Stanley Pons
Stanley Pons | |
|---|---|
| File:Stanley Pons cold fusion gear.jpg | |
| Born | August 23, 1943 |
| Nationality | Babw |
| Citizenship | France (originally US)[2] |
| Known for | Work on cold fusion |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Electrochemistry |
| Institutions | University of Utah |
| Doctoral advisor | Martin Fleischmann |
Bobby Stanley Pons (born 23 August 1943) is an American-French electrochemist known for his work with Martin Fleischmann on cold fusion in the 1980s and '90s.[3]
Early life
Pons was born in Valdese, North Carolina. He attended Valdese High School, then Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he studied chemistry. He began his PhD studies in chemistry at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, but left before completing his PhD for financial reasons.[citation needed] His thesis resulted in a paper, co-authored in 1967 with Harry B. Mark, his adviser. The New York Times wrote that it pioneered a way to measure the spectra of chemical reactions on the surface of an electrode.[4]
He decided to finish his PhD in England at the University of Southampton, where in 1975 he met Martin Fleischmann. Pons was a student in Professor Alan Bewick's group; he earned his PhD in 1978.[4]
Career
On March 23, 1989, while Pons was the chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Utah,[4] he and Fleischmann announced the experimental production of "N-Fusion", which was quickly labeled by the press as cold fusion.[5] After a short period of public acclaim, hundreds of scientists attempted to reproduce the effects but generally failed.[6] After the claims were found to be unreproducible, the scientific community determined the claims were incomplete, and inaccurate.[7][8][9][6][8][1][10]In 2009, Mike McKubre, of SRI experimentally showed a one to one correspondence of helium, He, production and heat production in Fleischmann Pons type cells with palladium and deuterium. He found a Q value of 31MeV/atom. The difference from the expected 23.8MeV/atom is most likely due to retained He in the palladium.[11] This was an extension of the work done by Miles at Navy Laboratory (NAWCWD) at China Lake, California (1990-1994).[12]
Pons moved to France in 1992, along with Fleischmann, to work at a Toyota-sponsored laboratory. The laboratory closed in 1998 after a ₤12 million research investment with no results.[2] He gave up his US citizenship[13] and became a French citizen.[14]
References
- ^ a b Taubes, Gary (1993). Bad science: the short life and weird times of cold fusion. New York: Random House. p. 6. ISBN 0-394-58456-2.
- ^ a b Voss, D (1999-03-01). "What Ever Happened to Cold Fusion". Physics World. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
- ^ "Nuclear fusion", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011, accessed May 6, 2011.
- ^ a b c William J. Broad (1989-05-09). "Brilliance and Recklessness Seen in Fusion Collaboration". The New York Times.
- ^ Fleischmann, M (1989). "Electrochemically induced nuclear fusion of deuterium". J. Electroanal. Chem. 261 (2): 301. doi:10.1016/0022-0728(89)80006-3.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b Adil E. Shamoo, David B. Resnik (2003). Oxford University Press US (ed.). Responsible Conduct of Research (2, illustrated ed.). p. 76, 97. ISBN 0-19-514846-0.
- ^ Henry Krips, J. E. McGuire, Trevor Melia (1995). University of Pittsburgh Press (ed.). Science, Reason, and Rhetoric (illustrated ed.). pp. xvi. ISBN 0-8229-3912-6.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Bart Simon (2002). Rutgers University Press (ed.). Undead Science: Science Studies and the Afterlife of Cold Fusion (illustrated ed.). p. 119. ISBN 0-8135-3154-3.
- ^ Michael B. Schiffer, Kacy L. Hollenback, Carrie L. Bell (2003). University of California Press (ed.). Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment (illustrated ed.). pp. 207. ISBN 0-520-23802-8.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Thomas F. Gieryn (1999). University of Chicago Press (ed.). Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line (illustrated ed.). pp. http://books.google.com/books?id=GljD3CHbDx0C&pg=PA204 204]. ISBN 0-226-29262-2.
- ^ McKubre, M.C.H. (2009). "COLD FUSION, LENR, the Fleischmann-Pons Effect; ONE PERSPECTIVE on the STATE of the SCIENCE". In Vittorio Violante and Francesca Sarto (eds.) (ed.). 15th Annual Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. Rome, Italy: ENEA. ISBN 978-88-8286-256-5.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help) - ^ Miles, M. (2003). "Correlation Of Excess Enthalpy And Helium-4 Production: A Review.". In Peter L Hagelstein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA) & Scott R Chubb (Naval Research Laboratory, USA) (eds.) (ed.). Tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion. Hackensack, New Jersey: World Scientific Publishing. ISBN 978-981-256-564-8.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - ^ Weinberger, Sharon (2004-11-21). "Warming Up to Cold Fusion". Washington Post: W22. (page 2 of online version)
- ^ Platt, Charles (1998). "What if Cold Fusion is Real?". Wired Magazine. No. 6.11. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
External links
- William J. Broad (1989-05-09). "Brilliance and Recklessness Seen in Fusion Collaboration". New York Times.