Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, November 24, 2003 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

David Nagel

"Cold Fusion: Problems, Progress and Prospects"

ABSTRACT -- The problems attending cold fusion can be classified as systemic and technical. Breakdowns in communication between those involved in cold fusion research and both the scientific community and the public, and also the difficulty in getting funding for cold fusion research, are systemic problems. The technical problems associated with cold fusion have included inadequate instrumentation, incomplete materials analysis, complex protocols and, most critically, early lack of reproducibility. Despite these problems, there has been major experimental progress in the past fifteen years. Dozens of "positive" experiments have been run by competent and credentialed investigators, who used adequate instrumentation, which was properly calibrated before, during and after the experiments. Reproducibility has improved significantly. Several prospects for cold fusion are in the offing. A two-step plan to make progress toward returning cold fusion to the status of an ordinary field of scientific inquiry has been developed. Also, it is already clear that a program on cold fusion should include development of better instrumentation and materials, an expanded theoretical effort and two types of experiments, namely replications of already reported successful experiments and the pursuit of the many ideas for new experiments. The bottom line: despite many problems, nuclear reactions can occur at low energies, so cold fusion is real, and what to do about it seems clear.

SPEAKER -- David J. Nagel is Research Professor for MEMS and Microsystems in the School of Engineering and Applied Science of The George Washington University. He received a B.S. degree (1960) in Engineering Science from the University of Notre Dame and graduate degrees (M.S. in Physics, 1969 and Ph.D. in Engineering Materials, 1977) from the University of Maryland. He joined the civilian staff of the Naval Research Laboratory in 1964, where he held positions as a Research Physicist, Section Head, Branch Head and, finally, Superintendent of the Condensed Matter and Radiation Sciences Division. In this last position, he was a member of the Senior Executive Service, and managed the experimental and theoretical research and development efforts of 150 government and contractor personnel. He has written or co-authored over 150 technical articles, reports, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles.