Rossi on Cold Fusion Criticism: 'Victimism is Syndrome of Impotence'

There’s an interesting comment on the Journal of Nuclear Physics by Andrea Rossi in response to a post by a reader who draws Rossi’s attention to the book Excess Heat by Charles G. Beaudette which covers the cold fusion story since the time of Fleischmann and Pons and the negative and hostile reaction from the scientific community.

Here’s Rossi’s response:

My opinion is different. The scientific community underlined the fact that the experiment has not been repeated reliably. This is a fact. Victimism is the syndrome of impotence. If you make indipendent measurements and they give good results, you can fight successfully. Otherwise, you have to go back to work and make corrections. In this case, while working to get reliable results from indipendent measurements, the less you talk, the better.

Andrea Rossi has said that he himself tried to replicate the Pons and Fleischmann effect without success, and that maybe helps him understand the response of those in the scientific community who couldn’t replicate it either. His own efforts have taken a different approach to achieve an excess heat effect, and reading a little between the lines in his response here, Rossi may be expressing confidence that he is able to reliably and consistently replicate his effect, and in doing so will be able to engage the scientific community from a position of strength.