LENR growing acceptance: JCMNS (Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science) will be indexed in the Web Of Science

Since barty abruptly cut the Mule thread courtesy TheGomp I will post my reply to him here instead.
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Dear TheGomp (Get Off My Party?), you seem to be a bit grumpy today.

A physical fact is a valid statement about observable objects, e. g. "protons repel each other".

This statement is valid because every time you bring protons together they repel each other.

A physical theory is a mathematical construct that can be used to predict the outcome of experiments like putting two protons close to each other.

Coulomb's law is a physical theory that describes the electrical interactions between protons.

Any physical theory is a servant to the facts, it can never override them.

It is a physical fact that two atomic nucleuses can merge and release energy. We call this process "fusion".

To fuse two nucleuses they must approach each other with a speed that is high enough to overcome the electrostatic repulsion between them. This speed corresponds to extremely high temperatures like those that you can find in the interior of stars.

The working hypothesis of the LENR proponents is that fusion also can occur at temperatures in the range where we normally observe only chemical reactions. Since such a reaction cannot be predicted from standard physics the LENR work takes place along a meandering path of trial and error experiments.

Tell tale indications of nuclear reactions are the fragments that with high energies leave the scene of action. The LENR researchers have had very limited success in detecting such fragments and thus they have turned to another criterion for occurrence of LENR and that is detection of the heat that the reactions would deposit in the test equipment. The absence of radiation has been optimistically interpreted as a good sign making this possible new energy source safe, compact and cheap.

The step from detecting reaction products to instead measuring the heat they produce is a very big step backwards in terms of sensitivity. Just a few nuclear events can be detected but it takes a huge number of them to get a measurable quantity of heat.

Not only that, heat is everywhere and there are simple reasons for this. Since heat is microscopic movements of molecules it spreads by diffusion in all directions. And when the heat hits a wall of nothing it cunningly morphs into infrared radiation and with the speed of light takes the jump over to something. The summary of this is: calorimetry is difficult!

Yet another complication is that you cannot just put some stuff in a test tube, lean back and wait for LENR to happen. Invariably LENR researchers instead supply energy to the test setup, which is normally done in the form of electricity. This means that your energy balance has to include this supply and already here the error margins may swamp any small LENR effect.

At this time in history, after scores of years and thousands of experiments, it is safe to say that the LENR community has not been able to design an apparatus that reproducibly satisfies the criteria for LENR to be real.

So, being a LENR skeptic I feel that my feet rest on solid ground with no earthquakes in sight.

A publication in a crackpot journal means growing acceptance?

If Thomas is repeating himself, it's because believers don't seem to get it. I get the same accusation all the time. Yes, I keep rubbing people's noses in Rossi's lies and contradictions. Believers seem to keep repeating all the Rossifiction and Rossi web site garbage that they read and believe. And they think nothing of repetition when they are doing it.l When the Rossi stuff repetition is in a fresh location, and a fresh [lexicon]conversation[/lexicon], the counterpoints require repeating.

Eric. most skeptics "believe" nothing. Belief is irrelevant to science. It's about religion. What matters is evidence. And every shred of available evidence points to Rossi's crap as an obvious, blatant, very transparent SCAM. But I guess we'll see where Rossi's marketing plan is a year from now, two years from now and if Darden and Woodford are dumb enough, maybe even three years from now. Rossi is the gift that keeps on giving.

OK Eric, please tell me what we know Rossi actually accomplished so far OTHER than what he and his associates say they did. What really INDEPENDENT evidence is there that Rossi has anything other than a collection of weird electrical heaters including a pretty ordinary tube furnace?

Not seeing Rossi's true nature tells quite of lot.

Quote from Eric Walker

I also think that Papp might have had a real device. What does that say about me?

Nothing new.