The International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ISCMNS) is supporting a project to collect cold fusion videos and make them readily available on a dedicated website. The objectives are to capture and organize the videos, digitize them where required, and prepare them for viewing by members of the cold fusion community – and scientists at large. The aim is to “tell the cold fusion story” and ultimately to restore the field to legitimate science.

Cold fusion energy is desperately needed to replace fossil fuels because of the worsening crisis of global climate change. Restoration of its legitimacy hopefully will pave the way for the urgently needed research to realize cold fusion’s energy benefits.

Background

Cold fusion was announced in 1989 by Dr. Martin Fleischmann and Dr. Stanley Pons at a press conference at the University of Utah. It seemed at the time that the world’s energy needs would be met indefinitely. However, because of reproducibility issues and challenges in understanding it, cold fusion was rejected by mainstream science within a year or so.

Dr. Fleischmann (Left) and Dr. Pons at the 1989 Press Conference1

On the other hand, cold fusion continued to be pursued worldwide by many highly qualified scientists. Because of the field’s pariah status, the community of researchers had to develop independent methods of communicating and sharing results, such as dedicated conferences and other events. Many of these early activities were captured on videos,

The 1989 press conference where Fleischmann and Pons announced cold fusion was recorded with VHS (for Video Home System) technology. Many other events in the early years of the cold field were recorded in VHS format until it was replaced by CD and DVD technology in 2010 to 2015. These VHS-based videos are a rich source of information on what was taking place in the early years of the field.

Cold Fusion Video Categories and Webpages

The ISCMNS Cold Fusion Video Project includes more than 50 videos for this website. They have been categorized in seven classes: conferences, documentaries, events, interviews, newscasts, presentations, and “other”. For each category, links are provided to a webpage that contains details of the videos in that class. These webpages starts with a brief description of what’s in the category. The individual videos are then presented in tables with columns for important attributes. A particularly important feature is a link provided to view the video, which is located on either (or both) YouTube and Internet Archive. Other attributes in the table are the year, summary, source and project ID number of the video. The summary link opens a window that describes the contents and participants. The tables are sorted in reverse chronological order.

1. Conferences. A principal way that cold fusion investigators have dealt with the field’s pariah status is to share their research results at conferences dedicated to the subject. The first International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF) was held at Salt Lake City in March 1990, just a year after the 1989 announcement. The ISCMNS also holds conferences, called International Workshops of Anomalies in Hydrogen Loaded Metal (IWAHLMs),  approximately every two years. Cold fusion sessions have also been held as part of conferences by the American Physical Society (APS) and American Chemical Society (ACS). Click here for the Conferences video webpage.

3. Events. Events have occasionally taken place that are not conferences of professional associations but may include several speakers. Such events may be sponsored by government entities or the private sector. An example included in the CFV project is a commercial event put on by Blacklight Power (now Brilliant Light Power) just after with a cold fusion session at the American Chemical Society meeting in 1999, which took place in Ontario, CA. Click here for the Events video webpage.

4. Interviews. Prominent researchers and others in the cold fusion field have occasionally been interviewed about the status and various other aspects of the field. These interviews with individuals sometimes took place outside the venue of conferences. One example is an interview of Martin Fleischmann by Mel Miles about possible use of cold fusion for weapons development. Click here for the Interviews video webpage.

5. Newscasts. Particularly in the early period after the announcement in 1989, cold fusion has been covered by newscasts by many national and international news networks. The most prominent of these newscasts are presented. Newscasts have emerged from most of the prominent networks, including NBC, ABC, CBS, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting System), and PBS (Public Broadcasting System). Click here for the Newscasts video webpage.

6. Presentations. Presentations by individuals have been made on various aspects of cold fusion, such as status, prospects, developments, and background almost since the beginnings of the field. Besides at conferences, presentations have been made in various venues by many members of the cold fusion community.

7. Other Videos. Cold fusion videos that do not falll into one of the other six categories are provided on this webpage. None have been found so far. Click here for the Other Videos webpage.

Note: Where an entry in one of the category webpages consists of multiple videos, a subsidiary webpage is provided where possible for the collection of the videos. For example, many of the conferences were recorded on multiple videos. Therefore most of them require a subpage so the videos of the conference can be presented as a group.

ISCMNS Overview

The core functions of the ISCMNS are to conduct cold fusion workshop meetings, host the Journal on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, and conduct outreach and communication programs for researchers – and other interested parties – in the field. Click here for the ISCMNS Overview.

About the CFV Website

The CFV website has been developed primarily by three ISCMNS members and volunteers. Dr. Thomas Grimshaw is providing leadership in his volunteer position as ISCMNS Archivist. The other two volunteers are Rob Christian, ISCMNS leader for education, and Seamus Lonergan, who has advanced skills in web research and applications. Click here for more information about the website.

1Images from ConFusion in a Jar, PBS NOVA, Season 18, Episode 2, April 30, 1991.


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