

ECAT (Low Energy Nuclear Reactions) Test Report 2014 “Supports” Rossi Effect - Cybershambles
http://ecat.com/news/ecat-test-report-2014-validates-rossi-effect

======
alkonaut
There are only four options:

1) this works 2) this is a scam, and the reviewing authors are collaborators
3) this is a scam and the reviewing authors are being duped by Rossi 4) it
isn't a scam but it doesnt work as advertized either, it's honest scientific
mistakes both by Rossi and reviewers.

Earlier, My scam-meter was at quite a high reading. Now I'm not so sure. I'm
still sceptical, but what's interesting is the fact that the other options now
also look a lot less appealing.

The authors come from very respected institutions and would be jeopardizing
their careers by participating in a scam. Could this be the case? Certainly,
but it would be one of the largest academic scandals ever, at least in Sweden
(UU and KTH are two of the most regarded universities)

Thr experiment appears to do what it can to rule out them being scammed by
Rossi. The probability that a group of honest researchers could be fooled in
an experiment like this feels quite slim. There would have to be a LOT of
smoke and mirrors in order to tamper enough with instruments, swap samples of
fuel to show isotope changes and so on.

I don't want to use circumstantial reasoning like "If this worked it would be
in journals" or "if this worked he wouldn't need funding". What I will say is:
if this works then it can and will be repeated. I'll remain sceptical until
it's repeated by several groups of researchers. It's s fantastically simple
device and an experiment that is relatively small and easy to perform.

If the past is any indication this won't be followed by repeated experiments
by independent groups, but by a long period of silence. That won't raise
credibility.

------
ghshephard
If this were a real discovery, why wouldn't it be published in a peer reviewed
journal of some kind?

Pretty pre-eminent organizations with their names on this though - Hanno
Essén,
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_Ess%C3%A9n](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_Ess%C3%A9n))
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, which, according to
Wikipedia, "KTH is one of the leading technical universities in Europe [and
highly respected worldwide, especially in the domains of technology and
natural sciences."

~~~
mansr
That guy is a bit of a black sheep at KTH.

~~~
alkonaut
Care to elaborate? This whole review only has credibility because of the
credible institutuons involved. If the researchers have a history of
scientific misconduct then it changes a lot.

------
bostik
Trying to read up on "Rossi Effect" I found an interesting article from a year
back [0]. Simply looking at the economics in question, a working cold fusion
device would be net-positive money maker. Quote from the article:

 _I am convinced that the E-cat simply doesn’t do what we’re told it does.
Because if it did then Rossi would need no outside money as he’d already be
making good money, and expanding fast, simply by selling this cheap power to
people through the grid. But he’s not doing that therefore the product doesn’t
work as advertised._

[0]: [http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/11/29/why-im-
ce...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/11/29/why-im-certain-that-
the-rossi-e-cat-doesnt-work-as-advertised/)

~~~
DOSUMPIN
Thats the dumbest thing i have ever heard. You cant manufacture things without
money.Advertisment, protection from the people that have a lot to lose
(trillions of dollars)

------
DOSUMPIN
Tell people there is a God they beleive you with no prof. Tell them the paint
is wet they need to touch it.I have been watching this man for 4 years. I have
looked into what everyone is saying. I know for a fact that this is real. He
is not the only scientist working on this. You people talkng trash are
nothing. This is going to happen with or with out you. When you are cooking
and cleaning and driving around with this technology you will never admit that
you the problem. Look what they did to Tesla. Hewas discredited for coming up
with science that benifits mankind, but you still use his technology. Support
the new science or get out the way. Oh my god you have to forget evrything you
were told. Lets save the world for our children. I think we need to pull the
scientist that are trying to stop to advancement of mankind out of their house
and blow their brains out on the front lawn, than go after the corparations
who are paying them to discredit people who think outside the box. All you
other people who think they know what they are talking about should have ended
up as a stain on the bed sheets or on their moms face.

------
ParadisoShlee
This paper is the third? which has supported the project and this paper takes
special care to try to remove all doubt by having the experiment out in the
open and monitored by different methods almost continuously. There are some
pretty famous places putting their name against this 'thing'.

The ECAT is about as fringe as I'm willing to accept might actually be worth
our investment. I'm reading the report and I can assume they'll try to get it
published in a more mainstream physics journal soon for others to review.

Scientific progress is made of baby steps and I've been watching the ECAT
crawl for the last few years. Let's see if this thing has legs.

~~~
serf
I've been following it, too.

Changing goal posts, changing terminology, an inventor with a shady past,
loudly seeking funding, disallowing most peer-review, invite only
'demonstrations', no technical side to the patent.

The only thing that has changed, for me at least, is that the discussion about
Rossi being full of shit has moved from phys.org to news.ycombinator.com .

------
nichtich
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer)
Somebody with the power should downvote this. Maybe it's worth talking 20
years ago, but after so many years of dubious results there should be a much
high threshold for it to be worth noting.

~~~
madaxe_again
Somebody with power should burn this chap at the state for witchcraft, because
his views contradict church orthodoxy.

Yes, it might all be utter bullshit, but it may also not be. If you refuse to
accept or even explore anything which contravenes your worldview - your world
will never change.

~~~
nichtich
It's not about contradicting my world view, or even the mainstream view. It's
because this is one of the latest tricks played by a long time con artist and
it's not good to be drawn to it time and time again. Given the track record I
think the bar should be much higher for this.

Also, I don't know how you linked downvoting to witch hunting. I thought
downvoting is a vital part of how HN works, I would downvote it myself if i
can do it. Is it something that you can do but can never recommend others to
do?

~~~
alkonaut
If the scam isn't involving the reviewers but is a smoke & mirrors operation
where Rossi is duping real scientists holding their own instruments then it's
very noteworthy just because that would be extremely difficult.

If it is a case of respected scientists from respected institutions being
corrupt, that is of course also noteworthy.

If it is a case of actually finding a good source of energy then that is
noteworthy.

So in my view it's now at the point where the two different scam options are
at least as interesting as the non-scam!

------
readerrrr
Is it possible that they measured the output incorrectly? Input was measured
differently than output which was just radiation.

\---

I took a look at the paper. Authors are the same people as the paper from the
last year. ;)

Don't waste your time on this.

