Cold Fusion and the Broken State of Publicly Funded Science Research (Achi)

The following post was submitted by Achi

Publicly funded scientific research has dug its own grave.

The shunning of cold fusion, and LENR, has led us to a point where the integrity of the system as it currently stands is compromised.

Scientific funding was already dangerous close to the edge in this time of economic unease and budget cutting. As it is now around of one third of all R&D, both scientific and technical, is publicly funded, accounting for around 133 billion dollars of the US budget according to the OECD.

That is a large amount of money, and while it is very improbable that heavy cuts will come to the defense spending side of it, it is very possible for the rest of it.

LENR is a conservative’s wet dream, it was shunned by all aspects of government: funding, the patent office, universities, even just simple support of the idea, and yet it refused to die. It is living proof that capitalism, as screwed up as it is, works.

It shows that if you have something really worthwhile it will be funded, it will be developed, and the government does not need to hold its hand. While I will agree that it may not be the most ideal way for a tech to come to market, if the system is broken then what is there to help convince the government to fund it?

I’m not saying that this is likely the end of all publicly funded scientific initiatives, but I do see it as a huge blow to the system.

Achi