sion discovery at a news conference was reached after much agonizing on the part of the researchers and university officials, according to Brophy, who also serves as the university's vice president for research. Distorted, inaccurate information about the experiment was leaking out, he says, and "we decided it would be better to get the story out straight rather than have it come out piecemeal and in error." Pons also says he was concerned for the safety of other researchers who might try the experiment based on faulty information. One of his early experiments heated up out of control, destroying a laboratory hood and burning a hole in the concrete floor. Another source at the university suggests that the press conference may have been called in response to leaks from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. According to those leaks, a group there led by physicist Steven E. Jones also may have achieved "cold fusion" inside a metal matrix. Jones and his coworkers, as well as other groups, previously have used subatomic particles called muons to catalyze the fusion of hydrogen isotopes at room temperature. Their latest fusion advance, according to last week's newspaper articles, does not involve muons. Jones refused to discuss his latest work until it is published. According to Brophy, the Salt Lake City and Provo groups have never collaborated, but they did at one time discuss the possibility of publishing the two separate papers back-to-back in a journal. Those negotiations broke down, however, and Pons and Fleischmann decided to go it alone, he says. Pons says he and Fleischmann were under great pressure to publish their findings, although he declines to elaborate on the source of the pressure. "We would have liked to have another 18 months" to work on the project and tie up the loose ends, he says. One of the still-unexplained features of their electrolytic process is that it produces more heat than can be explained by deuterium fusion alone. Brophy suggests that "some other kind of additional reaction" may be going on. And he adds that
"many more experiments need to be done" to clarify the process. At the high energies familiar to plasma physicists, the fusion of two deuterons can result in two sets of products: tritium and a proton, and helium-3 and a neutron. Pons and Fleischmann have measured both the b u i l d u p of tritium and the gamma-ray emissions caused by the neutrons when they plunge into the water bath surrounding the electrolytic cell and react with protons. "The energy of the gamma-ray spectrum is precisely what you would expect for neutrons formed in the deuterium fusion reaction," Pons says. Furthermore, he says the measured neutron flux is three times the background. The two elecrochemists haven't yet looked for the helium-3, which would be much more difficult to measure. The University of Utah, in its news release, paints a rosy picture of the electrolytic fusion process as a relatively simple future source of abundant, clean energy. In an interview, Pons was much more cautious, stressing the need to learn more about the new process and build up a database on it. Some of Pons' colleagues in the
University of Utah's chemistry department were considerably more ebullient. Distinguished professor of chemistry Cheves T. Walling, for instance, says the electrolytic fusion process "looks a helluva lot more promising than the things the physicists have managed to do with magnetically contained plasma or enormous lasers." Utah state officials apparently share that enthusiasm. Six days after the university's announcement, state officials pledged $5 million to expand the fusion experiments. The expanded project will be headed by James C. Fletcher, the resigning head of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. Fletcher is a physicist and former president of the University of Utah. The roots of the current excitement date back to the late 1960s, when Fleischmann made some puzzling observations in the course of his research on the separation of hydrogen isotopes. Later, Pons pursued independent research in the same area and also obtained odd results. Pons says he didn't publish his findings because he couldn't make sense of them. In a paper published in 1972,
USDA steps up efforts in biological control Marking 100 years of biological control of agricultural pests—starting in 1889 with Vedalia beetles from Australia checking a California citrus pest—the Department of Agriculture is stepping up its biocontrol efforts. In the past, USDA has not given biocontrol the support it deserves, notes one environmentalist. Now,"we're raising the priority of making biocontrol a vital part of American food and fiber production," says R. Dean Plowman, administrator of the Agricultural Research Service. Shown here is a parasitic wasp laying eggs into the larva of a cereal leaf beetle. After hatching, wasp larvae kill the beetle. USDA has signed two agreements calling for joint biocontrol research for the first time at Soviet labs. Work starts this summer in Kishinev and Leningrad on more than two dozen insect and weed pests. This spring, three ARS scientists go to
China under a new five-year pact that includes a joint lab in Beijing. An ARS researcher has filed for patent protection on an improved virus to kill gypsy moths. A pilot project will use a fungus to fight wilt in New Jersey eggplants. And plans are afoot for a Biological Control Service Institute to serve as an international clearinghouse.
April 3, 1989 C&EN
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