydrogen system?
It is relatively easy to answer only for the last question; Piantelli knew well about the Fleischmann-Pons discovery and was inspired by it.
However, despite some creative approaches to work with other metals, the great majority of the (few) courageous and in a way heretic researchers who continued to work in LENR, were nad still are, generally palladium addicted and made thousands of experiments using this very platinic and expensive metal. Piantelli had no followers and get step by step the experience of the loneliness of the long distance runner.\
I am rational, secular and skeptic, therefore the words “curse, cursed’ are not in my vocabulary; however soon it became obvious that something like this exists for LENR, the experimental results in Pd-D are not well repeatable/reproducible. But this was only the most visible part of a general problem. Due to the understanding of science this made LERN vulnerable to attacks- if it cannot be reproduced then it is only pseudoscience- plus other nasty insults. People have a natural fixation for certainties and this is based on practice, is vital. An engine or a brake working, say, 70% of the time is DANGER! Despite some outstanding undeniable results, the reputation of LENR was eroded, down to the level as serving mainly as a bad example.
However it has to be recognized that a triad of troubles- low intensity, low reliability (reproducibility) and short duration was present in all experiments with very few exceptions that could not be understood or repeated.
If these weaknesses are inherent to the Pd-D system, if they are curable at all, has Pd-D LENR a future, scientific (will it be understood?) and/or technological (applications of any kind)- all these are very open questions. If somebody has answers, please…
MANY BRIGHT LENR THEORIES WERE MISCOVERED.
If there are problems with the experimental results, due to the necessity to use the scientific method, these are reflected in the functionality of the scientific theories worked out for the Pd-D variant of LENR.
First quality theories predict and it is not very difficult to understand why this category is missing.
Second quality theories prohibit, this includes explanations why sometimes the experiments don’t work. I know no other explanation (even qualitative) than my idea that LENR takes place in active sites and these active sites are occupied by the gases from the omnipresent air. It is a very unsuccessful idea
that was never taken seriously. Only experimental; reality uses it to make bad surprises. Thanks Piantelli the Ni-H systems do a very thorough cleaning by repeated deep degassing of the working surfaces.
Third quality theories explain what has happened and we have many of them, based on diverse ideas and principles and approaches. They explain how the nuclear reactions take place in conditions in which this is impossible according to older theories. Or, on the contrary, existing verified theories just were not well understood and actually they tell that LENR is natural and even unavoidable- so everything is fine. It is a noisy competition between these theories.
The first cause of why I say that these theories were miscovered is that they are not (completely) testable due to the situation in the experimental field.
The second is even more serious, LENR does not need such theories that explain usually only one step as particles valiantly go through the Coulomb barrier; actually LENR is more complex and needs a bunch of explanations and theories. The process cannot be understood with some miracle particles or associates of them and a tormented Hamiltonian is only a part of the solution. Even in my paper from 1992
http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/GluckPunderstand.pdf
I have asked theorists for something greater and more realistic i.e. including the topology, the nature and the mechanism(s) of the reaction. I have seen only one compound bunch of theories of this kind- Piantelli’s already known by many of you. See the scheme from Piantelli’s 2010 Pontignano Poster
Defkalion also says that their process is a dynamic stage of multi-stage set of reactions.
My young friend from Rio, Daniel Rocha, has found the best analogy – LENR is similar to photosynthesis. Multi-step, multi-stages, multi-phase, lot of dynamism.
NANOMETRIC POWDERS SOLVE 66% OF THE PROBLEM
It is an exaggeration; actually the high art of nanotechnology has solved 2 problems from 3 ones hitting Pd-D LENR systems and that clearly only in one case- Piantelli’s anomalous process. Good reproducibility, working in self-sustaining regime for almost 2 months continuously. However low intensity remains, despite a remarkable progress- 50-70 Watts. maximum. This would not be a disaster per se but it seems it is an inherent limit for preformed
nanostructures even in the most advanced cases-as Ahern for example.
The unavoidable conclusion is- nanopowders, pre-formed nanostructures are much better than any Pd-D system, can give a lot to Science but nothing or almost so to Technology. This implies that even the most developed systems will NOT be able to scale up. I already feel the accusations of fatal mental narrow- and short-sightedness for this statement. OK, I take the responsibility and promise to make intellectual sepukku in the very moment when a purely nanometric transition-metal-hydrogen system will be used commercially. And I will do this even post-mortem. It is researcher’s bushido.
ANDREA ROSSI TURNS A DISCOVERY IN A MISCOVERY.
I have defined the problem/mission of Cold Fusion, later LENR from the very start as becoming a very important source of energy. I have tried very hard to understand what happens, why, and especially, why not,
It is strange, kind of joke of Fatum that the Solution came from outside the LENR community, from a really unusual individual.
Andrea Rossi has succeeded to do what was very difficult to be imagined after say his first two experiments he has converted his discovery in a miscovery.
He brought in an entire army of little green credibility eaters.
It is a great enigma why he was not able to get a patent for his discovery. I wrote a lot about his art to doing and not doing things in the same time. His phobia of competition has forced him to irrational things. As long as he really accepts a COP=6 for his E-cat (2, financially thinking) there are obvious troubles with his engineering and development.
However, all these things are of secondary importance. Rossi will go as we all are going, but the E-cat and its descendants will remain and generate energy.
And Rossi’s miscovery was and is a very important one. It has to be understood in the context of LENR, its history of more than 23 years, of its being a mixture of victories and failures, failures being the more continuous phase. Rossi has found a solution. Perhaps he has lost parts of this solution but in long range this is not essential. A torch was ignited and the flame is going on.
The great problem is what has Rossi found, discovered, created?
Philosophically speaking not technically. I tell you how I see the things: LENR is a very difficult, insoluble problem- there is no solution for commercialization inside the simple Ni, nanometric at its best plus hydrogen, system. You can do what you wish; it will not work at a commercial level. This is a ‘be or not be’ problem.
I believe in the efficiency of my problem solving rules: http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com/2012/02/problem-solving-quasi-desperate-appeal.html
Rossi whose strength is that he has passed many times through desperate situations in his life (a great advantage, I know this!) surely knows, at least instinctively, these rules.
For creating a commercial LENR system- using the Piantelli know-how plus increased energy density- he has applied first Rule No. 5: “NOT what we know, but what we don’t know, is more important for solving the problem.” This means Rossi was aware that the solution is not hidden somewhere in the already published many LENR papers, patents and reports; it is also not in the brain of some great authority from the field. Instead, he has made many probably hundreds, of experiments (here I believe him!) Edisonian style and step-by-step and/or luck-by-luck has found something of value. In the realm of the unknown.
He has used well Rule 18: “Do NOT accept the premises of the problem, change them as necessary and possible”
Rule 18- is essential in showing the difference between mathematical problems with rigid unchangeable premises and real life problems - for these the premises have to be changed in the favor of the problem solver, of the Solution.
I have used this old story: http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/62.html
as the best example for this Rule.
It seems the problem is insoluble, Father and Son cannot please
everybody. Actually the Donkey was not drowned.
I have created a continuation to the story in the very spirit of Rule 18.
“In the evening, tired and angry, Father and Son go to the pub. They tell the story to the keeper (owner)- a wise man.
The keeper says: 'Something is missing here. buy or build a cart and put that Donkey to pull it. You can both sit on the cart and nobody will scorn or offend you."
This is the direct way to apply Rule 18- ADD something to the premises. Rossi has added some chemical compounds, he calls them the Catalyst, I prefer “functional additives.”
Ergo, Rossi has found, discovered LENR+ and we have to thank him for that.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
If we continue to mix the story of the cart and that of Rossi; suppose Father and Son have bought or built a faulty cart, too fragile and uncomfortable, with the wheels not well lubricated so the poor Donkey had to make great efforts to pull it.
A smart and skilled neighbor has fixed the cart, oiled the wheels
so now everybody was happy. For slow thinkers like me and for those not fond of allegories here I want to tell that Defkalion has found a better + than Rossi’s +. Possibly, but not probably like Broccoli.nitrate vs. Cabbage sulphate.
Too many analogies and metaphors seriously harm your mental health and intelligence and patience- therefore this is the END.
This is he end of the writing not of LENR+, because very hot LENR+ Greek style is just starting, preparing to conquer the commercial markets.
Peter
QUI CITO 14
QUI CITO 14
Demystifying social media: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Digital_Marketing/Demystifying_social_media_2958
FindSounds Search the Web for Sounds: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/7htHEF
Harvard and MIT Offer Online Education for Free.
The joint venture builds on an existing MIT platform that serves 120,000 students worldwide: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27814/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-03
Simplify and repeat. The best way to deal with growing complexity may be to keep things simple:
http://www.economist.com/node/21553425
When to Share Sensitive Information with Your Team: http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2012/01/should-the-boss-protect-or-inf.html
The Thought-Patterns of Success
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/the_thought-patterns_of_succes.html
Are You a Believer? Take The Dawkins Test:
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/atheism-easter-atheister
Science is in our DNA:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/neil-de-grasse-tyson
Two hundred years of surgery: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1202392
Religions statistics: http://www.adherents.com/
Demystifying social media: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Digital_Marketing/Demystifying_social_media_2958
FindSounds Search the Web for Sounds: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/7htHEF
Harvard and MIT Offer Online Education for Free.
The joint venture builds on an existing MIT platform that serves 120,000 students worldwide: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27814/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-05-03
Simplify and repeat. The best way to deal with growing complexity may be to keep things simple:
http://www.economist.com/node/21553425
When to Share Sensitive Information with Your Team: http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2012/01/should-the-boss-protect-or-inf.html
The Thought-Patterns of Success
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/the_thought-patterns_of_succes.html
Are You a Believer? Take The Dawkins Test:
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/atheism-easter-atheister
Science is in our DNA:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/neil-de-grasse-tyson
Two hundred years of surgery: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1202392
Religions statistics: http://www.adherents.com/
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
QUI CITO 13
To Keep the Faith, Don't Get Analytical: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/to-keep-the-faith-dont-get-analytical.html?ref=em
The Beautiful Universe: A Convergence of Art and Science:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/the-convergence-of-science-and-art
How a Second Language Helps You Make Better Decisions:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/how-a-second-language-helps-you-make-better-decisions
Is Humility the Greatest Virtue?:
http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/is-humility-the-greatest-virtue
The Future of Democracy:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/speroni20120427
Secular Gods and Scared Machines
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/McGilvery20120426
Social Intelligence. Siri may not be the smartest AI in the world, but it's the most socially adept
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/40233/?nlid=nlcomm&nld=2012-04-30
Consumer Electronics Glass Innovation to Transform Industry:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/254662/consumer_electronics_glass_innovation_to_transform_industry.html
It's Okay To Eat Sardines...Right?: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/04/sardines-overfishing
Reverse Search Engineering: How to Find What You Want By Searching Backwards:
http://websearch.about.com/od/searchengines/a/Reverse-Search-Engineering-How-To-Find-What-You-Want-By-Searching-Backwards.htm?nl=1
Nuclear Energy Science Tracer Bullet: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/nuclearenergytb.html
Nuclear Fusion - The Latest:
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/nuclear_fusion_latest-89529 The comments are interesting!
The Bright Side of Death: Awareness of Mortality Can Result in Positive Behaviors:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430164359.htm
Bilingualism Fine-Tunes Hearing, Enhances Attention:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430152033.htm
Highly Religious People Are Less Motivated by Compassion Than Are Non-Believers: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430140035.htm
The Beautiful Universe: A Convergence of Art and Science:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/the-convergence-of-science-and-art
How a Second Language Helps You Make Better Decisions:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/how-a-second-language-helps-you-make-better-decisions
Is Humility the Greatest Virtue?:
http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/is-humility-the-greatest-virtue
The Future of Democracy:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/speroni20120427
Secular Gods and Scared Machines
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/McGilvery20120426
Social Intelligence. Siri may not be the smartest AI in the world, but it's the most socially adept
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/40233/?nlid=nlcomm&nld=2012-04-30
Consumer Electronics Glass Innovation to Transform Industry:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/254662/consumer_electronics_glass_innovation_to_transform_industry.html
It's Okay To Eat Sardines...Right?: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/04/sardines-overfishing
Reverse Search Engineering: How to Find What You Want By Searching Backwards:
http://websearch.about.com/od/searchengines/a/Reverse-Search-Engineering-How-To-Find-What-You-Want-By-Searching-Backwards.htm?nl=1
Nuclear Energy Science Tracer Bullet: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/nuclearenergytb.html
Nuclear Fusion - The Latest:
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/nuclear_fusion_latest-89529 The comments are interesting!
The Bright Side of Death: Awareness of Mortality Can Result in Positive Behaviors:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430164359.htm
Bilingualism Fine-Tunes Hearing, Enhances Attention:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430152033.htm
Highly Religious People Are Less Motivated by Compassion Than Are Non-Believers: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430140035.htm
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
DETAILITIS KILLS DISCUSSION- IN LENR TOO
.
I have tried to initiate a discussion re. THE FUTURE OF LENR. I have received some very interesting messages, however about a problem of detail- correlation with a neighboring field.
My intention was different, I wanted to get a variety of ideas regarding trends and possible developments, to learn about the paradigm change in the field *. When Rossi has made his first experiment in Bologna, it has seemed that everything will change,
Ed Storms has found the proper word: stampede. However the things have slowed down and Rossi was able to generate as much informational chaos as technological hopes. I consider a historical chance that Defkalion has not surrendered after the divorce from Rossi and has solved the problems as serious professionals (scientists, engineers, and managers) do. This was like some compensation made by the Moirae for the bad luck at the birth and christening with many fairies uninvited, of Cold Fusion:
effect found in the almost worst metal with a closed electronic conformation, by an inherently dirty method- electrolysis, by people of genius but having an inadequate profession. A bad start as for a runner with fetters.
If the Fleischmann Pons Press Conference was a blunder or a great act of publicity- we well never know because the alternatives as traditional peer-reviewing or presentation at a symposium have not been tried. It was interesting- even with an unusually long period of wait and of try everything you can- with modest founding. But now it is the case that LENR should become useful too. Useful on a planetary scale- and fast. This is my motivation to discuss about the future of LENR.
I firmly believe in the individual wisdom(s) of my friends and colleagues at the CMNS and Vortex discussion groups. The readers of my blog know well that I dislike the Wisdom of Crowds (collective?) and I know that it is not more and not less than the Power of Diversity. For LENR the best example is the Survey http://newenergytimes.com/v2/reports/2005GluckKrivitSurvey.shtml
This document actually is tragic, describes a very bad situation and… not much has changed in the following 7 years.
The experimental results give the scientific certainty of LENR/Cold Fusion- however the results seem to have some inborn, inherent weaknesses (are ‘small’, happen only when they want and disappear fast). Theories are painfully diverse, theorists are much more uniform- all are convinced that their theory is the α and ώ, kind of local orthodoxy and TOE.
Commercial applications is a subject reserved more for LENR books. Nobody really cares for the scarcity of palladium. How many Watts can you get with maximum 2.10 exp 8 grams palladium- if it works impeccably?
Our world needs now some 1.5 10 exp 13 W power. How many watts will be able to deliver 1 g of palladium when everything will go very well?
OK, actually I have no right to complain re. my failure to initiate discussions about essential, basic LENR subjects- when Ed Storms’ great Guide has generated mainly a long dispute with a theorist- and not about the mode of thinking, taxonomy or conclusions of the Guide.
The root of the problem is a chronic illness of our forums: detailitis people prefer to discuss about details, both experimental and theoretical, than about problems having major impact on the development of the field. Detailitis is well known
in management. I am convinced that the science of management can partially replace or complete philosophy in scientific and technological research and I have enjoyed teaching the managers Management of Technology.
However managerial detailitis can be cured; see for example:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/CriticalChain/message/5538
and
http://sourcemaking.com/antipatterns/death-by-planning
Managerial detailitis is an erroneous over-confidence in the possibilities of planning even the finest details- it is harmful because it ignores the complexity dynamics and unpredictability of the reality. A form of over-planning.
LENR detailitis on the contrary is a subconscious lack of confidence in the possibility of solving the fundamental problems and is channeling of the creative energies to the minor yet challenging details. Instead of a healthy equilibrium of these two aspects of research.
I have lived many years in a society based on planned economy in which the 5Years Plans were dogmas, the Party was inerrant and infallible and the Leader was more than omniscient; everything was planned in detail. However toward the end, the socialist kind of detailitis was tempered by chaos, corruption and generalized institutional mythomania. All data were false and nobody cared
therefore it became easy to predict any detail.
LENR detailitis is an old problem for me – my obsession- bad reproducibility was never discussed up to the last detail, my poisoning hypothesis was repeatedly rejected, but no real alternative was offered.
The discussion re future of LENR can be divided in more subsections as the future of Pd-D systems, the future of nanometric systems, new ideas.
I am realistic, this will be a slow, step by step process. The first
commercial LENR system will be a positive shock with a high impact. Even if focusing on details will remain, there will be other
details. Sometimes reality is so strong that it can even change
imagination.
But it would be fine to start a few weeks before the Event.
With or without our discussions, LENR will change a lot, fast and will get rid, in great extent, of detailitis.
What do you think about the future of LENR?
Peter
• Cold Fusion Now has written about the paradigm change in energy, from scarcity to abundance http://coldfusionnow.org/?p=17388 but this is a different subject
I have tried to initiate a discussion re. THE FUTURE OF LENR. I have received some very interesting messages, however about a problem of detail- correlation with a neighboring field.
My intention was different, I wanted to get a variety of ideas regarding trends and possible developments, to learn about the paradigm change in the field *. When Rossi has made his first experiment in Bologna, it has seemed that everything will change,
Ed Storms has found the proper word: stampede. However the things have slowed down and Rossi was able to generate as much informational chaos as technological hopes. I consider a historical chance that Defkalion has not surrendered after the divorce from Rossi and has solved the problems as serious professionals (scientists, engineers, and managers) do. This was like some compensation made by the Moirae for the bad luck at the birth and christening with many fairies uninvited, of Cold Fusion:
effect found in the almost worst metal with a closed electronic conformation, by an inherently dirty method- electrolysis, by people of genius but having an inadequate profession. A bad start as for a runner with fetters.
If the Fleischmann Pons Press Conference was a blunder or a great act of publicity- we well never know because the alternatives as traditional peer-reviewing or presentation at a symposium have not been tried. It was interesting- even with an unusually long period of wait and of try everything you can- with modest founding. But now it is the case that LENR should become useful too. Useful on a planetary scale- and fast. This is my motivation to discuss about the future of LENR.
I firmly believe in the individual wisdom(s) of my friends and colleagues at the CMNS and Vortex discussion groups. The readers of my blog know well that I dislike the Wisdom of Crowds (collective?) and I know that it is not more and not less than the Power of Diversity. For LENR the best example is the Survey http://newenergytimes.com/v2/reports/2005GluckKrivitSurvey.shtml
This document actually is tragic, describes a very bad situation and… not much has changed in the following 7 years.
The experimental results give the scientific certainty of LENR/Cold Fusion- however the results seem to have some inborn, inherent weaknesses (are ‘small’, happen only when they want and disappear fast). Theories are painfully diverse, theorists are much more uniform- all are convinced that their theory is the α and ώ, kind of local orthodoxy and TOE.
Commercial applications is a subject reserved more for LENR books. Nobody really cares for the scarcity of palladium. How many Watts can you get with maximum 2.10 exp 8 grams palladium- if it works impeccably?
Our world needs now some 1.5 10 exp 13 W power. How many watts will be able to deliver 1 g of palladium when everything will go very well?
OK, actually I have no right to complain re. my failure to initiate discussions about essential, basic LENR subjects- when Ed Storms’ great Guide has generated mainly a long dispute with a theorist- and not about the mode of thinking, taxonomy or conclusions of the Guide.
The root of the problem is a chronic illness of our forums: detailitis people prefer to discuss about details, both experimental and theoretical, than about problems having major impact on the development of the field. Detailitis is well known
in management. I am convinced that the science of management can partially replace or complete philosophy in scientific and technological research and I have enjoyed teaching the managers Management of Technology.
However managerial detailitis can be cured; see for example:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/CriticalChain/message/5538
and
http://sourcemaking.com/antipatterns/death-by-planning
Managerial detailitis is an erroneous over-confidence in the possibilities of planning even the finest details- it is harmful because it ignores the complexity dynamics and unpredictability of the reality. A form of over-planning.
LENR detailitis on the contrary is a subconscious lack of confidence in the possibility of solving the fundamental problems and is channeling of the creative energies to the minor yet challenging details. Instead of a healthy equilibrium of these two aspects of research.
I have lived many years in a society based on planned economy in which the 5Years Plans were dogmas, the Party was inerrant and infallible and the Leader was more than omniscient; everything was planned in detail. However toward the end, the socialist kind of detailitis was tempered by chaos, corruption and generalized institutional mythomania. All data were false and nobody cared
therefore it became easy to predict any detail.
LENR detailitis is an old problem for me – my obsession- bad reproducibility was never discussed up to the last detail, my poisoning hypothesis was repeatedly rejected, but no real alternative was offered.
The discussion re future of LENR can be divided in more subsections as the future of Pd-D systems, the future of nanometric systems, new ideas.
I am realistic, this will be a slow, step by step process. The first
commercial LENR system will be a positive shock with a high impact. Even if focusing on details will remain, there will be other
details. Sometimes reality is so strong that it can even change
imagination.
But it would be fine to start a few weeks before the Event.
With or without our discussions, LENR will change a lot, fast and will get rid, in great extent, of detailitis.
What do you think about the future of LENR?
Peter
• Cold Fusion Now has written about the paradigm change in energy, from scarcity to abundance http://coldfusionnow.org/?p=17388 but this is a different subject
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