------------------------- Close F; "Too Hot to Handle" WH Allen, London 1990; ISBN 1 85227 206 6. ** The whole story of cold fusion, warts and all (mostly warts in fact). FC gets behind the scenes and reveals an amazing web of intrigue, suspicion, evasion and downright deceit, all in the area of scientific research, thought by many to be practiced in a cool and thoughtful manner. As well as the more personal (but nevertheless important) matters, FC also examines all the technical issues, and demolishes almost all claims of cold fusion and explanations put forward for them, often in an enviably lucid way. There remain only a few isolated positive results for which we as yet do not have an explanation, due to the lack of data. ------------------------- Close F; "Too Hot to Handle. The Race for Cold Fusion" 2nd Edition, Penguin paperback 1992, ISBN 0-14-015926-6. ** This is the same book as the first edition, with an Epilogue added. Most of what has happened since the first edition, as far as the Epilogue is concerned, is of a personal nature, rather than developments in cold fusion itself. FC has obtained more details of the events in the 'gamma spectrum affair' that precoccupies him. There are a few snippets of news on the research front. More interestingly, there are accounts by cold fusion critics, of how their viewpoint has affected their lives. Some of them feel that a lot of their research time has been wasted as a result, but most are now settling back into a normal life. ------------------------- Fox H; "Cold Fusion Impact in the Enhanced Energy Age". Fusion Information Center, University of Utah Research Park, P.O. Box 58639, Salt Lake City, Utah 84158-0639. Revised 2nd ed., 1992. ISBN 0-9634978-0-4. ** The book comes with a DOS diskette containing the bibliographic collection of the author, and a search program to access it. The book does not describe the technical details of cold fusion but rather the implications to energy policy, commerce, environment, agriculture, transportation and education. There is a short list of some key patents and a short reading list. There is a chapter on "enhanced energy technology", including the Meyer car, the Shoulders "electrum validum" invention, and a discussion of zero point energy devices. ------------------------- Huizenga JR; Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century. University of Rochester Press, Rochester, NY, 1992. ISBN 1 878822 07 1. ** JRH was, during 1989, a member of a DOE/ERAB panel to examine whether cold fusion should be financed, and focussed intensely on the field during the course of six months. His conclusion is obvious from the title of this book; there is not and never was such a thing as cold fusion. The book leans heavily on the Panel's findings and the problems it had. The history of cold fusion is given, its development to "a frenzy" in 1989, and some of the background the author was privy to. The helium study in chapter VIII may be the highlight of the book. Huizenga repeatedly asks: Where are the products of these nuclear reactions? He will not accept an exotic nuclear process without either ash or radiation or both. So finally, cold fusion is lumped, along with polywater and N rays as pathological science. ------------------------- Huizenga JR; Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century. 2nd Ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1993. ISBN 0-19-855817-1. Paper. ** This second edition is identical with the first hardback but published elsewhere, and with the addition of an Epilogue, in which some conferences are reported, as well as the new light water claims with Ni cathodes. The chronology has been extended to November 1992. Huizenga remains skeptical, and worries about the amount of lobbying for cold fusion. He concludes that the burden of proof lies on CNF advocates, and there has been no such proof. Therefore, CNF remains an abberation. ------------------------- Kervran L; "Biological Transmutations". English version by M. Abehsera. Swan House Publishing Co., Brooklyn, NY, 1972. ** This is a condensation of several books originally written by Louis Kervran in French. Kervran starts by pointing out the (his) experimental "observation" that chickens not fed calcium nevertheless lay eggs with shells, and that CO was formed in the blood of some miners although not present, and other "observations". The Ca is formed by the addition (fusion) reaction K + H --> Ca and the CO from proton swapping between the two atoms in dinitrogen in the blood. Kervran in fact proposes a whole zoo of addition as well as subtraction reactions, in blithe disregard (presumably ignorance) of the accompanying energetic emissions that would result or energy they would require. The book portraits Kervran as a respected and highly placed French scientist and it seems he was invited to give lectures on his theories to many medical students, whose (famous) professors were baffled by these effects until Kervran explained all. ------------------------- Kuzmin RN, Shvilkin BN; "Cold Nuclear Fusion" ("Kholodnij Yadernij Sintez") Znanie, Moscow 1989, 64 pp. In Russian. ** Description of the cold fusion saga up to June 1989. Starts with the physics of fusion itself, then describes muon catalysed fusion, and then d-d fusion by electrolysis. The F&P, as well the Jones team work is described, not uncritically, i.e. the problems are mentioned (lack of commensurate neutrons in the F&P work, e.g.). The Russian fractofusion work is presented, going back to 1986. There is a useful chronology at the back of this slim volume, starting in 1866, when T. Grahame ("Grem") found the large hydrogen absorbing capacity of Pd, followed by the 1926 work of Paneth and Peters, etc. The "prehistory" of "cold fusion" is therefore dealt with thoroughly, not leaving out Russian workers. ------------------------- LaRouche L; "Cold Fusion: Challenge to U.S. Science Policy". Schiller Institute 1992. ISBN 0-9621095-7-6. ** Ostensibly about 'cold fusion', this book is a collection of LLR's unorthodox ideas about the history of science, thermodynamics, politics, society, music, feminism and philosophy. The book is meant to be a promotion of the author's proposal for a "mini-crash program" of 'cold fusion' research but 'cold fusion' itself is hardly mentioned. ------------------------- Mallove E; "Fire from Ice: searching for the truth behind the cold fusion furor"; John Wiley 1991. ISBN 0-471-53139-1. ** The book appears to be up to date to early 1991. It is clearly written by a "believer" in "cold fusion"; this is stated bluntly in the Preface and again and again in the text. Nevertheless, the book gives fair coverage to the skeptics' complaints and is well written. Mallove is both a professional writer and a scientist, and goes into some technical detail in places. He rightly argues against the facile dismissal of cold fusion by the "experts", who often use simplistic approaches and prove nothing. He believes that there is now a mass of evidence for both excess heat and emission of neutrons and tritium; the emissions are arguable but the excess heat observed by several apparently competent groups is indeed hard to explain away. The book gives a time-sequence of the story, and also deals with the prehistory of cold fusion, i.e. the 1926-7 papers of Paneth et al, the Swedish (Tandberg) work of the 'thirties, and muon catalysed fusion (the original "cold fusion"). The related feld of cluster impact fusion is covered. Fractofusion is not, apart from a single paragraph (quoting a US expert), and the Soviet workers do not appear in the book at all. ------------------------- Peat FD; "Cold Fusion: The Making of a Scientific Controversy", Contemporary Books 1989, 188 pp, ISBN 0-8092-4243-5. ** Somewhat of a rush job, this book brings the reader to around the end of May 1989, or two months into the 'cold fusion affair'. Much of the book is padding, but there is good useful information. In the later part of the book, some slightly more recent happenings are attached, such as the ERAB panel. Peat tries to take a neutral stance but does expand on the vistas opened up by 'cold fusion' if it turns out real. ------------------------- Soederberg S (Editor); "Our Alchemist in Tome Alley" (In Swedish). Original title: Vaar Alkemist i Tomegraend", Gleerup Bokforlaeg, Lund 1970. ** The life story of John Tandberg, as written by his friends. He worked in the Electrolux laboratories in Stockholm from 1925 to 1962; these were in fact in the street Tomegatan, but the "alley (graend)" in the title comes from a poem about Tandberg. Born in Norway, Tandberg is widely remembered in Sweden as an extraordinary chemist, practical joker, science writer, poet and numerologist, among other things. His place in this list is due to his interest in the fusion of hydrogen and deuterium, which was fired by the articles of Paneth and Peters in 1926. Although they retracted their claims early 1927, Tandberg pursued the work, with the aim of energy generation in mind; and, after making some improvements together with his coworker Torsten Wilner, they attempted to patent the work. The patent was not granted - not because the idea didn't work (it probably didn't) but because it had not been explained satisfactorily. Tandberg didn't let go, however, and throughout the decades at Electrolux he tried new variants on this theme - alongside his normal, and highly successful, work. In the early thirties, he tried to use a lab-built accelerator to shoot protons at targets; this was similar to the work of Cockcroft and Walton, but failed because of the more modest means at Tandberg's disposal. Later, in 1932, he anticipated electrochemical CNF, by electrochemically charging a palladium wire with deuterium. He reasoned that he could compress the deuterium even further by electrically exploding the charged wire, and asked his friend and coworker, Torsten Wilner, to go home, in case there was a dangerous explosion; he had correctly calculated the enormous potential energy release from a fusion reaction. This exploding wire idea (which did not work) in its way anticipated laser-induced fusion - and Daedalus's proposal for a mini-hydrogen bomb (see D Jones alias Daedalus, in section 3). This little book really ought to be published in English. ------------------------- Taubes G; "Bad Science. The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion". Random House, NY 1993, ISBN 0-394-58456-2. ** This book, by physicist and aeronautical and astronautical engineer Gary Taubes, turned science journalist, focusses on the stories behind the story of cold fusion. It is based not only on newspaper reports and (a few) journal papers on cold fusion, but mostly on a huge number of interviews (over 260). The book is filled with material from these interviews. It deals mainly with the major US players in the area, i.e. the groups of/around Pons & Fleischmann, Jones and Bockris; some others, such as Huggins, Martin, McKubre etc are mentioned, as well as a very few foreign teams such as that of Scaramuzzi. This enables GT to go into great detail, and brings out the story very sharply. It ends (except for an Epilogue) in the middle of 1991, as the National Cold Fusion Institute closes its doors. The conclusion of the book is inescapable: "cold fusion" as used in this context is wholly imaginary. -------------------------