The moderator of this gathering was Dr. Mitchell Swartz, a veteran cold fusion researcher. His doctoral dissertation at MIT, I was told, was in electrochemistry. He is also a medical doctor specializing in oncology. Here is how this one-day colloquium (5/21/05) was described over the Internet: “Cold Fusion - Science and Technology - plus other Clean Energy Investigations, with Special Tribute to Dr. Eugene Mallove, '69, Cold Fusion Investigator and former Chief Science Writer at MIT. Topics include: Science and Engineering; Discussions of Cold Fusion Materials Science; Review of Current Literature; Experimental Results; Understandings of Theories; Device Engineering; Discussion of Future Developments and Commercialization Potentials. Remembrances of Gene Mallove by family, friends and colleagues. Lunch included in conference fees. Free for MIT Students.”

The number of participants was about 60 (my own counting); 15% of them, I was told, were students. The meeting was organized by E-club -- the MIT Entrepreneurs Club. It is an organization sponsoring workshops devoted to all aspects of science and technology. They meet weekly. The event organizer, Dr. Richard Shynduroff, told me that the colloquium had two purposes; to commemorate Eugene, killed one year ago, and to expose interested students to the controversial field of cold fission.

The first speaker was David Nagel - the topic of his presentation was “Evidence that cold fusion involves nuclear reactions.” It was a general review of results on production of helium, tritium, neutrons, new elements, and x-rays. He emphasized that formation of craters and hot spo⁄ts on cathode surfaces (using scanning electron microscopes) should also be viewed as nuclear signatures. The second presenter was Ross George; his topic was “Acoustic-induced Cold Fusion Experiments.” Ross has a company <html:/www.d2fusion.com> conducting practically-oriented research in cold fusion. He described experiments in which generation of excess heat was shown to be accompanied by the accumulation of helium (up to levels exceeding natural concentration in air). Some of his recent sonofusion experiments, generated excess heat at the level of hundreds of watts.

The third and fourth speakers were John Dash (from the University of Portland) and Peter Hagelstein (from MIT). Peter is a theoretical physicist; he said that about 150 different reaction mechanisms have been proposed, in fifteen years, to model cold fusion. In his opinion not a single theory emerged as “much better than others.” John, who is a metallurgist, was describing results of his experimental investigations in the area of nuclear alchemy. Using the secondary ions mass spectroscopy method (SIMS) he was able to identify several transmutation products. He also reported on changes in isotopic ratios but these were results from literature, not from his own investigations. Kim Yeoung, Tabot Chub, Scott Chub, Robert Bass and Keith Johnson also talked about theoretical aspects of cold fusion.

Mitch Swartz talked about the electrochemical cell called Phusor. Mitch Swartz talked about the electrochemical cell called Phusor. The electrolyte used in this cell has a very low concentration. For that reason the input power is only several watts then the applied voltage is thousand volts. The highest rate of excess heat generation, according to rapidly displayed transparencies, was 3.5 watts. During the break I heard people saying that the device is now commercially available; potential users are schools willing to teach cold fusion. The most interesting part of Swartz’s presentation was his discovery (already described at ICCF10) of the optimal input power. Mitch is convinced that high current (and thus intensive bubbling) is harmful. In his cells the current is very small and single bubbles on the surface of the cathode grow very slowly. But practically useful excess heat implies large output power; how can high output power be produced with a device of low input power?

The last presentation that I attended was that of Ken Shoulders. That item, entitled “EOVs and Hutchinson Effect,” can be downloaded, as a pdf file, from Ken’s website at <http://www.svn.net/krscfs/>. The presentation had three parts. The first was about Hutchinson Effect (shredding metallic structures without heat and with practically no mechanical force), the second was about the Ukrainian project of S.V. Adamenko (see unit # 217), and the third was about his own device -- the EV reactor and cylindrical mass spectrometer. Unfortunately, the amount of time devoted to the third part was very limited. The speaker before Ken was Robert Rines, the MIT patent counselor. He reminded the audience that “in old days” a patent would not be given to an inventor unless a working model were presented. That is no longer required. Then he elaborated on difficulties that patent investigators have in dealing with cold fusion claims.