Uppsala University Professors Accuse Peers of Wishful Thinking

Fairy Godfather of Cold Fusion: Drawing by adw, photo by dubross

June 28, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

Two professors at Uppsala University, in Sweden, have published critical comments about their colleagues’ endorsement of Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat device.

Göran Ericsson and Stephan Pomp, professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala, uploaded their critique on Wednesday to the arXiv preprint server. Their paper reports serious deficiencies in a May 20 paper written by seven researchers, including three professors at Uppsala.

“Wishful thinking seems to have replaced scientific rigor,” Ericsson and Pomp wrote.

The authors of the May 20 paper say they made an independent test of Rossi’s device. They also say, “By the most conservative assumptions as to the errors in the measurements, the result is still one order of magnitude greater than conventional energy sources.”

The authors of that paper are Giuseppe Levi (University of Bologna), Evelyn Foschi (Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics), Torbjörn Hartman (senior research engineer at the Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala University), Bo Höistad (professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University), Roland Pettersson (senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at Uppsala University), Lars Tegnér (professor in the Department of Engineering Sciences at Uppsala University) and Hanno Essén (Royal Institute of Technology).

On May 21, New Energy Times reported how inventor Rossi manipulated these academics to report in this May 20 paper that they had performed an independent test of his device. However, their test was not independent.

Ericsson and Pomp equate the May 20 paper to pseudoscience.

“We examine the claims put forth by the authors and note that in many cases they are not supported by the facts given in the report,” Ericsson and Pomp wrote. “The authors seem to jump to conclusions fitting preconceived ideas where alternative explanations are possible.

“In general, we find that much attention is drawn to trivialities while important pieces of information and investigation are lacking and seem not to have been conducted or considered. These are characteristics more typically found in pseudoscientific texts and have no place in a technical/scientific report on this level.”

In the last three years, Rossi has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to convince onlookers to believe him despite the lack of evidence for his extraordinary claims.

Related Articles:
Open Letter to Rossi’s Academic E-Cat Promoters
More Ethics Questions: Uppsala University Hides Failed E-Cat Test
Scientific Ethics of E-Cat Promoters Questioned