Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion

From	Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	sci.physics
Subject	Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion
Date	2015-09-22 18:52 -0500
Organization	Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID	<mtspk9$gh6$1@speranza.aioe.org> (permalink)
References	(17 earlier) <83b134c3-2db7-40c3-a3e2-1406a7ed54cb@googlegroups.com> <mtsgk0$uga$1@speranza.aioe.org> <63a7fe23-5efd-4816-85c8-5b97fc3a401a@googlegroups.com> <mtsi7b$2ee$1@speranza.aioe.org> <6197c44f-f76b-42f5-a0ef-5a24a6bd935a@googlegroups.com>

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On 9/22/2015 5:50 PM, john wrote:
> Odd
> I don't know.
> Too many people like you?
> What happened to Pons and Fleischmann ?
> Received with open arms?
> Or lost their everything and became
> pariahs?
>

I've talked with someone who worked at a major physics lab and where 
there was a presentation by that research team about their experiments 
and their results, a few days after their announcement. At the time 
there were lots of experimental teams -- like 12 -- that were working 
very hard to replicate the claimed results. My acquaintance was sitting 
about in the 15th row of a packed auditorium while the results were 
presented. Then came the questions. Lots of questions about the details 
of their methods and of their analysis. Suddenly the presenter was 
answering those questions with responses like, "I'm not prepared to 
answer that," or "We are not willing to share those details," or "Our 
data are still in the process of being examined, though we're confident 
our conclusions will stand," or "I'm not sure, but it was probably 
something like this...." And the more the presenter stonewalled 
questions that are customarily asked and for which any presenter should 
be prepared to answer, the more irritated the scientists in the audience 
got. A rather awkward hush began to descend on the auditorium. And then 
a senior scientist stood up, expressed his disgust out loud, and stalked 
out. Keep in mind that this NEVER happens in large colloquia.

And then a few days later, the dozen or so teams that were following the 
instructions of Pons and Fleischmann reported that they were not seeing 
the same results, and in fact were not seeing key signals that Pons and 
Fleischmann didn't bother looked for.

So it's no surprised they were pariahs. They may have had honest 
intentions, but they were so enamored with what they hoped they would 
see that they fooled themselves. This is the same thing that happened to 
Eddington in 1919, which made Einstein famous overnight. The difference 
is that people with cooler heads confirmed Eddington's claim (even 
though he didn't have the data to claim it), and people with cooler 
heads did not confirm the results of Pons and Fleischmann, which should 
have been doable within 2 days.

-- 
Odd Bodkin --- maker of fine toys, tools, tables

Thread

ITER superconductor production nears completion Sam Wormley <swormley1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-19 09:05 -0500
  ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-19 13:03 -0700
    Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-19 15:33 -0500
      Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-19 19:51 -0700
        Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-20 23:12 -0500
          Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 06:54 -0500
            Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 06:09 -0700
              Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 06:30 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 09:20 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 08:08 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 17:29 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 18:08 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 09:16 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 18:29 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 09:33 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 18:45 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 12:27 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 10:46 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 15:48 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 15:56 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 19:53 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 19:42 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <poutnik4nntp@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 06:56 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 06:43 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 16:11 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 13:56 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 16:18 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 14:29 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 16:46 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 15:50 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 18:52 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 17:08 -0700
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-22 19:49 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion benj <none@gmail.com> - 2015-09-23 01:10 -0400
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-23 06:46 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion benj <none@gmail.com> - 2015-09-23 01:14 -0400
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-23 09:56 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 19:04 +0200
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 12:24 -0500
                Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Poutnik <Poutnik4NNTP@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 17:23 +0200
              Re: ITER superconductor production nears completion Odd Bodkin <bodkinodd@gmail.com> - 2015-09-21 09:17 -0500

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