NEWS
Cold Fusion under Fire "No. No for neutrons, no for tritium, no for gamma rays." That, said CERN physicist Douglas Morrison, summarized most European attempts to replicate the electrolytic nuclear fusion claimed by B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. It also reflected the findings of U.S. scientists gathered in Baltimore for the American Physical Society spring meeting, just three weeks after Pons presented his fusion data to the ACS national meeting in Dallas (see FOCUS, p. 739 A). The sharpest attacks on the Pons-Fleischmann report came from three different collaborative teams of physicists and chemists. Moshe Gai, speaking for the Yale University-Brookhaven National Laboratory group, claimed to have tried "all possible things," including the alpha emitter from his home smoke detector, to trigger fusion. "We used titanium, palladium, and several different electrolytes," he said, all without success. Steven Koonin, of the California Institute of Technology, reported that 15 graduate and postdoctoral students failed to initiate electrochemical fusion despite using Pd from four different suppliers, varying pH from 0.0 to 13.0, and running some experiments for more than two weeks. "These results," Koonin argued, "seriously undermine the scientific validity of the [PonsFleischmann] experiment." Ohio State's Richard Boyd spoke of their team's inability to find neutrons and, using MS, tritium or helium nuclei from electrode fusion. University of Arizona physicist Johann Rafelski issued an isolated dissent to the attack, warning that if Pons or Fleischmann (who both declined invitations because of scheduling conflicts) were present they might rebut the criticisms. "There is a lack of information," said Rafelski. "Everyone had to make crucial assumptions." However, the reports appeared so damning that researchers publicly speculated that experimental errors such as measuring the temperature close to the electrode, failing to stir the solution, and gamma rays from ambient radon could account for the University of Utah observations. Some also pointed to social and political pressures that may have played a role. One factor that reportedly influenced Pons and Fleischmann to go public was the February 3 submission, to this meeting, of another cold fusion report by Brigham Young University (BYU) physicist Steven Jones. Jones, who claims a billionfold lower level of fusion in Pd and Ti pellets than Pons and Fleischmann report for their cell, repeatedly distanced himself from the electrochemists' claims. "They're worlds apart," he said. "Don't sell your oil wells. Don't invest in palladium." In fact, skepticism was also voiced about Jones's fusion claims. "The BYU results are dubious;" said Koonin, "the [University of] Utah results are impossible."
HPLC Gets a Taste for Olive Oil Human tasters who now determine the quality of virgin olive oil could face replacement by an "intensity of bitterness" value calculated from reversed-phase liquid chromatographic analyses. The interest in liquid chromatography is spurred by a need to speed the evaluation of the olive oil,
one of the few oils marketed unrefined. The new approach appeared in a recent article in the Journal of Food Science. Researchers with the Institute de la Grasa y sus Derivados in Seville, Spain, reported that HPLC of olive oil extracted with hexane produces four major chromatographic peaks measuring all the nonvolatile bitter components. According to the authors, the peaks in order of elution correspond to hot flavor, slightly bitter, strongly bitter, and slightly bitter again. The peak areas were then used to derive an empirical equation for bitterness. Chromatograms from 10 oils of varying quality were correlated with the opinions of 10 oil-tasting experts, each of whom was isolated in a booth and served samples at 28 °C in blue glass cups.
Plastics To Chew on During his or her lifetime, every American is responsible for the disposal of approximately one ton of plastic. Much of that material remains intact for centuries, clogging landfills and disposal sites and affecting wildlife and sea animals. One way to reduce this problem is to use degradable plastic—plastic products that disintegrate after disposal. Richard Wool, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, heads a new interdisciplinary laboratory that is developing such products using a blend of cornstarch and plastic. Depending on the product, cornstarch levels range from 40% to 80%. There are four ways in which the plastic can dissolve: microbial degradation, degradation by small organisms (e.g., slugs, bugs, or crickets), photodegradation, and chemical degradation. Some of these processes work even when the material is covered with dirt, and should reduce the volume of waste and extend the useful lifetime of landfills.
For Your Information Perkin-Elmer Corporation has announced a major restructuring that includes plans for selling the firm's semiconductor equipment, a West German aerospace division, and their government systems units. Horace McDonell, chief executive officer, said that company managers would "concentrate our resources on analytical instruments and materials technology." Reminder: The 42nd Annual Summer Symposium on Analytical Chemistry will be held at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, July 24-26. Cosponsored by the Division of Analytical Chemistry and the JOURNAL, this year's symposium includes sessions on surface science of electrochemistry, optical probes of surfaces, electron and ion spectroscopy/microscopy of surfaces, and surfaces in separations science. For more details and registration information, see the April 1 issue (p. 489 A) or contact Harold McNair, Chemistry Dept., Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (703-231-6579).
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 61, NO. 11, JUNE 1, 1989 · 703 A
