New Energy Times | LENR News and Scientific References

The Nobel Foundation’s Retraction of the Rutherford Transmutation Claim

May 192019

May 19, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

Third in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

For more than 70 years, legendary physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) had been mistakenly credited by most organizations and many scholars for accomplishing the world’s first confirmed artificial transmutation of one element into another. The Nobel Foundation, through its Nobel Prize Web site, was one of the organizations that had credited the discovery to Rutherford rather than the actual discoverer, Patrick Blackett.

I stumbled on this historical discrepancy in 2014 while I was writing my book Lost History. At the time, every Internet reference I found, as well as most print references, said that Rutherford was the one who had performed and reported this experiment.

The misunderstanding goes back many decades. Even some people close to Rutherford were mistaken. In a letter written in 1988, Irish physicist Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (1903-1995) described his days working in Rutherford’s lab. He spoke about Rutherford’s “two greatest discoveries: the nuclear structure of atoms, and the transmutation of nitrogen into oxygen.” Continue reading »

Rutherford’s Reluctant Role in Nuclear Transmutation

May 182019

May 18, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

Second in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

Ernest Rutherford, 1908 Photo

Physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) is a legendary figure in science history. Some people consider Rutherford to be among the 10 greatest physicists in history. Some call him the father of modern physics. The world’s first confirmed transmutation of one element into another has been described by many people as among Rutherford’s three greatest accomplishments. The discovery, however, belonged instead to a research fellow named Patrick Blackett, who worked in Rutherford’s lab at Cambridge University. This article discusses in detail Rutherford’s role in the research that preceded Blackett’s discovery.

Although a few historians recorded the discovery correctly, the myth that the discovery belonged to Rutherford ran strong for 70 years. Blackett’s discovery is described in “The World’s First Successful Alchemist (It Wasn’t Rutherford).”

The Dawn of Atomic Science
The dawn of atomic science took place as the late 1800s moved into the early 1900s. Eventually, old ideas yielded to new ones. In 1897, Joseph John Thomson discovered the electron while experimenting with cathode rays. Thomson’s discovery challenged the prevailing view that the atom was the smallest component in nature and thus indivisible. Continue reading »

The World’s First Successful Alchemist (It Wasn’t Rutherford)

May 142019

May 14, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

First in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

The Myth
For at least 70 years, the near-consensus of the scientific community about the person who discovered the first confirmed artificial nuclear transmutation has been wrong. An illustrated example of the myth appears in a frame of a 1948 comic book produced by the General Electric Co. The book, Adventures Inside the Atom, sponsored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, was propaganda intended to promote the new age of atomic energy.

The book begins in ancient Greece with Aristotle and the concept of the atom. Eventually, the story arrives at the University of Cambridge, in the laboratory of Ernest Rutherford.

Myth of the first artificial nuclear transmutation, 1948, General Electric Co.

First Light Fusion’s Fake

Feb 122019

Feb. 12, 2019 – By Steven B. Krivit –

Energy research company First Light Fusion has published deceptive fusion power claims in a Feb. 12, 2019, press release.

First Light Fusion, an Oxford University spin-off company, is claiming that, within five years, its experimental reactor, according to its design, will create more power than it will consume. A careful reading of the technical language, however, reveals that the design does not support such a claim. Continue reading »

32. A Decade of False and Exaggerated ITER Power Claims on Wikipedia

Feb 102019

Feb. 10, 2019 – By Steven B. Krivit –

Complete Series

Wikipedia, although not the most authoritative encyclopedia reference, is almost always a reliable benchmark for public consensus and understanding. It therefore serves as an excellent indicator of how broadly the public was misled about the projected net power output of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). As a result of the impermanent nature of text on any Wikipedia page, in conjunction with the preservation and record of every edit that is made, the online encyclopedia can also serve as a time-correlated reflection of public consensus.

The false and misleading statements on Wikipedia were similar to those found in most news stories about ITER. They were similar to the false and misleading statements that were and still are on many documents and Web sites published by the European Commission, the European Parliament, the International Atomic Energy Association, and many other organizations.

The English, French, and Chinese Wikipedia ITER pages contained false claims that grossly exaggerated the projected net power output of ITER. The other Wikipedia ITER pages had less-significant errors. The most accurate Wikipedia ITER page was the German-language page. After I published “The ITER Power Amplification Myth,” in October 2017, I began making corrections, as shown below, to some of the Wikipedia ITER pages. Continue reading »

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