Martin Fleischmann

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Martin Fleischmann, FRS, (1927-) is an electrochemist retired from the University of Southampton. He is best known for his controversial work with his former colleague Stanley Pons in cold fusion during the 1980s and '90s. The two met while Pons was a graduate student in Professor Alan Bewick's group at Southhampton.

On March 23, 1989, while Pons was a researcher at the University of Utah, he and Fleischmann announced the experimental production of cold fusion [1] -- a result previously thought to be unattainable. After a short period of public acclaim, the pair were attacked widely for sloppy, unreproducable research and inaccurate results, as Fleischmann predicted they would be. [2] However, by September 1990, 92 groups of researchers from 10 different countries reported they had replicated cold fusion, [3] and hundreds more researchers later observed the effect and published in mainstream, peer-reviewed journals. [4]

Fleischmann, Pons and the researchers who have replicated the effects remain convinced that the claims of anomalous energy and unexplained nuclear products are valid. Skeptics, most who have publicly dismissed the entire set of claims, are convinced that all the claims from over 200 researchers in 12 nations over 17 years (as of 2006) are all the result of experimental error or experimenter self-delusion.

In 1992, Fleischmann moved to France with Pons, to work at the IMRA laboratory (part of Technova Corporation, a subsidiary of Toyota). The pair parted ways in 1995, and Fleischmann returned to Southampton. He has recently co-authored papers with researchers from the U.S. Navy [5, 6] and Italian national laboratories (INFN and ENEA). [7]

See also: cold fusion

References

1. Fleischmann, M., S. Pons, and M. Hawkins, Electrochemically induced nuclear fusion of deuterium. J. Electroanal. Chem., 1989. 261: p. 301 and errata in Vol. 263. [link]

2. Beaudette, C.G., Excess Heat. Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed. 2000, Concord, NH: Oak Grove Press (Infinite Energy, Distributor).

3. Will, F.G., Groups Reporting Cold Fusion Evidence. 1990, National Cold Fusion Institute: Salt Lake City, UT. [link]

4. The index at http://lenr-canr.org lists over 3,000 papers, including about 1,000 in mainstream journals.

5. Szpak, S., et al., Thermal behavior of polarized Pd/D electrodes prepared by co-deposition. Thermochim. Acta, 2004. 410: p. 101. [link]

6. Mosier-Boss, P.A. and M. Fleischmann, Thermal and Nuclear Aspects of the Pd/D2O System, ed. S. Szpak and P.A. Mosier-Boss. Vol. 2. Simulation of the Electrochemical Cell (ICARUS) Calorimetry. 2002: SPAWAR Systems Center, San Diego, U.S. Navy. [link]

7. Del Giudice, E., et al. Loading of H(D) in a Pd lattice. in The 9th International Conference on Cold Fusion, Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. 2002. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China: Tsinghua Univ. Press. [link]

[Physics Web article] by David Voss

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