The recent rash of ‘no-news’ news regarding the sale of the 1 MW reactors that has made its way to various sites on the web has not elicited any response from Andrea Rossi. I’m sure I was not the only one to alert him to the rush of publicity (most of it negative), but he has said nothing about it on the Journal of Nuclear Physics — or elsewhere that I can find.
In the past some have accused Rossi of being somewhat flamboyant and attention-seeking, but there’s no evidence of that kind of behavior these days. I think at present he would be perfectly happy to be ignored by the world, and even if he is being harshly criticized he seems to have no desire to defend himself.
He does still respond to questions on the JONP, but is very adept at providing minimal levels of information. In response to a question recently of why there is so little attention from the media he responded:
As a matter of fact, we at the moment are very conservative when it turns to give information. This justifies the lack of attention regarding our work. This period for us is a validaton and R&D time, and we think the less we talk, the better is, until the work of validation is completed.
When it will be time to talk, either regarding commercial issues or technological and scientific issues, our specialists will talk, whatever the news, positive or negative as such news might be.
I asked for some details regarding what the roll-out might involve, I received the following:
Do you mean that you will be publishing:
1. The results of your internal testing (positive or negative)? A. Yes.
2. A report about the current status of your technology, and the future plans for commercializing the E-Cat? A. I do not deal with commercial issues, being the chief scientist, not the commercial director; I suppose our commercial director will make a press conference.
3. When this report is published, will we finally learn the identity of your new partner? A. this does not depend on me, but my supposition is yes.
Rossi often reminds readers that he is now just the chief scientist for the new enterprise, so he’s no longer in the driver’s seat. Being a team player and a disciplined person, and most likely bound by strict confidentiality agreements, he is not going to be leaking information in an unauthorized manner. When we look to him to give us news and information now, we are really barking up the wrong tree — but so far he’s the only tree we know about to bark up!
