Madrian Mistaken About Cold Fusion Debate

To the editors:

In a letter to the editor ("Hoxby Misrepresented In Article on Academic Debate,” July 15), Brigitte C. Madrian wrote, “This is not like the ‘cold fusion’ debate of the 1980s in which a highly acclaimed finding, published in one paper, was subsequently invalidated.”

This is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. The findings were not highly acclaimed; they were widely attacked, and they still are today. There was not one paper or one claim, and the claim was never “invalidated.” The claims made by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons were replicated by hundreds of major laboratories worldwide, including most U.S. National Laboratories, China Lake, SRI International, and Texas A&M. Hundreds of positive cold fusion results were published in peer-reviewed journals of chemistry and electrochemistry.

JED ROTHWELL

Atlanta, Ga.

July 15, 2005

The writer is the author of “Cold Fusion and the Future.”