After reading a theoretical speculation of a "cold fusion" researcher--
he thinks that neutrons do not exist--I posted an excerpt from my
book, on the private list for CF researchers. It occurred to that many
of you would also be interested in this excerpt. That is why I am
pasting it below.
Best wishes to all,
Ludwik
I agree with Ed; CMNS theories should be consistent with "what is
basic and well known." They should not lead to conclusions
contradicting reality. By the way, my very first publication was
about a detector of high energy (above ~50 MeV) neutrons. How can I
accept the idea that neutrons do not exist? Here is an extract from
autobiography. It has to do with common thermal neutrons. The [...] is
an indication that something was skipped while translating my diary
into English. The episode took place in France.
It took some time to make our reaction chamber ready. The mechanical
system was complicated by the vacuum requirements. But things seem to
be working. Claude is as eager as I am to start using it at the
accelerator. But we are not the only people eager to use the
synchrocyclotron. Those who control the schedule decided that our
setup should first be tested at the nuclear reactor in Saclay. We will
have one month to demonstrate that our setup is ready. We are expected
to show that the energy spectrum of fission fragments has two humps,
and that the angular distribution is isotropic. I have no option but
to give up the idea of skiing during the winter break. […]
It is December 28, 1961. We have installed the scattering chamber at
the EL-3 reactor in Saclay. Our direct supervisor is Professor Netter;
we know him because he was our neutron physics teacher in Orsay.
Claude expects to be drafted soon. I find him to be a little shy.
Working together we are becoming friends; I hope it will become a life-
long friendship. Yes, it is my dissertation topic, but I do not think
that this will create a problem. Each of us sees this work as an
important scientific contribution. Everything else is secondary. I am
certain of this. […]
The Devil is against us. We have been here for several weeks but the
expected results have not materialized. Suspecting preamplifiers, we
asked Monsieur Corbe, who built them, to come and check everything
again. “Your electronic system is perfect,” he said, after examining
everything with the oscilloscope. But why do we see about one thousand
time fewer fission fragments than we should? We were desperate; the
possibility of returning to Orsay without being ready for the
accelerator was very real.
The only logical conclusion was that, contrary to assurances, the
neutron beam coming from the hole in the protective cement block was
not as intense as claimed. So we decided to test this. One night, when
no one was around, we took the risk of doing something totally
forbidden. Staying far away from the hole, we used the crane to raise
the protective cement block up for about five minutes. Then we lowered
the block down and ran to our instruments. They recorded thousands of
fission fragments, displaying the expected two-humped energy spectrum.
When lowering the block we made sure the hole in that block was
aligned with the hole in the first block. [It was probably not aligned
before.] We verified the alignment by using a long rod. Now our
chamber worked as expected. All data we needed, to show that we are
ready for using the synchrocyclotron, were collected in the next two
hours. Netter came in the morning and we told him what we did. He said
that we disqualified ourselves as scientists. Consequences of this act
are unavoidable. I tried to argue with him that this was our last
resort--to test the only remaining hypothesis. But he was outraged.
Then he left.
Several hours later I called Radvanyi and told him what happened. He
was also mad, but not as angry as Netter. He asked us to come to Orsay
and show the results. It was clear to me that he was at once impressed
by our two-humped spectrum. No disciplinary action was undertaken
against us. […] [I suspect that things were settled privately between
professors.]
Next week I will be describing the status of my doctoral project at
the weekly seminar. After showing our Saclay results I will outline
what we want to do in Orsay. I want to convince others that our
scattering chamber can be placed near the exit of the beam pipe. It
can remain there permanently, without disturbing other experiments,
further away downstream. Naturally, I will say nothing about violating
the safety rules in Saclay. […]
= = = FILL FREE TO SHARE THIS STORY WITH OTHERS; HOPEFULLY THIS WILL
PROMOTE MY NEW BOOK = = =.