by Steven B. Krivit

Widom-Larsen Theory Paper Published
Allan Widom, Lewis Larsen and their collaborator, Yogendra Srivastava, have published another peer-reviewed paper on their ultra-low-momentum neutron-catalyzed theory of LENRs.

The paper came out electronically this weekend in Pramana – Journal of Physics, published by the Indian Academy of Sciences in collaboration with Indian National Science Academy and Indian Physics Association.

The paper is an overview of the Widom-Larsen theory and explains the relevance of their theory to low-energy nuclear reactions (LENRs), exploding wires and the solar corona.

A similar peer-reviewed paper published last year in the American Chemical Society Symposium Series: Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions and New Energy Technologies Sourcebook (Vol. 2).

The Pramana paper acknowledges “R. Chidambaram, N. Cabibbo and A. Roy, for inviting us to their institutions and for many interesting and useful remarks.”

Rajagopala Chidambaram is the principal scientific adviser to the government of India and the chairman of the scientific advisory committee to the cabinet. I chatted briefly with him about LENR in 2008 at the National Institute for Advanced Studies on the campus of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

Mahadeva Srinivasan, Steven B. Krivit and Rajagopala Chidambaram
Photo: M. McKubre

Indian LENR Conference Planned

LENR returns to India in February for the 16th International Conference on Condensed Matter. The conference takes place in Chennai under the direction of Mahadeva Srinivasan and Padmanabha Krishnagopala Iyengar. Chidambaram, Srinivasan and Iyengar were among a small team of nuclear researchers which developed the capacity and skill for India’s nuclear technology without much help from the West.

The conference is drawing widespread support from top Indian nuclear energy and research leaders.

Baldev Raj is director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, president of the Kalpakkam chapter of the Indian Nuclear Society and vice president of the Materials Research Society of India.

“The curious puzzle in condensed matter nuclear science,” Raj wrote in a letter to the conference organizers, “is how loading of hydrogen or deuterium in a metallic Pd lattice with chemical energy inputs of the order of a few eV can trigger nuclear reactions generating energy of the order of several MeV.”

Other Indian individuals and agencies represented on the conference committees are Indian Atomic Energy Commission, Indian Physics Association, Indian Nuclear Society, National Institute for Advanced Studies, Indian Department of Science and Technology, Indian Defense Research and Development Organization, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Indian Society for Radiation Physics, Indian Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety, the former science advisor to prime minister Indira Gandhi and a former chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.

Source: New York Times

“Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, canceled America’s most important current public works project, the long-planned and much-needed second rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
…

“It was a destructive and incredibly foolish decision on multiple levels. But it shouldn’t have been all that surprising. We are no longer the nation that used to amaze the world with its visionary projects. We have become, instead, a nation whose politicians seem to compete over who can show the least vision, the least concern about the future and the greatest willingness to pander to short-term, narrow-minded selfishness.”

by Steven B. Krivit

Chicago-area residents and part-time filmmakers Clayton Brown and Monica Ross of 137 Films have been on the “cold fusion” trail for a few years now, struggling to bring their film, a documentary about “cold fusion,” to market.

The film was originally titled “The Experiment,” but Brown and Ross have changed it to “The Believers.” With a title like that, I can’t be sure whether they are mocking the scientists or promoting religion.

They recently released a trailer; they also have a slightly different version of the trailer that is interesting to watch. The cast of characters includes, among other people, “cold fusion” theorist Irving Dardik, who was convicted of medical fraud but likens himself to Einstein. Experimentalist and “cold fusion” theorist Edmund Storms appears on camera saying that, sooner or later, somebody will make a breakthrough and be able to see the theory and the mechanism. No mention is made of the Widom-Larsen theory in the trailer.

Plot Summary from IMDB, written by Clayton Brown:

“In 1989, two University of Utah chemists announced that they had solved all of the world’s energy problems with some electricity and seawater in a jar. Ever since then, ‘cold fusion’ has been called pathological, voodoo science, and just plain wrong by the media, the government, and mainstream scientists. But no amount of debunking and bad press has stopped a group of contemporary cold fusionists from pursuing their goal of saving the world with clean, cheap, and abundant energy – if they can only make their experiments work! Now, on Oct. 4, 2009, 20 years after that first announcement, these scientists – amateurs and professionals from all over the world, working in government, universities, and homemade basement labs – are holding an international meeting in Rome, to share their experiments and make their own world-shaking announcements.”