Martin Fleischmann
Martin Fleischmann | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 3 August 2012 | (aged 85)
Nationality | British |
Citizenship | British[2] |
Alma mater | Imperial College London |
Known for | Fundamental electrochemistry, work on cold fusion |
Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Electrochemistry |
Institutions | Durham University, Newcastle University, University of Southampton, University of Utah, IMRA |
Notable students | Stanley Pons |
Martin Fleischmann FRS (29 March 1927 – 3 August 2012) was a British chemist who worked in electrochemistry.[3][4] Premature announcement of his cold fusion research with Stanley Pons,[5] regarding excess heat in heavy water, caused a media sensation and elicited skepticism and criticism from many in the scientific community.[6]
Personal life
Fleischmann was born in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, in 1927.[6] His father was a wealthy lawyer and his mother the daughter of a high-ranking Austrian civil officer.[7] Since his father was of Jewish heritage, Fleischmann's family moved to the Netherlands, and then to England in 1938, to avoid Nazi persecution.[6] His father died of the complications of injuries received in a Nazi prison, after which Fleischmann lived for a period with his mother in a leased cottage in Rustington, Sussex.[7] His early education was obtained at Worthing High School for Boys.[7] After serving in the Czech Airforce Training Unit during the war, he moved to London to study for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in chemistry at Imperial College London.[7] His PhD was awarded in 1951, under the supervision of Professor Herrington, for his thesis on the diffusion of electrogenerated hydrogen through palladium foils.[7] He met Sheila, his future wife, as a student and remained married to her for 62 years.[7]
Career
Electrochemistry (1950s to 1983)
Fleischmann's professional career was focused almost entirely on fundamental electrochemistry. Fleischmann went on to teach at
Fellowships, prizes and awards
- Secretary/Treasurer of the International Society of Electrochemistry (1964–1967)
- President of the International Society of Electrochemistry (1973–1974)
- Electrochemistry and Thermodynamics Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1979)
- Fellowship of the Royal Society (1985)
- Olin Palladium Medal of the Electrochemical Society (1986)
Cold fusion (1983 to 1992)
Fleischmann confided to Stanley Pons that he might have found what he believed to be a way to create nuclear fusion at room temperatures.[9] From 1983 to 1989, he and Pons spent $100,000 in self-funded experiments at the University of Utah.[6][9] Fleischmann wanted to publish it first in an obscure journal, and had already spoken with a team that was doing similar work in a different university for a joint publication.[15][16] The details have not surfaced, but it seems that the University of Utah wanted to establish priority over the discovery and its patents by making a public announcement before the publication.[15][16] In an interview with 60 Minutes on 19 April 2009, Fleischmann said that the public announcement was the university's idea, and that he regretted doing it.[17] This decision, perceived as short-circuiting the way science is usually communicated to other scientists, later caused heavy criticism against Fleischmann and Pons.[16]
On 23 March 1989 the work was announced at a press conference as "a sustained nuclear fusion reaction,"
Fleischmann and Pons sued an Italian journalist who had published very harsh criticisms against them, but the judge rejected the case saying that criticisms were appropriate given the scientists' behaviour, the lack of evidence since the first announcement, and the lack of interest shown by the scientific community, and that they were an expression of the journalist's "right of reporting".[28][29]
Retirement (from 1992)
In 1992, Fleischmann moved to France with Pons to continue their work at the IMRA laboratory (part of Technova Corporation, a subsidiary of Toyota), but in 1995 he retired and returned to England.[30][31] He co-authored further papers with researchers from the US Navy[32][33] and Italian national laboratories (INFN and ENEA),[34] on the subject of cold fusion. In March 2006, "Solar Energy Limited" division "D2Fusion Inc" announced in a press release that Fleischmann, then 79, would be acting as their senior scientific advisor.[35]
Death
Fleischmann died at home in Tisbury, Wiltshire on 3 August 2012, of natural causes. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease, diabetes and heart disease.[4] He was survived by his son and two daughters.[7][36]
Legacy
While holding the Faraday Chair of Electrochemistry he and Graham Hills established in the late 1960s the Electrochemistry Group of the University of Southampton.[7]
Fleischmann produced over 272 scientific papers and book chapters on the field of electrochemistry.[7] He contributed to the fundamental theory of:
- Potentiostat design
- Microelectrodes
- Electrochemical nucleation
- Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
- In-situ X-ray techniques
- Organic electrochemistry
- Electrochemical engineering
- Biological electrodes
- Corrosion[citation needed]
The
Peer-reviewed papers on "Cold Fusion"
- Fleischmann, Martin; Pons, Stanley; Anderson, Mark W.; Li, Lian Jun; Hawkins, Marvin (1990). "Calorimetry of the palladium-deuterium-heavy water system". .
- Fleischmann, Martin; Pons, Stanley (1992). "Some Comments on The Paper 'Analysis of Experiments on The Calorimetry of LiOD-D2O Electrochemical Cells,' R.H. Wilson et al., Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Vol. 332, (1992)". .
- Fleischmann, Martin; Pons, S (1993). "Calorimetry of the Pd-D2O system: from simplicity via complications to simplicity". Physics Letters A. 176 (1–2): 118–129. .
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-394-58456-0.
- doi:10.1088/2058-7058/12/3/14. Archived from the originalon 12 January 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2008.
- ^ Svensson, Peter (7 August 2012). "'Cold fusion' co-discoverer Martin Fleischmann dies". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 9 August 2012. By Associated Press.
- ^ a b Adams, Brooke (6 August 2012). "Martin Fleischmann, co-discoverer of 'cold fusion,' is dead". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
- ^ a b Shelley, Tom (October 2006). "Tiny reflectors boost sensing a billion". Eureka. Archived from the original on 27 January 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2007.
- ^ PMID 22955604.
- ^ ISBN 9781118694435.
- ^ King's College Archived 18 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Official Records of Durham University.
- ^ Charles Platt (November 1998). "What If Cold Fusion Is Real?". Wired. p. 2.
- ^ a b William J. Broad (9 May 1989). "Brilliance and Recklessness Seen in Fusion Collaboration". The New York Times.
- .
- ^ Bard, A.J.; Faulkner, L.R. Electrochemical Methods: Fundamentals and Applications. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2nd Edition, 2000.
- ^ "Fellows of the Royal Society". The Royal Society. August 2008. Retrieved 17 February 2009. [dead link]
- S2CID 253398551.
- ^ a b c Shamoo, 2003, 86
- ^ a b c Simon, 2002, 28–36
- ^ Cold Fusion is Hot Again, CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/60minutes/main4952167_page4.shtml
- ^ Press release, published in Huizenga, Cold fusion, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 289
- Wall Street Journal, "Research in Utah to announce a development in fusion energy", 23 March 1989, or "Scientist sticks to claimed test-tube fusion advance", 27 March.
- ., and errata in Vol. 263.
- ^ Simon, 2002, page 35
- ^ a b c d Shamoo, 2003, pages 76, 97
- ISBN 978-0-8229-3912-2.
- ^ a b Simon, 2002, p. 119
- ISBN 978-0-520-23802-2.
- ISBN 978-0-226-29262-5.
- ^ Simon, 2002, p. 43
- ^ Simon, 2002, pags. 110–112
- ISBN 978-0-19-860443-3.
- ^ Simon, 2002, p. 137
- .
- ^ Szpak, S., et al., Thermal behavior of polarized Pd/D electrodes prepared by co-deposition. Thermochim. Acta, 2004. 410: p. 101.
- ^ Mosier-Boss, P.A. and M. Fleischmann, Thermal and Nuclear Aspects of the Pd/D2O System, ed. S. Szpak and P.A. Mosier-Boss. Vol. 2. Simulation of the Electrochemical Cell (ICARUS) Calorimetry. 2002: SPAWAR Systems Center, San Diego, U.S. Navy.
- ^ Del Giudice, E., et al. Loading of H(D) in a Pd lattice. in The 9th International Conference on Cold Fusion, Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. 2002. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China: Tsinghua University Press
- Park, Robert L. (31 March 2006), "Cold-Fusion Day: Does Fleischmann Still Brew Tea On Hot Plate?" Archived 15 April 2012 at the Wayback MachineWhat's New by Bob Park
- ^ "Electrochemist Fleischmann dies, aged 85". Salisbury Journal. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
Further reading
- "Physics Web article". Archived from the original on 1 December 2006. Retrieved 25 November 2005.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) by David Voss - SIMON, Bart (2002). ISBN 978-0-8135-3154-0.
- SHAMOO, Adil E. Shamoo; Resnik, David B. (2003). ISBN 978-0-19-514846-6.
External links
- Book on Fleischmann's scientific contributions as electrochemist [1].
- Interview: Fusion in a cold climate, 2009, New Scientist
- The Believers movie official website